Charles Miller has spent the last 42 years searching for answers, closure and justice.

He was just 11 years old when his mother was killed. Police couldn’t give him answers then, and there’s still no answers today, as the case continues to grow colder.

“She was a beautiful woman,” he said of his mom who will forever be age 29. “She had a good heart, she was caring, she was loving, and she was just a good person. She’d give you the shirt off her back.”

Now in his 50s, Miller said he looks back fondly on the time he spent with his mom, Sharon Miller. He said it was just the two of them, and remembers the trips they’d go on, late nights doing homework and growing up together.

But on Jan. 14, 1983, his world shattered.

Utility workers cleaning debris from a sewer line in Baltimore County found Sharon Miller’s body. Her hands and feet were missing.

A blue blanket was placed over her lifeless body that lay in a manhole in Woodlawn, according to police.

Now more than four decades later, Baltimore County Police are asking the public for help solving the case.

“No detail is too small to share,” police said in a recent news release on the anniversary of her death. “You might hold the key to bringing those responsible to justice.”

‘It takes manpower’

The homicide of Miller, is one of more than 70 cold cases in Baltimore County from 1970 to 2020. The still-open cases are investigated by the Unsolved Case Division, according to police.

Miller said for the last few years, he’s been talking to one of the detectives on his mom’s case, who has kept him updated on any developments. He knows it’s a waiting game, but he’s hoping with new technology, there could be a development in the case. Or that maybe someone will confess.

“I just hope, deep down in their heart, someone would come forward. … Even if just one person comes forward who had involvement, maybe we’ll grant immunity to you and maybe we will bring the rest of the people to justice,” Miller said. “Anything will help.”

Chris Flanagan, a retired Virginia homicide detective and president of the Mid-Atlantic Cold Case Homicide Investigators Association, said there have been many advancements in solving cold cases, including how law enforcement applies DNA forensically.

DNA testing became prevalent in the late 1990s when a database called the Combined DNA Index System was developed.

CODIS is a national database managed by the FBI that stores DNA profiles to assist law enforcement in solving crimes and identifying missing persons. It enables the comparison of DNA evidence from crime scenes with profiles from convicted offenders, arrestees and other cases across jurisdictions.

That isn’t the only advancement, Flanagan said. Law enforcement now has the ability to take a fingerprint from a piece of preserved evidence from decades ago and compare it with the help of online databases.

But some of the biggest challenges in working cold cases, he said, is law enforcement having the time and resources. In many cases, a detective would be working his or her regular “hot” cases, going out every day and getting new cases, and then in any spare time, working on a cold case from decades before.

“It takes manpower, it takes resources, and it takes money,” Flanagan said. “And far too many of us in law enforcement are just trying to do it part time [on top of regular work].”

‘It was just hard’

The last time Miller saw his mom, he recalled that a few guys came by his house that night. Thinking nothing of it, he went outside to play with his friends. When he came home later, the people left, and he and his mom talked like normal.

Later that night, she got on the phone and he remembered hearing her say something like “Once you put my son in it, you start a war.” Then, instead of going to bed, Miller said he slept on the couch with his mom.

The next day Miller went to school and his mom went to work.

But she didn’t come home.

Then a few more nights passed, and she was still nowhere to be found.

By that time, Miller said he was staying a few houses down with his mom’s friend. Then Saturday morning came.

He saw his family gathering outside and he said he brushed off a tear because he just knew something had happened.

“It was just hard,” Miller said. “As an 11-year-old, what can you do? You’re vulnerable. You can’t do nothing. You’re a child.”

Miller was then forced to adjust to his new life, staying with his grandmother and then cousins.

And police never allowed him back into his home. The only things he has from his childhood are the clothes he wore on that January day and the stuff he had with him at his mother’s friend’s house.

He said he’s come a long way from 11 years old.

Miller is now the father of two kids and his first grandchild was born three weeks ago. He wishes his mom could be here to see them.

“I kept my head up,” Miller said. “I kept my chin up. I knew that was what my mother wanted. I’m a Miller. She’d always say, ‘Millers, we don’t never give up.’ I haven’t gave up.”