SAN DIEGO -- Local efforts to solve long-open, hard-to-crack homicide cases known as "cold cases," are getting a boost from the federal and state governments, officials said Tuesday.

The San Diego Sheriff's Department Crime Laboratory announced it has created a Cold Case Forensic Team with help from a federal Department of Justice grant of more than $805,000, and a state Department of Justice grant of about $33,000.

The grant money, approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, will allow the crime lab to hire two temporary lab technicians who will dig exclusively into old, unsolved homicide cases. The additional technicians will bring the number of cold-case lab technicians to four.

The money also means the lab can get new equipment to expand its capacity to test DNA.

The Cold Case Forensic Team includes not only the crime lab technicians, but investigators from six agencies, including the Oceanside Police Department and the San Diego County district attorney's office.

About 350 unsolved homicides in the county have been identified for the team to look into, sheriff's officials said Tuesday. Unlike most other crimes, there is no statute of limitations on murder.

The number of homicides in San Diego County ranges from about 85 to 130 per year, according to figures from the San Diego Association of Governments.

In some of the open cases, evidence has never been tested for DNA. In others, DNA testing will be redone and run through nationwide DNA databases to seek any potential matches that could lead investigators to a suspect.

Byron Sonnenberg, a criminalist at the sheriff's lab who is one of the two lab technicians now assigned to cold cases, said he is hoping that the team of technicians dedicated only to cold cases can get through about 50 of them next year.

Sonnenberg said many of the backlogged homicide cases may still end up with no suspects and no useful forensic evidence.

Some of the cold cases may have a "gold mine of evidence" just waiting to be tested, but the techniques for collecting evidence and the type of evidence collected were not as advanced as they are now, said Donald Tapper, assistant director of the crime lab.

Investigators from two decades ago were more limited in what kinds of evidence they could collect.

The grant approval came on the heels of a decision that lab officials had made earlier this year to dedicate two criminalists the cold cases. But the additional two technicians are temporary, in that the grant money covers those positions for about 18 months, Sonnenberg said.

"The new assistants will act as our hands, freeing up more time for us to evaluate the cases on the front end," said Sonnenberg.

The grants also will pay for new DNA equipment for the lab, some of which will help free the lab workers for other work.

The grant money will also pay for two temporary investigative positions with the sheriff's Homicide Detail, and will pay for overtime or temporary investigative costs for the Oceanside, Chula Vista and El Cajon police departments, which have all signed on to be part of the new cold-case team.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-3517 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.