Forensic Files
Upcoming episodes
Sep 25th
900a
Time Will Tell
In this international case of extortion, murder, and stolen identities, a Canadian financier assumed the name of a co-worker as part of a money-laundering scheme. The man turned up dead in the ocean, with an anchor tied around his torso. Police hoped to identify him with a tattoo and the watch he was wearing. But it would be the ten-pound anchor which enabled them to crack the case.
Sep 25th
930a
Second Shot at Love
When a respected heart surgeon is found dead in the basement of his upscale Cincinnati home, police assume he committed suicide. Friends and family indicate that the man suffered prolonged bouts of depression and had spoken of killing himself. But a further investigation revealed that his new wife had a history of violence and an insatiable desire for money.
Sep 25th
1000a
Journey to Justice
What does a prosecutor do when he has evidence linking a habitual drunk driver to a hit-and-run in which a child is killed, and he needs to make the crash clear to jurors? In this case, he combines the talents of an accident reconstruction expert with a video specialist to create a graphic demonstration of the moment of impact. This case was the first in which video in the courtroom withstood an appeal, and helped make “video testimony” viable in other cases.
Sep 25th
1030a
Video Diary
When a convenience store employee was found shot at point blank range, investigators discovered the murder had been captured on the store’s videotape security camera. But the image of the killer was so degraded it seems impossible to positively identify him... until old fashioned forensic science was combined with space age technology.
Sep 26th
900a
Missing in Time
A young woman was reported missing after a fight with her husband. She was presumed dead and her husband was the prime suspect. Police were suspicious of a secondary suspect when he reported a fire in his car. Two tiny drops of blood were discovered in the burned interior. Traditional DNA testing was difficult without a body for comparison. But a tiny clue inside the suspect’s watchband, and a popular television show, helped solve the case.
Sep 26th
930a
Missing Pearl
The woman seemed to have simply disappeared, and police were treating treated the case as that of a missing person. A blood trail leading to the basement of her home, and a partial excavation of the floor, yielded nothing. But a year later, with the help of groundbreaking forensic technology, police would find her body and determine who was responsible for her death.
Sep 26th
1000a
Hand Delivered
Anonymous letters sent through the United States mail aren’t always untraceable. One such letter, an anonymous “tip” to police about a murder, mentioned information about the crime that had been withheld from the press. It was information only the killer would know. Laser technology helped to identify the state, city, street address and even the office number from where the anonymous letter was mailed.
Sep 26th
1030a
Death Play
Marie Robards suffered the devastating loss of her father while she was still in high school. The death was ruled the result of cardiac arrest. One year later, she won a part in her high school production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The lines she was required to recite onstage were more than the thoughts and feelings of her character; they struck a chord, and hinted at her own inner turmoil, from the secret she had been hiding.
Sep 28th
100p
Jean Pool
Police investigating the 1984 murder of a college student had plenty of suspects, but no conclusive evidence linking any of them to the crime. More than a decade later, sophisticated technology would breathe new life into a case grown cold with the passage of time.
Sep 28th
130p
Traffic Violations
The body of an attractive young woman was found a mile from her abandoned car. Police were especially concerned when they realized the victim had come to them for protection just two weeks earlier, after a road rage incident. Concern turned to dread when the evidence began to point not to an aggressive driver, but to one of their own.