Baltimore City Police officials say they are still awaiting the results of a forensic test that they hope will lead to the person who killed 21-year old Hopkins senior Linda Trinh last month.
Although the test's outcome has been pending for several weeks, police spokesman Donny Moses said that wait times similar to this one are not uncommon during investigations.
"We have a plethora of cases and we deal with them in order," Moses said, referring to the way the city's crime lab conducts forensic tests. "We can't prioritize anything."
As a result, detectives describe a forensic testing process that can prove agonizingly slow and can take weeks or occasionally even months to get a finding. Typically, the timetable depends largely on the kind of test being conducted. For example, it usually takes a short period of time to match fingerprints but can take significantly longer to conduct DNA tests.
Police have declined to say what kind of forensic test they are waiting for in the Trinh case.
But police officials still emphasize that they are pleased with the progress of the investigation. It has been a month since Trinh's body was discovered by one of her roommates on Jan. 23.
Since then, investigators have constructed a timeline tracing her whereabouts in the hours and days before the murder and have interviewed people who may have information about the case.
They have concluded that Trinh's killer may have been someone she knew.
Three weeks ago, acting Baltimore City Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm sounded an optimistic note when he revealed at a news conference that detectives were looking at a person of interest in connection with the case, though he would not specify further details.
At the time, however, Hamm said that an arrest was not imminent and detectives maintain that they are continuing to pursue all leads related to the case.
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