Thursday

In the United States, identity theft costs citizens billions of dollars. In some cases, it costs the lives of innocent people.

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.

Fire, water, earth – killers call on all the elements in their attempt to cover up their crimes. But even a body burned to ashes, sunk deep into the sea or reduced to fragments will still tell its forensic tale.

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.

The Whitaker family returns home from a night out celebrating son Bart's graduation from university when they interrupt a burglary in progress at their Texas home. With all four family members shot, police are short on leads – until a surprise informant breaks the case wide open.

In the small community of Gormania WV, a young female resident, Cathy Ford, receives a mysterious phone call on February 17, 1988. She is reported missing that evening when she doesn’t return home. No one has seen Cathy since but a burnt car, blood soaked trailer and a secret affair all lead to the idea that Cathy Ford did not disappear willingly.

A park ranger discovers the corpse of amateur boxer Corey Edge floating in a shallow creek. Lt. Joe Kenda learns the victim had ties to the criminal underworld, and investigates a rogue’s gallery of hustlers, thugs and career criminals. But the case runs cold until Kenda realizes the real killers have been hiding in plain sight.

The brutally beaten body of First Nations sex trade worker Pamela George is discovered on a cold spring morning just outside Regina, Saskatchewan. Initial investigators focus on men known as Ôbad tricksÕ, but three weeks later, new information changes the direction of the investigation. Popular university students Steven Kummerfield and Alexander Ternowetsky, white boys from successful families, are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ms. George. They are ultimately convicted of manslaughter in a sensational case that divides the public along racial lines.

In 1994, the brutalized body of a young mother is found in a 55-gallon trash barrel. Did she get caught in a love triangle, or did a coworker's obsession go to far? When the shocking truth is untangled, a vicious killer faces final justice.