The New Detectives

For homicide investigators, it’s a race against time as they track their deadliest foe: a serial killer for whom killing is the only way to feel alive.

Ballistic analysis is the key to finding killers who turn guns on their victims. Each shot fired leaves its own “fingerprint”, allowing scientists to target murderers with deadly aim.

When a theft is committed, something valuable is stolen. But when a criminal needs a new identity, theft becomes a matter of life and death.

Three hairs… microscopic fibers… a common trash bag ripped from a roll. Seemingly small and insignificant clues become a victim’s silent witness.

When abduction turns to murder, forensic science is the only key to finding justice for the victims of a kidnapper’s deadly intentions.

The tread of a tire, a single shoe print and even the shape of a bruise help investigators track down killers, based solely on their patterns of guilt.

Investigators rely on forensic odontology to identify a body from a single tooth and to catch two brutal killers from their bite marks.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service uses forensic science to solve three perplexing murders and fulfill its motto: “To the living we owe respect; to the dead, we owe the truth”.

Years after a murder has been committed, investigators use advanced DNA analysis to shed new light on crimes that have gone unpunished for far too long.

Forensic scientists find clues written in blood as they investigate the deaths of three women killed by the men who once loved them.

The forces of nature can reduce a body to bones in a matter of weeks. Using a unique combination of art and science, forensic anthropologists give victims a face long after they have been forgotten.

DNA analysis overturns the convictions of three men who have spent years behind bars, paying for crimes they did not commit.

A teenager is abducted on a shopping trip. Two hikers disappear from the Appalachian Trail. A grandmother never returns home from work. Forensic artists turn witness statements into pictures as they try to recreate the face of their killers.

When real crimes are stranger than fiction, forensic science can sort fact from fantasy.

For the forensic entomologist, the insects that nest in dead bodies are like tiny witnesses to a crime. By studying their behavior, scientists learn everything from when a murder was committed to the weapon used in a stabbing death.

Photography has long been a vital tool in homicide investigations. A single image captures enough information to identify a suspect and to preserve a vital clue long after a witness’ memory fades.

When teenagers are driven to kill, their victims are but the first to fall. In three such cases, the families of the killers, as well as their communities, become the victims of violent crime.

Philadelphia’s Vidocq Society, named after an 18th-century French detective, is one of the world’s most unusual crime-solving organizations. These prominent sleuths solve a murder case from a missing shoe and successfully prove homicide without a body.