KENOSHA CO. — Retired Milwaukee Police Detective Steve Spingola has seen some of the nation’s most difficult cases. He worked high-profile investigations like Jeffrey Dahmer, spent decades with MPD, and now serves as a lead investigator on the national television series Cold Justice.
These days, Spingola also teaches criminal justice at Gateway Technical College, giving students an inside look at how cold cases are pieced together when DNA or hard evidence isn’t available.
Watch: Retired detective shares how a Kenosha cold case investigation led to arrests
“The cases that we take with the show, they’re circumstantial evidence, things that people have to infer facts from,” Spingola said. “There’s never that 'aha' moment."
This past weekend, one of Kenosha County’s cold cases was featured on Cold Justice: the 2003 murder of Navy veteran David Vanderzee. Vanderzee was found shot five times inside his Randall home.
With no forced entry, no robbery and no signs of drug activity, investigators turned to what Spingola says often holds the key — relationships.
“There’s no reason that David would’ve been murdered,” Spingola said. “He’s a simple guy, living a simple life, and he has this violent murder occurring in his house."
During a class, Spingola walked Gateway students through crime scene photos, 911 calls, and the painstaking process of piecing together evidence that ultimately led to charges against Vanderzee’s wife and her alleged lover.
For Spingola, the work is about more than solving crimes. It’s about giving families the answers they’ve waited years, sometimes decades, to hear.
"We do this for the families, so it’s nice to solve the cases," Spingola said. "I’ll tell you that the police department, I think, never put this case down. You can only investigate so far, and there are other crimes that you got to go on and take a look at."
Spingola says cold cases are never really closed and even when law enforcement must move on to newer crimes, investigators and families alike hold out hope that one day, justice will catch up.
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