The family of Kala Hodgkin will receive some semblance of justice with Michael Burham’s guilty plea to a charge of first-degree murder.

Hodgkin accused Burham of forcibly raping her two months before her death and was shot dead in her home by him after he was charged but before he was arrested. Burham will be sentenced March 2 and is expected to receive a prison sentence of 25 years to life. Burham is currently serving time behind bars in the kidnapping of an elderly Pennsylvania couple.

The plea brings to a close one of the more shocking Jamestown crimes in recent history. Burham broke into Hodkins’ home, murdered the mother of his child, set a vehicle on fire a short distance away, made his way to Warren County, Pa., where he kidnapped an elderly couple before fleeing to South Carolina. After his capture, Burham escaped from the Warren County Prison before he was caught after another 10-day manhunt.

Burham’s plea and prison sentence doesn’t bring Kala Hodgkin to her family, but it is a measure of justice and closure that too many families in the area haven’t yet received after the death of their loved ones. We’re talking about the cold cases involving Rebecca Nicholson, Judith L. McElheney, Benjamin Gonzalez-Reyes, John Caylor, William A. Taft, Thomas Douglas, Kathy Wilson, Patty Fairbanks, Antonio Watts, Judith Threlkeld, Beth Patterson, Jerry Nickerson and Mark Trautman, Brian Heyden, Billy Hall Jr., Lori Bova and others. All have families who wonder what exactly happened to their loved one. All have questions. None have answers.

That’s what makes the work of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office’s Unsolved Crimes Unit so important. The unit, led by Tom Di Zinnio and Tom Tarpley They can be reached by those who have any information at (716) 753-4578 or (716) 753-4579. Tips can be sent to unsolvedchautauqua@sheriff.us.

Kala Hodgkins’ family will receive its closure that too many families have yet to receive decades after their loved one either went missing or was found murdered. DiZinnio and Tarpley are pouring over old evidence looking for anything that can be used to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. But it’s new evidence in the form of tips from the public that may help bring closure, finally, to one of these unsolved murder cases in Chautauqua County.