Friday

A World War II veteran was found dead in his home, and the investigation ground to a halt when the prime suspect had a solid alibi. But a lucky break led to a shady character who wore distinctive boots and had a sweet tooth.

A stranger snatched an eight-year-old girl as she played in her Tucson, Arizona neighborhood. Hundreds of citizens and police officers fanned out across the region, hoping to find some trace of the young girl or her abductor.

Shirley Russell was determined enough to reach the rank of Captain in the United States Marine Corps. When this officer turned up missing, her colleagues refused to believe she had gone AWOL. It was unclear whether Captain Shirley Russell was alive.

Forensic entomology: Bugs have roamed the earth for 250 million years, but their intimate association with death is just now coming to life. The kinds of insects on bodies, along with their stage of development, can pinpoint time of death and help identify victims.

Missouri v. Joseph Elledge. An exchange student found a career and a love match in the idyllic Missouri university town of Columbia. It was a shock to their friends and family when she disappeared, leaving both her child and cell phone behind. The missing persons case made headlines as police divers painstakingly searched a nearby river without success. But then a discovery - hikers stumbled on the remains of a corpse in the woods, and forensic experts confirmed it was Mengqi. The “no body” case was now officially a murder case with strong forensic evidence matching dirt on the killer’s boots to the dirt at her gravesite.

Employees busted for breaking the law on the job.

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.

Florida v. Kimberly Kessler. Hairstylist Joleen Cummings, a mother of three, was last seen working at Tangles Hair Salon on Mother’s Day in 2018. But when she failed to pick up her children for a planned celebration, she was reported missing by her ex-husband. Investigators discovered a bloody scene at the salon – Cummings and her SUV were gone. The next day, authorities found the car but not Joleen, parked outside a nearby Home Depot. Soon, police were on the hunt for Joleen’s killer and would first arrest the suspect for Grand Theft Auto and later for first degree murder.

Florida v. Dayonte Resiles. An heir to the Halliburton oil dynasty fortune, Jill Halliburton Su, was found by her son Justin dead in the bathtub at her upscale home in a Florida gated community in 2014. The security cameras weren't working, a glass door had been shattered, and at least one room of the house had been ransacked. Police quickly focused on Justin as the prime suspect, grilling him intensely for hours. But despite the dramatic interrogation room sessions, the son never admitted guilt. A few days later, when crime scene DNA forensic tests were finally processed, Justin was cleared; and investigators were after a new suspect.

Florida v. Euri Jenkins. Makeva Jenkins seemed to have it all. A successful businesswoman and mother of three, she boasted on Facebook that she had grown her business to six figures. But just hours later, she was shot dead with a bullet to the head. Her husband, Euri Jenkins, told police a masked intruder had shot and killed his wife. Her close-knit family held a press conference, pleading for information about her killer. But the tale of the happy family fell apart when police arrested her husband in a murder-for-hire plot. Detectives also arrested 19-year-old Joevan Joseph, who told investigators Jenkins had hired him to kill his wife for the life insurance money.

A young mother vanishes from her late-night shift, leaving behind only a trail of blood and unanswered questions. As years pass, chilling discoveries link her case to others, revealing a predator lurking in plain sight. But one mystery remains—where is Jessica Heeringa?

Solider and young father Layne Schmidtke is brutally beaten to death by a mob of teenagers. Kenda must reconstruct the chaotic scene through forensic evidence and witness testimonies, which reveals an unlikely suspect as the murderous ringleader.

A stranger snatched an eight-year-old girl as she played in her Tucson, Arizona neighborhood. Hundreds of citizens and police officers fanned out across the region, hoping to find some trace of the young girl or her abductor.

Shirley Russell was determined enough to reach the rank of Captain in the United States Marine Corps. When this officer turned up missing, her colleagues refused to believe she had gone AWOL. It was unclear whether Captain Shirley Russell was alive.