Cold-case detective closes file on career

Police Sgt. Steve Forrester, head of the cold-case squad and one of the team's original members, has been on the force since 1983. He helped solve the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl and a series of murders by brothers Anthony and Nathaniel Cook in the 1970s and 1980s. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

For 17 months in 1980 and 1981, a series of gruesome killings had many Toledoans living in fear. But the killers, brothers Anthony and Nathaniel Cook, escaped justice for 17 years until the Lucas County cold-case squad used DNA to link them to nine murders.

Toledo Police detective Sgt. Steve Forrester never will forget the way Anthony Cook chuckled as he confessed to killing seventh-grader Dawn Renee Backes.

"That was probably the best example of how a human being, how a person can just lose all his humanity," Sergeant Forrester said. "He killed a 12-year-old girl, gave us all the details, and laughed about it."

The Cook brothers were among the highest-profile of the 56 cases solved by the cold-case squad since its formation in 1999.

Yesterday, Sergeant Forrester, one of the original cold-case team members, retired after a 27-year career in the Toledo Police Department.

Anthony Cook, who turns 61 Tuesday, confessed that he was sometimes joined by his brother, Nathaniel, 52, in killing nine people between 1973 and 1981, including the Backes girl. The seventh grader at Gesu School had been walking home from a pizza parlor in February, 1981, when she was abducted and killed by the Cooks.

The brothers' case was the first time DNA evidence led to a cold-case conviction in Lucas County, helping validate the formation of the multijurisdictional squad.

Sergeant Forrester was a homicide detective when the cold-case office was formed, and retired as head of the squad.

Among the other notable cold cases solved by the team of Sergeant Forrester and Tom Ross, an investigator for the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office, was the 2006 conviction of Toledo priest Gerald Robinson in the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

The key to the Robinson case was not DNA evidence, but witness statements and the shape of bloodstains linking Robinson's letter opener to the crime scene.

Sergeant Forrester said executing a search warrant against the Toledo diocese of the Catholic Church - the faith he was raised in - wasn't easy.

"It was the low point of my career," Sergeant Forrester said.

His career in law enforcement was one that he grew into, rather than sought.

"I had little kids and I needed a job," the sergeant said. "I never really dreamed of being a police officer."

He had worked as a park ranger and sheriff's deputy before joining the Toledo Police Department in September, 1983. He served on the mounted patrol before becoming a detective, and finished undergraduate and law degrees during his career.

Though he will retire from the police department, he said he will continue his career in an unspecified private-sector job.

Colleagues said Sergeant Forrester found his niche in the cold-case squad.

Dr. Diane Barnett, Lucas County deputy coroner who often works in cooperation with cold-case investigators, said Sergeant Forrester was never deterred by the setbacks common to decades-old cases.

"There was the frustration of lost evidence," she said. "It got thrown away, or put into a corner, or lost. That was probably the worst, the lost evidence part. For me, that was frustrating. And you know what? Even if the evidence was lost, he never gave up hope."

Mr. Ross, who joined the prosecutor's office as a cold-case investigator when he retired from the Toledo Police Department in 1999, said he enjoyed working with Sergeant Forrester and lauds his persistence and "uncanny investigative instinct."

"Steve was a bulldog. Once he got into a case, he wouldn't let up," Mr. Ross said. "We reached a dead end or a brick wall, that didn't stop Steve."

Sergeant Forrester resists such praise. For him, success is bringing closure to the families of the victims forgotten in dusty files.

"Nothing drives us more than doing this for the family," Sergeant Forrester said. "When the trial is over, it's about them getting on with their lives. It's no disrespect to us. To them, when it's over, it's over. We did our job."

Contact Bridget Tharp at:

btharp@theblade.com

or 419-724-6086.