Thursday

It looked like sixty-two-year-old Phillip Rouss, Jr. had it all: family, friends, and a new business which was the culmination of a life-long dream. Then his health began to deteriorate. Doctors couldn’t pinpoint the cause of the illness and Phil began to suspect his condition was no accident. Toxicologists and investigators identified the real problem just in time to save Phil’s life.

When six-year-old Michelle Door disappeared without a trace, her father became the prime suspect. He failed a polygraph test and even confessed to the murder of his daughter, but his confession was later discounted. Years later, police learned that a man who’d been convicted of another murder lived just two doors away from Michelle when she disappeared. This discovery, and tiny drops of blood shed a decade earlier, helped police to solve the crime.

The discovery of a woman's naked body, covered with bruises, leaves no doubt that she was the victim of foul play. Quick-thinking investigators erected a makeshift tent around the body and used Super Glue fumes to lift the killer’s palm print from the victim’s skin. With this technique, they were able to determine who had a hand in the murder.

In 1987, Emelita Villa came to Arlington, Texas from the Philippines as a shy, impoverished, 18-year-old mail order bride for Jack Reeves, a man almost 30 years her senior. Six and a half years later, Emelita disappeared. During their investigation, detectives learned that both Reeves’ second and third wives had died amid mysterious circumstances. The death of Reeves’ second wife, Sharon, had been ruled a suicide, but blood spatter evidence in a photo indicated she might have been murdered. An autopsy, performed on Sharon’s body 14 years after her death, revealed even more.

In most homicides, police rely on motive to pursue a murderer.But when the killer is a stranger…the crime may go unsolved for years.It takes a full arsenal of forensic techniques…to trace… a lethal encounter.

In the 1990’s the war on drugs was in full swing. The front lines were often America’s inner cities where gangs use violence and murder to rule their empires.

Two armed bank robbers hit a Seattle bank taking over 150,000 dollars. Before they can escape police confront them and the pair splits up. As authorities search block by block they learn one was a career criminal with a long history of violence.

Colorado v. Kevin Eastman. Jazz trumpet player Scott Sessions failed to show up for a gig. A well-known local musician, he played with groups including the Elvis Experience band. His body was found a few days later, wrapped in plastic, partially burned and hidden in a forest. Investigators opened a murder case and traced his last known whereabouts to the residence of his new love interest, Heather Frank. Frank was nowhere to be seen, but investigators followed up on a tip about her former boyfriend, Kevin Eastman. Dogged detectives placed a tracking device on Eastman's car. When they went to investigate, they discovered Frank's body on the property of Eastman's employer.

In Seattle, a young woman vanishes and her phone goes dark. As strange texts confuse family and friends, detectives lean on digital forensics and a badly damaged cellphone to uncover what happened and who was really using her device.

In a jealous rage, 57-year-old professor George Zinkhan murders his wife, her lover and shoots other members of their amateur theatre troupe

Neuroscientist Amy Bishop is denied tenor, and it results in deadly consequences for her co-workers.

Richard and Aon have a blended family and a second chance at love. When a gunman surprises one of them while getting out of the shower, the daughters of the other are immediately suspicious. But was it the spouse? Or a former business partner, who seems just a little too close to the family?

The chief of police in Sparta, MI leads an investigation into what happened to his family friend and babysitter, Julia Dawson. Julia is reported missing when she doesn't come from Christmas shopping, and her body is found beneath a snowbank, weeks later. While evidence mounts against one suspect, it would take more than three years before investigators are able to make an arrest.

The elderly owners of a beloved local grocery are brutally attacked and left for dead. Working with little beyond a vague witness description, Lt. Joe Kenda leads a state-wide manhunt to catch a pair of cold-blooded killers before they disappear for good.

A week-long search for a missing 10-yr-old indiana girl ends sadly with her body being discovered in a nearby stream. The ensuing investigation puts police through the wringer as they are misled by false confessions and stories of secret meth labs. Dna evidence eventually pins the crime on anthony stockelman and the community is finally able to achieve justice.

Days before Thanksgiving, a small Philly suburb is rocked by the murder of 67-year-old Alice Hufnagle. Investigators run down a litany of suspicious characters on the road to unmasking the beloved matriarch’s killer.