The killer probably hoped to cover his tracks by staging the crime scene. But investigators saw through the attempt almost immediately.
When a woman went missing, friends and family were determined to find her. Their worst fears were confirmed weeks later when her body was discovered.
In 2008, college co-ed Jenna Verhaalen was found dead in her Bryan, Texas apartment. Petechial hemorrhages in her eyes indicated that she was strangled.
When a car was found in a drainage ditch with two bodies inside, a fingertip torn from a latex glove would point investigators to both the crime scene and the killer.
A killer made great effort to obscure the shoe impressions left when he tracked blood on the floor, but he ended up creating new incriminating evidence...
When a little girl got sick and died, investigators were stumped. Was it an accident, an unexplained illness or murder?
A driver said he couldn't have hit and killed a pedestrian because his Jeep had been sold months ago.
Lives changed in the 20 years following an unsolved murder, and so did forensic science. In time, a high-powered microscope and DNA profiling revealed a clue no one had seen before.
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.
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.
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.
In 1993, young mother Tammy Tatum was sexually assaulted and murdered in her Longmont, Colorado apartment.
A man was killed in a car crash, but the evidence led investigators to believe it was not an accident.
A bullet-riddled car, a missing driver, and no witnesses, an ambush or a random attack the clue was something so tiny, it was measured in millionths of a meter.
In 2006, Darlene VanderGiesen received threatening emails and then disappeared. Tracking the source of the emails led police to the home of Daphne Wright, where they believe a murder was committed.
In 2006, Nevada politician Kathy Augustine died mysteriously during a hard-fought re-election campaign and the medical examiner could neither isolate the cause of death.
Doctors don't know why a scientist is gravely ill. When tests reveal the cause, it's too late to save him.
In 2007, the Florida mobile home of Effie and Michael Ratley catches fire. Michael heroically rescues his wife and infant son. A month later, his wife is found beaten to death in a bedroom of his parents' home.
A brutal murder, lots of suspects and conflicting evidence but the forensics were clear on one thing: The killer knew his victim. And that alone gave investigators a head start.
A young, attractive 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 the case went cold for ten years.