A retired Aurora Police Department homicide detective kept 30 boxes of evidence, including photos and VHS tapes, for 35 different cases under his floorboards, Chief Todd Chamberlain said at a news conference Thursday.

Current detectives came across the boxes of evidence while reviewing a cold case from 1997, Chamberlain said. They reached out to the retired detective, who worked on the case and left the department in 2022.

The former detective presented them with evidence from the case that he had at his house.

He then consented to a house search, during which police found 30 boxes of binders, reports, VHS tapes, photos, handwritten notes and other investigative documents in the floorboards of his house, Chamberlain said. They were all things the former detective had oversight of in his time at APD.

There were no materials found that compromise any cases present or past, Chamberlain said, calling it an incident of “poor record keeping.” 

Most of the material found was also redundant, Chamberlain added, saying many of the documents were copies of which APD still had the originals. Nothing they have found has been a standalone or unique piece of evidence, he said.

There was also no physical evidence, like DNA, blood or fingerprints, in the boxes, Chamberlain said. 

An internal review of all of the material had taken months, Chamberlain said, and all of it was shared with officials of the 17th and 18th Judicial Districts to ensure they could analyze it separately. 

Investigations into the incident are ongoing, but so far there is no evidence that the former detective was acting maliciously or suspiciously in keeping the documents at his house. 

“What we luckily didn’t find is any information that would have proved somebody’s innocence, somebody’s guilt, proved a victim was overserved, that’s not what we found,” Chamberlain said. “What we found was a detective who spent a lot of time on these cases felt he had the right to take bits and pieces of these cases … and for whatever reason he wanted to retain these documents.”

If that changes, Chamberlain said, he will “be the first to hold (the former detective) accountable.”

Still, the incident is “unacceptable,” Chamberlain said, adding that he will “be sure it never happens again.”

The former detective, who Chamberlain declined to name, started with the Aurora Police Department in 1981 and retired in 2022, spending much of his time with APD in the major crimes unit.

His performance in his time with APD “wasn’t stellar,” Chamberlain said he was told by department administration.

The Aurora Police Department’s case management system has now been completely updated, Chamberlain said. Department officials have also done audits of all of their material and will go forward conducting periodic random audits, he added.

“Evidence control is really at the foundation of the integrity of what we do,” Chamberlain said. “There has to be a consistent chain of continuity and without that comes questions.”