
Forensic Files
The only clue recovered from a shooting is a twelve-guage shotgun. Scientists use unique methods to lift the serial number from the weapon to trace it to its owner

The only clue recovered from a shooting is a twelve-guage shotgun. Scientists use unique methods to lift the serial number from the weapon to trace it to its owner

A woman's death in Pennsylvania triggers a homicide investigation into another woman's death in North Carolina.

Timothy Wilson Spencer was identified as the man who raped and strangled five young women in Virginia. With the use of DNA profiling, an innocent man is freed and the real killer is convicted.

While investigating the murder of 9-year-old Jessica Knott, police use a garbage bag to connect a suspect.

When a pipe bomb rips through a rural home, killing a young man and seriously injuring his mother, detectives hope that the remnants of a mailing label will lead them to a killer.

On May 12, 1994, Crystal Perry was viciously murdered in her home in Bridgton, Maine. Michael Hutchinson, 32, was found guilty of murder in the 1994 slaying at Perry's home.

In 1971, John List left a note with the bodies of his family members in his mansion before he disappeared.

A car carrying three men pulls up alongside another on an Alaskan highway and fires shots, leaving a passenger dead. One of the passengers in the killer's car agrees to testify against his friends. The resulting trials don't end the carnage.

A lifelong resident of the tiny town of Lefroy, Tasmania was murdered outside his own home. Robbery appeared to be the motive, but with no suspects, the investigation came to a halt.

Police exhume the body of Karla Brown, murdered in her home in 1978, to study bite wounds, which eventually lead to the killer.

Police are able to create a composite sketch of a man burnt beyond recognition. But tracking the killer is more challenging.

In 1993, young mother Tammy Tatum was sexually assaulted and murdered in her Longmont, Colorado apartment.

On May 12, 1994, Crystal Perry was viciously murdered in her home in Bridgton, Maine. Michael Hutchinson, 32, was found guilty of murder in the 1994 slaying at Perry's home.

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 young woman is stabbed more than 100 times. The killer leaves DNA behind, but investigators must play a cat-and-mouse game to obtain a suspect's DNA to match.

In 1992, Laura Houghteling disappeared from her Bethesda home and was never seen again. Laura's bedroom was searched and forensic science was used to direct them a to prime suspect.

The victim had ingested a massive amount of cyanide. An unlikely clue - a flaw on a mailing envelope - exposed a murderer who was willing to kill innocent people.

In 2000, construction manager Darrell North was found dead in his work trailer in Ft. Worth, Texas. When investigators arrived, they found that he had been stabbed 46 times.

They thought the fire would cover their crime. But one tiny clue led to a trio of killers behind bars.

A man's wife took her own life and his college sweetheart killed herself the same way. Was it coincidence?