*WARNING - The contents of this story may be graphic to some readers. Discretion is advised.* ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) --- It was a gruesome and disturbing discovery this September when Fort Wayne police recovered the bodies of two homicide victims in the St. Marys River downtown. They’d been shot, strangled, suffocated and stabbed. But in the usual FWPD fashion, and in record time, city homicide detectives nailed their accused killer in Richmond where the victims lived. Court docs: 2 found dead in St. Marys River led Richmond police to drug bust before their killings “That was one of the hardest cases because you don’t just have one victim, you have two. And you have them in a river and they were dumped in the middle of the night and you get there and you are hours and days behind,” Detective Sgt. Matthew Wilson said Monday in a wide-ranging interview with WANE. Wilson and his co-sergeant on the homicide unit, David Wilkins, were there to discuss last year’s homicides. FWPD homicide supervisors (from left) Detective Sergeants David Wilkins and Matthew Wilson and police headquarters downtown. Statistics are a cold way to measure the taking of another life, no solace to victims' families and a frustration for police. Homicides aren't solved in a neat 12-month period. But Fort Wayne and Allen County seem to have the secret sauce when it comes to accountability. The FWPD boasts a homicide clearance rate of 88%, far above the national average of 52%, a figure from FBI statistics. Wilkins and Wilson know of no other city that comes close. Of the three homicides in Allen County last year, Adam Griffith, Allen County Sheriff’s Department public information officer, said its two homicides and one officer-involved fatal shooting were cleared. If you count the couple found in the St. Marys River, there were 41 homicides in Allen County in 2024: 35 in Fort Wayne, three in Allen County investigated by the Allen County Sheriff’s Department and three in New Haven. There were eight fatal police-involved shootings: six in Fort Wayne, one in Allen County and one in New Haven. The Fort Wayne homicide unit with two detective sergeants and 11 detectives not only investigates homicides but all city non-fatal shootings. In 2024, there were 269 of these incidents that included gunshot wounds, pointing a firearm at another, shooting into an inhabited dwelling and attempted murder with no injury. In other statistics, the homicide unit filed 19 attempted murder charges in a total of 140 charges filed related to the unit's work. The number of non-fatal shootings have gone up in the past three years: 78 in 2022; 83 in 2023 and 91 last year. In 2024, more than 100 people were charged with pointing a firearm at another or others; 62 people were charged with shooting into an inhabited dwelling, and three attempted charges with injuries. The homicide unit made 39 arrests last year for those 33 city homicides because the Richmond killings are not included in the city statistics.  “It’s not just the trigger man,” Wilson warned. “If you were there with him, acting in concert, conspiring to commit murder, we do not stop and we will prosecute everybody involved in these homicides.”   The clearance rate has been the pride of the homicide unit since 2020 when changes were made in the departmental approach. In late 2019, Capt. Timothy Hughes, then a sergeant, convinced the command to implement a team approach to resolving these homicide cases requiring detectives to swarm a case together. Though it was exhausting, the results were exhilarating and by 2020, the unit cleared 86% and went on to keep those stats in the 80th percentile, except for last year when it was an unprecedented 96%. “We are very good at what we do,” Wilson said. “There are a lot of things that go into it, but the right people, the right place and teamwork, whether that teamwork is within the unit, the narcotics division, our gang unit, the prosecutor’s office, the citizens - it takes everybody to clear these homicides.” Talking about clearance rates would suggest that the case is solved. What it usually means is that there’s been an arrest, but it can mean that the suspect is deceased as in a murder-suicide or the suspect is deceased after the fact of homicide, Wilson said. And in the five years since procedures changed, even with some changes in personnel, certain detectives have taken on expertise. Expertise comes in the form of mastering digital and cell phone technology, interviewing techniques and specializing in speaking to a certain gender or a child. Wilkins said the detectives collectively take on more than 600 hours of training each year on top of the mandatory departmental training every officer is required to take and training isn’t cheap. “There’s no price tag you can put on these homicides,” Wilson said, “so it is a priority for the department. You can’t put a dollar bill on a victim.” What drives these homicides is not always obvious, but certain human themes run through the narrative: retaliation, revenge, territory disputes over drugs, old beefs from prison and domestic violence. “It could be gang affiliation kind of beefs,” Wilkins said, “but there’s nothing that you could really put your finger on that says this is it. Sometimes we don’t know what really happened.” The homicide unit also solved five cold cases in 2024. Each detective is assigned between one and three cold cases. In 2024, four were cleared with an arrest and one by “exceptional means,” meaning that the suspect is dead. This year, there are four cases left to be cleared. Wilkins and Wilson aren’t able to discuss these cases as they are actively being worked on. However, there is one – the Roundabout Murder – they are appealing to the public for help. On June 10, Ronald Joe Smith, Jr., 52, was discovered in a red pickup truck around 11 p.m. at the roundabout on Superior Circle downtown, a gunshot wound to his head. “It’s been aired several times through Crime Stoppers. It’s just a reminder that if you have information, you can remain anonymous and there is a $5,000 reward for that,” Wilson said. Dominique Washington’s four-day trial for the St. Marys River victims is set to start March 27 in front of Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull. The trial was continued from early December. Because it was investigated here, the case will be prosecuted here, Wilson said.  Washington is facing four counts of murder and has retained an attorney from Indianapolis, besides being assigned an Allen County public defender. Chief Counsel for the prosecutor’s office, Tesa Helge, will represent the state, according to court documents. "Fort Wayne Homicide investigated those homicides. Detectives made those arrests and the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office is going to prosecute. So, although they occurred in Richmond, all the work was done here and that’s where the case will stay," Wilson said.