Friday

The gunman opened fire as the family of four entered their home, killing two and wounding the others. He’d pulled open a few drawers to make it look like a robbery, but the scene was clearly staged. When police pieced together the clues, they discovered an unlikely suspect and a carefully orchestrated plot.

Arson investigation: Insurance torchings, mob burnouts and arson murders: These crimes are designed to take all clues with them. But a solid case can be built from a heap of ashes. Arson investigators do everything from gathering physical evidence to mounting undercover and sting operations.

Two decades after a Jacksonville, Fla., woman goes missing, her son solves the mystery that haunted his childhood.

A 21-year-old college senior is shot and killed in a public park just months before her graduation.

Chilling new details about the sensational Menendez case. Hear from the brothers themselves.

Ohio v. Gail Eastwood-Ritchey. In the spring of 1993, two newspaper carriers driving down a rural road spotted what they thought was a doll but which turned out to be, in fact, a newborn baby's body. The coroner would determine that the baby had been born alive; but his origin was a mystery. The community called the baby Geauga's Child, after the name of the county; they made clothes for his funeral and paid for his burial. Despite dozens of leads and even a hidden camera placed at the cemetery in hopes that the child's mother would show up, no arrests were made for 25 years. Then, with modern DNA and familial genealogy techniques, the cold case was solved, identifying the boy's mother as the now middle-aged Gail Eastwood-Ritchey. Years before, as a young unmarried woman, she had delivered the baby, stillborn, and placed his body in a trash bag in a wooded area. After a four-day trial, Eastwood-Richey was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

Wisconsin v. Todd Kendhammer. Todd Kendhammer called 911 in a panic, describing a freak accident that occurred while he was driving with his wife, Barbara, in the passenger seat. He said a metal pipe had fallen from a passing truck, piercing the windshield and fatally injuring his wife. But police were suspicious of Todd's responses in the interrogation room, when his story continued to change, and his alibi didn't check out. Forensic details from the autopsy report cast further doubt on his story. Detectives came to believe Kendhammer strangled Barbara and staged the accident to cover his crime. He was convicted of first-degree murder. The couple's two children, Jordan and Jessica, continue to believe their father is innocent. Jessica speaks in his defense in this episode.

Florida v. James Colley Jr.. In Florida in 2015, Amanda Colley was starting her life over after a contentious divorce and an ongoing custody battle with her ex-husband, James. The 36-year-old mother of two was excited about a new love interest, Lamar Douberly. Then, one summer night, she returned to a ransacked house. Lamar and two girlfriends arrived to join her as police were called. Then, gunshots rang out; glass shattered. After more shots, Amanda and her friend Lindy, a mother of three, were both dead and Rachel was injured. The gunman took off. James Colley was arrested 600 miles away and brought back to Florida to stand trial for double murder, with both Lamar and Rachel giving dramatic firsthand testimony.

During a routine custody exchange, Heather Strube was caught in a deadly confrontation. Eyewitnesses point to a figure whose motive goes far deeper than anyone expected.

While standing outside of a motorcycle gang’s clubhouse, two witnesses watched in horror as a truck intentionally ran over an unconscious man – not once, but twice. Fearing for their safety, the witnesses ran into the clubhouse; when they looked outside, both the truck and the victim were gone. The truck was finally located, but the forensics lab could not find a single speck of evidence in it. And the body didn’t turn up either.

Police determine that the human remains found in a discarded box belong to one Edna Posey. But to find out when the murder took place, and whether the man accused of the crime is guilty, investigators turn to insects and the forensic entomologist who can interpret their behavior.

An eighteen-year-old girl is abducted at gunpoint from her home in Jackson, Ohio. Fortunately the victim returns hours later, and police hope the tire impressions and shoe prints at the crime scene will enable them to find the perpetrator. But the victim knew something about forensic science, and she was determined to prove she had been in the assailant’s truck. The clues she left behind, and her recollection of details, led police straight to a career criminal.

When a severed leg is found in a dumpster, investigators are faced with the challenge of identifying the victim. Conventional methods – fingerprinting, comparison with dental records, reports of missing persons – are useless. Using anthropology, toxicology and DNA testing, police are able to determine who the victim was, and follow the trail of evidence to his killer.

A New York attorney successfully manages to defend a female client and he underestimates the lengths that she will go to show him her gratitude.