Families of cold case victims hope new initiative brings answers

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Tina Johnson North stands in front of a poster of a playing card featuring her son // Chris Young 6/10/24

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Florida officials unveiled a new plan to solve cold cases: they’ll put victims’ faces on playing cards and distribute them in correctional facilities across the state. 

The families gathered at a Tampa jail Monday during the program’s announcement – and say they want to see justice served. 

Juan Carlos Hernandez’s grandson Yitzian Torres Garcia was shot and killed on the Courtney Campbell Causeway while celebrating the Fourth of July. 

Almost a year later, police still haven’t found the killer.

“It’s been hard, and it’s still hurt on our hearts – because we don’t have nobody to pay for this.”

Tina Johnson North’s son, James William Earl, was found shot to death in Hernando County in 2019.

“Look out because they’re coming to get you. They’re not going to give up until they find who did this. So, they might as well just turn themselves in – because I’m never going to give up, and the sheriff’s department is never going to give up.”

Hernandez and North stood next to pictures of their loved one’s faces on playing cards.

State Attorney General Ashley Moody says cards were distributed starting Monday. 

See the digital cards here. 

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