Unbowed by nearly around-the-clock workdays and a rising perception in the community that the investigation into Coralrose Fullwood's death has stalled, Stella, the lead detective on the 6-year-old girl's case, remains as confident as police were in the days immediately after she was found Sept. 17.

After two months, the day Stella and the community are yearning for has yet to arrive.

Coralrose's death brings to five the number of unsolved homicide cases in North Port in the past 15 years, outnumbering the number of cases the department has closed and falling far short of the nation's average clearance rate.

Police in this rapidly growing city have solved only three of the eight homicide cases since 1991, a murder-suicide, a stabbing that was later ruled self-defense, and a Dollar General store holdup.

Homicides typically have the highest clearance rate of any crime, about 62 percent nationwide. But drawing conclusions based on North Port's open cases would be "disingenuous," one expert said.

"Comparing clearance rate of these cases to national averages or state averages for murders is not valid to do because the numbers are so small," said Bill Bales, an associate professor of criminology at Florida State University who specializes in statistics.

It is unclear how much the department's lack of experience working homicides has affected the outcome.

"I've seen a very hardworking, enthusiastic rookie do better than the most experienced homicide detectives," said Detective Delrish Moss, a 23-year veteran of the Miami Police Department who worked more than 300 murders during eight years in the homicide unit. "As they grow in experience, certainly they become better."

Stella, the lead investigator - or "case agent," as he prefers to call himself - on the Coralrose case shrugs off the fact that he has never solved a homicide.

"I don't feel extra pressure because from the very second this unfortunate crime occurred, there has been no less than 89 law enforcement officers" involved, the detective, 31, said.

Immediately after the first-grader's body was found in a wooded area two blocks from her family's Calabash Lane home, the department called in all available resources, including the FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and nearby sheriff's departments. That was a smart move for a department where more than half of its officers only have two years on the force, experts say.

"You can't be afraid to ask for help when it's needed," said Moss, who now is a spokesman for the Miami Police Department. Police here insist the reason they have struggled to close all of their cases is not because of inexperience or bad police work but because of the unique circumstances surrounding each case, some of which have been bizarre, with few clues or local ties.

"We get a lot of criticism: 'Why haven't you solved this one or that one?'" said Detective Randy Ruth, who has been assigned four of the department's unsolved homicides as colleagues have retired or transferred out of the department's detectives bureau. "It's not like 'CSI.'"

Ruth, the department's most experienced detective, points to uncooperative witnesses and crime lab backlogs and the fact that police sometimes are forced to work at the criminals' pace: waiting for them to make a mistake.

Child slayings have a higher than average clearance rate. They often are closed quickly because it is fairly easy to identify where the child was supposed to go and whom he or she was supposed to come in contact with, shrinking the number of potential killers, Moss said.

The fact that two months later no suspect has been named in Coralrose's death does not mean the case is going cold, police said. Evidence, including anything that may have come in contact with the girl, is still being processed, and "subjects" are being interviewed again.