Cheryl Moore's job is to be hot on the trail of cold cases.

She's the lead detective in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit. For 18 months, she was the Cold Case Unit.

She was recently honored as the Colorado Homicide Investigator of the Year for 2006.

She solved three unsolved murders last year. But the award is for her body of work, so to speak.

Moore, 41, grew up wanting to be a cop.

"I had an older cousin, Ron Hassell, who had been my idol," she said. "He was a cop."

But Hassell moved on to become a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service while Moore has stayed with it.

Being a cop has been her job for almost all her life. She started in the Jeffco department's Youth Division, which was the forerunner of the Explorer program.

"The very first meeting I attended, I was 12," she said. "I quit when I was 17."

By then, she was a senior, graduating from Bear Creek High School in 1984.

She didn't go into law enforcement right out of high school. She worked a few jobs - secretary, volunteer firefighter, emergency medical technician.

In September 1989, she hired on as a deputy, starting in the jail.

She moved on to patrol. Then she went to recruiting and training, doing background checks on deputy applicants as well as coordinating the academy.

She became a detective in 1996. In 2005, the department started its Cold Case Unit. And Moore became its investigator.

"There were 50 cold cases when I started," she said. "We're down to 39 now."

Some of the cases shouldn't have been classified as unsolved - clerical error, wrong jurisdiction, stuff like that. Moore did a lot to clear the clutter and organized the caseload.

Last year, she wrapped up three cases, arresting a suspect in two homicides from 1989, and another from a case in 2004.

In one 1989 case, she resubmitted fingerprints on a Jane Doe who was slain and buried in a cemetery across the street from the department.

Through Moore's efforts, the woman was identified as Lisa K. Kelly. Her family replaced the tombstone with one with her real name on it.

And the man accused of killing her is in jail awaiting trial.

Moore works a lot, which gives her husband grief.

"Sometimes, I lay awake at night, thinking of what I should have done, or what I could have done," she said.

But she's making an effort to enjoy life.

She likes to get away, going into the higher country to hike, camp and take pictures of wildlife and the scenery.

She said cold cases is her ideal job, the job she wants to do until it's time to hand in her badge.

She could have tested for sergeant. But she passed on it.

"I'm at my ultimate goal," she said.

"What I do, working cold cases, is what I want to do."

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

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