Forensic Files
In an affluent suburb, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning.
In an affluent suburb, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning.
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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.
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.
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 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.
Police hoped the shoe impressions found at a crime scene would put their investigation back on track.
When a victim is brutally murdered in his bed, investigators find a shoe impression in the mud outside.
Three seemingly unrelated deaths proved to be serial murders. The killer used poison which had no taste.
When a man is shot down in his garage, police discover that a wound on the widow may have been self-inflicted.
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.
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.
A woman was found dead on a golf course. The grass on the course was so distinctive, it had evidentiary value.
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.
In an affluent suburb, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning.
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.
A patrolman was dispatched to what he thought would be a routine traffic call until he looked in the car.
When a young boy went missing, police organized the largest search in the history of their small town.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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