This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City police confirmed Wednesday they have asked for tapes of television news reports from around the time of the 1995 slaying of 6-year-old Rosie Tapia.
However, SLCPD Detective Richard Chipping stressed that the request — involving every Salt Lake City-based TV news station — was not generated by any new, specific leads.
"As with any cold case, we continue to look at anything and everything that might help the investigation," he said, cautioning against any unwarranted hopes for a pending resolution that news of the tape requests might raise among the victim's family.
"We have asked all the stations for tapes of stories and interviews they did [on the Tapia case] for a two and a half week period" after the girl's body was found in a Jordan River canal.
Chipping acknowledged that police had been told in 1995 of a "suspicious man" who may, some days before she disappeared, have been watching Tapia and other children at a playground near the west Salt Lake City apartment complex where she lived.
Only vague descriptions of the mystery man were provided at the time.
Chipping indicated that while detectives will screen the news reports of the period for anyone who may stand out or may seem to have any implied knowledge of the case, the current effort is likely a long shot at best.
"We never stop investigating a cold case," he said. "We are always interested in any and all angles. That's what we're doing here."
Tapia's mother, Lewine Tapia, discovered her daughter missing from her bedroom early the morning of Aug. 13, 1995. A window was open and its screen had been removed, police reported.
A few hours later, a man walking his dog found the girl's body in the canal near1900 West and 1200 South, just a few blocks away from her home.
An autopsy showed the child had been sexually assaulted and then drowned.
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