Forensic Files
Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.
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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.
Insulated Evidence
It's usually easy to determine how a criminal entered the crime scene. But in this case, it looked as if the killer vanished into thin air — and perhaps he had.
Cold Hearted
When a young fireman died from what appeared to be serious but undiagnosed heart disease, his family and friends had no proof of foul play.
Wheel of Misfortune
Casino security cameras 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.
Quite a Spectacle
It was one of the most unusual cases in forensic history. Investigators had to find a way to solve a murder case using only a squashed tomato found at the crime scene and tiny, pinpoint reflections of light in a photograph.
Transaction Failed
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.
The Day the Music Died
Seattle police had no suspects in the violent murder of grunge singer Mia Zapata. More than a decade passed before evidence collected by a prescient medical examiner could be used by forensic scientists to identify the killer.
Sole Survivor
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.
Insignificant Others
How unlucky could one man be? His college sweetheart killed herself and fourteen years later, his wife ended her life in a similar way. Investigators had to determine if this was murder or simply a bizarre coincidence.
Catch 22
In 1996, 54-year-old Gayle Isleib was ambushed in her Manchester, Connecticut driveway and shot to death. Police had to determine whether obsessive love was the motive for her murder.
A Cinderella Story
The victim had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on the beach. 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.
Screen Pass
A 13-year-old girl went missing from her Colorado home. The only evidence the kidnapper left behind was three fingerprints on a window screen.
Pressed for Crime
Several suspects and conflicting evidence complicated a brutal murder investigation. But the forensics were clear on one thing: the killer knew his victim, and that alone gave investigators a head start.
Finger Pane
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.
Good as Gold
On Halloween night 2004, Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara were brutally murdered in their Napa, California home.
Freedom Fighter
After the suspect was convicted of arson and murder, he maintained his innocence. He turned to law books in the prison library and set out to prove his innocence.
Dog Day Afternoon
A woman was brutally murdered in her home and the only witnesses to the crime were the family dogs. An expert in canine behavior was convinced the killer knew both the victim and the animals, and he was determined find out what the dogs had seen.
Shattered Innocence
This killer probably hoped to cover his tracks by staging the crime scene. But investigators saw through the attempt almost immediately and turned to forensic science to learn what really happened that night.
All Butt Certain
A 6-year-old girl ran and hid when she saw her grandmother being beaten to death, but the man followed, beat and assaulted her. She said the assailant was her uncle, who was later convicted. She recanted her testimony years later.
Jean Pool
In 1984, the body of college student Laura Salmon was found on a Middle Tennessee farm, covered with her own denim jeans as well as the jeans of the killer.
Traffic Violations
The body of a young woman was found a mile from her abandoned car. Police were especially concerned when they realized the victim had come to them for protection just two weeks earlier after a road rage incident.
Brotherly Love
In 1969, 25-year-old phone operator Diane Maxwell was raped and murdered. Her brother promised he'd find out who was responsible and bring the killer to justice.
Disrobed
The crime scene was especially violent: a husband and wife had been shot to death in their bedroom. Was their 16-year-old daughter complicit?
Driven to Silence
A young 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.
Printed Proof
When two women went missing and were later found brutally murdered, police wondered if they were victims of a hate crime.
About Face
A human skeleton was discovered in the North Carolina marshlands. When investigators learned she'd been dead for 18 months, they knew it would be difficult to find out who she was, let alone who killed her.
In the Bag
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.
Yes, In Deed
It was a tragic twist of fate. Just days after a 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.
Guarded Secrets
A security guard disappeared from his post without a trace; his remains were found a year later in a remote campsite.
Smoking Out a Killer
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.
