Cold Case Files Classic

Police run down more than 11,000 leads before coming up with a suspect in the murders of three Virginia girls; and the abduction and strangulation of a California woman continues to baffle investigators more than 11 years after the crime.

With access to the SFPD's work, including saliva samples, we reevaluate the case of the Zodiac Killer who began terrorizing California in the late 1960s--one of the first to send clues to the media.

After a long manhunt, cops finally close in on a serial killer with the help of the Internet and information supplied by a subsidiary of Microsoft. And a drug trafficker jumps bail, goes into the bike shop business, and helps pioneer the sport of mountain biking while he's on the lam.

A quarter of a century after the murders of two nurses, Canadian police suspect that a former Toronto cop committed the crimes. A blow to the head of a garbage collector in San Jose leaves strange markings, and decades later a detective, with help from forensic science, matches the markings to the etchings of a vintage bar sign.

In the 1980s, a serial killer prowled the posh streets of Orange County. Police were unaware of the serial attacks until 1996, when DNA revealed the killer's secret and they linked four murders to a single DNA profile. Detectives uncovered three more crimes attributed to the man dubbed "The Original Night Stalker" before learning he had an earlier career as a serial rapist!

A thumbprint connects two separate murders and it is later discovered that the suspect had a strange fetish for women's lingerie. Then, an elderly woman is found murdered in her bed and the only evidence is a single strand of hair.

A mother is suspected in the murders of two of her daughters, when her third daughter finally convinces police to reopen two cold cases.

After 46 years, LA homicide detectives take a Lover's Lane bandit who gunned down two police officers into custody. DNA testing helps lead police in Florida to a suspected killer, however the killer has an identical twin. Who is the real killer? Then, a quarter of a century after the murders of two nurses, Canadian police suspect that a former Toronto cop committed the crimes.

A murderer's saliva, found on envelopes that he sealed, helps seal his doom 37 years after his first killing. And Colorado police crack a cold case 24 years later when they take a DNA sample from the victim's son that proves that his father murdered his mother. Then, a highly-regarded California arson investigator is suspected of setting a series of fires.

Montana detectives track down a man who murdered his wife 25 years later after he's convicted of killing his third wife in Maine under similar circumstances; and after 15-year-old papergirl Penny Parker goes missing, a search volunteer finds her body. Watch cold case detectives find a genetic trace, 24 years later, to the volunteer.

Fifteen years after the murder of a Navy seaman, an undercover agent proves the wife had arranged a murder-for-hire; and a former state trooper claimed his estranged wife committed suicide, but since he'd come to see her that night bearing divorce papers, liquor, and the murder weapon, he became the prime suspect.

A detective works for 15 years to nab a man who murdered and dismembered his wife to hide the sexual abuse of his children. Then, 20 years after the shooting murder of a gas station attendant, detectives get a lead. Next, a New Orleans police officer goes undercover on a riverboat to gain a confession, and a man is suspected of committing murder using a nunchukus.

In 1982 and '83, Seattle's Green River Killer stalked prostitutes like game. With 49 victims, he could be the deadliest serial killer in U.S. history. Then, a passing motorist spots a fire along a road in South Carolina and calls it in. Police arrive to discover the badly burned remains of a woman, her skull smashed into 97 fragments.

The murder of a 73-year-old man leads police on a long chase for a man who's suspected of identity theft and bears a rose tattoo with the name "Phyllis". When caught, he ultimately agrees to a life sentence on the condition that he can watch the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl on prison TV.

Police must wait nearly 30 years before advances in DNA technology give them the chance to convict the killer of a young hitchhiker, and Philadelphia police wage a 16-year hunt for the man who raped and killed a 10-year-old girl. Then, the mysterious death of a young boy is cleared up when his babysitter is forced to reenact the circumstances of his death.

Detectives from three different departments in Westchester County, New York team up to hunt a serial killer; and decades after a woman is found murdered under a bed at a flea-bag hotel, a man known as the "Bus Stop Rapist" becomes the lead suspect in the case. Then, a woman launches a victims' rights group after her aunt is killed.

Police crack a cold murder case when a mysterious woman calls and says her boyfriend is the killer; and the 1998 murder of a woman provides clues to the '88 murder of actress Myra Davis, Janet Leigh's stand-in in "Psycho". Then, after DNA tests identify the skull of a 14-year-old boy, missing for six years, another skull turns up and police fear a sexual killer stalks the area.

Testimony about larvae growth in dead bodies helps convict the man who stabbed a couple to death and strangled their 4-year-old daughter in 1993. And the 2001 murder of a young girl, whose head was cut off and stuffed in a trash bag, remains unsolved. Then, a New Orleans police officer goes undercover on a riverboat to gain a confession from a suspected murderer.

The cold murder case of a Texas woman is solved when the killer's plan to kill another woman and stuff her into a duffel bag goes awry; and an intrepid reporter doing a story on unsolved homicides helps crack a murder case previously ruled an accidental death. Then, 10 years after the murder of an 11-year-old track star, police obtain DNA evidence from a cigarette butt.

Testimony about the growth of larvae in dead bodies helps convict the man who stabbed a couple to death and strangled their 4-year-old daughter in 1993. And the 2001 murder of a young girl, whose head was cut off and stuffed in a trash bag, remains unsolved.

A Texas woman's murder is finally solved when the killer's plan to kill a second woman and stuff her into a duffel bag goes awry. Then, an intrepid reporter doing a story on unsolved homicides helps crack a case of murder that had been ruled an accidental death. A hunch reopens two decades-old murder cases; a vintage bar sign helps solve a 27-year-old killing.

After 23 years, investigators track down the killers of an Atlanta policeman when the ex-wife of one of the killers phones in a tip. A mother keeps the skeletal remains of the daughter she killed.

A prostitute who fights off a screwdriver-wielding man helps police track down a serial killer; and undercover agents acting as mobsters conduct an elaborate sting to solve a murder case that had gone cold for years. Then, detectives from three different police departments in Westchester County, New York team up to track down a serial kille.

A woman who takes down the license plate number of a car that had been following her helps police solve the murder of another young woman; and a mother's phone call accusing a man of molesting her child helps police solve the 30-year-old murder of an Atlanta policeman by a Black Liberation Army member.

The testimony of three prison inmates helps convict a man who viciously killed a woman out for a bike ride nearly two decades prior; and a self-admitted sex addict who strangled his cat is a suspect in the 30-year-old murder of a neighbor. Then, cops close in on a serial killer with the help of the Internet and information supplied by a subsidiary of Microsoft.