Police use AI in hopes of helping solve 1997 cold case murder
By Ricardo Tovar
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SEASIDE, California (KSBW) — Seaside police are using artificial intelligence to generate age-progressed images of Juan Beltran-Lopez, the suspect in the 1997 murder of a teacher’s aide, Nancy Marks, in hopes someone might recognize him.
“We’re always trying to think ahead and think outside of the box of how do we do this quicker, how do we bring this case to justice?”Seaside police Chief Nick Borges said.
Beltran-Lopez, who was 31 at the time of the crime, is accused of shooting Marks to death and has been on the run for 27 years.
AI technology is being used to create images of what the now 58-year-old might look like today.
“Just to put it out there, of what he could look like because we don’t know if this person is balding or has long hair. We don’t know at this point. But if we have a bunch of different options, like I said, you can still see the core of who this person is,” Borges said.
“Time can change somebody’s face, but it does not change the crime,” he added.
The Cold Case Project of Monterey County, a fundraising arm that supports law enforcement in solving cold cases, praised the effort.
“Cold cases need to be brought from the darkness to the light. And that’s what Chief Porges and his team are doing. And they’re coupling that now with some new technology. And I think it’s phenomenal,” a representative from the organization, Ann Kern, said.
“If this person is still out there and alive, which we believe that he is, someone knows him. And I think this age progression will help someone to say, I know who that is,” Borges said.
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