Could playing cards solve homicide cases?

Hope Dudley isn't a gambler, but she thinks her deck of cards holds a winning hand. Or, in this case, the answer to who killed somebody in Hamilton County.

Dudley, who runs the support group called UCanSpeakForMe, has created a deck of cards featuring local "cold case" homicides.

Her biggest distributor: Ohio prisons, but she wants to put 10,000 decks into the hands of anyone who might be able to help.

The message on the deck: "Maybe there is face that you remember. Maybe you know the family of that victim. Maybe, just maybe, you remember some detail that might help law enforcement get closer so solving a case."

"At the back end of a homicide is a family," said Dudley, 63, of College Hill.

Dudley showed off the cards Monday at Cincinnati City Council's Law Committee meeting.

"I long for the day we don't have enough cases to fill up a deck of cards," Councilwoman Yvette Simpson said.

Law committee members pledged to help Dudley find the money to grow her project. Councilman Charlie Winburn immediately pledged to buy 150 decks. He even called Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell during the meeting to see about possibly using forfeiture funds to help put more decks on the street. Blackwell pledged to look at the project.

From Connecticut to Portland, cold case playing cards aren't new. But, experts say any publicity can help.

"It goes along with our vision to reduce crime," said Scott Flowers, an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokesman. "We hope by selling these cards it will generate information that will assist law enforcement and give victims families much needed closure."

In all, 6,000 decks were distributed throughout the prison system.

Dudley knows better than anyone just how important championing cold cases is: Her son, Daniel "Chaz" Dudley is featured on the five of hearts.

Dudley was 26 when he was riding in a car Sept. 29, 2007. He and friends had been to the since-closed Club Ritz in Roselawn. In Hartwell, a car pulled up beside the car in which Dudley was a passenger. Shots were fired. Dudley was killed. A back-seat passenger was wounded. The case remains unsolved.

Dudley discarded any case in the last two years; not wanting to interfere with on-going investigations, she said. But she also didn't go back too far -- the oldest case a 2000 homicide -- thinking those are the years where help was most likely to comes from.

Then her real work started: Getting permission from every family.

Terry Jones, 55, of Corryville, allowed his son's 2006 homicide to be featured. Jones was killed in Avondale, his body found in the driveway of Phillip Memorial Christian Methodist Church.

"It was heartbreaking to see them all in place," Wynn said. "It made me realize I'm not alone; other families have been through the same thing."

About the cards:

Featured: 65 victims (Some cards feature double homicides & the Joker card carries pictures as well.)

Cost: $3

How to purchase: Call 513-772-7755