Western Michigan students, Michigan State Police partner to solve Niles cold case

NILES, Mich. - Michigan State Police troopers are partnering with criminal justice students from Western Michigan University to get to the bottom of what happened to Janis Sanders, who was last seen in Niles in 1976.

On Friday, MSP searched a farm where they believe Sanders was buried.

A group of Western Michigan students worked hand-in-hand with detectives to search for her body and other evidence using radar technology and drones.

The professor who launched the program said it's a great opportunity for participants to get real world experience solving crimes.

"Sometimes they just help organize 1000s and 1000s of documents in one case file," said Ashlyn Kuersten, criminal justice professor at WMU. "Other times they do little research projects, you know who owned this farm in 1976? Or who lived in this house in 1992? What was this person's profession in 1989? Little research projects like that."

Since the program started, Western Michigan students have worked with MSP on around 15 cases.