Forensic Files

In 1991, Maine resident Pearl Smith is missing after an argument with her husband Bill Bruns. 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.

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.

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.

In 1993, Marie Robards suffered the loss of her father due to a heart attack Ñ but it was more sinister.

In 1996, 17-month-old Josh Hinson died in a fire which a federal agency ruled was intentionally set by Josh's mother Terri Strickland. Using the then-emerging resources of the Internet, Terri Strickland undertook her own investigation.

In 1988, when a patient dies unexpectedly in the office of California neurologist Richard Boggs, police begin what they think will be a routine investigation. Soon they uncover a bizarre story of corpse stealing, fake identity and sexual perversion.

One investigator's quick thinking helps him capture a shoe impression made in snow before the evidence melts away. The shoe leads investigators to Peter Benedict and Frank Lanoue, who are convicted of aggravated assault and robbery.

In 1992, 22-year-old Dawn Bruce is brutally murdered in her Virginia apartment. Investigators notice a blood smear on a pillow case that appears to have been made by one of the killer's fingers.

In 1981, six-year-old Cassie Hansen disappeared from her St. Paul, Minnesota church during an 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.

Professional photographer Charles Rathbun claims model Linda 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.¾

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.¾

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.

When police in the Great Plains are called about a dead body, they do a background check on the victim which leads them into a bizarre web of homeless drifters, cattle auctions and bad checks _ all fronted by elderly couple Ray and Faye Copeland.

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 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.

In rural Canada, 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 patient insists that he sedated and raped her.

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.

A suspect's former lover comes forward with a fantastic tale of murder, mutilation and cremation, but there's no way to test the story's validity until a plant pathologist and a dendrochronology's conduct tests where the cremation supposedly occurred

Susie Mowbray was charged for her husband Bill Mowbray's death. 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 between his parents.

In 1994, Rhoda Nathan was found murdered in a Cincinnati hotel room. When hotel employee Elwood Jones visits the emergency room for an infected hand, which he said was cut on a dumpster, the doctor recognizes 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 is whether the shooting was pre-meditated.

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.

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.

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.

When 19-year-old Lori Auker left her Pennsylvania home for work and never arrived, it took space-age technology, cat hairs and insects to pinpoint the image of the woman's abductor.

Forensic computer analysis, blood spatter analysis and a painstaking investigation lead police to a lawyer husband Michael 'Mick' Fletcher with a motive to kill his wife, since he was having a sexual affair with judge Susan Chrzanowski.

A fan of murder mysteries and forensic science shows uses what she learned from TV to determine who was responsible for the accident which permanently injured her 4-year-old daughter.

In 1995, Lisa Manderach and her daughter Devon left their Pennsylvania home to go shopping, but didn't return home. Lisa's husband Jimmy called police in a panic to report their disappearance and directed them to a nearby shopping center.