History Main / RevisitingTheColdCase

*** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', Phoenix does this InUniverse. During the events of "Bridge To The Turnabout" when he's in the hospital, Phoenix looks through Mia's cases for knowledge on Dahlia. [[spoiler: He later finds out that Dahlia was hung one month before the Turnabout's events. This is what gets Dahlia caught, due to her having the opportunity to possess Maya. It's also, ''unfortunately'', what gets Misty Fey murdered by Godot.]]

* In the first ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' game, the climactic chapter involves a new development that leads to Phoenix reinvestigating the 15-year-old murder of Miles Edgeworth's father, and solving the case on the day before the statute of limitations is due to run out on the crime.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

In RealLife, the statute of limitations impose a limit on this: after a certain time period a case goes officially cold and no legal actions can be initiated anymore. There are practical reasons for this (evidence may be lost or compromised, witnesses may not remember details all that well anymore, and bureaucracy would be a nightmare if dead-end cases remained open indefinitely), and the specific period depends on the local laws. It also depends on the crime committed, with the gravest ones likely having no such limits. The plots may deal with this in three ways. First, to simply ignore it: all that it takes is the protagonists being willing to do it. Second, use it as a time limit: the statute of limitations will be reached tomorrow at 0:00, so we have just one day to solve the old case. And third, the case may have already reached it, the protagonist investigates it just for the heck of it, but then the evidence reveals that there was a higher crime committed: one with no statute of limitations, or that is still within time to initiate legal actions. That, or the criminal turns out to be someone from the cast or someone the investigator knows; so that there can be drama even if the case stays closed despite the investigation.

** ''Literature/{{Nemesis}}'' tasks Miss Marple with a LastRequest from millionaire Jason Rafiel. His son was jailed for murdering a young woman, but the true facts were never clear. When Miss Marple realises that one of the victim's friends vanished at the same time, the scope of the investigation increases.

** ''Literature/{{Nemesis}}'' tasks Miss Marple with a DyingRequest from millionaire Jason Rafiel. His son was jailed for murdering a young woman, but the true facts were never clear. When Miss Marple realises that one of the victim's friends vanished at the same time, the scope of the investigation increases.

* LAPD detective Literature/HarryBosch investigates cold cases in several of his novels, and in the later novels of the series leads a unit specializing in "open-unsolved" cases. He manages to mix this with ItsPersonal in ''Literature/TheLastCoyote'' when he investigates the murder of his own mother, strangled and left in a dumpster when Harry was ten.

* Creator/AgathaChristie:
** Literature/HerculePoirot's ''Literature/FiveLittlePigs'' has the Belgian detective revisit a 16-year-old case when the daughter of the (now deceased) convict requested that he clear her mother's name.
** In ''Literature/OrdealByInnocence'', a two year old case gets reopened when an eyewitness suddenly show up to testify the alibi for the murderer, who has since passed away in prison. The supposed murderer was then granted free pardon, and the police was forced to re-investigate and find the true murderer, to the distress of the remaining suspects.
* ''Literature/TroubledBlood'': For the first time private detective [[Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels Cormoran Strike]] takes on a cold case, as a woman engages Strike to look for her mother, who disappeared from a London street in 1974, 39 years ago. Cormoran, being an honorable sort, takes the case only after candidly admitting that the odds of finding out what happened to the missing woman are slim. (Of course, he does.)

A related trope is ExtremelyColdCase, where a detective applies their crime-solving skills to a historical mystery so old everybody involved is long dead.