The New Detectives

In these cases, the murderer went out of his way in an attempt to hide any evidence the victim's body might carry to lead investigators to them. In the end, community participation and cutting edge forensic technology leads authorities to the guilty parties.

In 1998, a New Mexico college student is reported missing by her roommate. The two boys last seen with the missing woman are questioned and blame each other. A woman is spotted lying in the road off Interstate 81 in Washington County and appears to have been run over. Upon inspection the woman has also been strangled. Investigators conclude the tire tracks are from a large truck and begin a search for clues at truck stops. The people you have come to trust can turn out to be your worst enemy.

A man calls 911 claiming his wife fell down the stairs. The autopsy report says the victim suffered 7 blows to the head. Forensics experts are employed to link the husband to her murder. A car accident leaves a woman dead and her husband shaken. Investigators see the woman's injuries are not consistent with those sustained from a car accident. Authorities examine the victim's home and find traces of the woman's blood. Marriage is what bonds two people until deceit drives one to kill.

A former Fort Worth Police Officer calls 911 saying his wife is dead by a self-inflicted gun-shot wound to the chest. Blood splatter experts are used to accuse the ex-cop with the death of his wife. In a Columbus, Ohio cornfield a woman's body is found strangled. Two weeks later a woman's body is found not far from the cornfield by the same fate with a handprint on her body. When a third woman is found dead in the same manner and area, authorities are certain they have a serial killer.

The Berkeley, California Fire Department responds to a house fire in the early morning hours of June 25, 1994. Firefighters discover the body of a 59-year-old woman near the fireplace. Her body had been badly burned and investigators speculated her death was accidental, though an autopsy suggested otherwise. Also discovered, was the fact that the deceased's best friend and personal manager had recently cleaned out her bank account, suggesting investigators now had a homicide on their hands.

A motel clerk is found dead on the lobby floor. Police arrive to find a bloody palm print and most of a fingerprint. They're finally led to an ex-employee. Human remains are found in a garbage bag. Reverse DNA testing proves the body was in fact that of a man's missing wife. A toxicologist is brought in to prove the cause of the woman's death and her husband is charged with her murder. In both cases the killer tried to hide the actual cause of death but forensic science can't be fooled.

A man disappears-his girlfriend says she last saw him after they argued over money. Soon a torso is found. Toxicology tests show a fatal amount of morphine. Investigators question her and find she had just taken out a life insurance policy on her boyfriend. An insurance agent meets with the beneficiary of his friend's insurance policy and finds he had interviewed the man 1 year earlier on another claim. When money is the motive there is no limit to what one will do to get their fortune.

Blood was found in front of a woman's abandoned vehicle. Police get a tip about a man who is impersonating police officers. Investigators get tire samples of the man's car and find blood matching the dead woman. A boy is reported missing. His friends reported seeing the boy with a man. A hotel clerk tells of a man in her hotel who fits the description. Police find hair in the man's car that match the boy's DNA. Sometimes witnesses are the only link between criminals and forensic experts.

Two men are found beaten to death in the bar. Witnesses tell of a man who frequents the bar. A search of his home and vehicle turn up a tire iron. A wealthy man is found beaten to death in his own home. Divers find in a pond behind the house, a pipe with the man's blood on it. His heir's fingerprints match those found on the victim's belt, and her shoe prints match those from the murder scene. Ordinary objects carry enough evidence for forensic scientists to piece together complicated murders.

A woman is rushed to the hospital. Blood tests find 6 times the lethal amount of arsenic in her system. Questioning her husband, who increased the amount of his wife's life insurance, he admitted to poisoning her. A man calls 911 claiming his wife shot herself in the head. Her husband and neighbors are questioned, and it seems she'd been suffering from depression. A forensic scientist specializing in bloodstain interpretation is brought in, signs point to the woman's husband as the murderer.

A family moving into a new home opens a large drum on the property and finds the mummified remains of a woman dead for nearly 25 years. Samples extracted lead investigators to the deceased's former employer. A Supervising Nurse noticed the number of deaths in the ICU unit had more than doubled from the previous year with no increase in admissions. A particular nurse was on duty during 80% of those deaths. Investigators found drugs that the nurse injected into patients just before they died.

A security guard finds a man dead in the driver's seat of his car shot once in the back of the head. Police later receive a tip linking the man's wife and a friend to the murder; the motive was a large life insurance policy. A woman calls 911 claiming 3 men burglarized her home, beat her husband to death and bound their hands with tape. Police find a fingerprint and question the man to whom it belongs. He tells police the victim's wife promised the men money if they aided in his murder.

A woman is found dead in the bathtub. Teeth marks on the body were analyzed, and teeth molds were made in an attempt to match to the bite marks and they matched. In 1980, the remains of a woman were found in Indiana. Twenty years later, the Sheriff in Ohio contacted the highway patrol, requesting their help in locating a Jane Doe. The Indiana Sheriff remembered the woman in the box. DNA samples were extracted and compared-perfect match. All investigators had to do now, was find her killer.

A man calls 911 claiming his wife fell down the stairs and died. There is a large amount of blood on and around the body. The Medical Examiner concludes the woman died as a result of a blunt force trauma. Blood spatter is found on the man's clothing, proving he beat his wife to death. A man tells police that his wife is missing. Her body is found in a ravine the next day. Their home is searched and police find her blood on the walls of the man's home. Blood spatter suggests the woman was shot.

A man discovers skeletal remains lying just outside the African Lion Safari section of an Ontario zoo. The team searching for the victim's identity employed a technique of re-hydration to attempt to lift a fingerprint and authorities would have to piece together the cause of death. A woman finds the body of a 76-year-old man, who had been shot. Several footprints were found at the scene. Authorities look for known burglars in the area and compared shoe samples with those from the victim's home.

A real estate agent is found beaten and strangled in the basement of a home for sale. Crime techs find boot and finger prints on her body. Fingerprints from her jewelry that had been pawned match those found on the victim. A pregnant woman is found dead appearing to be the victim of a robbery. An autopsy reveals she died of asphyxiation and head trauma. Investigators uncover blood that belongs to the victim and the husband, concluding that the man killed his pregnant wife.

An 18-year-old girl is found raped and strangled in a Harlem stairwell. Another girl with a similar description is found dead and police feel they have a serial killer on their hands. A man's name is found from phone records of one of the victims, and authorities attempt to obtain DNA sample from the man to prove his guilt. Several missing women all linked to a man offering them jobs or money, sparked a search of the man's hotel room. Police found remains of several women in large drum barrels.