---
kind: "section"
citation: "34 U.S.C. § 60911"
title: "34"
title_heading: "Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
number: "60911"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/34/60911"
units:
  - "Subtitle VI — Other Crime Control and Law Enforcement Matters"
  - "Chapter 609 — Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights"
---

# §60911. Definitions


In this chapter:

- (1) The term “designated person” means an [immediate family member](#2) or someone similarly situated, as defined by the Attorney General.
- (2) The term “immediate family member” means a parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandparent-in-law, sibling, spouse, child, or step-child of a [murder](#4) [victim](#3).
- (3) The term “victim” means a natural person who died as a result of a [cold case murder](#6).
- (4) The term “murder” means any criminal offense under [section 1111(a) of title 18](/usc/18/1111.md?p=a) or any offense the elements of which are substantially identical to such section.
- (5) The term “agency” means a Federal law enforcement entity with jurisdiction to engage in the detection, investigation, or prosecution of a [cold case murder](#6).
- (6) The term “cold case murder” means a [murder](#4)—
  - (A) committed more than three years prior to the date of an application by a [designated person](#1) under [section 60901(a) of this title](/usc/34/60901.md?p=a);
  - (B) previously investigated by a Federal law enforcement entity;
  - (C) for which all probative investigative leads have been exhausted; and
  - (D) for which no likely perpetrator has been identified.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 117–164, § 12, Aug. 3, 2022, 136 Stat. 1361.)