At the scene of a murder, sometimes the victim provides the only clues to their killer. Forensic anthropologists use skeletal remains to decipher the clues written in the bones.
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At a crime scene, anything left behind or seemingly out of place is considered a clue. But a fire can extinguish everything in its path challenging forensic investigators at every turn and making each arson a trial by fire.
Some killers choose to hide their victims. And investigators must then rely on forensic examiners to uncover proof of murder. These are just two extraordinary crimes that have made their way into the medical examiner's casebook.
Anytime, anywhere, people disappear, kidnapped from their daily routines. Predators always leave clues behind, but chasing them takes time, hampering investigators' attempts to solve these fatal abductions.
Sometimes killers are careful to leave no fingerprints behind. But methods of the murder itself can leave a lasting impression on police, especially when the tools (or weapons) of a killer's trade leave an innocent victim marked for death.
When killers hide or destroy the remains of their victims, it becomes the mission of forensic scientists to reconstruct the scenes and prove murder for an absent witness.
When killers are driven by jealousy and desire, their desperation is evident in both the crime and their efforts to avoid detection. But forensic science can reveal even the slightest mistake to solve crimes of passion.
In most homicides, police rely on motive to pursue a murderer. But when the killer is a stranger the crime may go unsolved for years. It takes a full arsenal of forensic techniques to trace a lethal encounter.
When a victim is gunned down at point-blank range, police often assume that a friend or acquaintance is to blame.
Sometimes, the cause of death does not match the scene of the crime. When an untraceable poison is used to commit murder, homicide detectives turn to forensic toxicologists to follow a killer's tracks and expose a toxic death.
For some killers, murder can be a profitable business. And the scene of the crime can be both a source for clues, and puzzling questions. When a victim has been targeted for death, investigators must look beyond the obvious to uncover a murder for hire.
Philadelphia's Vidocq Society, named after an 18th Century French detective, is one of the world's most unusual crime-solving organizations.
When teenagers are driven to kill, their victims are but the first to fall. In three such cases, the families of the killers, as well as their communities, become the victims of violent crime.
Photography has long been a vital tool in homicide investigations. A single image captures enough information to identify a suspect, and to preserve a vital clue long after a witness' memory fades.
For the forensic entomologist, the insects that nest in dead bodies are like tiny witnesses to a crime.
A millionaire is found dead, murdered for a stash of buried silver. A young woman dates violent men, only to be killed by her best friend.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service uses forensic science to solve three perplexing murders and fulfill their motto: To the living we owe respect to the dead, we owe the truth.
Investigators rely on forensic odontology to identify a body from a single tooth and to catch two brutal killers from their bite marks.
The tread of a tire, a single shoe print and even the shape of a bruise help investigators track down killers, based solely on their patterns of guilt.
When abduction turns to murder, forensic science is the only key to finding justice for the victims of a kidnapper's deadly intentions.
Three hairs microscopic fibers a common trash bag ripped from a roll. Seemingly small and insignificant clues become a victim's silent witness.
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