Forensic Files

A woman was found dead on the bedroom floor of her apartment. The crime scene yielded little of value, and investigators wondered if they would find enough evidence to make a case, much less catch a killer. But a bloodstained sheet and a breakthrough forensic technique enabled them to identify the murderer and convince the jury of his guilt.

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. Blood evidence and computer forensics helped investigators to catch the killer, and convince the jury of his guilt.

A twelve-year-old girl claimed she had been abducted and sexually assaulted. She recounted what happened in such a flat, unemotional voice that police found it difficult to believe her. Fibers on her clothing would prove she was telling the truth, and help police to find her attacker.

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 the innocent.

A woman is shot to death on a Florida beach. Her husband is also shot, but survives. He claims it was a robbery gone wrong, but investigators look further and learn that he had recently downloaded a song containing violent lyrics.

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. Then the victim's autopsy turned the investigation into a landmark forensics case: The device intended to save his life proved to be the only witness to his death.

When a young fireman died from what appeared to be serious but undiagnosed heart disease, his family and friends were devastated but they had no proof of foul play. Then they learned that six years earlier in a nearby town, a young police officer died in the same way. The men had one thing in common: they had been married to the same woman.

Police in Canada received a chilling 911 call from a woman who was just attacked in her apartment, but by the time they arrived she was dead. Little evidence remained at the scene, except for a pair of eyeglasses and a shoeprint in a squished tomato. With the help of Canada's only forensic optometrist, police put away a killer who is larger than life.

When a dedicated, well-respected teacher disappeared, police had to determine if she'd gone on vacation without telling anyone, or if she was the victim of foul play. Investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to find the answers they needed.

How unlucky could one man be? His wife had taken her own life and his college sweetheart had killed herself in much the same fashion fourteen years earlier. Investigators had to determine if this was a bizarre coincidence, or an attempt to get away with murder... twice.

A 13-year-old girl went missing from her Colorado home, and the only evidence the kidnapper left behind was three fingerprints on a window screen. Two years later, a latent print examiner, new to the county and the crime lab, changed the course of the investigation by sharing a little-known fact with his colleagues.

A county social worker is murdered and her home set on fire. Bite marks are used to convict a man who had threatened people in her office. The man, Roy Brown, protests his innocence, and spends 15 years in jail finding the real killer.

A six-year-old girl ran and hid when she saw her grandmother being beaten to death, but the man followed her, beat her, assaulted her. The girl said he was her Uncle Clarence, and he was convicted because of her identification. His wife was convinced he was innocent, and decided to conduct her own investigation to prove it.

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 nor explain the tiny puncture wounds discovered during the autopsy. Upon deeper analysis, investigators focus on her husband, Chaz Higgs, a nurse who had ready access to succinylcholine.