In 2004, Mary Ann Clibbery was found brutally murdered in her Illinois business and investigators had to determine if this was a robbery gone wrong or a calculated murder. The evidence at the scene told police what happened and they got a huge break when evidence from the murder on top of a nearby frozen river. The investigation focused on the business co-owner George Hansen when police found that he was embezzling from the company and that evidence in the bag also pointed to him.

In 2006, Texas real estate agent Sarah Anne Walker was found brutally murdered in a model home. Weeks later, a witness came forward who may have seen the killer and police used forensic hypnosis to help him recall every detail of the man's appearance. His description was used to create a composite sketch, which police used to draw the killer Kosoul Chanthakoummane out of hiding.

In 2003, St. Cloud teenager Jason MacLennan returned home after a night out with friends and discovered his father Ken's body lying in a pool of blood. There were shoe impressions outside in the new-fallen snow; because the victim's wallet and watch were missing, the motive may have been robbery. But before making that determination, police needed to find out who had the most to gain from his death.

In 2006, Nevada politician Kathy Augustine died mysteriously during a hard-fought re-election campaign and the medical examiner could neither isolate the cause of death, nor explain the tiny puncture wounds discovered during the autopsy. Upon deeper analysis, investigators focus on her husband Chaz Higgs, a critical care nurse who had ready access to succinylcholine.

In 1996, Virginia Beach police arrive at the Makdessi apartment to find Elise Makdessi and her lover Quincy Brown dead. Elise's husband Eddie had reported that he killed Quincy Brown in self defense after Brown had murdered Elise. Eddie gave the police a videotape Elise had made a week before, alleging that she had been the victim of sexual harassment and assault while in the Navy. investigators found evidence that her allegations may have been part of an elaborate scheme for financial gain. Hoping to separate fact from fiction, they turned to forensic science.

In 1999, Patrick McRae was found dead in his Des Moines home and the crime scene was awash with blood. Analysis showed it had come from two people, one of whom was female. The male DNA was McRae's, which meant the killer was a woman. Leads dried up and the case went cold until a suspect arrested for drug possession offered police a deal, and told a bizarre tale of an exotic dancer named Andrea Morris who listened to the voices in her head. She was later charged in 2005 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

In 2000, the body of exotic dancer Rachel Siani was found beneath a New Jersey bridge and investigators wondered if she had committed suicide. Evidence at the scene proved not only that she'd been carried to the bridge and thrown over the side, but also that she was alive when she fell. Police first looked at customers at the gentlemen's club and discovered that Rachel offered to assist a drunk customer named John "Jack" Denofa back to his motel room and that was the last time Rachel was seen alive.

In 2000, construction manager Darrell North was found dead in his work trailer in Ft. Worth, Texas. When investigators arrived, they found that he had been stabbed 46 times, described as overkill and indicating a personal relationship between the victim and the attacker. Police hoped that, during the struggle, the killer had left some of his own blood and his DNA behind. Their challenge was to find it. They looked at several suspects, but focused on the last person known to see North alive, sub-contractor Curtis Wayne Pope.

In 2000, Judy Southern arrived home from work and was shot by a gunman waiting within. Her husband Allen arrived shortly afterwards, called 911 to report his wife had been shot and drove her to the hospital. She died on arrival and the investigation focused on her husband Allen, but forensic analysis and a suicide note found at the scene pointed to Jonathan Binney.

In 1986, Gary Dale Larson was stabbed to death in his Edmond, Oklahoma home and then the killer sexually assaulted Larson's girlfriend Janet Haynes. Hayne's story seemed farfetched: The perpetrator was wearing only underwear and gloves broke into the house, stabbed Larson to death, then raped and terrorized her for hours afterwards. But, the evidence at the scene supported her story, and investigators turned for help to the FBI and their criminal profilers. The case remained cold until 2004, when Jonathan Scott Graham was arrested in the same neighborhood where Larson was murdered and footprint and DNA analysis placed Graham at the scene of the murder.

In 1991, Dorothy Donovan was murdered in her Dover, Delaware home and police are skeptical when her son Charles Holden stated that she was murdered by a hitchhiker he had picked up. Their suspicions were heightened when he refused to take a polygraph test and they turned to forensic science. Would the blood and fingerprint evidence at the crime scene support Charles' story or prove his guilt? The case went cold for many years until the DNA of ex-con Gilbert Cannon linked him to the crime.

In 2001, Ginger Hayes and her infant son Nicholas were abducted during a carjacking and the crime had been reported by a witness within minutes of occurrence. 45 minutes after the kidnapping, Ginger is seen with a black man in a local store's surveillance video and then they find her car in a nearby neighborhood. Both the witness to the carjacking and the owner of the home where the car was found pointed to Andre Edwards, but he wouldn't tell the police anything. A farmer 50 miles away called to report the body of a woman and a baby, which were determined to be Ginger, who had been beaten to death and her son Nicholas, who was still alive. Further analysis of Ginger's car and evidence at the scene where Ginger was found both linked Edwards to her death.

In the early hours of a morning just before Christmas, a college co-ed was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment. Her body was found later that day; she'd been sexually assaulted and then shot at point blank range. Eight long years passed and then a pair of running shoes and a cell phone breathed new life into a very cold case.

A young woman is found dead in her apartment. There's little evidence at the scene, leads don't pan out and the case turns cold... until police discover a link between their prime suspect and an unsolved murder committed six years earlier in different state.

When a college student is reported missing, police believe their investigation will be like countless others, and she'd turn-up a few days later. But when they discover blood spatter in her boyfriend's bedroom, blood spatter someone had gone to great lengths to conceal, they know this case is going to be different.

A serial rapist is on the loose in a Texas town. No one knew where he'd strike next, but the audacity of his attacks and the escalation of violence against his victims made finding him imperative.

The victim has been stabbed more than thirty times, and the crime scene is awash with her blood. Near her head, police discover a distinctive button with strands of thread still attached. If they can find the owner of the shirt the button came from, they'll also find the killer.

A young woman attends evening church services... then disappears. When her abandoned car is found, the tank is empty and a gas can she kept in her trunk for emergencies is missing. Eyewitnesses place her at a nearby gas station, getting into a van, but their descriptions of the vehicle don't match. Three days later when her body is discovered, the search for the driver of that van intensifies.

When a nine-year-old girl goes missing, police and volunteers spend weeks searching for her. A psychic's vision leads to a field where her body is discovered, along with what investigators hope is enough evidence to help them to also find her killer.

Digital enhancement of security camera video shows that what appears to be a casual encounter is actually a forced abduction, leading to murder. The perpetrator's MO is remarkably similar to another murder which occurred five months earlier, 15 miles away. When investigators learn the crimes might not be isolated or random, they also realise a serial killer may be on the loose.

The woman had been sexually assaulted, stabbed repeatedly, and left for dead. She survived, and gave police a detailed description of her attacker. When someone who fit that description practically turned himself in, police were sure they had their man... until the DNA evidence proved them wrong.

The victim was a self-made man who never minced words. Perhaps he was murdered by a disgruntled client or employee. Perhaps the racy photos in his safe held the clue to solving the crime. Or perhaps with the help of the IRS, investigators could follow the money and find the killer.

A family vacation turns into a nightmare when the wife is found face-down in the lake. There are no witnesses and little conclusive evidence to help police determine if they're dealing with a suicide, an accident, or something more sinister... until a forensic pathologist uses a groundbreaking technique to discover the truth.

The woman in the back of the truck was flailing her arms, screaming. They thought she was doing something dangerous for the fun of it. But when they found a jacket near a pool of blood, they knew what they'd seen wasn't a joy ride; it was an abduction.

When court clerk Peter Porco doesn't report to his work in November 2004, a courts officer is ordered to the Porcos' family home in Bethlehem, NY. Inside the home he finds murdered Peter Porco and his barely alive wife Joan who had both been savagely attacked with a fireman's axe. Eventually police can prove the crime was committed by the couple's son Christopher Porco.

This episode documents a deadly bombing at a church in Oakwood, Illinois, in December 1997.

On Christmas eve 2005, the corpse of a black male is found burning near Baltimore. He's eventually identified as 26-year-old Wesley Person. Distinctive building materials from the 1930s found near the body play a crucial role in solving this case.

Doctors don't know why the young scientist is gravely ill. When tests finally reveal the cause, it's too late to save him. Police hope that lab analysis of his hair, showing when attempts were made on his life and what was used will lead to the killer.

A bullet-riddled car, a missing driver, and no witnesses. Was this an ambush or a random attack? Had the victim been abducted or was she dead? The answers lay in a unique clue, so tiny it was measured in millionths of a meter.

Even though their daughter had run away before, she'd always come back. Her parents were sure this time would be no different, but they were wrong. Workers discovered the teen's half-naked body on the side of the road; her throat had been slit. Police hoped the single foreign hair found in a defensive wound on her thumb would lead them to the killer.

In little more than a month, two women who lived in the same apartment complex were brutally murdered. The similarities of the crime scenes led police to conclude they were dealing with a serial killer who harboured an intense hatred of women... and they had to find him before he struck again.

When a college co-ed vanished without a trace, her fellow students were concerned about her safety and their own. Weeks later, the body of an unknown female was discovered 700 miles away in the ashes of a barn fire, and an alert police officer realised the two crimes might be connected.

The victim was well liked and successful, which made the brutality of the crime even harder to understand. In the final moments of her life, she'd written a name on the wall, presumably that of the killer – in her own blood. But this wasn't an open and shut case and, in order to solve it, investigators would have to read between the lines.

An assistant manager of a Florida steakhouse is stabbed to death. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong, but a bloody fingerprint reveals that he knew his killer.

James Kenneth Elmen Jr. abducted Julie Estes, then 21, from the Southside convenience store where she worked in 1985. He raped and murdered her. Her body was found the next day, but the killing went unsolved until 2003 when it became the first murder arrest by the new cold case squad at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. A sample of Elmen's blood was taken after sentencing for the 1986 rape and kidnapping of another woman and the attempted abduction of a third and his DNA was entered into a database, which was eventually matched to Estes' DNA. Elmen is also a suspect in the 1985 murder his 10-year-old half sister, Dana Loomis, and the slaying of a female acquaintance, Christina Casey. In June 1984 a jury acquitted Elmen of killing Steven Linthicum of Titusville.

Tracey Frame, 35, was convicted of killing David Nixon in April 2002 after he planned to end their relationship.

A surgeon is stabbed to death, and the most likely suspect is seen in a restaurant at the time of the murder. Episode documents the murder of Brian Stidham.

In 2007, Brian & Beverly Mauck were found dead in their Graham, Washington home. Using a bloody palm print and shoe prints at the scene, investigators focus their attention on neighbor Daniel Tavares, who had previously been inking a tattoo on Brian's back.

On May 12, 1994, Crystal Perry was viciously murdered in her home in Bridgton, Maine. Michael Hutchinson, 32, was found guilty of murder in the 1994 slaying at Perry's home.

On December 10, 2003, in a murder-for-hire scheme, Thomas "Bart" Whitaker hired Chris Brashear, his college roommate, to kill his family so he could inherit the estimated $1.5 million family estate.

Rachael Mullenix, 19, was convicted of stabbing her mother, Barbara Mullenix, on Sept. 13, 2006, and then packing her bloodied corpse in a cardboard box before dumping it in Newport Bay on the California coast.

On May 20, 2001, Carrie Nelson, then 20, was beaten to death while working alone in a park office. The case went unsolved for six years until May 2007 when, in a routine check of DNA samples of prison inmates in South Dakota, police found a match with DNA samples gathered from the crime scene. The samples linked Randy Leeroyal Swaney, 35, to the murder. In August 2008, Randy Swaney was sentenced to life in prison.

Foul play is suspected when Fort Worth factory worker Glenda Furch disappears in September 2007 after completing her shift.

Police get a clue about a couple who disappeared on Memorial Day weekend during an in-progress robbery. The evidence found solves a brutal crime. Episode documents the 2002 murders of Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley by killers Erika and Benjamin Sifrit.

The decade-old murder of a young Texas housewife is investigated.

In 1995, Palm Beach waitress Denise O'Neill is abducted and murdered. Her neighbour Luis Caballero arouses suspicions by his odd behaviour towards tv crews covering the crime. In the end police can prove Caballero and two other men committed the murder.

In 2007, Shamaia Smith disappeared from the strip club she worked at in East Hartford, CT. Police look at various customers of the strip club, but focus on local businessman Kenneth Otto when there were inconsistencies with his story about the last time he had seen her. Upon search of Otto's rural property, cadaver dogs find something in a firepit, at which time he revokes their access. Upon revisit to the property, investigators find a variety of trace evidence, including part of a human foot.

When a young girl was found dead, police quickly arrested the most likely suspect. But cutting-edge technology from NASA enabled a forensic odontologist to prove the wrong man was behind bars. With the killer still on the loose, the investigation was far from over.

It's usually easy to determine how a criminal entered the crime scene. But in this case, it was far from clear. It looked like the killer vanished into thin air...and perhaps he had.

When a young fireman died from what appeared to be serious but undiagnosed heart disease, his family and friends were devastated but they had no proof of foul play. Then they learned that, six years earlier in a nearby town, a young police officer died in the same way. The men had one thing in common: At the time of their deaths, they were married to the same woman.

Security cameras in a casino tracked a young woman's movements until shortly before she disappeared. She was never seen again, but through the evidence she left behind, she was able to tell investigators what happened to her and who was responsible.

It was one of the most unusual cases in forensic history. Investigators had to find a way to solve a murder case with evidence which consisted of a squashed tomato found at the crime scene, and tiny, pinpoint reflections of light in a photograph. Would it be enough to catch a killer?

When a dedicated, well-respected teacher disappeared, police had to determine if she'd gone on vacation without telling anyone, or if she was the victim of foul play. Investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to find the answers they needed.

Seattle police had no suspects in the violent murder of post-grunge singer, Mia Zapata. More than a decade would pass before the evidence collected by an extraordinarily prescient medical examiner could be used by forensic scientists to identify the killer.

A Michigan State University grad student disappeared and was presumed dead. With the help of a professor of geological sciences, police hoped to get the "dirt" on her killer.

How unlucky could one man be? His wife had taken her own life, and his college sweetheart had killed herself in much the same fashion fourteen years earlier. Investigators had to determine if this was a bizarre coincidence, or an attempt to get away with murder... twice.

In 1996, 54-year-old Gayle Isleib was ambushed in her Manchester, Connecticut driveway and shot to death. During their investigation, police learned that her 25-year-old co-worker Tyrone Montgomery was in love with her and that she had spurned his advances. They now had to determine if love had turned into obsession... and a motive for murder.

The victim had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on the beach, just ten yards from the hotel where she was staying. A pair of men's tennis shoes was discovered near her body. Police were sure that if they found the man who fit the shoes, they would also find the man who committed the crime.

A 13-year-old girl went missing from her Colorado home, and the only evidence the kidnapper left behind was three fingerprints on a window screen. Two years later, a latent print examiner, new to the county and the crime lab, changed the course of the investigation by sharing a little-known fact with his colleagues.

A brutal murder, lots of suspects, and conflicting evidence but the forensics were clear on one thing: The killer knew his victim. And that alone gave investigators a head start.

A serial killer was on the loose and police had to find him before he struck again. Their most promising lead was an unusual one: a bloody fingerprint on the body of one of the victims.

On Halloween night 2004, Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara were brutally murdered in their Napa, California home. The killer was not seen by their downstairs roommate, but he left his DNA behind in some cigarette butts and a groundbreaking test revealed his race and even the color of his eyes and hair. When this information was made public, Eric Copple went to the police and confessed.

After the suspect was convicted of arson and murder, he steadfastly maintained he did not commit the crimes, but he was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. He had no money, no lawyer and only a fifth grade education, but he never gave up. He turned to the law books in the prison library and television programmes about forensic science, and set out to prove his innocence.

A woman was brutally murdered in her home, and the only witnesses to the crime were the family dogs. An expert in canine behaviour was convinced the killer knew both the victim and the animals, and he was determined find out exactly what the dogs had seen.

The killer probably hoped to cover his tracks by staging the crime scene. But investigators saw through the attempt almost immediately, and they turned to forensic science to learn what really happened that night.

A six-year-old girl ran and hid when she saw her grandmother being beaten to death, but the man followed her, beat her, assaulted her. The girl said he was her Uncle Clarence, and he was convicted because of her identification. She recanted her testimony years later, but the court denied Clarence's petition for a new trial. His wife was convinced he was innocent, and decided to conduct her own investigation to prove it.

In 1984, the body of college co-ed Laura Salmon was found on a Georgia farm, covered with her own denim jeans as well as the jeans of the killer. Investigators had plenty of suspects, including former boyfriend David Kyle Gilley, but no conclusive evidence linking any of them to the crime. More than a decade later, sophisticated technology would breathe new life into a case grown cold with the passage of time, which would implicate Gilley.

The body of an attractive young woman was found a mile from her abandoned car. Police were especially concerned when they realised the victim had come to them for protection just two weeks earlier, after a road rage incident. Concern turned to dread when the evidence began to point not to an aggressive driver, but to one of their fellow police officers.

In 1969, 25-year-old phone operator Diane Maxwell is raped and murdered by a black man. Her brother promised he'd find out who was responsible and bring the killer to justice. It would take more than thirty years, but the young man kept his promise and, in doing so, brought closure to his family.

The crime scene was especially violent: A husband and wife had been shot to death in their bedroom. At first, investigators thought their 16-year-old daughter was lucky to have escaped unharmed... but after a while, they wondered if the reason she was alive had more to do with careful planning than good fortune.

A young, attractive hairdresser was sexually assaulted and murdered in her own beauty salon. The evidence at the crime scene didn't match any of the suspects and, after the initial investigation, the case went cold for ten years. Then a witness who had been silent for more than a decade decided to do the right thing.

When two women went missing and were later found brutally murdered, police wondered if they were victims of a hate crime; the women lived together and were politically active, outspoken advocates of gay rights. But the motive turned out to be something age old, something with which investigators were all too familiar: greed, fueled by obsession.

A human skeleton was discovered in the North Carolina marshlands and, when investigators learned she'd been dead for 18 months, they knew it would be difficult to find out who she was, much less who killed her. A forensic anthropologist was able to determine the victim's race, age and height, but it would take an inventive computer consultant to give her a face and a name.

After shooting his victims in the head, the killer staged the scene, placed the incriminating evidence into a plastic bag and tossed it into the river. Instead of floating downstream, it became entangled in overhanging branches. Days later, when police found it, they hoped clues to the killer's identity and the solution to the crime were "in the bag.

In a tragic twist of fate, just days after the woman sold her home and moved to a modest trailer, a fire took both the trailer and her life. But the autopsy proved this was no accident. It was arson and murder. Investigators had to determine who wanted the woman dead... and why.

A security guard disappeared from his post without a trace; his remains were found a year later in a remote camp site. More than a decade would pass before a phone call breathed life into the cold case, and a paint smear on the bottom of the victim's boot helped scientists determine what happened during the last hour of his life.

A college senior was found raped and murdered near an unpaved footpath used by students to walk from one side of campus to the other. Five years earlier, a student was assaulted and killed in her off-campus apartment and, a year after that, another student was killed in almost the same way. Police feared a serial killer was on the loose and they needed to determine what – or who – these women had in common.

The woman could have lost control of her SUV on the icy road, and plunged down an embankment into a shallow creek. But there were footprints in the snow leading away.

A successful stockbroker told his wife he'd be working late, and when he didn't come home, she reported him missing. Investigators found his car a few blocks from his office and, two days later, proof that he had been murdered.

The prime suspect had a criminal record, and his driver's license was found at the scene of a brutal, double homicide. That physical evidence seemed damning, but it wasn't the only evidence. DNA extracted from a discarded spoon would point investigators in a different direction.

When a little girl got sick and died, investigators were stumped. Was it an accident, an unexplained illness, or murder? Scientists would travel halfway around the world before finding the answer in two unlikely places: a shredded legal document and her mother's signature.

A car was found in a drainage ditch and the bodies of a man and woman were inside; both had been shot to death. The car windows were broken and shattered glass should have been everywhere, but it wasn't. A fingertip torn from a latex glove would point investigators to both the crime scene and the killer.

A World War II veteran was found dead in his home, and the investigation ground to a halt when the prime suspect had a solid an alibi. But a lucky break led to a shady character who wore distinctive boots and had a sweet tooth.

A woman who was known to have suffered from depression apparently took her own life. But her sister told police that, a year before her death, she said if anything were to happen to her, there was a note in the china cabinet. Investigators found the note and the killer.

An aspiring model turned up dead, and the prime suspect was her boyfriend. When he was eventually cleared, investigators had to dig deeper to find the perpetrator. With the help of a forensic geologist, they identified the most unlikely suspects.

When an off-duty policeman was shot dead, his fellow officers were determined to solve the crime. They needed clues to find the killer, and they discovered them in tiny fibres and an asthma inhaler.

One warm summer afternoon, the town of Verona, Wisconsin, faced its first triple homicide. To solve the case, investigators had to delve into the world of high rollers and offshore betting.

The body of a young girl was discovered on isolated farmland near Delano, California. She had no ID, but police found mailbox and house keys in the pocket of her jeans. With no other clues, they checked the mailboxes of every apartment building in Delano and their persistence paid off.

The driver said he couldn't have hit and killed a pedestrian on a Harrisburg street. The Jeep Grand Cherokee he was leasing around that time had been sold months ago to a buyer in another state. Police were able to find the vehicle. They impounded it, took it apart, and discovered evidence, which would tell them what really happened that night.

The medical examiner ruled the death an accident, but the detectives investigating the case thought the evidence at the scene indicated otherwise. It would take three years, an exhumation and a second autopsy to determine who was right.

When a hit-and-run boating accident caused the death of a popular young man, investigators faced the daunting task of searching for one boat among 1200 others. They asked anyone who had seen the accident to come forward. The man who responded did much more than witness the crash; he was a passenger in that other boat.

A woman was found dead on the bedroom floor of her apartment. The crime scene yielded little of value, and investigators wondered if they would find enough evidence to make a case, much less catch a killer. But a bloodstained sheet and a breakthrough forensic technique enabled them to identify the murderer, and convince the jury of his guilt.

A young man was killed in a mysterious car crash, but the evidence at the scene led investigators to believe it was not an accident. Forensic science revealed what really happened, and the truth devastated three families.

When a woman went missing, friends and family were determined to find her. Their worst fears were confirmed weeks later when her body was discovered. Blood evidence and computer forensics helped investigators to catch the killer, and convince the jury of his guilt.

In 1993, 82-year-old Kathryn Bishop was found dead in her Pennsylvania home. The evidence at the scene indicated that the perpetrator had been running out of the house, not breaking into it. Tiny clues on the victim's body would tell police what happened that night, which gave investigators the proof they need that Timothy McEnany was the perpetrator

A wealthy man and his wife were attacked by three men outside their luxurious Louisiana home. He was shot dead and she was forced to open their hidden safe. The woman could not describe the men because they wore masks. To solve the case, police would have to find out who knew about the concealed safe, and who would benefit from the crime.

The bomb was constructed to cause as much damage as possible..and it did, killing the victim with deadly force and flame. A painstaking search yielded tiny clues, which identified the killer as surely as if he'd signed them.

A twelve-year-old girl claimed she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. She recounted what happened in such a flat, unemotional voice that police found it difficult to believe her. Fibers on her clothing would prove she was telling the truth, and help police to find her attacker.

In 2001, paramedics in Durham, North Carolina received a frantic call from Michael Peterson who said his wife Kathleen had fallen down the stairs and that she was unconscious, but still breathing. When paramedics arrived, they could do little more than pronounce the woman dead. The number and volume of bloodstains at the scene was greater than usual. It was up to forensic scientists to find out why.

The wife of a respected police officer was murdered in her own home. The crime went unsolved for more than a decade, and then a newly formed Cold Case Unit took a fresh look at the evidence. A few seconds of a 911 call enabled them to determine not only who was responsible for the victim's death, but also the motive for her murder.

The victim had ingested a massive amount of cyanide. An unlikely clue – a flaw on a mailing envelope – exposed a murderer who was willing to kill innocent

They thought the fire would cover their crime. But one tiny clue, no bigger than a thumbtack, remained. It held all the information investigators needed to put a trio of cold-blooded killers behind bars.

In 1994, 19-year-old college co-ed Shannon Melendi disappeared while at Emory University in Atlanta. For ten years, her disappearance of remained a mystery, until new scientific testing cast a different light on Colvin "Butch" Hinton, who had been a suspect from the beginning.

In 1987, the death of Crystal Purcell was considered an accident. Then in 2001, Barbara Purcell called police to suggest that her estranged husband Willard had killed Crystal, who was her husband at the time of her death. Before that investigation could begin, Barbara was found dead in much the same manner as Crystal. Was this an unfortunate coincidence or the MO of a serial killer?

In 1994, Paul Gruber's daughter suspected something was wrong when she received birthday cards addressed from Gruber, on which the handwriting wasn't Gruber's. When she then learned virtually everything had been removed from her father's Sandpoint, ID home, she was sure of it. Investigators soon discover that Gruber had hired handyman Darryl Kuehl, who killed Gruber and then went about keeping up the appearance that Gruber was still alive.

The woman was dead. The man had been shot four times but he survived. When the man's version of events was at variance with the evidence, investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to determine if this was a botched robbery, or cold-blooded murder.

How did the stalker obtain the security system code for his victim's home? How did he steal her personal photographs? Police needed answers, and they found them in the most unlikely of places: the letters he wrote to frighten the victim and taunt those trying to protect her.

After inspecting storm damage to a home in Tampa, the insurance assessor simply disappeared. Thirty hours later, her body was found in a nearby river. But the killer had been careless, using a murder weapon so unique and leaving behind clues so blatant that police would have no trouble tracking him down.

When a hit-and-run accident claimed the life of a high school athlete, everyone in town mourned his passing. Finding the killer was a long shot at best, but investigators hoped tiny paint chips and pieces of plastic found at the scene would lead them to the person who was behind the wheel.

In 1996, Shannon Sanderson goes the casino without her husband Robert and wins $5,000 at the Blackjack tables. Three hours later, she is abducted by a man driving a Chevy Beretta and a month later, she was found dead. The trail turned cold, until police got a call from a woman whose husband, Gerald Powers, had a criminal past and a fondness for Chevy Berettas.

In 1991, Grand Junction, Colorado is on edge after a series of deadly bombings which has killed 2 and injured one more and police race to find the culprit before he strikes again. Ultimately, it was the bombs themselves, along with the tools used to make them, which led investigators to James Genrich.

Lives changed in the 20 years following an unsolved murder, and so did forensic science. In time, a high-powered microscope and DNA profiling revealed not only a clue no one had seen before but also the identity of the killer.

A lifelong resident of the tiny town of Lefroy, Tasmania was murdered outside his own home. Robbery appeared to be the motive, but with no suspects, the investigation came to a halt. Then the victim's autopsy turned the investigation into a landmark forensics case: The device intended to save his life proved to be the only witness to his death.

When a wealthy socialite died after falling down the stairs, the eye witnesses said one thing and the evidence seemed to indicate another. To find out what really happened, investigators turned to forensic science, a physicist and an expert in accident reconstruction.

In 1997, Kelly Eckart's car was found with her belongings still in it, after working the late shift in Franklin, Indiana. Days later, her body was found in an isolated ravine. Tiny clues told police a great deal about the killer: He would own a car with olive-colored carpeting, a white blanket and distinctive bullets made from wax, not lead. Investigators turn to Michael Overstreet, after receiving a tip from his brother Scott.

In 1996, when Derrick Duehren returned to his Oregon home, it had burned to the ground and his wife Roxanne's charred remains were found in the rubble. Investigators set out to determine if it was an unfortunate accident or arson and murder.

A millionaire and his family were executed in their own home. For three years, the murders went unsolved and then a 30-year-old box of ammunition and some fluorescent fibers revealed the ultimate betrayal.

It was one of the most brazen crimes of the 20th century. Adolph Coors, chairman of the Coors Brewing Company, was kidnapped and held for ransom prompting one of the most intense manhunts in United States history.

For twelve years, the murder of a young woman went unsolved, but with the passage of time came the development of technology. Would a used tissue found at the crime scene give police the evidence they needed to crack the case and bring a killer to justice?

A house erupted in flames on a cold January night, killing one person and injuring another. The survivor blamed a kerosene heater; the evidence at the scene did not support her story, and she was charged with arson and murder. It would take a nationally known fire investigator to determine what happened, and who was responsible.

It was 1957, and California police were searching for a man who had committed several crimes in one night – including murder. They followed thousands of leads but, eventually, the case turned cold. Almost 50 years later, with the help of advances in computer technology and handwriting analysis, investigators proved an old adage: You can run, but you can't hide.

A man riding a bicycle was fatally injured, and police believed he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Tiny clues found at the scene created a picture of the vehicle which struck him and led police to its driver.

When an elderly couple died in a suspicious house fire, their son became the prime suspect. The son insisted he was innocent; he said he tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water on it, but that only made it worse. Investigators turned to forensic science to determine if the fire had been set deliberately, or if it was an unfortunate accident.

Police instituted an intense search when the mother of two young children went missing and, less than a day later, they found her body. The evidence was little better than circumstantial, and the crime drifted to the bottom of the cold case files. Twenty years later, advances in technology enabled investigators to see the evidence in a new light, and discover it pointed directly to the killer.

When hunters reported finding a skull in a Texas canyon, police immediately began an investigation. At the scene, they found bits of clothing, a woman's shoe, some small bones and a strand of hair. An anthropologist determined the victim was a Caucasian woman, and that she'd been stabbed repeatedly. A forensic artist reconstructed her face, and the image was released to media. Eventually, police learned who she was. Now all they had to do was find her killer.

A married couple decided to escape the cold of winter with a mini-vacation in Key West. The wife went missing, and police searched every square inch of the island; they found nothing but a pair of sandals which might have belonged to her. Then two important pieces of video surfaced, and investigators began to wonder if they should be searching for a missing person or a killer.

A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. It appeared she had killed herself: There were suicide notes near her body, and a pistol was in her hand. Her death was ruled a suicide – but when investigators learned she had almost died in a house fire three years earlier, they decided to take another look at the evidence.

In 1991, when the wife of a serviceman was brutally murdered in the Philippines, the Air Force Office of Special Investigators swung into action. Clues led to the victim's husband, but he insisted he was innocent. To find out if he was telling the truth, investigators would have to do something unprecedented: Reassemble a 5-1/4 inch computer disk which had been cut to pieces with pinking shears.

Bombings are difficult to solve, because the perpetrator isn't usually at the scene, and the evidence goes up in smoke. But there are clues if investigators know where to look. In this case pieces of plastic the size of grains of sand, held the key to a man's murder.

The wife of an Air Force officer was found dead in her bed, with a plastic laundry bag near her face. At first glance, it appeared she'd been doing laundry, fell asleep, rolled onto the bag, and suffocated. But further investigation proved that the scene had been staged. Her death wasn't an accident; it was cold-blooded murder.

When a fire destroyed most of a home and a young boy went missing, police organized the largest search in the history of their small town. First the boy's backpack was discovered five miles from home, and then his body was found 50 miles away. But the killer had been careless, and the evidence he left behind would lead police directly to him.

A highway patrolman was dispatched to what he thought would be a routine traffic accident until he looked in the car. While he had no formal training in forensic science, he had seen hundreds of accidents – but never as much blood as this. He was shocked by the coroner's ruling of accidental death, and then an anonymous phone call breathed new life into his investigation.

The decomposed body of a young woman was discovered in a Bakersfield irrigation canal. If there was trace evidence, it had been washed away. Another victim was found in that same canal a year later; this time, the perpetrator had been careless. The shoe prints found at the scene would lead police to the most unlikely of killers.

A behavioral profile is helpful in a murder investigation, but it's not a road map to the killer. One such profile caused the Baton Rouge Police Department to search for the wrong man. They might not have made an arrest, had it not been for a DNA picture of the suspect, painted by a molecular biologist.

An obstetrician returned home from the hospital and found his wife on the floor of the bathroom. She was covered with blood and not breathing. He tried unsuccessfully to revive her, staining his clothes with her blood in the process, and then he called 911. His version of events was not supported by the blood spatter evidence, and investigators had to determine why.

A Modesto, California teenager went missing. There was no sign of a struggle in her home, and police suspected she'd simply run away until her naked, bruised body was discovered in a ditch 20 miles away.

When police recovered the submerged car of a man reported missing, they expected to find his body – but it wasn't there. His broken eyeglasses were on the floor of the vehicle and the interior was coated with motor oil. The investigation which followed would uncover an obsession turned deadly, and the motive for murder.

Emergency dispatch received a call from a man who said his girlfriend shot and killed herself. Police found the victim in the caller's house, lying in a pool of blood with the gun next to her on the floor. The autopsy revealed that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted and the evidence found on her body would give police a golden opportunity to catch her killer.

A Native American woman was brutally killed in the desert of New Mexico, and the crime scene was rich in forensic evidence: tyre tracks, shoe impressions and even the murder weapons. The site was less than 10 miles from another crime scene where, two years earlier, a male Native American was beaten and stabbed to death. Police began to wonder: was a serial killer on the loose?

A brilliant young architect became ill and died just before she was to testify in a criminal trial. The autopsy revealed she'd been poisoned with arsenic; it was a slow and painful death, so suicide was unlikely. Investigators had to determine who among her family, friends and business associates had a motive for murder.

An employee of a drycleaner was raped and murdered in the store, and investigators thought themselves fortunate to have two eyewitnesses. Their descriptions were similar but not identical, and the prime suspect didn't come close to resembling that person. Police turned to forensic science for the answers they needed.

The murder of an eccentric millionaire was not entirely unexpected; he flaunted his wealth and cared little for personal security. The evidence at the crime seemed to indicate robbery, but investigators wondered if there was something more.

When a young woman disappeared, police feared she was the latest victim in a string of similar crimes. But the MO wasn't quite right. A pair of bloody gloves, unique tire tracks, and ordinary grass and pine needles provided investigators with some extraordinary clues.

Two men were convicted of intentionally shooting and killing a passenger in a moving car, their friend was granted immunity for testifying against them, and the case was closed. Then a bomb exploded in the family home of the state's witness, instantly killing his father. Investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to determine if this was an act of revenge and if there was a way to link the two deadly crimes.

Police initially suspect that the death of a gay student is a hate crime, until just three strands of hair and some microscopic cells help them unravel a web of lies, and to find the real motive for the murder.

In an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning. The investigation gradually focused on one person, a suspect who had more than a million reasons to want the victim dead.

When two women from the same town were murdered in the same way, police feared a serial killer was on the loose. At first they thought the victims had nothing in common until they found tiny clues linking them to the same man.

A young woman was found dead on a golf course in the Bahamas. The grass on that course was so distinctive, it had evidentiary value. The evidence led police to two suspects. Each blamed the other, and they had to find out who the killer was.

A teenager went missing after an evening of horseback riding. Her body was found a month later, three miles from her home. The killer unknowingly left trace evidence behind – tiny but unmistakable clues which pointed to him and him alone.

When a popular disc jockey was found murdered in a community garden, police swung into action. A sniffer dog and a blood spatter expert led police to the killer and he'd been much closer than they realized.

When a woman's husband was gunned down in his own garage by intruders, investigators worked tirelessly to find the assassins. But when they discovered that a wound sustained during the attack by the grieving widow may have been self-inflicted, they turned to science to help them unravel a twisted tale of lust, greed and deception.

Three seemingly unrelated deaths proved to be serial murders. The killer had been careful – he used poison which had no taste or odour. Fortunately for investigators, it also had a unique chemical signature.

The crime scene was awash with blood. The victim had been brutally murdered as he slept in his own bed. There were no foreign fingerprints in his home, but investigators did find a shoe impression in the mud outside physical evidence they hoped would lead them to the killer.

Now it's not only a fingerprint which can link a killer to a crime; a shoe print can be just as telling. Armed with little else, police hoped the shoe impressions found at a Lansing, Michigan crime scene would put their investigation of Audrey Nichols' murder back on track.

When the head chef of a historic Philadelphia restaurant was found dead, investigators interviewed the usual suspects: family, friends and coworkers. As they sifted through the evidence, police uncovered a chilling tale of debt and deceit.

A serial arsonist was on the loose in Washington, DC. Each of the fires was started with the same type of incendiary device. The perpetrator was very careful and seemed to leave no evidence behind but there were clues in the ashes and it was up to forensic scientists to find them.

When Genell Plude was found dead in her bathroom, the scene pointed to suicide. But a coroner's inquest and a unique application of forensic science gave investigators a different explanation for her death. It was a theory which, if true, could turn her husband Doug into the prime suspect.

Three homicides on two continents looked like professional executions. Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic needed to find out if they were related and, if they were, who or what they had in common.

A 29-year-old woman was killed instantly when a bomb exploded in her home. The device was so powerful that shrapnel was embedded in houses across the street. The bomber had not only knowledge and skill, but also a motive for murder.

A killer tried to incinerate and destroy everything that could link him to his crime. But in doing so, he inadvertently created new forensic evidence, evidence which came to light with a technique never before used in a criminal investigation.

Kansas City attorney Richard Armitage was brutally murdered in his office in broad daylight. The first prime suspect was Lou Campbell, who had previously threatened Armitage, but he was later cleared. Police turn their suspicions to Armitage's law partner Richard Buchli, who had very little success as a lawyer and was in debt for more than $250,000.

The investigation of a discarded sleeping bag, containing bloody sneakers and a purse, leads police to the body of a young woman, Carrie Love. Evidence from the autopsy and the crime scene was carefully collected and analysed, but it would be a mark found on the victim's body, which would enable police to track the killer, Jesse Pratt.

On the last day of deer hunting season, a woman is killed while walking her dogs in the woods. The victim has no enemies and her husband has an alibi, so police assume it was a hunting accident... until a strange letter turns up, allegedly written by the woman before her death. Police begin to wonder if the woman may have been the target all along, and a forensic document examiner, a slingshot, and an unusual physics experiment answer their question.

An Alaskan police officer found a woman's body while on routine patrol of a public park. The victim had been stabbed to death and, during the autopsy, the medical examiner preserved the portion of her rib cage which sustained the fatal wound. A knife thought to be the murder weapon turned up days later, two thousand miles away. Forensic scientists now had an opportunity, which seldom occurs: to compare the microscopic marks on the presumed murder weapon with the marks on the victim's bone.

A woman disappears without a trace; even though foul play is suspected, the leads don't pan out and the trail turns cold. Twenty years would pass before police are able to link a clump of hair discovered in an isolated area with the missing woman. Members of "NecroSearch," a group of volunteer forensic scientists, searched a remote area of Colorado a meter at a time, found the victim's body, and gave authorities the evidence they needed to bring the killer to justice.

A talented television news anchor was shot to death outside her home; it appeared to be a crime of passion, perpetrated by an obsessed fan. A police dog tracked the scent of the killer through the adjacent woods and back to the crime scene. Could the murderer be one of the onlookers, watching the police conduct their investigation?

Investigators sifted through the ashes of a fire, which had killed a 40-year-old woman, the estranged wife of a police officer. At first glance, the fire appeared to have been started by an unattended cigarette. But when forensic scientists looked closely, they discovered the cause was far more complicated.

For seven years, a trio of men robbed one bank after another. They always got away before the police arrived, and they left no evidence behind. But the way they stood and the clothes they wore told a story that could be read by forensic scientists.

A young woman suddenly becomes critically ill; her symptoms worsen over time, eventually leaving her unable to walk. Then a bone marrow test reveals the cause: arsenic. Investigators now had to determine if the poisoning was caused by groundwater contamination, or something much more sinister.

Residents of Noel, Missouri were stunned to learn that their bank had been robbed and the bank president was missing. His body was later found floating in a lake, securely bound to a chair with duct tape. When the tape was carefully reassembled using a technique known as end match analysis, investigators discovered one piece was missing. It would be that piece, and tips from concerned citizens, which would solve the crime.

A young couple decided to celebrate their first wedding anniversary with a camping trip to Mount Hood. During the trip, the husband was shot and killed, and his wife told two different versions of the events which led to his death. Forensic psychiatry finally enabled her to distinguish fact from fiction, and the evidence from ballistics tests allowed investigators to determine what really happened.

The body of 16-year-old Leanne Tiernan was discovered nine months after she disappeared. Forensic scientists found clues that painted a virtual portrait of her killer. They knew he had a dog, he worked for the postal service, and that he had red carpeting in his home. Now all they had to do was find him.

A beautiful, vibrant young woman fell to her death from a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Initially, investigators thought it was a tragic accident. But after a forensic examination of photographs taken at the scene, police had a very different picture of what had happened.

Haunted by the disappearance of her mother some twenty years earlier, a young woman undertook an investigation of her own. Her mother's diary was in the now cold case file; there, in her mother's own handwriting, she discovered a dark family secret, which might have been the reason her mother vanished.

California police had several suspects in the robbery and brutal murder of an elderly couple. Unfortunately, the forensic evidence was inconclusive, and the crime went unsolved. Ten years later, a determined forensic scientist used material from a dentist's office to uncover ballistic evidence which had been overlooked. He not only solved the crime, he also made scientific history.

After a street fight took the life of a national wrestling champion, police had to determine if he was killed in cold blood, or in self-defense. A jury decided it was murder, and sentenced the accused to a minimum of twenty years in prison. Six years later, he was granted another trial; a forensic animator, who testified on his behalf, offered a different explanation for the most damning piece of evidence.

A 19-year-old woman was found dead in her car; the scene had been staged to make murder appear to be suicide. During their investigation, police discovered the victim was involved in a love quadrangle, giving several people a motive to kill her. The killer's identity would be revealed by a piece of evidence found in a suspect's trash.

A man disappears one year to the day after beginning an affair with his friend's wife. 15 years later, with the help of a metal detector, police found evidence which would prove what had happened, and who was responsible.

The body of a young California co-ed was found under an isolated ramp of the Interstate, and San Diego police had no idea who would want this girl dead. But their questions would be answered when they discovered a tiny, unique fiber on the victim's clothing, which led them straight to the most unlikely of killers.

A go-go dancer told her family she needed to get away for a while, and then she simply disappeared. Investigators were suspicious, because she took neither her car nor her clothes. The next twenty years passed slowly, and the family began to think they might never know what happened until they received a phone call which changed everything.

A Colorado hunter who'd been shot three times and killed was the victim of a well planned crime, not an accidental shooting. Investigators found a .243 calibre bullet in his lung and a .308 calibre shell casing near his body, and suspected they were looking for two murder weapons, and two killers. But analysis of the forensic evidence pointed them in a different direction one much closer to home.

In 1984, California firefighters had battled ten arson fires in three weeks. When cigarettes and a scrap of paper connected the southern California fires to several fires further north, the hunt was on for a dangerous pyromaniac. Investigators finally found a fingerprint, and it pointed to a most unlikely suspect.

In 2002, a small community in upstate New York was devastated when Patty Wlasiuk died when their truck went into a lake, from which her husband Peter stated he narrowly escaped. Investigators initially thought alcohol was to blame, but blood tests proved the victim was not intoxicated. Burdock seed pods found in her hair and on her clothes would indicate that this was no accident. It was cold-blooded murder.

When a woman disappeared without a trace, there were two possible explanations: kidnapping or murder. Concern was heightened when police learned that two other women had vanished under similar circumstances. Careful investigation, the talents of a forensic artist, and DNA profiling enabled police to link the crimes to a single suspect – an immigrant known to prey upon vulnerable women.

Hikers near Anchorage, Alaska discovered a body wrapped in sheets, which were edged in orange stitching. Authorities hydrated the fingers and obtained a fingerprint, enabling them to identify the victim. Clinging to the sheet, they also discovered a tuft of red carpet fibers – threads of evidence, which led them straight to the killer.

The news of a flight attendant's brutal murder prompted the son of a victim who had been killed five years earlier to contact police. The MO of both murders was remarkably similar, and analysis of the biological evidence from the crime scenes proved that these were serial killings.

A two-man shrimp boat sank when a fast-moving, violent storm struck the Louisiana coast. The captain drowned, and the deckhand was rescued fourteen hours later. He told the Coast Guard that the captain's foot had become entangled in the fishing nets; they tried frantically to free him, but they failed. The deckhand was considered a hero until the captain's body was found. Eventually, the public discovers that he was coerced into confessing to the captain's murder.

When a wealthy real estate tycoon went missing, it appeared to be foul play. He had been aware that he was in danger. In his will, he left instructions regarding what was to happen if he died under violent circumstances – instructions which were carried out after a hiker came across a bullet-ridden skull.

The cold-blooded murder of an American tourist in a Mexican resort focused law enforcement resources on both sides of the border. At first glance, the motive appeared to be robbery, but careful analysis of the forensic evidence pointed to something much more sinister.

The investigation of the kidnapping of a prominent banker's wife led police on a wild goose chase, tracking down disgruntled bank customers and examining computer fonts. An unexpected discovery made by an entomologist resulted in a new suspect, and the realization that ordinary office equipment can leave behind extraordinary clues.

In the middle of the night, a neighbor watched in horror as a man stabbed his wife, pushed her into the swimming pool, and held her head under water. When questioned by the police, the husband not only had no explanation for his actions, he also had no recollection of the crime. A jury would have to decide between the evidence at the scene and the mysteries of the mind.

In 1991, Massachusetts emergency personnel are called to the home of Richard Alfredo, who was slumped over dead of an apparent heart attack. No one thought foul play was a possibility until police looked into odd behavior of his girlfriend Christina Martin in the days before his death. Controversy surrounded the case for almost a decade, which pitted competing teams of toxicologists against each other -- one claiming the death was natural and the other saying it was cold-blooded murder.

In 1999, 12-year-old Cally Jo Larson was found murdered in her own home and it changed the feeling of security residents had in the small town of Waseca, Minnesota. Despite a meticulous search of the Larson home and an exhaustive investigation, police had no suspects. Then a string of burglaries several months after the murder led police to the home of Lorenzo Sanchez, where they found a cache of stolen goods, which included CD cases similar to those belonging to Cally Jo. That evidence would make the case, and bring the killer to justice.

In 1962, the people of the small town of Hanford, California lost their sense of peace when one of their own, 15-year-old Marlene Miller, was murdered. Booker T. Hillery was convicted and after countless appeals, Hillery received a re-trial in 1983. Forensic scientists had to use new knowledge of microscopic evidence to be able to place Hillery at the scene.

A mother of two vanishes after a shopping trip. Her body is discovered a month later. Witnesses say they saw the victim being forced into a car by an unknown person. Police later learned that car had been rented, but the signature on the rental agreement did not match that of their prime suspect. A forensic handwriting expert showed investigators the signs, which clearly pointed to the murderer.

A woman is shot to death in her store just one day before she is to testify against the man accused of robbing her. The robber becomes the prime suspect, but he has a solid alibi: a time-stamped videotape of his outdoor activities on the day of the murder. Police asked a local physics professor to help them authenticate the videotape; he enabled them to find the killer who was hiding in the shadows.

In 1993, the state of Florida was known for more than just swimsuits, sun, and Disney World. Worldwide attention focused on a rash of robberies, which targeted tourists. Some vacationers were killed in these attacks, but some fought and survived, despite severe injuries. One of those injuries, a bite mark, would be the key piece of evidence used to convict a determinedly uncooperative suspect, who ran into an even more determined detective.

During the early morning hours of December 29, 1991, a woman is murdered in a Phoenix bar. At the crime scene, investigators find a shoe-print, several foreign hairs, and unknown fingerprints. But they believe the most telling piece of evidence is the bite mark on the victim's chest. Based on his bite pattern, a local postman is charged, tried and convicted of murder, but he maintains his innocence. Ten years into his sentence, improved technology yields new information about old evidence, and earns him another trial.

A woman's death in Pennsylvania triggers a homicide investigation into another woman's death in North Carolina. The similarities in the cases were striking, and medical examiners must determine if the suspect's story about accidental drowning is all wet.

A 34-year-old nurse experiences a variety of flu-like symptoms. None of her doctors are able to discover the cause, until she visits the gynecologist for a routine check-up. Then she learns it's something far worse than the flu. She is HIV-positive. Being a nurse, she could have contracted the HIV virus in any number of ways. In the end, science was able to determine not only how she had been infected, but also by whom. The worst part: It wasn't an accident.

Time of death becomes pivotal after a pregnant woman is found murdered in her air-conditioned bedroom. A striking similarity between her death and an HBO movie gives forensic examiners the clues they need to thaw out the alibi of a cold-blooded killer.

Police were puzzled by an obscure print found at a crime scene in Peoria, Illinois where one man had been killed and two teenage girls were seriously injured. Neither of the girls could identify their attacker. But one simple, yet rarely found, clue helped track the footsteps of a killer.

A man is found shot to death in his home, and his ex-wife has a perfect alibi: She was camping with her boyfriend in a state park, 150 miles away. Determining time of death becomes critically important, and in order to do so, investigators need to know when the victim ate his last meal. An endocrinologist, a forensic botanist, and a short-order cook answer their question.

A union official is executed in his home not long after a strike by the union membership. Neither his wife, who was sleeping in the adjacent bedroom, nor anyone in the neighborhood, heard any gunshots. It would take a forensic sound test, an electron microscope, and a nightgown to explain why.

A man tells police he shot an intruder who had attacked and murdered his wife. The husband paints a tragic picture of harassment, stalking and revenge, and is dubbed a hero for his valiant attempt to save his wife. Four years later, new forensic evidence leads police to re-examine the motives of this so-called hero.

A police officer accused of killing his estranged wife insists she committed suicide. Investigators say it was murder – that it was physically impossible for the woman to have shot herself. The crime scene evidence is interpreted differently by the defense and prosecution, and the jury must decide if the victim's death was suicide or cold-blooded murder.

When Firefighters found an entire family dead, inside their home, it looked like a murder-suicide, but there were several inconsistent clues in the rubble. Could ballistics, a time card, and some secret audiotapes unravel the mystery?. The killer, Earl Bramblett was charged with the murders, and was sentenced to death, on April 9, 2003.

Two men were murdered, while sleeping in their bed. One night later, an arson fire destroyed a family planning clinic. Investigators wondered, wherether some shards of glass, paintchips and a chicken feather, could link for what appeared to be, two separate crimes.

With no forensic evidence inside a murder scene, investigators were baffled. But they suspected that the victim's dog, had witnessed the crime. If she had, forensic scientists would've had some way to find out, what the dog had seen.

A young TV news producer is raped and murdered in her apartment. Police identify two suspects, but both are cleared of any wrongdoing. The case stalls for more than a year, and then investigators turn to the Commonwealth of Virginia's DNA Databank which houses profiles of more than 8,000 convicted felons, and is the first of its kind in the nation. A comparison of the crime scene evidence with the Databank profiles results in Virginia's first cold hit in a homicide investigation, and reveals the identity of the killer.

Police are dispatched to the scene of a shooting, and discover the victim's husband is one of their own: a homicide detective who says his wife accidentally shot herself in the head. The detective maintains he called 911 immediately, but the evidence seems to indicate otherwise. Investigators turn to a forensic scientist and a ballistics expert to learn what really happened, and who was responsible.

For years, a woman suffered from what appeared to be the unpleasant side effects of lithium, a drug prescribed to treat bipolar disorder. Her search for help led her to numerous doctors and hospitals, and resulted in a 4000-page medical file. When she died, investigators had to determine if her death was due to natural causes, suicide, or murder.

A woman is found dead in a ravine near a jogging path. Crucial crime scene evidence had been washed away by severe thunderstorms. Twice, the trail turned cold. Then, almost 20 years later, an old hat and a chip of stainless steel no longer than a fingernail brought the killer to justice.

When an 11-year-old girl disappeared from a small town in a remote area of Alaska, investigators wondered if she'd been attacked by a bear or become lost in the dense woods. It turned out neither was true. Her body was discovered 10 days later; she'd been shot twice at close range, and sexually assaulted. A tip from an eyewitness led police to a suspect, and trace evidence found at the crime scene convinced a jury of his guilt.

Just weeks before a witness is to testify against the man accused of sexually assaulting her, she is murdered in the front yard of her own home. Investigators immediately suspect her attacker, but they don't have enough evidence to prove his guilt. It would take fifteen years, and the remarkable advances in forensic science and DNA testing which occurred during that time, to enable police to nail the killer.

For six years, a serial killer prowled the streets of New York City. He wrote letters to police and The New York Post, indicating he would kill twelve people, one for each astrological sign. Forensic astronomy, handwriting analysis, and DNA extracted from the flap of an envelope gave investigators a profile of the killer, and a stroke of luck enabled them to find him.

A healthy young man dies mysteriously in his sleep. There are no signs of trauma or injury, but toxicology tests reveal a lethal dose of lidocaine in his blood. Investigators find a suicide note, and presume he killed himself until a forensic linguist examines the note and determines that what the victim said is less important than how he said it.

In the summer of 1986, Kathleen Lipscomb's body was found on a deserted road outside of San Antonio. Months passed, then years, and the crime was never solved. Then Kathleen's family hired a private investigator, who discovered a diary among her personal effects. Two of the diary entries helped police to piece together what had happened to Kathleen Lipscomb, and why.

A retired police officer is discovered in his bed, dead of a single gunshot wound to the head. His wife first says the motive was robbery; then she tells police he committed suicide. It would take careful examination of the evidence at the crime scene, the tape from a bank surveillance camera, and forensic textbooks found in the victim's home to write the final chapter of this real-life whodunit.

A suspicious fire swept through an apartment killing two young women. The cause of the fire and the identity of the victims were unclear. But a closer look at the fire scene revealed, something hidden in the ashes. Could gas chromotography, a burnt pair of eyeglasses, and a half smoked cigarette, solve the case?

Two different men called police to report the same murder. Apparently, neither one knew that the other had called. The investigation uncovered, even more unusual circumstances. But a few tiny seeds, and a discarded candy wrapper, were more than just insignificant clues, they told a story of revenge.

The body of a wealthy American businessman was found in his rental car. The car had swerved off the road into a ravine, and caught fire. Teeth and bone fragments were all that remained of the body; miraculously, an engraved wristwatch and medic alert bracelet had escaped the inferno and were found in the ashes. When the victim's wife filed a claim for $7 million of life insurance, investigators sought the help of a renowned forensic anthropologist. His findings and the work of other forensic scientists uncovered a chilling scheme of fraud and deceit.

When a pipe bomb ripped through a rural home, killing a young man and seriously injuring his mother, police had no idea who was responsible. A lot number on a 9-volt battery and the remnants of a mailing label found on a computer's hard drive enabled investigators to determine who sent the bomb, and why.

No one in a quiet residential community saw or heard anything unusual the day one of their neighbours was brutally attacked and murdered. Fingerprints found at the crime scene and surveillance video from a security camera helped investigators to apprehend the presumed killer within twelve hours, even though he'd already left the state and was on a bus, headed for New York City.

Bruce Miller was shot to death in the office of the junkyard business he owned. The crime scene was almost pristine. In the untidy office which hadn't been cleaned for years, there should have been footprints, or fingerprints, or foreign hairs and fibres – but there weren't. When a computer forensics expert examined the computers owned by the victim's wife and by her lover, he found all the evidence needed to convict the person most responsible for the crime.

A drive-by shooting leaves one man dead and another seriously wounded. Cell phone calls and shell casings point to a suspect, but authorities are unable to place him at the crime scene. When a forensic geologist compared soil from the crime scene with soil found in the wheel wells of the suspect's car, he proved that dirt is anything but dumb.

When Rosemary Anderson is found dead on the side of the road, her boyfriend becomes the prime suspect. He eventually confessed to her murder, but so did another man – serial killer, Eric Edgar Cooke. John Button would continue to serve five years imprisonment for the manslaughter of his girlfriend. It would take the passage of another forty years, an author, and an expert in the field of pedestrian accident reconstruction to determine who was telling the truth.

A high school gym teacher mysteriously left town, without saying goodbye to anyone. He later sent letters to explain why. But a closer forensic look at those letters, and a microscopic piece of tissue, gave investigators an entirely different explanation for where he went and why.

A sixteen-year-old girl was killed by her mother and father, in her own home. Her parents said they acted in self-defence, but the forensic evidence indicated otherwise. Definitive proof would come from an unlikely source: a recording made by an FBI electronic surveillance device.

A mysterious computer crash pushed a thriving manufacturing company to the brink of collapse, jeopardising the jobs of hundreds of employees. There was no apparent cause; there were no obvious clues. Forensic investigators had to determine if the crash was the result of a computer defect, human error, or sabotage.

It was supposed to be a routine motorcade for the Queen of England. But on the way to Yosemite National Park, a car carrying three Secret Service agents collided with a car driven by a deputy from the local sheriff's office. The agents were killed instantly. In the investigation which followed, two teams of accident reconstructionists reached very different conclusions. It would take a court case and a judge's ruling to determine what really happened, and who was responsible.

In 1993, the Amtrak Railroad experienced the deadliest train crash in United States history when the Sunset Limited derailed while crossing Alabama's Big Bayou Canot bridge. Forty-seven passengers and crew were killed; scores more were injured. The clues to the cause of the crash lay etched in twisted steel and buried in the mud of the Big Bayou Canot.

A fire erupted in the Kings Cross Underground Station in London, killing 31 people and injuring dozens more. Arson investigators were able to pinpoint the cause of the fire, but it would take state-of-the-art computer technology and experts in the field of fluid dynamics to explain why it became a deadly inferno.

Details the death of Walter Scott (Walter Notheis Jr.), lead singer for the 1960s band Bob Kuban and the In-Men, who disappeared in 1983. James H. Williams, Sr. was later arrested and convicted of murdering both Scott and his unfaithful wife, Sharon Williams.

An examination of an unusual case in Texas involving the 1988 rape and murder of Nancy DePriest, while at work at Pizza Hut. After suspect Chris Ochoa confessed and implicated Richard Danzinger and they were imprisoned, the case was considered closed. Eight years later, Achim Marino confessed to the same crime. DNA evidence cleared Ochoa while proving that Marino was, in fact, the perpetrator.

The investigation into a brutal attack on two boys near a pond relies on evidence fished out of the murky water. It was the first case where Diatom evidence was used to place a suspect at the scene of the crime and references the subsequent case from Season 2 Forensic Files episode Micro-Clues, which also used Diatom evidence. The evidence helped in the conviction Christopher Green & Brian Davis, who were both 16 years old and were tried as adults. Their accomplice Jason, who was a minor, was sent to a juvenile detention center.

In 1988, the body of a young woman was discovered in an Ohio river under ice. Most of the evidence found at the crime scene – hairs, fibers, & fingerprints-- had been washed away. But the victim's 6 year-old son unwittingly told investigators all they needed to know about the killer... and he did it without saying a word. The clue was in his genes.

In 1991, A high school girl vanishes, after attending a party. Her abandoned vehicle was found in a school parking lot, near her home. The prime suspect had not one, but two alibi witnesses for the night she disappeared. A solid alibi can often overcome much circumstancial evidence. But forensic evidence, is another matter .

In 1997, two years after a series of unsolved kidnappings and sexual assaults in California. One of the victims suddenly recalled an important detail of the crime which she had not told police. She left some forensic evidence in the assailant's vehicle, evidence that left quite an impression.

An examination of the first time animal DNA was used to solve a criminal case. In 1994, on Canada's Prince Edward Island, the body of Douglas Beamish's estranged wife Shirley Duguay was discovered. Authorities linked 20 cat hairs found on her jacket to a cat owned by Beamish's parents, with whom he lived. Scientists estimated that chances that the hairs came from another feline were one in 50 million. A jury later convicted Beamish of second-degree murder; he was sentenced to 18 years without parole.

1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack: Investigators uncover a plot to overthrow the government, after a unique strain of salmonella makes people ill.

Two sets of scientists, probe a woman's death.

The Madalyn Murray O'Hair case is related. The founder of American Atheists disappeared in 1995 along with one of her sons and granddaughter, along with $500,000 in gold coins. In time, the police honed in on several suspects, including David R. Waters, who worked as the office manager for O'Hair's organization. In 2001, he led authorities to her grave, located on a ranch near San Antonio.

Two eyewitnesses may hold the key to the death of a motorcycle gang member.

In Pennsylvania 1984, a passer-by finds the torso of a woman in a cardboard box. Investigators rely on insect activity analysis by a forensic entomologist to determine when the murder victim was killed. She remained unknown until a year later, when her sister called to report her missing. Eventually she was identified as Edna M. Posey, a local prostitute. Investigators then looked into Donald Ruby, whom Edna had asked to watch her 11-year-old son Randy. Investigators theorized that Donald Ruby had grown fond of Randy and killed Edna to keep her from taking her son back. Donald Ruby was convicted of her murder, but would further forensic entomology change the outcome?

The investigation into the kidnapping and rape of an 18-year-old Ohio woman is aided when the victim returns hours after the incident occurred. With her help, the police are able to track the assailant Craig Bailey to his front door.

The police investigate when a severed leg is discovered in the garbage. Conventional means of identifying the victim are impossible, leading investigators to rely on DNA, forensic anthropology and toxicology to identify the victim. The victim was identified as Norman Klaas and, through forensic investigation of his home, it was determined that local meth dealer Graham King was the murderer.

How Illinois scientists solved a 1992 murder case involving cremation. It takes a long time and a very hot fire to cremate a human body, and thus destroy all evidence of foul play. But the coroner who performed the autopsy on the badly burned body of Charles "Jack" Lynch found telltale clues. Not only had the victim been burned, he’d also been stabbed -- 24 times, with two different knives. Police knew that a person, acting alone, would probably use only one weapon. So investigators were on the lookout for a couple of killers.

A look back at the case of the River Park Rapist, who assaulted four women in South Bend, Ind., during 1996. Law enforcement officers arrested Richard Alexander, who was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to 70 years in prison. In 2001, Michael Murphy confessed to one of the two rapes of which Alexander had been convicted and new DNA testing exonerated Alexander.

The 1996 Seattle murder of suburban couple Raquel Rivera & Jay Johnson is detailed. Investigators first believe the slayings were the result of a drug deal gone bad. However, no drugs are found in the house and the victims' blood isn't present on the clothing of the suspects. Evidence from the couple's dog Chief eventually ties one of the murderers to the scene. This is one of the first cases where dog DNA was used to convict. Kenneth Leuluaialii and George Tuilefano were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The story of firefighter Michelle Baker is related. After meeting Dr. Maynard Muntzing, she became pregnant by him. After this news, she was ill whenever they were together. The coincidences led her to suspect that he was doing her harm, so she set out to prove it.

A look back at a trio of unsolved murders that occurred in Wichita Falls, Texas during the 1980s, details how a fourth murder from the same time period provided the police with more than they realized. John Little, an investigator for the DA's office, picked up the cold cases years later. He soon connected the fourth crime's confessed killer, Faryion Wardrip, to the other murders.

The disappearance of Philadelphia college athlete Aimee Willard is investigated after her car was found, still running on the roadside. When her body is found, the police find unusual marks on her body and DNA evidence that eventually lead to her killer, Arthur Bomar.

The investigation into the apparent overdose suicide of Reverend Bill Guthrie's wife Sharon. Detectives suspect foul play after they recover incriminating files from Bill's computer and learn of his infidelity.

The 1991 disappearance of Newport Beach, California resident Denise Huber stumps investigators. Three years later, Arizona residents call police to report John Famalaro, who has kept a Ryder rental truck in his driveway, which they suspect is stolen. Upon further investigation, police find a body within a freezer inside the truck, which they conclude is Denise Huber.

The 1987 disappearance of Houston resident Tracy Jo Shine is recalled. The investigation went cold until 2000, when a "cold case squad" learned that the woman's ex-boyfriend Michael Neal had bragged about killing her.

Doctors cannot pinpoint the source of a businessman's illness.

The disappearance of 6 year-old Michelle Lee Dorr is detailed. Although her father confessed to murdering her, the police soon poked holes in his story, leaving the case unsolved for 14 years. New suspect Hadden Clark was heard talking to himself, which gave investigators a clue where Michelle was killed.

The 1996 investigation into 48-year-old Martha Hansen's murder in Anchorage is helped by a legal requirement that bars have video cameras installed on the premises. Using video, hair and blood evidence, investigators determine that Evans Lee Curtis was the murderer.

A look at the case against Jack Reeves. In 1994, friends reported his mail-order bride Emelita Villa had disappeared. The police centered its suspicions on Reeves and, while pursuing leads, uncovered information linking him to the deaths of two former wives.

The Kowalczk/Thompson Murder case. The murders of an elderly couple leave stumped until, two years later, they receive a major break. A jeweler looking through old newspaper clippings recognizes a necklace the female victim wore as having been pawned in her own shop.

The murder of 9-year-old Jessica Knott is investigated. Investigators use a garbage bag to connect suspect James Edward Crow, Jr. to the crime.

An investigation into the murder of Katie Poirier is stymied by the lack of a body, but they find a few charred remains including a tooth. The unique properties of the filling in the tooth helps investigators identify her remains. Further forensic evidence is then used to convict Donald Blom of her murder.

The Janet Overton Case. The investigation into a suspicious death hits a dead end when the autopsy indicates that no foul play was involved. But a telephone tip and the sensitive nose of a forensic examiner indicate otherwise.

The suspect in a crime eludes arrest for 16 years because the police can't tie him to it. That changes, however, when investigators learn the culprit is left-handed, putting a new spin on old facts.

Forensic scientists work with the only clue recovered from a multiple-victim shooting: a 12-gauge shotgun. Scientists use unique methods to lift the serial number from the weapon in order to trace it to its owner, eventually discovering Gerardo Manso.

Relates the story of Paul Kenneth Keller, a serial arsonist responsible for several fires that caused millions of dollars worth of property damage and the deaths of three people. More than 75 Seattle-area arsons are probed before he was discovered, partly through the use of forensic hypnosis.

The use of the computers by law enforcement is detailed in this look at a series of crimes in St. Louis that stumped the local police and the FBI.

Details the case of the Center City Rapist and the murder of Shannon Schieber. Philadelphia authorities use an anonymous letter and geographic profiling to hone in on a suspect who attacks victims who live on upper floors of apartment buildings. When they hear of similar crimes in Colorado, they do further profiling to find Troy Graves.

A family in Dripping Springs, Texas seems to be living the perfect life when suddenly their 3-year-old son develops a respiratory condition in March 1999. The father later is shown to have signs of Alzheimer's disease, and while boarding a plane a month later, meet an investigator who later reveals that their ill health is due to a form of black mold in their modern home, which was based on the movie version of "Tara", the home of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

A murder investigation in St. Petersburg, Florida, crosses jurisdictions from New York and Jamaica. The police rely on cell phone mapping, wiretapping and a host of forensic evidence to link a suspect to a murder.

The Jane Dorotik case. A man's body is discovered near his family's horse ranch. His wife claims he went jogging, but investigators doubt her story.

Details the case of the Beltway sniper attacks, a 3-week shooting spree which left 10 people dead in the Washington, D.C. area.

Georgia resident Sheila Bryan, who was convicted of killing her mother in a car fire, is granted a new trial. An expert fire witness shares an opinion on how the fire ignited that differs from the prosecution's theory and, if verified, would clear Bryan of any culpability.

Authorities track a kidnapper who allowed his victim, 17-year-old Shari Smith, to write a last will and testament on a note pad, then informed the family of her murder, as well as the later murder of a 10-year-old Debra May Helmick. A phone number written on a previous page left a lasting impression, which helped to convict Larry Gene Bell.

A young woman was reported missing after a fight with her husband. She was presumed to be dead and her husband was the prime suspect. Police were suspicious of a secondary suspect when he reported a suspicious fire in his car. Two tiny drops of blood were found in the burned interior. Traditional DNA testing was difficult, since there was no body for DNA comparison. But a tiny clue inside the suspect's watchband and a popular television show helped solve the case.

In 1991, Maine resident Pearl Smith is missing after an argument with her husband Bill Bruns. Despite pleas from her children, police insist on treating it as a routine missing person's case. But, when an investigation turns up a blood trail that leads to the couple's basement, police are sure they'll find the victim's body. Initially, they find nothing and the case stalls, until new forensic technology helps investigators find the body. The investigators first use luminal over the cleaned carpet to reveal the blood spatter on the floor and a path down to the basement. Then, they use ground penetrating radar to scan the basement for radiation; they found three feet down, excavated rusted sand everywhere except in a certain area. The body had absorbed the rust and was found there.

In 1989, 4-year-old April Loveless was found dead in the backyard of her Texas home. Her mother Debbie Loveless and step-father John Miller told police that she was attacked and killed by the family dogs. Investigators did not agree and believed that April's wounds were not dog bites at all, but slashing injuries, consistent with a knife wound. John and Debbie were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Five years later, the parent's prayers were answered when a forensic scientist saw something in the crime scene photographs that had been missed the first time around.

In 1995, police in San Diego, CA, are baffled by a pair of hands found in a dumpster. Through further investigation, they determine that the hands are those of missing person Don Hardin. With this knowledge, the police focus on local homeless man Dale Whitmer, whom had lived with Hardin around the time of his disappearance. However, they can find no solid, forensic evidence on Whitmer and the case goes cold. About a year later, investigators receive an anonymous letter with information about the crime that had been withheld from the press – information only the killer (or someone close to the killer) would know. Laser technology helps to identify the state, city, street address and even the office number from where the anonymous letter was mailed, which leads them to LDS (Mormon) Bishop Mark Davis. Davis cites the privilege between clergy and church member as a reason to not disclose the source of the information, but a judge rules that since Davis sent the letter, he must identify the source. The source was Dale Whitmer's daughter Andrea, who ultimately chooses to testify against her father.

In 1993, 16-year-old Marie Robards suffered the devastating loss of her father Steve Robards. The death was ruled the result of cardiac arrest. One year later, she won a part in her high school production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The lines she was required to recite onstage were more than the thoughts and feelings of her character; they struck a chord, and hinted at her own inner turmoil, from the secret she had been hiding: Barium acetate obtained in her high school chemistry class.

In 1996, 17-month-old Josh Hinson died in a fire in his North Carolina home. A federal agency ruled that a fire was intentionally set and Josh's mother Terri Strickland was charged with murder. But are government scientists, with all of their resources, always right? Using the then-emerging resources of the Internet, Terri Strickland undertook her own investigation. An independent fire investigator was able to poke enough holes in the government's scientific conclusions to raise serious questions about whether the fire was intentionally set.

In 1988, when a patient identified as Gene Hanson dies unexpectedly in the office of California neurologist Richard Boggs, police begin what they think will be a routine investigation. What they find throws doubt on the time of death, the identity of Hanson and raises questions about the doctor's role in his death. Soon they uncover a bizarre story of corpse stealing, fake identities and sexual perversion – all part of an elaborate insurance case that will center on what actually caused the victim's death: a sex act gone wrong or premeditated murder?

In 1992, two masked gunmen enter the Canadian home of Ward and Diana Maracle to rob them, but Ward was shot in the head. If a perpetrator leaves a shoe print in the mud, investigators use established techniques to make a mold of the shoe impression for later identification. In this case, the impression is left in the snow? Here's the story of one investigator, whose quick thinking and knowledge of science enabled him to capture a shoe impression made in snow, before the evidence melted away. Knowledge of the shoe led investigators to Peter Benedict and Frank Lanoue, who were convicted of aggravated assault and robbery.

In 1992, 22-year-old Dawn Bruce was brutally murdered in her Virginia apartment. The killer left very little evidence, but investigators did notice a blood smear on a pillow case that appeared to have been made by one of the killer's fingers. New technology enabled investigators to identify a fingerprint from the cloth surface of the pillow case. This gave police the means to apprehend Robert Douglas Knight, who killed Dawn Bruce in a senseless act of revenge.

In 1981, six-year-old Cassie Hansen disappeared from her St. Paul, Minnesota church during a evening service. After a tip from a witness that an older man was seen carrying a small body, Cassie's body was found in a dumpster. The FBI created a psychological profile of the perpetrator, but are still unable to find the killer. Dorothy Noga contacted police to let them know that Stuart Knowlton was a massage client that liked to discuss his fantasies during his weekly massages and that one fantasy he spoke of closely resembled the church abduction, which caught her attention. Knowlton had also asked Noga to be his alibi on the night of the murder. Even though she was later attacked by Knowlton and stabbed 32 times, Noga testified against Knowlton in the trial. Knowlton died in prison in 2006.

In 1995, California model Linda Sobek goes missing. A park employee discovers photographs and some vital pieces of information in a dumpster, which eventually led investigators to professional photographer Charles Rathbun. Rathbun claims Sobek died during a consensual sexual encounter gone wrong, but Sobek's corpse and some high tech digital imagery tell a more sinister story.

In 1998, an evening out at a Maryland murder mystery theatre performance turns into a real life whodunit when the badly burned body of Stephen Hricko is discovered in his hotel room after a fire. Upon initial investigation, it appeared to be an accidental fire. Lies, greed and medical trickery can't match the skills of forensic scientists, who bring the curtain down on the real killer, his wife Kimberly Hricko.

In 1980, Michigan resident Shannon Mohr died in what was reported to be a horseback riding accident by her new husband David Davis. After her death, Shannon's family reported to police their suspicions that Davis seemed far from grief-stricken. Upon further investigation, police discovered a web of lies and a proficiency with pharmaceuticals in Davis' background, that provide an alternative explanation for the Shannon's accidental death.

For 15 months, a serial killer was strangling prostitutes in Florida, then taunting police by leaving the bodies in plain sight. The only clues were a tire impression and some threads. By the time scientists identify the source of these treads and the threads, police discover the killer James Randall was right under their noses the entire time.

When police in the Great Plains are called to retrieve a dead body, they do a background check on the victim. The trail leads them into a bizarre web of homeless drifters, cattle auctions and bad checks – all fronted by elderly couple Ray and Faye Copeland with a penchant for money and murder.

In 1994, a human skull retrieved from an Ohio pond reveals a ghastly crime. Markings on the skull indicate that the victim had been stabbed multiple times and that the teeth had been removed with needle-nose pliers, in an attempt to keep the victim's identity a secret. A mitochondrial DNA match between the skull and Tina Mott's 18-month-old son was used to positively identify the remains as 21-year-old Tina Mott, who was reported missing two months earlier. Investigators focus on Tina's live-in boyfriend Timothy Bradford and faced with the forensic evidence against him, Bradford confessed to killing and dismembering Mott.

In 1996, when a fundamentalist group starts attacking and robbing banks in the Spokane, WA area, authorities know immediately that they are dealing with experienced criminals. A tip leads them to Sandpoint, Idaho residents Verne Jay Merrell, Robert S. Berry and Charles Barbee and the evidence found at their homes is extensive and incriminating. In court, two juries are presented with a combination of old fashioned forensic science and the latest in crime technology in order to render a verdict.

In 1992, in a rural Canadian community, Dr. John Schneeberger is accused of sedating and sexually assaulting one of his female patients and his step daughter. DNA tests demonstrate that the doctor is innocent, but the female patient still insists that he sedated and raped her. On three occasions, blood was taken from the doctor's arm for DNA testing, and each time, the results exonerated Schneeberger. Seven years later, a private investigator takes lip balm from Schneeberger's car, has it DNA-tested and the results were a match to the perpetrator. So, how did Dr. Schneeberger trick earlier investigators?

Creating a profile of a serial killer, is part science and part intuition. The science involves studying criminals who have committed similar crimes, to see what characteristics they all have in common. One common trait among serial killers, is a past history of abusing animals. In a search for the killer of two teenagers in Texas, a behavioral profile led to suspect Jason Massey – and hard science proved the profile was correct. Massey was executed by lethal injection on April 3, 2001.

In 1981, Charlotte Grabbe, wife of prominent Illinois farmer Fred Grabbe, disappeared from her farm without a trace. For three years, investigators searched in vain for any trace of Charlotte. Eventually, Fred Grabbe's former lover came forward with a fantastic tale of rage, murder, mutilation and cremation, but there seemed to be no way to test the validity of her story. That is, until a plant pathologist and a dendrochronologist conducted some tests on the plant life where the cremation supposedly occurred, which led to a surprising revelation.

When someone dies under mysterious circumstances, the spouse almost always is a suspect – especially if they are in bed, sleeping beside the individual at the time of their death. In 1987, Susie Mowbray was charged for her husband Bill Mowbray's death, which had the appearance of suicide. Her son was so convinced of her innocence that he enrolled in law school, studied all of the evidence and, eventually, discovered the truth of what really happened that fateful night between his mother and father.

In 1994, Rhoda Nathan was found murdered in a Cincinnati hotel room. Later, when hotel employee Elwood Jones went to a hospital emergency room for an infected hand, which he said was cut on a dumpster at work, the doctor treating him recognized the injury as something else.

In 1991, San Francisco pornographer Artie Mitchell was murdered in his home. His brother and business partner Jim is found near the scene carrying a rifle and, later, confesses to shooting Artie. The question for investigators is whether the shooting was pre-meditated. A 911 call in which the fatal shots can be heard, and a computer reconstruction of the crime scene, provide the answer.

In 1981, New York correctional officer Donna Payant disappeared and was later found in a landfill. The medical examiner not only identified the cause of death, but also found an important clue. It was a signature element of a murder committed by Lemuel Smith 10 years earlier, which was also investigated by the medical examiner. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Smith was an inmate at the same prison and could have committed the crime. But, did he?

In 1999, nine-year-old Valiree Jackson vanished on her way to school near Spokane, WA. Her father Brad Jackson reported the disappearance and the entire community started searching for her abductor. As police began the investigation, they wondered if her long-lost mother Rosanne Pleasant might be connected to the disappearance. Police used GPS tracking to follow the perpetrator's movements, which not only led them to Valiree's body, but also showed the twisted motive in the perpetrator's mind. The Secret Service finds a hidden fingerprint to help detectives seal the case.

In 1995, when off-duty Maine State Trooper Vicky Gardner is attacked by Steven Fortin during a routine stop, it triggers a chain of events which jumpstarts a stalled murder case in New Jersey. The Maine attack appears strikingly similar to the brutal sexual assault and murder of Melissa Padilla in New Jersey. There is very little forensic evidence in the New Jersey crime, but the signature the killer left behind – the ritualistic bite mark similarities in both of these crimes – identified him just as convincingly as a DNA match.

In 1989, 19-year-old Lori Auker left her Pennsylvania home for work, but never arrived. She left behind her infant son, a family who loves her and a job she enjoys. Police investigators viewed this case as a missing persons or possible homicide and focus on her estranged husband Robert Auker. It takes space-age technology, cat hairs and insects to pinpoint the image of the woman's abductor before the real story can be told.

In 1999, expectant mother Leann Fletcher is reported dead in her Michigan home of an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Was the wound self-inflicted, and if it was, why would this young mother with so much to live for kill herself? Forensic computer analysis, blood spatter analysis and a painstaking investigation led police to the truth that her lawyer husband Michael "Mick" Fletcher had motive to kill Leann, since he was having a sexual affair with judge Susan Chrzanowski.

In 1980, 4-year-old Vicky Lyons is found unconscious in a parking lot with severe head trauma. Police concluded it was a hit-and-run vehicle accident, and left it at that. But Vicky's mother Crystal suspected there was more to the story and was determined to find out exactly what had happened. Being a fan of murder mysteries and forensic science shows, Crystal used much of what she had learned to determine who was responsible for the accident, which permanently injured her daughter.

In 1995, Lisa Manderach and her daughter Devon left their Pennsylvania home to go shopping, but didn't return home at the expected time. Lisa's husband Jimmy called police in a panic to report their disappearance and he directed them to a nearby shopping center. Later that day, Devon's body was found dumped off of a roadside, but there was no sign of Lisa. Looking further into the store Lisa had said she was going to, police shift their focus to store employee Caleb Fairley.

For more than a decade, women in a small Louisiana city lived in fear of a serial rapist. Fortunately, computer technology and behavioral science combined to give police a new forensic tool: geographical profiling. Police narrow their search to one man, but to prove he’s the perpetrator they turn to an unlikely piece of evidence--- a discarded cigarette butt.

When the wife of a well-known dentist is found dead, police are unsure who killed her. Some fibers and a study of the weather patterns on the night of the murder break the case open and reveal the real killer.

When a young mother and her infant son are found dead in a cornfield, the obvious suspect is the husband and father of the victims. But some insects found on the bodies reveal a vital clue, as does a long, blonde hair found on the victims.

When a decomposed body is discovered inside a barrel, police immediately suspect foul play. But the body had been placed there 30 years earlier. One of the few clues was an address book found along with the body but years of moisture had washed away the ink. Scientists desperately searched for a way to unlock the secrets of that address book.

In this classic episode of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, a Seattle policeman’s home is destroyed by an arsonist. One month later, the officer arrests a low-level drug dealer, who confesses to the arson. But when the suspect vanishes, investigators begin to question the authenticity of his confession.

Dianna Green was just 20 years-old and pregnant when she was brutally raped and beaten in her apartment. The assault caused the death of her unborn baby. When Dianna came out of a coma 3 weeks later, she told police she knew the identity of her attacker. But was her memory accurate?

A mother and her two young daughters are found brutally murdered. The crime scene yielded a good deal of evidence, but no conclusive link to the prime suspect. To solve the puzzle, an FBI analyst designs a unique experiment.

A young girl is found dead, the victim of an apparent sex-killer. Authorities are intrigued by unusual orange fibers embedded in clothing found near the victim. Months pass and the case goes cold, until a van turns up with what appear to be the same orange fibers.

In the back woods of Georgia, in a dilapidated house, a 49 year old recluse named Virginia Ridley was found dead. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. But who would murder someone who seldom ventured out of her home? Investigators found some clues in the notes she had written shortly before her death.

Why do children at a Texas hospital seem to be dying at a higher rate than at any other hospital in the country? Medical investigators have no answers until they discover that one nurse seems to be on-duty in almost all the fatal cases. But proving the connection seems impossible until an international team of doctors uncovers an unlikely murder weapon.

When the decomposed body of a young girl is discovered, police have no clues to her identity. But days earlier, a stabbing victim told them she thought she might have witnessed a murder. Police think the cases might be related, and to prove it, they turn to an unusual piece of evidence: a tiny wad of chewing gum found near the victim’s body.

At the age of 12, a boy's testimony helped convict the man who murdered his mother. Five years later, discrepancies in the autopsy lead him to question if the murdered woman really was his mother. If it wasn't, an innocent man had been sent to prison.

Some of the refugees who sought asylum in the United States after World War II lied about the atrocities in which they’d participated. Years later, when a high-ranking religious figure was suspected of war crimes, there seemed to be no way to prove his guilt or innocence... until a postcard allegedly written by him 40 years earlier was found in a German archive.

Don't make a tape recording if you don't want to get caught, especially if it's the 2nd husband that has died mysteriously. Watch Forensic Files to get the answer.

A Canadian financier assumed the name of a co-worker as part of a money-laundering scheme. The man turned up dead in the ocean, with an anchor tied around his torso. Police hoped to identify him with a tattoo and the watch he was wearing. But it would be the ten-pound anchor which enabled them to crack the case.

Cincinnati heart surgeon Dr. Darryl Sutorius had a second chance at love when he married a pretty, young divorcee, but happiness is sometimes elusive. Dr. Sutoruis fell into a serious depression and apparently commited suicide with a .38-caliber pistol. But why did he fire a test shot into the sofa cushion before killing himself?

When a prosecutor discovers evidence linking a habitual drunk driver to a hit-and-run in which a child is killed, he combines the talents of an accident reconstruction expert with a video specialist. This case was the first in which video in the courtroom withstood an appeal, and helped make “video testimony” viable in other cases.

In 1998, a convience store clerk in Lansing, Michigan, was shot to death during a robbery. No one else was in the store at the time. But there was an eye witness, a security camera. Unfortunately, the story it told was far from clear.

When 23-year-old college co-ed Tina Biggar goes missing, her boyfriend and family fear she has been murdered. A police investigation reveals details about her past that no one, not even her closest friends, suspected: She was a student by day and a $100-an-hour call-girl by night. Her many clients were all suspects in her disappearance, as was her boyfriend. But when her body is discovered, police obtain evidence that reveals that her killer was former client Kenneth Tranchida, as well as more details about her bizarre double-life and its tragic consequences.

Police received a call from Darlie Routier one morning telling them of her two sons' murders. However, police were unsure about the validity of Darlie's story and began an intensive search of the crime seen. The police determined the killer by analyzing blood spatter, doing behavioral profiling and analyzing Darlie's 911 call. The evidence proved that Darlie killed her two oldest sons with a knife, inflicted wounds on herself, cleaned the evidence and created a story of a crazed intruder who had come in the house. Darlie's motive was to obtain the $5,000 each of her sons had in a bank account.

Scott Dunn was missing and when the police sprayed his bedroom with Luminol, a scene of horrific violence emerged. Now investigators faced a daunting task: to prove Scott Dunn had been murdered, even though they had no body, no weapon, and no witnesses

Debora Green lost two children in a fire that burnt down her mansion late one night. Routine procedures occurred and both Debora Green and her previous husband Mike Farrar were questioned. Suspicions arose when Debora refused to cooperate during questioning. Police then questioned Mike and uncovered disturbing stories proving Debora was dangerous. She had poisoned Mike during their separation and told him he would only get custody of the children over their dead bodies. Debora's singed hair and the initial location of the fire proved her involvement in the arson.

Shirley and Ed Andronowich were regulars at a neighborhood bar. One night, Ed decided to leave early and Shirley wanted to stay. There was a brief argument, and Ed went home alone. The next day, Shirley’s badly beaten and mutilated body was found outside of a nearby high school. The murder weapon was a 55-pound piece of concrete. It was up to investigators to determine what had happened to Shirley Andronowich and who was responsible.

Five-year-old Melissa Brannen disappeared from a Christmas party in 1989. The fibers on her clothes were the only means for police to determine her abductor. Police grew suspicious of Cal Hughes who was washing his clothes at 1am when they came to his home. They searched his car and found several fibers similar to the clothes Melissa had worn to the party. However, there was no way to test the fibers until an investigator's wife remembered seeing Melissa's outfit in a catalog. The same outfit was taken from another customer and tested. The fibers matched and Cal Hughes was convicted of abduction with intent to harm.

The doctors at the hospital couldn’t determine the cause of Bobby Curley’s hallucinations and intense pain. At first, they treated it as a neurological disorder, but Bobby’s condition deteriorated. Something he was being given in the hospital wasn’t curing him, it was killing him.

Two young boys were found tied and murdered with similar wounds within three months of each other. The rope used to tie the boys was very unique: it was made of left-over garbage in South Korea and used by the air force. Another clue turned up when one of the boy's brother was hypnotised and remembered a uniformed man in a tan car. Shortly after, someone noticed a strange car and gave the licence plate number to police. This vital information led to the conviction of John Joubert, an air force-enlisted man who carried the same exact rope used to bind the two boys.

Karla Brown was the youngest of three girls in the Brown family. After many failed relationships, Karla became engaged to Mark Fair. The couple began moving into their dream home in June 1978. On the morning of June 20, Mark left for work and Karla remained at home. When Mark and a friend returned home that evening, they found Karla dead. The condition of Karla's body told investigators that she was a victim of sexual assault; she had resisted, struggled, and was killed. The Police questioned Paul Main and John Prante, who lived across the street. They were considered low-level suspects. After a second autopsy, they were able to re-examine bite marks. A Computer enhancement gave a better view of the bite marks, and the science of forensic odontology identified John Prante. On July 15, 1983, five years after the murder, Prante was found guilty and sentenced to 75 years in prison.

Clayton Johnson, a Nova Scotia schoolteacher, left for work on the morning of February 20, 1989. At 7.40 AM, the school bus arrived to pick up the Johnson children. At 7.51 Mrs. Molloy arrived to drop off her child at the Johnson home. She found Janice Johnson lying at the bottom of the basement stairs in a pool of blood. Clayton Johnson later married a 22-year-old member of his Pentecostal congregation. When homicide investigator Brian Oldford heard this, he became suspicious and decided to reinvestigate. He learned that Clayton had taken out a $125,000 life insurance policy on his first wife, Janice, shortly before she died. Clayton Johnson was charged with the first-degree murder. By examining the photos and nature of the injuries, they were convinced that she had fallen backwards. The accidental fall scenario would also account for the complete lack of defensive wounds on Mrs. Johnson or Mr. Johnson. Testimony was presented to the Canadian high courts and a decision is pending.

At 16 months of age, Anne Grace Gimmenstad became very ill and was rushed to the hospital, and within two weeks died. Following extensive medical examinations, it was determined that Anna had been the victim of the deadly bacteria E-Coli. Anna'a mother recalled a trip to the grocery store when Anna pointed excitedly at her favorite drink, Odwalla apple juice. As early as 1993, tests on samples of Odwalla juices found high levels of general bacteria. Federal and state inspections reports confirm that the company used two loads of apples with relatively high defect levels on the day the juice was made. The genetic markings on the E-Coli in the victims matched the bacteria found in the product bottled that day. Odwalla pleaded guilty to violating Federal food safety laws and agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine for the outbreak of E-Coli in its juices.

On the evening of January 9, 1967, Lori Keidel, her two sisters, and her brother were left home alone while their father went to a nearby laundromat. Suddenly, a large blaze engulfed their brick ranch home. Only a few months earlier, the children's mother disappeared, and had made no effort to contact them. Finally, on June 9, 1993, Lori found the courage to tell police the vision that had possessed her for 29 years. The most shocking revelation was that Lori had witnessed her mother's death. On September 14, 1994, an eight by nine foot square of concrete was removed from the side yard, and a skeleton was found in the exact spot her youngest daughter remembered as being her grave. Gene Keidel was arrested for his wife's murder nearly 30 years after her death. Gene was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Merril Bahe and Florena Woody grew up in starkly different conditions on an Indian reservation that crossed the borders of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The couple soon engaged, and they moved into the Woody family home. On April 29, 1993, Florena started complaining of muscle aches in her back and shoulders. On May 6, her doctor gave her antibiotics for her condition. Florena later died; she simply drowned in the fluid generated by her illness. Doctors had no idea what had killed her. Meanwhile, Merril Bahe started experiencing similar symptoms, and on the day of Florena's funeral he was sent to the hospital, but died on the way there. Investigators found deer mice tested positive for a new form of the hanta virus. They determined that contact with the feces of the deer mice was what had caused the disease, and that when the feces dried, the deadly microbe became airborne.

Ed and Julie Thigpen Post were a happy, successful couple. But the morning of June 3, 1986 would change the lives of Ed and Julie forever. At 7 am, Ed went for a 40-minute jog. Before leaving he drew a bath for his wife. At 7:40 am, Ed returned to the Omni Hotel, and at 7:43, he called the front desk and said that his wife had fallen in the bathtub and was not breathing. George Hollacher conducted a full-scale investigation in the background of Ed Post. The first red flag went up when the investigators discovered that Ed had a $700,000 life insurance policy on Julie. A second autopsy was performed by Dr. Paul McGarry. He found 36 areas of bruising, not noted during the original autopsy. The death was ruled a homicide and Ed Post was charged with the first-degree murder of his wife. The trial ended in 1989, and Ed was found guilty of first-degree murder. After serving six and a half years, Ed admitted to the drowning of his wife.

The deaths of a child and a truck driver in the same hospital on the same day are investigated to see if there is a link between them.

In the mid-1980s, bodies of nude woman were found in remote hill of California. The police got a break when a known prostitute escaped an attacker and was able to identify him and his automobile. The suspect was 50-year-old Roger Kibbe. A criminalist was assigned to review the evidence in the case. Human hair found on one of the victims was similar to several hairs recovered from Kibbe's inner thighs. He was later charged with first-degree murder.

In 1987, a human skull and some bones were discovered at a Boy Scout Camp near Farmington, Missouri. Also found were some blue jeans, which helped determine the approximate height and weight of the victim. A facial reconstruction helped the investigators in this case. The victim was identified as Bun Chee Nyhuis and her husband Richard H. Nyhuis was now the prime suspect. Nyhuis was an assistant scoutmaster, which explained why his wife's remains were discovered at a scout camp and, eventually, he confessed to killing his wife. Richard H. Nyhuis was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Between 1986 and 1989, a disease swept through British cattle herds. The disease came to be known as the Mad-cow disease. Scientist began to suspect that this was somehow related to some human illness. A California neurologist, said both humans and animals were suffering from a mutated prion. When defective prions are transmitted from an infected host to a new host, they convert any normal prions they come across into copies of themselves. So it is possible for a mutated prion to be transmitted from a cow to a person by eating beef. Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner received a Nobel prize for his work with prion.

In this classic episode of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, a serial bomber was waging a vendetta against the legal profession: A judge, two attorneys and even a courthouse had been targeted. Employing a range of forensic techniques, investigators used evidence from the bombs to lead them to the perpetrator.

Robert Sims returned home after working the night shift, and found his wife, Paula, unconscious on the kitchen floor. Their two-year-old son, Randy, was asleep in an upstairs bedroom, but their six-week-old daughter, Heather, was missing. Paula Sims was the only witness to a crime that baffles investigators to this very day.

The shooting of a man during a hunting trip is reopened years after the incident, and the victim's hunting partner becomes a suspect.

A possible case of Munchhausen syndrome is investigated after an infant dies of what appears to be toxic levels of antifreeze in his system.

Early one fall morning, Laura Houghteling left her Bethesda home and walked to the station to take a train to work. She was never seen again. A peculiar strand of hair found in Laura’s hairbrush enabled investigators to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.

Edward Honaker was convicted of rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual battery; he was sentenced to three life terms in prison. Honaker steadfastly maintained his innocence. After years in prison and writing countless letters, he finally found someone who believed him, and was willing to pay for DNA testing which could prove he was telling the truth.

On September 17, 1984, in a suburb of Tucson, Arizona, eight-year-old Vicki Hoskins left home on her pink bicycle to mail a letter for her mother. She never returned, but her slightly damaged bicycle was found nearby. Investigators turned to forensic science, in the hope it would tell them not only what happened to Vicki, but also who was responsible.

When a two-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital suffering from brain seizures and breathing difficulties, doctors could not find the cause of his illness. Then the boy’s sister provided an important clue, and raised the possibility of a syndrome of which few had ever heard.

On a cold December night in 1993, Rose Larner stopped in a convenience store on her way to her boyfriend’s house. She was never seen or heard from again. Rose’s disappearance remained a mystery, until a tiny clue found years later revealed a tragic tale of drugs, romance and revenge.

The year was 1984, and a serial killer was on the loose in Florida. Eight women had been found dead. At each crime scene, investigators found tiny red fibers, fibers they hoped would lead them to the killer.

In this classic episode of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, Eileen and Derrick Severs disappeared from their home in the small village of Hambleton in Great Britain, and police found evidence which suggested foul play. Careful analysis of a soil sample would tell investigators not only what happened to the couple, but who was responsible for the dirty deed.

It was the single, most deadly automobile accident in American history. Almost a hundred vehicles were involved, twelve people died, and more than fifty people were injured. It happened along a three mile stretch of highway long known for dense, thick fog. Investigators set out to determine if the fog was a natural phenomenon, or the result of something else.

While Earl Morris was vacationing in California, he learned his wife had gone missing from their home in Arizona. The search for Ruby Morris involved dozens of investigators and scientists, even the coast guard. And the results of that investigation surprised everyone... especially Earl Morris.

The flu-like symptoms of a mother and her children proved to be indicative something much more serious: thallium poisoning. Investigators had to find the source of the poison... and when the mother died, to determine if the exposure was accidental, or if they also needed to find a killer.

In a quiet village in Great Britain, a farmer came upon a chilling sight. Impaled on his fence post was a severed lamb’s head along with a note which read, “You next.” The author of the note didn’t elaborate on why the farmer had been targeted, but between the lines, he’d said plenty.

An infant was rushed to a Cleveland emergency room with serious breathing problems. The baby’s lungs were bleeding, a life threatening, extremely rare condition. Within months, there were more than 30 cases – an incidence more than a thousand times higher than anywhere else in the world. Doctors had never seen anything like it, and searched frantically for the cause and a cure.

Shortly after daybreak in Vancouver, British Columbia, a fire was set in a dumpster. No one saw either the arsonist or the fire, and it burned for hours in the deserted parking lot. But there was more than garbage in the container, and it would take sophisticated science to find the evidence in the ashes.

Two people in Seattle, Washington died after taking an over-the-counter pain reliever; lab analysis of the pills showed they were tainted with a lethal concentration of cyanide. The investigation which followed led police to a suspect with a motive for murder and a callous disregard for others.

For more than a year, angry, hateful letters were sent to a first grade school teacher in a small town in Pennsylvania. When scientists analyzed the letters, they found evidence that the stalker knew a lot about the victim - more, in fact, than anyone could possibly have imagined. DNA analysis would eventually help seal the perpetrator's fate.

On October 15, 1985, two bomb explosions rocked Salt Lake City and resulted in two deaths. A third explosion occurred the next day; this time, the victim was injured but survived. As the investigation progressed, police came to believe the survivor was more than an innocent by-stander. When they turned to forensic science for help, they uncovered an almost unbelievable story of forgery, fraud and murder.

After a day of fishing in a small, quiet village in Switzerland, a teenage boy did not return home as planned. The investigation revealed some important microscopic evidence in the water near where he was last seen. It was the only forensic evidence detectives had. But would it be enough for them to find him?

In the spring of 1993, an unexplained illness struck the residents of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Four hundred thousand people developed a serious gastrointestinal illness, 4,000 were hospitalized and, by the time the epidemic was under control, more than 100 people were dead. Health officials suspected it was influenza, but it proved to be more serious and more difficult to identify.

The case of missing stewardess Helle Craft is recounted. Although her body was never recovered, police used forensic evidence to charge her husband with murder. It became the first murder conviction without a body in Connecticut.

At the Dallas 'Pistol & Revolver' club in 1991, Trey Cooley, a young spectator, was watching a shooting competition, seated behind an air gun range. He was struck and killed by a stray bullet. See how ballistics, lasers, and forensic animation solve the riddle of the "magic bullet".

Caren Campano disappears and the explanation of her husband Chris doesn't hold up. Police find a large stain on the Campano's bedroom carpet. They perform an eerie chemical test that reveals a room spattered with blood which, when cleaned off, could not be seen by the naked eye. Complex 'reverse paternity' tests of Caren's relatives match her blood type to the blood on the carpet. The evidence convicts Chris Campano of murder, even though the body wasn't found until a year later.

The first case to use DNA evidence is detailed. In 1983 Leicester, England, police were stymied by a rape/murder of a 15-year-old girl; three years later, faced with a similar crime, they turned to Dr. Alec Jeffreys, a molecular biologist with a revolutionary approach to solving the case.

Single mother Denise Johnson is found dead in a deserted area outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Local investigators ask a molecular geneticist to pick out a tree in a 'lineup' when unidentified seed pods are found in suspect Mark Bogan's truck. The judge rules into evidence DNA profiles linking the pods to a tree near where the body was found. This is the first U.S. case where plant DNA was used to convict a criminal.

FBI psychological profiling and DNA evidence identify Timothy Wilson Spencer who raped and strangled five young women in Virginia. The U.S. criminal justice system's first use of DNA profiling in a serial murder case frees an innocent man after he spent two years in prison, and convicts a real killer.

Legionnaires' disease is one of the most famous medical detective stories, especially irritating for its missteps and frustrations. When 180 Legionnaires contract pneumonia-like symptoms after a Philadelphia Convention and 29 of them die, doctors and scientists are mystified. The determination of one scientist helps to determine the cause and likely vector of this deadly disease.

Eye doctor Jack Wilson is found dead by his wife Betty, having been beaten, stabbed and lying in a pool of blood with a baseball bat nearby. Police arrest an itinerant painter/handyman who is found with the doctor's credit cards. He accuses the doctor's unfaithful wife and her twin sister of hiring him to commit the murder. The wife is sent to prison, but at her sister's trial, attorneys finally bring in a forensic expert who testifies that the crime could not have been committed the way the painter said. The sister is acquitted. But the wife remains in prison, and the mystery goes unsolved.

Troubling clusters of deadly cancer cases strike concerned communities across the country. In a Phoenix suburb, too many children are fatally stricken with leukemia and, on a Connecticut street, there is a disproportionate amount of illness, including four cases of brain cancer. Modern environmental agents such as buried poisons and electrical substations are found... Could these be the culprits?

Between 1985 and 1988, 18 people were choked, molested and left for dead in the remote desert mountains of California. The only witnesses were the insects – and they also proved to play an important role in solving the crimes.

Alarmingly high levels of thyroid hormones pump through the systems of South Dakota residents. Investigators study one family who all got sick, except their 12-year-old son who is a vegetarian.

In 1971, John List left a note with the bodies of his mother, wife, and three children in his mansion ballroom, funeral organ music blaring from a central sound system, and disappeared. Eighteen years later, all detectives had to work from is an outdated photograph of List. In 1989, the popular television series America's Most Wanted commissioned an age-scaled bust of List to aid viewers in identifying the confessed murderer. Dr. Frank Bender, nationally-recognized artist and sculptor, worked with forensic psychologist Richard Walter to develop a profile of the aging List. The final bust was so keenly accurate that 350 viewers called with tips, one of which led to List's arrest.

Escherichia coli (E-coli) bacteria can be found in meats, milk and in water. When food is properly processed, prepared and stored, E-Coli are harmless. But in the absence of these simple precautions, E-Coli can have deadly consequences. Raw Terror tells the story of Damion Heersink, an eleven-year-old boy who almost died after eating an improperly cooked hamburger teeming with E-Coli, and the people who saved his life.