After recent successes in tracking down the killer in a decades-old cold case, the Bellevue Police Department announced plans this week to revisit the city’s 17 unsolved missing persons and homicide cases.

The department announced Jan. 18 that they have assigned Detective Jerry Johnson, a 32-year veteran of the department, to review unsolved cases such as the disappearances of Sky Metalwala and Julianne Jaillet and the murder of Loren Sundholm. With the advancement of technology and investigative techniques, the police say they have had success revisiting old cases like 1980 murder of Susan Lowe, which was solved in 2013.

“I hope that one day I can say that Sky has been found,” said Bellevue Police Major Pat Spak. “While time can often be a disadvantage, sometimes it can also be an advantage.”

There are currently 7 open or unsolved homicides and 10 long-term missing person cases in Bellevue dating back to 1949. They include the disappearances of Jaillet, Elizabeth Eisel, Steven Needham, Ruey-Ming Chen, Patrick Hoogen, Nancy Estrada, Eugene Wekesa, Mansoor Riaz, Metalwala and Samson Mikailians, as well as the murders of Loren Sundholm, Mark Biggerstaff, Jessie Barber, Mary Larsen, James Barry, Judy Nealey, Faye Monwai and Alexandre Samoilov.

“I want those families to know that the police department cares, that we are still looking at their cases,” Major Spak said.

Over the next nine months, Detective Johnson will revisit and reinvestigate the cases before presenting his findings to a peer review board in September. Should the department decide there are more avenues to cover in the cases, more resources could be added and/or the timeline could be extended to January 2017.

While not common, Spak said that miracles do happen and that police had already been contacted this week with a tip about a cold case.