Forensic Files

In this classic episode of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, the sense of security in Waseca, Minnesota shatters when 12-year-old Cally Jo Larson is found dead in her home. Despite an exhaustive investigation, only a string of burglaries, which lead police to a cache of stolen goods, brings a killer to justice.

In 1962, the people of the small town of Hanford, California lost their sense of peace when one of their own, 15 year-old Marlene Miller, was murdered. It would take 24 years and countless retrials before forensic scientists discovered the microscopic evidence that brought the killer to justice.

The double homicide of a gay couple leads investigators into the twisted world of White Supremacists. Shell casings, paint chips and an analysis of glass shards help authorities link their prime suspects to a string of hate crimes in California.

A healthy young man dies mysteriously in his sleep. There are no signs of trauma or injury, but toxicology tests reveal a lethal dose of lidocaine in his blood. Investigators find a suicide note, and presume he killed himself -- until a forensic linguist examines the note and determines that what the victim said is less important than how he said it.

When a pipe bomb ripped through a rural home, killing a young man and seriously injuring his mother, police had no idea who was responsible. A lot number on a 9-volt battery and the remnants of a mailing label found on a computer's hard drive enabled investigators to determine who sent the bomb, and why.

No one in a quiet residential community saw or heard anything unusual the day one of their neighbors was brutally murdered. Fingerprints found at the crime scene and surveillance video from a security camera helped investigators to apprehend the presumed killer within 12 hours - even though he'd already left the.

A drive-by shooting leaves one man dead and another seriously wounded. Cell phone calls and shell casings point to a suspect, but authorities are unable to place him at the crime scene. When a forensic geologist compared soil from the crime scene with soil found in the wheel wells of the suspect's car, he proved that dirt is anything but dumb.

When a teenaged girl is found dead on the side of the road, her boyfriend becomes the prime suspect. He eventually confessed to her murder - but so did another man. It would take the passage of forty years, an author, and an expert in the field of pedestrian accident reconstruction to determine who was telling the truth.

A mother of two disappears after a shopping trip. Her body is found a month later. Witnesses saw the victim being forced into a car by an unknown person. Police learn that the car had been rented, but the signature on the rental agreement does not match that of their number one suspect. A forensic handwriting expert points to the murderer.

A woman is shot to death in her store just one day before she is to testify against the man accused of robbing her. The robber becomes the number one suspect, but he has a solid alibi: a time-stamped videotape of his outdoor activities on the day of the murder. Police authenticate the videotape and find the killer who has been hiding in the shadows.

In 1993, worldwide attention focused on a series of robberies, which targeted Florida tourists. Some vacationers were killed in these attacks, but some fought and survived, despite critical injuries. One of those injuries, a bite mark, would become the key piece of evidence used to convict a determinedly uncooperative suspect.

A woman's death in Pennsylvania triggers a homicide investigation into another woman's death in North Carolina. The similarities in the two cases are shocking, and medical examiners must determine if the suspect's story about accidental drowning is all wet.

A nurse has a variety of flu-like symptoms. None of her doctors are able to find the cause, until she visits the gynecologist for a routine check-up. Then she learns it's something way worse than the flu. She is HIV-positive. Science determines not only how she had been infected, but also by whom. They will discover that it wasn't an accident.

In Peoria, Illinois, police discover a footprint that could identify an intruder who killed a young man and attacked two teenage girls.

A man is found shot to death in his home. Determining time of death becomes fatally important, and in order to do so, investigators need to know when the victim ate his last meal. An endocrinologist, a forensic botanist and a short-order cook try to solve their mystery.

A union official is executed in his home not long after a strike by the union membership. Neither his wife, who was sleeping in the adjacent bedroom, nor anyone in the neighborhood, heard any gunshots. It would take a forensic sound test, an electron microscope and a nightgown to explain why.

When firefighters discovered an entire family dead inside their home, it seemed like a murder-suicide, but there were many inconsistent clues in the rubble. Could ballistics, a time card and some secret audiotapes uncover the truth?. The killer, Earl Bramblett, was charged with the murders and was sentenced to death on April 9, 2003.

With no forensic evidence inside a murder scene, investigators are left puzzled. But they suspected that the victim's dog had witnessed the crime. If she had, forensic scientists would have to find some way to know what the dog had seen.

A TV news producer is killed in her apartment. The case goes cold until investigators turn to the Commonwealth of Virginia's DNA Databank which houses profiles convicted felons and is the first of its kind in the country. A comparison of the crime scene evidence with the Databank profiles results in Virginia's first cold hit in a homicide investigation.

A homicide detective murders his corrections officer wife, staging the scene to make it look as if she shot herself in the head by accident.

For years, a woman suffered from what appeared to be the unpleasant side effects of lithium, a drug prescribed to treat bipolar disorder. Her search for help led her to severals doctors and hospitals and resulted in a 4000-page medical file. When she died, investigators had to determine if her death was caused by natural causes, suicide or murder.

A woman is found dead in a ravine near a jogging path. Significant crime scene evidence had been washed away by a series of thunderstorms. Twice, the trail turned cold. Then, almost twenty years later, an old hat and a chip of stainless steel no longer than a fingernail would finally bring the killer to justice.

Just weeks before a witness is to testify against the man accused of sexually assaulting her, she is killed in the front yard of her own home. Investigators suspect her attacker, but they don't have enough evidence to prove it. It would take fifteen years, and the incredible advances in forensic science to enable police to finally nail the killer.

Kathleen Lipscomb's body was found on a deserted street outside of San Antonio. Months passed, then years, and the crime went cold. Then Kathleen's family hired a private investigator who discovered a diary among her personal effects. Two of the diary entries helped police to piece together what had happened to Kathleen Lipscomb, and why.

A retired police officer is found fatally shot in his bed, the apparent victim of a suicide. But evidence at the crime scene, along with forensic textbooks and a bank surveillance tape, prove it was murder.

A fire guts guts an apartment while its tenants are out of town, and the aftermath includes the corpses of two young women, neither of whom died in the fire. In fact, one died a day before the other.

Two men called police to report the same murder. Apparently, neither one knew that the other had called and the investigation uncovered even more unusual circumstances. But a few small seeds and a discarded candy wrapper will ultimately tell a story of revenge.

The body of a rich businessman was found in his rental car. Teeth and bone fragments were all that remained of the body; miraculously, an engraved wristwatch and medic alert bracelet had survived the inferno. When the victim's wife filed a claim for $7 million worth of life insurance, investigators sought the help of a renowned forensic anthropologist.

A high school gym teacher mysteriously leaves town without saying goodbye to anyone. He later sends letters to explain why. But a closer forensic look at those letters and a microscopic piece of tissue gives investigators an entirely different explanation for where he went and why.

Investigating a 1983 vehicle crash between law enforcement officers on the occasion of a visit from the Queen of England.

In 1993, the Amtrak Railroad experienced the deadliest train crash in United States history, when the Sunset Limited derailed while crossing Alabama's Big Bayou Canot bridge. Forty-seven passengers and crew were killed; scores more were injured. The clues to the cause of the crash lay etched in twisted steel and buried in the mud of the Big Bayou Canot.

A fire erupted in the Kings Cross Underground Station in London, killing 31 people and injuring dozens more. Arson investigators were able to pinpoint the cause of the fire, but it would take state-of-the-art computer technology and experts in the field of fluid dynamics to explain why it became a deadly inferno.