Bagels, coffee, unsolved homicides — the Cold Case Project.

When detectives and investigators met Wednesday morning aiming to crack unsolved murders, there was nothing resembling a crime scene. 

The backdrop for the Monterey Peninsula Cold Case Project team is a conference room at the Monterey Police Department, accompanied by trays of bagels and Starbucks coffee. 

The crime scenes they're considering are long gone, but the group met Wednesday morning, the first of what will be a monthly meetings, to brainstorm how to solve the region's unsolved murders. 

The group comprises representatives of all six Monterey Peninsula cities' police departments, the Peninsula Regional Violence Narcotics Team (PRVNT), the Monterey County District Attorney's Office, the FBI, and Watsonville office of the California Department of Justice.

The cold case team first launched in 2005, then again in 2010. Spurred on by recently solving two murders and making progress on an investigation into a 1983 murder in Monterey, the group formed again. 

"We all felt this was something we needed to do to bring closure to the families," PRVNT Cmdr. Michael Bruno said at a press conference Wednesday.

In January 1983, 20-year-old Jennifer Morris of Pacific Grove stopped at Del Monte Center to buy something. She was never seen or heard from again. In 2011, her skeletal remains were discovered in the woods behind the movie theater. 

The cold case project team is now reviewing her murder, and believes it may be connected to the 1998 slaying of 13-year-old Christina Williams, who was abducted and murdered on the former Fort Ord. 

Charles Holifield, a suspect in Williams' murder and a person of interest in Morris' murder, is currently serving a life sentence for attempted kidnapping at gunpoint of a woman in Marina in 1998.

While that case remains under investigation, the cold case team also reported two recent arrests—successful efforts at solving unsolved murders, and the motivation for re-launching the Cold Case Project. 

Solomon Sandoval-Perez was found dead in a Seaside motel room on Jan. 7, 2014. More than a year and a half later, on Aug. 13 of this year, the Monterey County District Attorney's office filed murder charges against 20-year-old Andre Johnson of Salinas for killing Sandoval-Perez.

Johnson is currently doing time in San Quentin Prison on an unrelated case, and will be tried for this murder in Monterey County Superior Court. 

In a separate case, the 2013 murder of Erick Curiel on Palm Avenue in Seaside, 22-year-old Martin Lopez was charged with murder on June 26 of this year. 

Seaside police had made two earlier arrests in connection to Curiel's murder, but the investigation continued until they identified Lopez, who is currently being held at Monterey County Jail on $2.15 million bail.

The charges against Johnson and Lopez date back just to 2014 and 2013, but some unsolved murders, like Jennifer Morris' case, go back more than three decades. 

Marina Police Chief Edmundo Rodriguez expressed optimism about investigating years-old murder cases.

"Lapse of time tends to work in our favor, especially as it relates to witnesses," he said. "People’s attitudes change. We find people who have been harboring information for years and years are finally ready to talk about it."