Case solved.

Those two words are powerful tools of comfort to friends, family and loved ones of victims whose cases — whether kidnapping, assault or killing — go unresolved for any length of time.

And so it was on Saturday, when investigators and the loved ones of murdered Saxonburg Police Chief Greg Adams gathered to mark the anniversary of the solving of his slaying.

Saturday was not the true anniversary of the date — July 13, 2017 — FBI agents and municipal and state police agencies announced they had found the remains of Adams killer, Donald Eugene Webb.

Nonetheless, it was a day meant to celebrate that accomplishment, with FBI special agent Tommy MacDonald on hand to present the borough’s current police chief, Joe Beachem, with a framed wanted poster of Webb proclaiming “RESOLVED” in red lettering. Another artifact presented to the department was a baseball bat made in Webb’s hometown and stamped with the date of Adams’ murder — Dec. 4, 1980 — and the date the case was solved.

To be sure, there are things about the Adams murder case that everyone involved wishes would have gone differently.

They wish Webb had been found alive and been forced to face justice for the decades of suffering he inflicted on Adams’ friends and family.

They wish — we all wish — that Adams had instead survived the encounter that resulted in his death and a life on the lam for Webb. We wish his legacy was one of simply excellence in public service, without the added pain and sorrow of being among those who sacrificed everything in the course of their duties.

Adams’ son, Benjamin, gave a poignant reminder of the enduring pain of loss Saturday: “(I)t’s always going to be about the loss,” Adams said of the case’s anniversary. “Dad is there one second, and the next, he’s not.”

Despite this fact, there is room for pride in the swirl of emotions that accompanies a case like Adams’. As Benjamin Adams also noted on Saturday, we have nothing but respect for and pride in the years of work done by the investigators that relentlessly pursued this case to its conclusion.

The artifacts that now hang in Saxonburg’s police station will be enduring proof of their devotion and steadfast pursuit of justice for Adams and his family.

—PAR