Forensic Files

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.

When an elderly couple died in a suspicious house fire, their son became the prime suspect. 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. Twenty years after finding her body, advances in technology enable investigators to see evidence in a new light, and discover it pointed directly to the killer.

When hunters found a skull in a Texas canyon, police found bits of clothing, small bones and a strand of hair. A forensic artist reconstructed her face. 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.

A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. 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, investigators had to reassemble a 5-1/4 inch computer disk which had been cut to pieces with pinking shears in order to find the killer.

Bombings are difficult to solve, because the perpetrator isn't usually at the scene, and the evidence goes up in smoke. In this case pieces of plastic the size of grains of sand hold 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. 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.

A¾highway 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 accidents¾_ but never as much blood as this.

The decomposed body of a young woman was discovered in a Bakersfield irrigation canal. If there was trace evidence, it had been washed away.¾

A behavioral 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 bathroom floor. 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.

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. 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. The autopsy revealed that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted and the evidence 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: tire tracks, shoe impressions and even the murder weapons.

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. Investigators had to determine which person who knew her had a motive for murder.

An employee of a dry cleaner was raped and murdered in the store. 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. A pair of bloody gloves, unique tire tracks, and ordinary grass and pine needles provided investigators with some extraordinary clues.

A college student was found dead, and the evidence suggested he knew his killer. Three hairs and some microscopic cells helped police to unravel a web of lies, and find the motive for 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 man is gunned down in his own garage, police discover that a wound sustained by the grieving widow may have been self-inflicted. They turn to science to help 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 odor. Fortunately for investigators, it also had a unique chemical signature.

When a victim is brutally murdered in his own bed, investigators find a shoe impression in the mud outside--physical evidence they hope will lead to the killer.

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. It was up to forensic scientists to find the clues that lay in the ashes.

When Genell Plude is found dead in her bathroom, the scene points to suicide. But a coroner's inquest and a unique application of forensic science gave investigators a different explanation for her death.

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.