Murders go unsolved. Killers slip through the cracks. With the passage of time, families lose hope and another unsolved homicide file settles into obscurity. The pattern is familiar, but changing, thanks to the efforts of a special breed of detectives. Cold Case Files tells the story of their work.
Death of actor Bob Crane; fingerprint matching; police solve the murder of a missing young woman; DNA and an Illinois rape case.
From Wisconsin to Maine, go inside cold case units and watch as police use computer enhanced photographs, ground penetrating radar, forensic science and tough police interrogation to crack some of the oldest crimes in the books.
In England, Juliet Rowe, a quiet community member and wife of a local grocery man, was gunned down in her kitchen. Ten years later her killer is arrested. The answer to unraveling this mystery brought English detectives overseas. In rural Texas, using a DNA data bank called CODIS, cold case detectives were able to catch a sexual serial stalker who preyed on young girls. In Griffin, Georgia, 36 year-old Beverly Eller is found brutally murdered Christmas Eve morning. Nine years later police get a hit on a fingerprint found at the murder scene.
Police solve the killing of an 11-year-old track star 10 years later when they obtain the DNA evidence they need in a cigarette butt dropped by the suspect. Also, a mother is convicted of killing her 5-year-old daughter 13 years after the crime.
DNA tests identify a skull of a 14-year-old boy who went missing 6 years earlier. When a second skull is found, investigators fear they have a serial killer in the area. In Florida, detectives trace a gun used in a 4-year-old murder.
In Missouri, a part-time missionary is convicted, 38 years later, of killing her 5-year-old stepdaughter, and the skeleton of a Michigan boy, dead for 10 years, leads police to a serial killer.
Alligators feasting on a human corpse help police to crack a murder investigation. Phoenix police discover that a preacher is the culprit in a 20-year-old murder.
A man in Florida is reported missing and his roommate is the main suspect. Then, at first it looks like L.A.P.D. Sgt. George Arthur died in a car crash. But two days later, four bullets are found in his skull.
A tipster's phone call helps solve the murder of the heir to the U-Haul company fortune, and a grisly murder case is solved two decades later with the use of new fingerprint technology.
A highly-regarded California arson investigator is suspected of setting a series of fires, and a man is convicted of raping and murdering his 68-year-old neighbor and stealing her Coke bottle and rare coin collections.
In Palm Beach, a determined cop solves the murder of prostitute Lucy Pate five years later. In 1989, Susan Doll was found beaten, raped, and strangled. Investigators extracted DNA from a semen stain, but had no suspect to match it against - until 1995.
A woman tracks down the man who raped her 7 years earlier, only to find out that the statute of limitations on rape is 6 years; and a detective keeps a murder investigation going for 16 years to proves a woman killed her husband in a satanic rite.
Rapes plague the Linden area of Columbus, Ohio; a hitchhiker's corpse is found in the California redwoods.
In Wisconsin, advances in forensic clay modeling help investigators identify a murder victim whose skin was stripped from her head, neck, and legs. And in California, police track down two boys who enjoy satanic rituals and setting fires.
A killer of four goes free until a detective finds key evidence on a coffee cup.
DNA evidence helps crack the case of a white supremacist who strangled his girlfriend and put her body in a refrigerator. Hypnosis helps solve the murder of a deputy sheriff.
Police solve a murder when divers find a skeleton in a car at the bottom of a river. A dead dog's DNA helps crack open a six-year-old case.
The accidental discovery of a human scalp leads to the conviction of a man for murder 18 years after the killing. And a teenager who likes to kidnap younger boys and break their bones, kills one and tortures another.
A serial killer keeps law enforcement working on his cases for over 20 years.
When a passing motorist spots a fire along a country road in South Carolina and calls it in, police arrive to discover the badly burned and battered remains of a woman, her skull smashed in to ninety-seven fragments.
A scientist's murder is solved using the technology she was developing at the time of her death; criminal profiling helps to nab a child-rapist.
Using a hair dryer to thaw a frozen corpse, detectives get to the bottom of a grisly murder. The discovery of a child's skeleton in a Chicago garden puts police on the trail of an oddball family.
A boat ride leads to death; a mail order bride is found dead after threatening to leave her husband.
A New Orleans police officer goes undercover on a riverboat; a Wisconsin man goes on trial for a murder 10 years earlier.
A fluke audit of a license-plate number leads police to a brutal rapist.
A forensic anthropologist becomes an expert on the human body's rate of decay.
A woman helps to solve her mother's murder; an officer solves the murder of a newspaper-delivery woman.
A killer boasts of his crime to cellmates; police link a New Hampshire murder to one in Florida.
A woman's fall from a cliff leads police to uncover a series of grisly murders; investigators find crucial DNA evidence on a killer's cigarette butts.
After receiving a crucial clue, police solve a woman's murder more than 20 years after the fact.
A look into the crimes of a notorious white supremacist organization re-opens the case of a black truck driver who was forced to jump off a bridge to his death by members of the group, one of who faces criminal charges 32 years after the incident.
A Minnesota serial-killer, who targets waitresses, remains free for nearly 20 years.
A murder victim's niece starts an advocate group; a car preserves a victim's body.
DNA on a cigarette brings a rapist and murderer to justice; a confession made to a TV star helps police to solve a murder.
Killing of a medical examiner's wife; deaths of two babies.
Killer sets fires for insurance money; a prison inmate helps to solve a murder.
A tool mark solves a murder; a disgruntled wife tells police that her husband is a killer.
The national DNA databank helps police hunt down a rapist-killer; recreation of a shooting death proves it wasn't an accident.
The Internet assists police in finding a serial killer; drug trafficker jumps bail.
A teenager leads police to the killer of three girls; a woman disappears from her sister's home.
Saliva seals a killer's doom; DNA from the victim's son solves a murder; an arson investigator is accused of setting fires; a neighbor rapes, robs and murders an older woman.
A wild hunch pays off in the capture of a serial rapist; investigators solve the murder of a 6-year-old girl.
BTK Dennis Rader terrorizes Wichita, Kan., for decades, leaving at least 10 murder victims in his wake.
Nearly 20 years after they first suspect him, police arrest Gary Ridgway, the most prolific known serial killer in U.S. history.
A deacon suspected of having an affair is found shot to death in Tijuana, Mexico; a woman claims she was assaulted by the man that killed her husband.
A detective tracks down a man who raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl 10 years earlier; police search for the killer of an 18-year-old hitchhiker.
Publicity of a man's mandatory release in Texas brings forth a witness to a murder in Michigan.
A cell phone and an ATM card lead to the apprehension of a rapist.
Detectives work to solve the 1995 rape and murder of a 14-year-old.
DNA evidence solves the murder of a female law student; a man confesses to the random killing of a bowhunter.
In 1987, a young girl is found raped and strangled; in 1983, a young mother is raped and murdered at work.
A wiretapped conversation between a suspected killer and his sister cracks a 9-year-old murder case; a geologist finds human bones, solving the murder of a Virginia woman.
A police detective suspects a killer preys on older women; a protective mother disappears after learning her daughter has been sexually molested.
Young girls are sexually assaulted while waiting for their school buses; in 1991, a 9-year-old girl disappears from her home and is found murdered.
A brother is a suspect in the case of a 12-year-old found dead in her home in 1998; a 69-year-old woman is the victim of rape and murder in 1984.
In 1995, two women are raped in Louisville, Ky.; in 1982, a young man is found murdered in Deadwood, S.D.
Detective Danny Reyes investigates the 1990 murder of a Fort Worth, Texas woman.
In 1947, actress Elizabeth Short's corpse is found nude and bisected in an empty lot.
Police go under cover to catch a man they suspect of killing three prostitutes; a letter opener links a priest to the murder of a nun.
A banker is beaten to death in his bed; a man with a guilty conscience helps police.
A missing sailor's sister works to prove he was killed; rape and murder.
The 1988 rape and murder of a California woman; a jailhouse snitch.
Two young girls are raped, murdered and dumped in an abandoned house; a 26-year-old mother of three disappears on Christmas Eve in 1995.
A 25-year-old woman is killed in a hotel room in 1978; a 25-year-old woman is shot to death during a jewelry-store robbery in 1980.
A woman is found murdered in her mobile home; an Oregon man is shot dead.
A Detroit cab-company owner is murdered in 1989; in 1986 a woman is found murdered in her bedroom.
Fingerprints lifted from two beer bottles help a California detective track down a prostitute's killer; the investigations of a woman's murder and the death of a man killed in a car crash use DNA analysis.
Complete episode guide for Cold Case Files with detailed information about every season and episode including air dates, summaries, ratings, and streaming availability in United States.
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