As confounded as police are with a lack of witness cooperation, families of unsolved murdered victims are just as frustrated.

Witnesses won’t talk. Citizens won’t cooperate with police. Justice never comes easy.

“When you lose a child to homicide, it is so devastating to the family. And then to feel like they’ve been revictimized because they feel no one is hearing them when they try to give information, they feel hopeless,” said Kim Holmes, the director of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office Family Bereavement Center, which counsels hundreds of grieving parents.

While nothing can bring their loved ones back, victims’ families do find solace in an arrest, Holmes said.

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“It gives them a sense of justice, of hope,” she said. “Someone is going to pay for the crime. If there’s no arrest, they become angrier, they become more hopeless. They believe no one cares.”

With all the killing, the lives of the victims can be lost in the madness, said Vernon Carter, 24, a friend of Sintia Mesa, the city’s 27th homicide victim this year. Mesa, 25, of Hyattsville, was found dead of asphyxiation Monday in the trunk of her car, parked in a northwest Baltimore apartment complex. Her boyfriend was taken into custody Thursday for questioning.

“I grew up with her in a youth group,” said Carter. “She was one of the nicest young ladies. She went to church every Sunday for as long as I knew her. It doesn’t make sense.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Col. Frederick Bealefeld said he knows unsolved murders give criminals a sense of empowerment.

“It contributes to the violence,” he said. “It leaves them out in the neighborhood. It leaves them unchecked. What kind of society do we have when anyone can decide at their whim who dies?”

Even with a Baltimore street code that discourages people from talking to police, Bealefeld said he feels confident his detectives can make progress, even with the toughest cases.

“They’re not as hopeless as they look,” he said. “We cleared 54 percent [of cases last year], and we worked our butts off. I’d put my homicide crew up against any other in the country. We do very well with the limited evidence and limited cooperation we get.”

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy said law enforcement needs the help of the public to solve cases.

“If you have people who have a propensity for committing crimes or have already committed crimes out on the streets, that’s a problem for public safety,” she said. “If people don’t come forward to say what they’ve seen, then it means crimes go unpunished. Citizens, we can’t do what you need us to do unless you cooperate.”

Read Murder City: Are Baltimore's streets save

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