STROUDSBURG -- Dozens of cold cases remain unsolved in the Poconos, but two high-profile ones have recently turned hot.
A gruesome find in a field near Reeders in 2002 puzzled detectives for years. There they found body parts burned in barrels.
The murder of Robert Roudebush of Wilkes-Barre went cold. But now prosecutors say the trail is blazing hot, all thanks to a phone call.
"One of our detectives got a phone call from Ms. Britton that she wanted to talk about a murder," explained Monroe County First Assistant District Attorney Mike Mancuso.
Just last week, police charged James Britton, 35, and his ex-wife Stacy Britton, 46, with that murder, hopefully solving one of about three dozen cold cases in Monroe County.
"Each seemed to be pointing the finger at the other, but involving themselves in it enough that they were clearly accomplices of one another," said Mancuso.
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It's not the first cold case Mancuso will handle this year. In July, Mancuso prosecuted Richard Keiper for a 1968 murder.
Keiper killed Alfred Barnes in a field all over a 1968 Thunderbird.
The case was brought back to life with black and white photographs, old hand-drawn maps, and testimony.
Richard Wolbert is a detective at Stroud Area Regional Police and says they still hope for a break in a cold case from the late 1990s.
"It's so hard for someone to commit an act that's like that, not make a mistake," said Stroud Area Regional Detective Richard Wolbert.
Wolbert says these latest cold case breaks give many investigators hope, including detectives working to find out who murdered Lee VanLuvender.
VanLuvender, 22, was found shot to death in Tunkhannock Township in 2007 on Hypse Gap Road.
"In the most unlikeliest of places, at the most unlikeliest of times, there may be a spark that's needed to make a cold case become hot again," added Mancuso.
