From FirstCoastNews.com

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. -- The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office was recently awarded a "Solving Cold Cases with DNA" grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Here's the sheriff's office's announcement about the grant:

The grant provides funding for DNA processing, comparison, and will also supply detectives and crime scene technicians with equipment and training as it pertains to DNA identification and collection.

Detectives recognized a need for future funding in the field of DNA evidence stemming from a lengthy investigation into a missing 25-year old woman dating back to March of 2000. The victim's body was found eight years later and a 30-year old man was convicted of her murder. Detectives began pursuing the grant opportunity through the National Institute of Justice that was awarded this year.

The grant, which provides funding in excess of $200,000, is through the U.S. DOJ/National Institute of Justice. A majority of the funding will allow for DNA processing through private laboratories. It will also equip the Sheriff's Office Evidence building with a state-of-the-art DNA processing room.

The Sheriff's Office Robbery/Homicide Unit has identified more than 30 unsolved cases of missing or murdered victims that occurred over the past three decades.

Since the inception of the Cold Case initiative, Sheriff's Office detectives, in partnership with the State Attorney's Office Homicide Investigative Unit, has cleared five previously unresolved homicides. "With assistance from this grant, it is my hope that our investigators can give closure to the families and friends of murder victims of these older cases, " said Sheriff David Shoar.

Shoar added, "Earlier this week we began submissions of DNA evidence in other unsolved homicide cases thanks to this grant."