Darlene Seidel of Waterford was positive that her son's unsolved homicide was in good hands with the Southeastern Connecticut Cold Case Task Force.

The 34-year-old father of three from Waterford went out to pick up Chinese food on Dec. 21, 2012, and was fatally shot in the parking lot of a Boston Post Road shopping center.

Seidel, who worked at a marina, was a family man and a homebody, his mother said.

His death made no sense.

But now that state budget constraints have dissolved the regional cold case task force, it's unclear whether cases like Kyle Seidel's will be considered a priority.

The cold case task force, comprising members of local and state police departments and overseen by an inspector from the Chief State's Attorney's Office, had been actively investigating the case with assistance from the New London State's Attorney's Office, FBI and state Department of Correction. 

Seidel's picture and information about his death were featured on the 5 of diamonds on playing cards circulated throughout the prison system.

The head of the task force, Inspector Ken Edwards from the Chief State's Attorney's Office, called the victim's mother regularly with updates on the investigation.

"He reassures us all the time, and when your loved one has been murdered, you need that reassurance," Darlene Seidel said in a phone interview.

Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane said earlier this week that the Southeastern Connecticut Cold Case Task Force would be absorbed by the statewide cold case bureau that works out of the Division of Criminal Justice in Rocky Hill.

Edwards, who had been working out of New London, will be transferred back to the Rocky Hill office, Kane said.

The task force, organized in 2009, initially was funded by a grant that paid for travel expenses and equipment, including laptop computers.

In recent years, travel has been limited and local departments that contributed investigators to the task force assumed other costs, including overtime.

Seidel called the breakup of the unit heartbreaking, but said she has been assured detectives will continue to work on her son's case.

"I feel pretty bad that they're moving out of the New London area," she said. "These guys are really pretty diligent."

Darlene Hamlin, mother of 2006 homicide victim Anthony E. Hamlin Sr., was not as optimistic that anyone would continue working on her son's unsolved death.

"They're not going to have enough people to work on all those cases," said Hamlin, who has been frustrated by the lack of progress with the investigation.

The cold case task force searched the crime scene two years ago, and Hamlin said she continues to call the state police detective in charge of the case.

"It's the same thing every time I call," she said. "'We don't have any new evidence. If anything turns up, I'll call.' I understand they have a workload that's impossible, but a call every once in a while would mean the world to me."

The chief state's attorney said working on unsolved homicides is an important government function that affects families and communities and the public's confidence in government, but that his division had been reduced to "bare bones" due to the state's fiscal crisis.

About 1,000 homicides are unsolved statewide and, to make matters worse, Kane acknowledged, the supervisor of Rocky Hill's cold case bureau, Patrick Griffin, has been promoted to State's Attorney for New Haven.

The Southeastern Connecticut task force made arrests in eight homicides during its seven-year tenure.

Six of the cases ended with convictions at trial or through plea deals. 

Dickie E. Anderson, charged with two homicides dating back to the 1990s, was convicted of strangling Renee Pellegrino, but the jury could not reach a unanimous decision in the case of Michelle Comeau, who was killed a year after Pellegrino under similar circumstances.

The case of LaShawn Cecil, who was charged last year with the December 2011 shooting death of Jaclyn Wirth in Norwich, is headed for trial.

Team approach

"We were very productive," said Groton Town police Detective Heather Beauchamp, lead detective for the task force and a member since its inception.

"We were very successful," she said. "It is unfortunate, because we do have a number of cases we were working on, and we've solved a number of cases, and there are cases that people want us to work on."

The task force members said the team approach to solving cold cases was invaluable and that working with other agencies benefited not only the cold case investigators but also their home agencies, since members were sharing information, learning from their teammates and taking their new skills back to their home agencies.

"We can only be hopeful that they'll start it up again," Beauchamp said.

New London State's Attorney Michael L. Regan, whose office prosecuted the suspects arrested by the local task force, said an inspector from his office used to attend the task force meetings if time allowed. 

With the recent retirement of one inspector who will not be replaced, Regan said that now would be difficult.

"We have to prioritize the cases with the manpower we have or the lack of manpower," Regan said. "It's the reality with today's budget situation."

One of the founding members of the cold case task force, retired Chief Inspector John T. "Jack" Edwards of the Chief State's Attorney's Office, was a casualty of the budget crisis.

Edwards (no relation to task force leader Ken Edwards) had been working on cold cases on a part-time, per diem basis. He was laid off recently along with other per diem employees of the criminal justice division, but said he might continue "tinkering" with a couple of unsolved cases.

Edwards said he was grateful that local police chiefs and state police had supported the task force and contributed talented investigators.

"I'm sorry it's broken up," he said. "With work, most cases can be solved. I just wish we could keep it up."

Edwards said the cold case playing cards, developed by retired Department of Correction Capt. Cathy Candaleria and Inspector James Rovella, who left the criminal justice division to become Hartford's police chief, had generated hundreds of leads and helped solve more than 20 cases.

Edwards said the Department of Correction is selling the fifth edition of the cold case cards, which are the only playing cards available to prisoners.

k.florin@theday.com