do cases close when the accused cannot be found?

Question

we filed a case against someone who never showed up in the preliminary investigation, they now have a warrant of arrest but they are in hiding. how can justice be served? a friend said cases can be dropped or closed when the accused cannot be found, is there a truth to this? how long will it take before that happens? don't the police look for the accused when they have a warrant of arrest? thanks.

Answer 1

The statute of limitations does not apply here. Once a warrant is issued, it stays there forever until the person is arrested. A case doesn't get dropped because someone hides, otherwise, everyone would hide.

Answer 2

When someone can't be found the case just goes cold. Haven't you wanted some of the Cold Case programs? The justice departments have new cases coming in every day and every hour. If they can't work a case because of lack of information they simply have to move on. If some information comes forward they will pick up the cold case again and see if it can be solved. With the current use of DNA mapping and the DNA data bases,now some old cold cases are being solved. Some day the jerk will be picked up on some unrelated traffic violation and with luck, the warrant will pop up and he will be busted. I've know of cold cases getting solved up to 30 years later.

Answer 3

No they case stays open until it is leagally resolved or if the statue of limitations runs out. Depending on how much man power the police have to whether or not they will go looking for the person and what the nature of the warrent is.

Answer 4

No this consider as a cold case.. If ever the accused showed up then thats the time for the appeal..

Answer 5

it all depend on the state u in and the statue of limitation.