Birmingham cold case detective says witness helped solve 7-year-old case

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WBRC) – The oldest unsolved murder case in Birmingham dates back to 1948. The file sits on a shelf at Birmingham Police Department headquarters on First Avenue North. Over the past 75 years, the Cold Case Unit has taken on more than 650 cases.

Each file details the crime committed, the evidence collected, the people questioned and suspected, and the dead ends encountered.

Detective Jonathan Ross, the head of the unit, turns the hand crank of a mobile shelving system and reveals row after row of brown file folders and old bank boxes.

“I want people to know that if they were involved in a murder here in Birmingham, don't give up on your loved ones,” Detective Ross said. “Just keep praying. And maybe someday, someone or technology will come forward and we'll be able to solve your loved one's case.”

It took seven years for the right person to come forward in the murder case of Vergil Angela Cook. She was found stabbed to death by her daughter in her apartment on 21st Street North in July 2017.

“I didn’t want to remember my mom like that,” Yikoia Cook told WBRC at the time.

At the time, the BPD suspected Cook's partner, Timothy Eric Stone, but Detective Ross said they did not have enough evidence to make an arrest.

Detective Ross said he received a call a few weeks ago from someone he described as a “credible witness.” That person gave Detective Ross enough information to reopen the case, and within days Stone was charged with Cook's murder.

“He’s now in the Jefferson County Jail,” Detective Ross said.

But, he added, Stone could have been there much earlier.

“That's why I want people to come forward if they know anything or have seen anything, because that little clue can lead to an arrest.”

He went on to say that while officers are pursuing evidence, “sometimes it takes a single witness to come forward for us to actually close the case.”

A case is considered unsolved when the original investigator “has done everything he could do,” said Investigator Ross.

“Then it gets forwarded to me and then I look at the whole case again and see if I can find anything that can help solve the case. That's my job.”

Detective Ross asks anyone with information about a crime to call him at 205-254-1764.

“Let’s start the conversation,” he said.

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