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MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Police hope new technology and additional detective work will help them solve more than 400 previously unsolved murders in the city.

TODAY'S TMJ4 got an inside look at the Milwaukee Police Department's "Homicide Cold Case Unit."

"These cases, just by nature, are very labor intensive and very time intensive," said Lieutenant Keith Balash who supervises the unit. "You're starting all over, investigating things, trying to put them together."

One case being investigated by the unit is the 1970 murder of Donna Willing on Milwaukee's north side. In February of that year, the 9-year-old girl left her family's home on North 33rd Street to buy a loaf of bread. A short time later, her body was found in a garage off North 51st Street.

In an interview with TODAY'S TMJ4, two of Donna Willing's sisters described the pain they still feel from the homicide. "Just that something is missing, that's how I felt, spent my whole life," said one of the sisters who asked to be identified only as Virginia. Another sister, Eileen, said "I hope and pray every day that they can find out who did this - who tore my family apart."
 
The women said their family is extremely grateful that the Milwaukee Police Department decided to revisit the case and review the old evidence. When Virginia found out police would renew their efforts on the case, she said, "inside, I was just stunned and just shaking."
 
At the Homicide Cold Case Unit, detectives work under a bulletin board covered with pictures of cold case victims. They say the focus is on finding closure for the victims' families.
 
In many cases, new insight comes from modern testing of the evidence at the Wisconsin State Crime Lab. "The testing we do now is so much more sensitive," said Forensic Scientist Sharon Polakowski.
 
Polakowski said the current style of DNA testing has been in use at the Crime Lab for about ten years. However, she said new techniques of using the testing to evaluate complicated evidence continue to evolve and improve.
 
"It's really satisfying to be able to provide the police with some information from evidence that is that old," Polakowski said. "It's good for us to be able to say, 'Well we have someone you should look at'."
 
Milwaukee Police will not release their most recent findings in the homicide of Donna Willing. However, they maintain the case is active and that a breakthrough development is possible.
 
Willing's sisters say that kind of chance has them praying for new developments. "I, at least, finally had hope after all these years," said Virginia. "Because I always felt it's hopeless before and I never knew that such things could be possible." They repeatedly said how much it means to their family that police have not forgotten about the case.
 
The Police Department remains committed to the Homicide Cold Case Unit's work. "We will continue to bring cases that are years old to closure and hopefully that will not only bring a lot of satisfaction to the loved ones of some of our victims but obviously justice in bringing some of these bad guys off the street," said Lieutenant Balash.