Wednesday

Early one fall morning, Laura Houghteling left her Bethesda home and walked to the station to take a train to work. She was never seen again. A peculiar strand of hair found in Laura’s hairbrush enabled investigators to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.

On the strength of eyewitness testimony, 34-year-old Edward Honaker was arrested, charged, and convicted of rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual battery; he was sentenced to three life terms in prison. Honaker steadfastly maintained his innocence. After spending years in prison and writing countless letters, he finally found someone who believed him, and was willing to pay for DNA testing which could prove he was telling the truth.

Philadelphia, Mississippi, 1964. A sleepy southern town steeped in tradition finds itself targeted for invasion.

To the FBI, he was believed to be the boss of New York’s most powerful mafia organization—the Genovese crime family. Was Gigante crazy or was his behavior a shrewd attempt to disguise his position as a ruthless mafia boss?

Every family has its secrets, and sometimes blood relations lead to bloodshed. When money is the motive, murder can rip at the very foundation of marriage and family. When murder becomes a family affair, investigators must turn to forensics to uncover a death in the family when the motive is for love or money

Tennessee v. Billy Ray Turner. Ten days after NBA player Lorenzen Wright went missing, the player's body was found in a swamp, shot 11 times. His death made headlines – Wright had played in the NBA for 13 seasons, was a first-round draft pick in 1996, and played for the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers. But police initially had no clue who killed him and reporters speculated it was a drug deal gone bad. Lorenzen’s mother was tireless in her pursuit for justice and kept the case in the headlines as the murder went unsolved for a half dozen years. Finally, a break in the case led police to a suspect who had been hiding in plain sight.

Police encounter people using odd methods of transportation.

Dr. G explains some easy ways to avoid your untimely death. This episode talks about some cases where an individual could have stayed alive with some simple tips.

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.

Police discover a man shot dead in his home after they receive a call from his worried mother. The search for the killer would lead them on a two-year investigation spanning several states. Because many of the witnesses were admitted drug users, investigators would need hard physical evidence to prove their case; it came in the form of a rare gun and the victim’s beloved dog.

A young TV news producer is raped and murdered in her apartment. Police identify two suspects, but both are cleared of any wrongdoing. The case stalls for more than a year, and then investigators turn to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s DNA Databank which houses profiles of more than 8,000 convicted felons, and is the first of its kind in the nation. A comparison of the crime scene evidence with the Databank profiles results in Virginia’s first “cold hit” in a homicide investigation, and reveals the identity of the killer.

Police are dispatched to the scene of a shooting, and discover the victim’s husband is one of their own: a homicide detective who says his wife accidentally shot herself in the head. The detective maintains he called 911 immediately, but the evidence seems to indicate otherwise. Investigators turn to a forensic scientist and a ballistics expert to learn what really happened, and who was responsible.

A six-year old girl, andrea atkinson, is found dead in the boiler room of her toronto tenement. Forensic investigators quickly determine she has been raped and smothered. There are no witnesses. Quick-thinking cops experiment with the sound in the boiler room by yelling with the door closed. Outside, total silence. Whoever killed andrea knew no one would hear him.

When the son of a prominent politician is murdered in his basement, Lt. Joe Kenda feels pressure from City Hall to solve the case. To do so, Kenda must sort through a list of nefarious suspects, and delve deep into the victim’s eccentric lifestyle.

In the late 1970s, the FBI had a working knowledge of anti-Castro terrorists operating in the United States. But then a new group appeared, more violent and aggressive than their predecessors.

ItÕs just another meeting for Los Angeles real estate developer Meyer Muscatel. Unfortunately Muscatel meets with Iouri Mikhel, a Russian immigrant with murderous intent. A week later, MuscatelÕs body is found floating in a northern California lake. Mikhel masterminds a kidnap-for-ransom scheme, and he and his crew kill and dump four more victims. With a storyline that includes a bank account in Abu Dhabi and a mysterious Moscow middleman, the case is solved by FBI agents Lour Perez and Jim Davidson and prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Robert Dugdale. Mikhel and his co-conspirator Jurijus Kadamovas are convicted of five cold-blooded, ruthless murders and, in 2007, are sentenced to death.

In 1980, a teen girl is brutally murdered in her Colorado home. In her brave efforts to defend herself, the victim leaves investigators a clue-her attacker’s blood. Years later, tireless investigators expose a killer that no one could have predicted.