Forensic Files

In the Season 12 premiere of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, a young girl is found dead, and police quickly arrest the most likely suspect. But when cutting-edge technology from NASA enables a forensic odontologist to prove the wrong man is behind bars, the investigation resumes

When a Texas man is found dead in his fire-damaged San Antonio apartment, police discover fiber evidence that leads to a killer who entered and exited the apartment through a ceiling.

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.

Security cameras in a casino tracked a young woman's movements until shortly before she disappeared. She was never seen again, but through the evidence she left behind, she was able to tell investigators what happened to her and who was responsible.

Police in Canada received a chilling 9-1-1 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 that 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.

The mystery surrounding the 1993 slaying of Mia Zapata, the lead singer for the Seattle punk-rock band the Gits, is solved a decade later with DNA evidence.

A case of a disappearance and presumed death of a Michigan State student. A professor of geological sciences is on hand to help dig up some dirt of her killer.

When the investigation of a woman's apparent suicide turns up some anomalies, investigators reopen the case of the suicide of another woman that had dated the same man.

A woman was ambushed in her driveway and shot to death. During their investigation, police learned that a co-worker half her age was in love with her, and that she'd spurned his advances. They now had to determine if love had turned into obsession... and a motive for murder.

The victim had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on the beach, just ten yards from the hotel where she was staying. A pair of men's tennis shoes was discovered near her body. Police were sure that if they found the man who fit the shoes, they would also find the man who committed the crime.

Fingerprints on a window screen hold the key to solving the abduction and murder of a 13-year-old Colorado girl.

A killer drives off in his victim's car after the crime. Forensic scientists match an iron found in the car to some broken pieces of plastic found near the victim's body.

Two women are found dead in a Texas field, and a bloody fingerprint is found on one of the bodies. Police hope it will lead them to the killer.

On Halloween night 2004, Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara were brutally murdered in their Napa, California home. The killer was not seen by their downstairs roommate, but he left his DNA behind in some cigarette butts and a groundbreaking test determined his race and even the color of his eyes and hair.

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.

When the only witness to a brutal killing is the family dog, investigators turn to a microscopic analysis of some articles of clothing to find the guilty party.

The murderer probably hoped to cover his tracks by staging the crime scene. But police saw through the attempt almost immediately, and they turned to forensic science to discover what really happened that night.

A man is sent to jail based on eye-witness testimony that he killed his mother-in-law. But it was dark and the witness was a young child - is her identification reliable? His family says no, and armed with a DNA sample of the real, unidentified, killer; his courageous wife conducts her own investigation.

The 1984 murder of a college student, Laura Salmon, seems to have plenty of suspects, but nothing which solidly links any of them to the crime. After a decade now, this cold case has a breath of new life.

An attractive waitress is found dead a mile and a half from her abandoned vehicle.

Fingerprints from a 1969 murder investigation turn up more than 30 years later, and detectives wonder if there could be a match in a modern fingerprint database.

The crime scene was especially violent: A husband and wife had been shot to death in their bedroom. At first, investigators thought their teenage daughter was lucky to have survived... but after a while, they wondered if the reason she was alive had more to do with careful planning than luck.

A witness comes forward to help solve the murder of a South Carolina hairdresser.

A pair of lesbian women are found murdered in Oregon. Forensic investigators trace fingerprints on duct tape used to bind them and make a composite sketch of a man seen nearby.

A human skeleton was found in the North Carolina marshlands and, when investigators learned she'd been dead for several months, they knew it would be difficult to find out who she was much less who killed her. It would take an inventive computer consultant to give her a face and a name.

After shooting his victims in the head, the killer staged the scene, placed the evidence into a plastic bag and tossed it into the river. But instead of floating downstream, it became entangled in overhanging branches. A few days later, when investigators found it, they hoped clues to the killer's identity and the solution to the crime were "in the bag."

In a terrible twist of fate, just days after the woman sold her home and moved to a modest trailer, a fire claimed both the trailer and her life. But the autopsy proved this was no accident. It was arson and murder. Police had to find out who wanted the woman dead... and why.

When a security guard disappeared from work without a trace, investigators couldn't determine if he left willingly or if foul play was involved. But homicide was confirmed when the body was found 19 months later. Without any substantial evidence or leads the case went cold. 14 years later, a cold case investigator solved the case after finding crucial evidence hidden beneath the victim's sole.

For years, a brutal series of rapes and murders of college girls shocked a local campus. Police feared a serial killer was on the loose and they needed to determine what – or who – these women had in common.