The search for justice

There's only one good reason to reopen a 20-year-old murder case, particularly one that roiled Long Island like the killing of teen Kelly Ann Tinyes: the pursuit of justice.

Tinyes' neighbor Robert Golub was convicted of the murder and has been locked up for 20 years. The impulse to leave well enough alone has to be powerful. But a prosecutor's job isn't just to win convictions. It's to uncover as much truth as possible, which is the surest route to justice. "The [Tinyes] family came to us with questions, and we developed new information that added to the mystery," Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

The question nagging at investigators is whether there was an accomplice. Investigators have interviewed new witnesses and retested DNA using modern technology. It's impossible to know where the probe will lead. But if there are still serious, unanswered questions about Tinyes' death, then kudos to Rice and Nassau police for pursuing answers.