By 2002, Detective Terry Bjorndall was on the case. In February of that year, Linda, Maria's sister, called asking for a status update. Detective Bjorndall had to tell her that no work had been done on the investigation since 1987. He promised to check the physical evidence they still had to see if the items could be tested, using updated techniques now available.

It doesn't sound like any testing was done, because in October 2005, Detective Derek Graham

updated Linda and Erica with the first reference to DNA in this case. He told the sisters

that the Colorado Springs PD was looking to see if any evidence could be submitted for DNA

testing. Again,

nothing appears to have been submitted at this time. By 2009, the detective was Joseph Matiados.

He got a call from Linda in January of that year and again told her he would look to see whether

there was any DNA available. I can't imagine how frustrated the family must have been at the

absolutely glacial pace at which the case was being worked.

In December of that year, 2009, Colorado Springs Sergeant Jeff Jensen, supervisor for the Cold Case Unit, arranged for the Colorado Springs Gazette to publish an article in case synopsis, to remind the public that the Maria Hansel case

remained open. The article said that the police department's cold case homicide unit had about

90 unsolved homicide cases dating back to 1949. That partially explained why so little movement was going on.

In June 2010, Detective Nicole Poole was assigned the Maria Hansel case. She reviewed

the physical evidence and observed there was biological evidence that was suspected to have come

from Maria's killer. Federal grant money that had been recently made available to the cold case

unit facilitated testing of these items. So finally, in July 2010, Detective Poole sent

the following items to the Metro Forensic Crime Lab for testing. The hairs found in Maria's palms,

the bloody knife hilt, the jumpsuit, the necklace, the fingernail scrapings, and the blood

scrapings from the bathroom door jam and sink. Again, the testing took ages.

Results would not be available for two years. In the meantime, detectives were continually contacted

by members of Maria's family who would not give up on her case. These included Maria's brother

David Hansel and Maria's sister Erica. Maria's niece's Jasmine and Glena also regularly requested status

...