Many Alabama cold cases still lack digital records due to decades of paper-based reporting, uneven modernization, and no statewide digital system. Major agencies began transitioning around 2008–2012, but older homicide files were rarely converted. This Fast Facts report explains how uneven digitization impacts investigations and why some cases remain buried in archives today.

This article examines seven Alabama winter cases marked by sudden violence, incomplete investigations, and families still waiting for answers. It concludes with the killings of two Birmingham brothers, Derek and Darryl Burpo, whose unsolved homicides demonstrate how generational loss echoes across time.

The Mysterious Death of Mont Highley IV.