By DAWN HOBBS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

When Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez formed the Cold Case Unit in November 2002, detectives thought that out of the department's 22 unsolved homicides the "Fled-to-Mexico" cases would be the first to be solved.

However, until the state Department of Justice and Mexican officials can agree on how these cases will be handled, the Santa Barbara detectives -- along with other homicide detectives across the country -- are in a holding pattern.

The News-Press wrote about the unsolved homicides in its "Cold Cases" series, published in December 2002. After reading the series, Russ Whitmeyer, a retired detective and private eye, decided to form the nonprofit Unsolved Homicide Reward Foundation that he hoped would raise a half-million dollars to reward tipsters.

He is still looking for donations and has volunteered to serve on a board of directors to get the project off the ground.

Santa Barbara's Cold Case detectives have held off on distributing bilingual wanted posters of suspected killers until they know whether they can include a $25,000 reward -- the amount Mr. Whitmeyer hopes would be paid to tipsters who provide the whereabouts of the suspects.

The reward could go up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of an unidentified suspect in a homicide. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

For more information, contact Mr. Whitmeyer at 640-1480. Donations may be made out to The Unsolved Homicide Reward Foundation, Montecito Bank and Trust, P.O. Box 2460, Santa Barbara, 93120.

The News-Press series can be read online at www.newspress.com. Scroll down to the section on the left that reads "News-Features/Series" and click on "Special Report -- Cold Cases."