Friday

The great outdoors may offer great clues to solving brutal murders. But it takes the keen eye of the forensic entomologist and botanist to decipher the clues nature provides.

Iowa v. Cristhian Rivera. When 20 year old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts went missing during her regular evening jog, her disappearance was headline news. Police had few clues until a local resident shared his garage surveillance camera which had captured a brief glimpse of Mollie running down the street and later a black car driving by. Following the lead Police moved quickly to arrest undocumented immigrant Christhian Bahena Rivera who worked at a nearby dairy farm and charged him with murder.

Fake cops get busted by real cops.

52-year old John Walker is discovered dead in bed, riddled with bullets and his wife bound in the closet. Dr. G must consider all evidence to solve this complicated case. After a long struggle with addiction, 38-year old Isabel Sanchez dies soon after falling ill. With few clues, Dr. G is tasked with finding Isabel’s cause of death.

A woman was shot to death just one day before she was to testify against a man accused of robbing her. The robber became the prime suspect, but he had a solid alibi: a time-stamped videotape of his outdoor activities on the day of the murder. Police asked a local physics professor to help them authenticate the videotape, and he enabled them to see the killer who was hiding in the shadows.

In 1993, the state of Florida was known for more than swimsuits, sun, and Disney. Worldwide attention focused on a rash of robberies which targeted tourists. Some vacationers were killed in these attacks; some fought and survived, despite severe injuries. One of those injuries, a bite mark, would be the key piece of evidence used to convict a determinedly uncooperative suspect, who ran into an even more determined detective.

During the early morning hours of December 29, 1991, a woman was murdered in a Phoenix bar. At the crime scene, investigators found a shoe-print, several foreign hairs, and unknown fingerprints. But they believed the most incriminating piece of evidence was the bite mark found on the victim. On the strength of that evidence, a local postman was convicted of murder, but he continued to maintain his innocence. Ten years into his sentence, improved technology yielded new information about old evidence, and earned him another trial.

A woman’s death in Pennsylvania triggers a homicide investigation into another woman’s death in North Carolina. The similarities in the cases were striking, and medical examiners must determine if the suspect’s story about accidental drowning is all wet.

Caretaker larry mallory notices something unusual while on his way to work. Lying in the middle of the highway is a leg from a department store dummy. When he gets closer, mallory sees two crows feeding on it. The leg is not plastic, it is flesh, and it has been severed from a female human body with surgical precision. The discovery of four more body parts in the area touch off a murder manhunt that involves seven police forces in four countries

Hard-working fast food manager Missy Berry is found dead in an idling car at a deserted intersection. Kenda discovers suspects from Missy’s past who may have wanted her dead. But a surprise twist in the investigation leads him into uncharted territory.

In the 1970s, cities across the United States became a battleground for vicious Croatian radicals. Their violent agenda targeted their own people living in America.

In november 1996, raymond collin went missing in his hometown of timmins, ontario. The discovery of his body days later in a snow-covered truck in downtown timmins led police to an assortment of possible suspects. However, police picked up the trail of the killers following another murder in southern ontario. The co-operation of two ontario police departments led to the arrest and conviction of robin graves and wayne jones.

In 1980, a Hemet, California businessman comes home to find his wife brutally murdered. Investigators sift through shifty suspects and shaky alibis before closing in on a remorseless killer.