SALT LAKE CITY — Nathan Haun was 17 years old when he was struck and killed by a vehicle in 2013.
Anthony Adams was 25 when his body was found in his apartment in the Avenues neighborhood in 1978.
And Rosie Tapia was 6 years old when someone took her from her room and left her body in a canal in 1995.
Their homicides were never solved.
The Utah Cold Case Coalition is taking a creative approach in hopes of shedding light on their cold cases, along with 51 others — a deck of cards featuring the photos of homicide victims or missing persons and the descriptions of their cases.
Renee Van Tussenbrook, an investigator from the Utah Cold Case Coalition, announced the organization had created 750 decks and are planning to sell them to the public for $10 a deck.
Additionally, the organization has asked Utah's jails and prisons to offer them in their commissaries for less than $2 a deck.
She hopes the cards will encourage people with information to speak up to "keep the memory of these cases alive."
"We feel that prisoners are curious, and with the fact that there is a reward attached to every single one of these cases, we're hoping that that gives them an incentive," she said. "Somebody's got to know something."
Karra Porter, co-founder of the Utah Cold Case Coalition, added that for the month of August, which the coalition declared as Cold Case Month, it is doubling the award amount for information leading to the closure of the cold cases.
Lillie Allen, the mother of 22-year-old Sheree Allen, whose body was found in a dumpster in West Valley City in 2005, and Bobbie Dodge, the mother of Cody Lynn Dodge, who was shot in his West Valley residence in 2007, were also present.
"These women have suffered great tragedies," said Van Tussenbrook. "It is our hope that by including Sheree and Cody's stories in this deck of cards, that it will help solve their cases … and hopefully will help bring closure."
Allen, joined by her family, wants answers related to her daughter's death and hopes that prisoners who play with the cards will bring information forward to help solve the cases.
She pleaded for anyone who had information about the cold cases, not just her daughter's, to speak up.
"I'm not getting any younger. I don't know when my time is gone," she said. "But I would like to know what happened to my daughter, Sheree. Who did it, and why?"
Van Tussenbrook said the cold cases that were chosen were based on the contact with family, whether or not photos of the victims were available and the solvability of the case.
"I feel these cards being in the prisons, being in the jails, with the pictures of these people on it, are going to do a lot of help," Dodge said.
In the Utah Cold Case Coalition's card deck, hearts, tiles, clovers and pikes are represented, and joker cards have been replaced with question marks.
One of the oldest cold cases featured in the deck of cards is that of Fontella Galloway, a retired schoolteacher whose body was discovered in her home in 1969. The most recent case includes the 2015 disappearances of Emily and Gabriel Quijano-Almiron.
Van Tussenbrook said military organizations have used the method of using custom playing cards to identify enemies, dating back to the World War era. In 2003, coalition forces in Iraq used a custom card decks to identify the “most wanted” members of Saddam Hussein’s government, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
About 20 other states have created their own cold case decks, according to Van Tussenbrook, and the exposure from the cards have even led to arrests.
"I'm praying and hoping that we won't have to go through this much longer, darling," Allen said as she turned to Dodge. "Because it's painful, and it's something that you never forget."