FRENCH CAMP, Calif. (KTXL) — The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office’s new cold case unit will focus on cases that have gone unsolved for five years or longer.

Melissa Carson, whose mother disappeared and was later found dead nearly 50 years ago, says it’s time cold cases get the attention they deserve for the families who have never given up hope.

“I’m 59 and getting ready to retire and my mom’s case is like it happened yesterday,” Carson said.

Carson was just 9 years old when her mother, Phyliss O’Brien Carson, a wife and mother of four, disappeared. Her body was later found, but not her killer.

“French Camp, California, 1970, that was such a small little community, OK?” Carson said. “Somebody, someone knows something.”

But now, Carson has renewed hope that her mother’s case will someday be solved after San Joaquin County Sheriff Pat Withrow announced the launch of a new cold case unit. 

“If my child, my dad, my wife, my daughter were missing, I would hope that I would have detectives that would not rest until they found my missing or deceased loved one and got me some closure,” Withrow said.

The unit is made up of two experienced detectives, Sgt. Linda Jimenez and Irene Shelvay.

Detectives will work to tackle a backlog of more than 200 cold case homicides, along with more than 150 missing persons and sexual assaults.

The oldest case dates back to 1963. 

“We may not solve and we surely won’t solve everything. We won’t find everyone but it will not be for a lack of trying,” Withrow said.

“If they can just resolve one, since 1963, that would be remarkable and never to give up hope, right? And I know all these families have not given up hope because that’s all you have to hang onto,” Carson said.

Along with the new unit, Withrow secured a grant for a two-year pilot program to bring rapid DNA testing to the county that all law enforcement agencies will share to build their own local DNA databases.

“If we can start gathering our bad guys’ DNA and testing it on everyday crimes or just anything that we come across, it will make San Joaquin County a very difficult place to get away with doing crime,” Withrow said.

Withrow says as his office’s cold case website is being updated, tips are accepted here.

Despite all the time that’s passed, Carson believes advancements in DNA technology could finally give her or other families long-awaited answers.

“I am very frustrated but I’m very hopeful that maybe this crew can do it,” Carson told FOX40. “If not, I’m still going to knock on their doors until my last breath.”