It’s been 32 years and one week since the brutal sexual assault and murder of schoolteacher Margery Wade inside her Hamilton apartment. And all these years later Police Superintendent Sinclair White will tell you the crime is still solvable.

In an exclusive interview with The Royal Gazette he said: “Nothing is unsolvable. If you’ve got the time, the patience, the commitment and the dedication — you can solve it.”

There are currently six unsolved murders in Bermuda and Supt. White, who heads the Crime Support Division, is throwing that can-do attitude at all of them. It’s his job to ensure no detective loses sight of a single unsolved case in the rear view mirror.

The files span 30 years — three cases are from the past three years, two cases are cold, and the sixth case is buzzing with new activity after 12 years on the shelf.

The pile of unsolved case files may reinforce a public perception that the Bermuda Police Service is slow-moving when it comes to murder investigations.

It’s an issue Supt. White was more than ready to contest when he met with The Royal Gazette>at his Prospect office.

He said: “Public expectations, what can we say about it?

“The public expectation is fuelled by what they see sometimes on television. When you see the shows like ‘CSI: Miami’ where in an hour you see the whole gamut of a forensic investigation — from the start to its completion. Things don’t operate that way in reality. You’ve got to be very, very, very careful step by step. Rome was not built in a day.”

On some occasions the criticism over slow investigations has come from victims’ families.

It’s been four years now since 20-year-old Shaundae Jones was killed and his mother has openly voiced frustration with Police.

Two months ago Marsha Jones said in The Royal Gazette: “It seems as though the people who are in the position to get things done about my son’s assassination just can’t be bothered. They treat Shaundae’s murder as if it was a misdemeanour case.

“The more I speak to the Police they have nothing to tell me and it seems as though it’s not important anymore.”

Since Supt. White took over the Crime Support Division three murders have gone unsolved. The Jones murder in 2003, the Jason Lightbourne murder in 2006 and the Marcus Gibbings murder also in 2006.

He believes if members of the public were more forthright with Police those cases would be closer to resolution. But he also understands that people are afraid of retribution if they co-operate with investigators.

That’s why Supt. White is backing an idea from the Ministry of Justice to introduce a witness protection programme.

But the Superintendent doesn’t want the public to wait for that kind of scheme to launch. He wants members of the public to come forward now if they know something, even if the tip is anonymous.

He said: “We know there are members of the public out there who may have information. It may be so minute, then again, it may be very large — ‘I was there, I saw that individual do it’.

“Or it may be that member of the public who says, ‘I was walking home and I just happened to see an individual, a vehicle, leaving that immediate area’. Don’t take things for granted. If it’s nothing, it’s nothing, we still have to investigate it.”

Although Supt. White is in charge of homicides, he is also responsible for vehicle thefts, financial fraud cases, domestic violence cases, and juvenile justice cases. It’s a huge portfolio with a heavy workload.

He has 33 years of experience as a Police Officer.

Periodically, he instructs homicide investigators to conduct cold case reviews.

In the case of 28-year-old Brian Simmons, killed in October of 1994, the cold case review was energised with new information.

But in the 1975 case of 34-year-old Margery Wade and the 1999 case of 43-year-old Glen Wolffe, the files have shown little progress.

Both victims were believed to be murdered in their homes and their bodies discovered days later. However, there’s perhaps still reason for hope in those cases and all the others. Supt. White points to a local murder investigation that went cold for 16 years.

He said: “We went through a cold case review with the assistance of new technology and we went through more evidence gathering and we managed to get a conviction on that particular case — 16 years after the act.

“And the ones we have outstanding at the moment, we’re still looking at all of them in some form or the other.

“In other words, no stone is left unturned.”

The Superintendent believes the Police Service has the criminal investigation tools it needs to be successful — forensic science, DNA, even bulletistics. He also says the detectives on the force are perfectly qualified and capable of top-notch Police work.

That may explain why he quickly refuted a question that suggested his team was not up for the challenge. He said: “Successful murder investigations come from those officers who have gone out there and gathered the information, have worked hard grinding through the information that has been given. And we have people doing dedicated police work and investigations.”

Homicide detectives have a successful investigation record over the past ten years or so. There have been 21 murders since 1995 and 17 of them have been solved, according to the Police Service’s statistics.

The cases of Wolffe, Jones, Lightbourne and Gibbings are the ones which remain unsolved since 1995. The Wolffe case is a step beyond unsolved, categorised as cold, but according to the Superintendent, it’s not unsolvable — no case is, not even the murder of Margery Wade 32 years ago.