Integrating archived media sources into cold case review: A systematic method and demonstration case

Cold case investigations continue to accumulate across multiple jurisdictions, placing increasing pressure on limited forensic and investigative resources. These reviews are further hindered by deteriorated evidence, fading witness recall, and well-documented cognitive and institutional biases. Despite journalism's long-standing role in documenting criminal events, its potential value as a structured investigative resource remains underexplored. This paper proposes a novel, systematic methodology, the Media Review Method (MRM), that integrates archived journalistic materials into cold case review through a transparent data-extraction and cross-verification framework. Grounded in principles of bias mitigation, scientific epistemology, and journalistic verification, the method enables a geographically-distanced investigator or team to reconstruct events using media data and systematically identify inconsistencies, omissions, or overlooked leads. A proof-of-concept application is demonstrated through the Mansholt case, illustrating how the MRM distinguishes verified from inferred information, supports System-2 analytical reasoning, and offers an ethically defensible complement to traditional investigative processes. The findings suggest that journalism, while not a scientific discipline, possesses sufficient practical validity to serve as a supplementary evidential resource. The paper concludes that formalising the use of journalistic archives could enhance transparency, reduce cognitive bias, and expand investigative capacity within cold case review.