Thursday

For three years, investigators searched for the wife of a prominent farmer, who disappeared from her home without a trace. Eventually, a former lover of the missing woman’s estranged husband came forward with a fantastic tale of rage, murder, mutilation and cremation, but there was no way to test the validity of her story... that is, until a plant pathologist and a dendrochronologist conducted some tests on the plant life on the farm, which led to a surprising revelation.

Some people murder for love. But these killers did it for the money. When greed is the motive, investigators must make every clue pay off.

Too often, convicted felons learn new techniques and find new partners in prison. In 1982, a group of former inmates began a spree of kidnapping and robbery.

From California to Kentucky, few living near a railroad felt safe in the summer of 1999. A serial killer, rode the rails, picking towns and victims at random. He left behind a trail of bloodshed, but no trace of where he would turn up next.

Texas v. Brenda Delgado. Popular pediatric dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher was happily dating fellow Dallas doctor Ricardo Paniagua when she was brutally murdered in her home in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong. Police arrested former drug dealer, Kristopher Love, and his girlfriend for the horrific crime which shocked the upscale community. But facing murder charges, the couple revealed a more sinister and stunning murder plot saying they had been hired by Paniagua’s jealous and obsessed ex-girlfriend Brenda Delgado who had been secretly stalking him since their breakup.

In small-town bartow, florida four bodies are found slaughtered in a factory. It’s the largest mass murder in county history. Each victim is somehow connected to the factory and the family business -- and each victim seems to have been executed by a professional assassin. When investigators finally zero in on a prime suspect, they are foiled by his picture-perfect alibi – security footage showing him 500 miles from the scene of the crime. With no hard evidence in sight – and with the bloodthirsty killer still on the loose – investigators turn to video forensic analysis, complex timeline reconstruction, and a most unexpected 3-year-old fingerprint.

Nicole Vonlee Titlow needed money desperately, so she made a deal with the wife of a 74-year-old millionaire, with eyes on the inheritance.

Over the years, Betty Lou Beets had multiple failed marriages, each of which ended in its own unique way. In 1983, she reported her fifth husband missing and tried to stage a boat accident.

When a vicious attack leads to the death of a young parent and child, investigators are stumped. Years later, they arrest the gunman surprisingly close to home – but a change in the law puts the case in jeopardy.

Outside the small town of Verdigre, Nebraska, a domestic altercation ends in death. Frances Thompson claims to have killed Dean Frank in self-defense, but as investigators dig deeper, they’re not so sure.

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.

For three weeks in May of 1994, a brutal killer had a nation on edge. A bloody spree of rapes, kidnappings, and murders resulted in the deaths of six Oklahoma residents, including a local radio personality and an elderly widower. Gary Alan Walker, an emotionally disturbed ex-convict, was eventually captured and executed for these crimes.

In rural Kentucky, a young woman is found dead in the trunk of her car. The search for her killer unearths a deadly web of buried secrets in this seemingly idyllic community.