The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science

Solutions to atrocious crimes can hinge on the smallest clues. Even with advanced technology, vision remains an important tool.

There's an old saying that a burden shared is a burden halved. But when people team up to commit murder, the weight of their guilt remains just as heavy.

There's never a good reason for murder but some killers are especially cruel, choosing their victims at random or with no apparent motive and then expertly covering their tracks.

The great outdoors may offer clues to solving heinous crimes. Seed germination and the presence of certain insects provide vital information about murders.

Poison is the subtlest murder weapon and poisoners are sometimes the most brutal killers, harming their victims over time to disguise the murder.

What does it take to prove murder if the victim cannot be found? Forensic investigators must go to great lengths to catch the killer when the victim is only presumed dead.

When lovers turn on each other or marriages fail, some coldblooded spouses find a gruesome way to gain an uncontested divorce: murder.

There's no statute of limitations on murder, so as a case turns cold and clues become scarce, investigators must rely on modern forensic technology to solve the crimes and catch the killers.

Every family has its secrets and sometimes blood relations lead to bloodshed. When murder becomes a family affair, investigators must turn to science to uncover family plots.

Some people murder for love, others murder out of hatred. But sometimes people kill for the money.

For some killers, once is never enough. Often, cold and calculated serial killings are more difficult to solve than violent crimes of passion.

When there's a difficult case to crack, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can be called in to help.

Sometimes arson fires are set to cover a different, more heinous crime, such as murder. But killers are wrong to think that fire destroys all vital clues.