Detroit detectives may need to brush up on their crime solving skills. After the department dropped the Andrew Anthos murder mystery, Triangle Foundation and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force joined forces to crack the case.

For those of you not paying attention, the 72-year old homo died last February after suffering head injuries from an alleged anti-gay attack. Anthos and his niece both claim an unidentified man took Anthos down, but the coroner ruled it an accident.

Gay activists weren't satisfied and canvassed Anthos' neighborhood for leads. And, according to Triangle's director of victim services, Melissa Pope, their efforts have turned over more than a few leads:

In one evening, we have uncovered more than enough additional leads to redouble our efforts in this case. I’m surprised to hear the police department claim that they uncovered no witnesses with 40 hours of overtime spent on the case, when we were able to talk to several people in just one evening.

The Detroit Police made a mistake when they closed this case so quickly. We want to present the additional information we’ve discovered to Chief Bully-Cummings and ask her to re-open the case Andrew deserves justice, Andrew’s family deserves justice, and we are not going to rest until they have justice.

Fuck asking coppers to reopen the case - the queers can obviously handle things.

The Detroit Police Department may have ruled Andrew Anthos' death an accident, but some gay activists aren't convinced. The Triangle Foundation and The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force have joined forces to find the 72-year old gay man's killer. Anthos died in February after allegedly falling on a snow covered sidewalk. Anthos and his niece both claimed a mystery man attacked the veteran rights activsts, but police say otherwise. Police spokesman James Tate insisted, "[Examiners] determined that he died of natural causes. There's no evidence that an assault occurred. Effectively, this case is closed." The Task Force and The Foundation are betting $25,000 it's not - that's the amount of money they're offering for Anthos' potential killer. The Foundation's Melissa Pope says:

The Detroit Police never really investigated this case. Since they haven’t, we will. We are committed to obtaining justice for Andrew and his family.
...
The coroner’s report wasn’t conclusive. The police claim that there were no witnesses, but they were able to come up with a suspect sketch based on a witnesses’ report. This just doesn’t add up.

As part of their joint effort, the activists will be canvassing Anthos' old neighborhood for clues.

Task Force leader Matt Foreman tied the controversial case to the always controversial issue of a federal hate crime bill:

Given Mr. Anthos’ deathbed statement and that of an eyewitness, the man who caused Mr. Anthos’ death is still at large. Since neither Mayor Kilpatrick nor Police Chief Bully-Cummings have given priority to this case, and the investigation has been dropped, we are increasing our reward to $25,000 to encourage other witnesses to come forward and bring the perpetrator to justice. The Detroit Police Department’s mishandling of this case is an insult to the memory of Mr. Anthos, to his family, and to our national community. This is a glaring example of why we need a federal law that addresses hate-motivated violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

No doubt Matt Barber and his concerned Women For America will have something to say about this.

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Not surprisingly, the conservative legislator Sen. Lee Schoenbeck (R-, S.D.), congratulated himself, calling the results as “a badge of honor.”

Rankings look at gay rights, abortion rights [AP]