Programme de Forensic Files

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Even though their daughter had run away before, she had always come back. Her parents were sure this time would be no different, but they were wrong.

In the early hours of a morning just before Christmas, a college student was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment. Her body was found later that day; she had been sexually assaulted and shot at point-blank range.

Who was the sexual offender who murdered two adolescent boys in Nebraska? The key to stopping him would be the unique composition of the "junk rope" he used to tie his victims.

In 1989, the dead bodies of Joan Rogers and her two teenage daughters were found floating in Tampa Bay.

In 2002, a small community in upstate New York was devastated when Patty Wlasiuk died in a truck accident. But burdock seed pods found in her hair and on her clothes indicated that this was no accident — it was cold-blooded murder.

In 1994, a human skull retrieved from an Ohio pond reveals a ghastly crime. Markings on the skull indicate that the victim had been stabbed multiple times and that the teeth had been removed with needle-nose pliers.

Casino security cameras tracked a young woman's movements until shortly before she disappeared. She was never seen again, but through the evidence she left behind, she was able to tell investigators what happened to her and who was responsible.

A murder trail turned cold, until police got a call from a woman whose husband, Gerald Powers, had a criminal past and a fondness for Chevy Berettas.

After being admitted to the hospital with unexplained bleeding, 11-month-old Chad Shelton dies. Investigators and scientists frantically search for a cause when others from the same house fall ill.

In 1994, 19-year-old Shannon Melendi disappeared while at Emory University. Her disappearance remained a mystery for ten years, until new scientific testing cast a different light on Colvin "Butch" Hinton.

By using techniques she saw on forensic science TV shows, a mother determines who was responsible for the accident that permanently injured her 4-year-old daughter.

It was one of the most brazen crimes of the 20th century. Adolph Coors III, chairman of the Coors Brewing Company, was kidnapped and held for ransom. The crime prompted one of the most intense manhunts in United States history.

The murders of an elderly couple leave police stumped until, two years later, they receive a major break. A jeweler looking through old newspaper clippings recognizes a necklace the female victim wore as having been pawned in her own shop.

In 2003, Tiffany Rowell and three of her friends were brutally murdered in affluent Clear Lake, Texas.

Soon after organizing a workers' strike, a union official is executed in his home. Neither his wife nor anyone in the neighborhood hear any gunshots. It takes a forensic sound test, an electron microscope and a nightgown to explain why.

After 6-year-old Michelle Lee Dorr went missing, her father confessed to murdering her. But investigators soon poked holes in his story, leaving the case unsolved for 14 years.

In 1997, Kelly Eckart's car was found, with her belongings still in it, after she worked a late shift in Franklin, Indiana. Days later, her body was found in an isolated ravine.

A serial killer was on the loose and police had to find him before he struck again. Their most promising lead was an unusual one: a bloody fingerprint on the body of one of the victims.

When convenience store employee Wanda Mason is found dead, investigators find the entire murder has been caught on the store's security camera. But the image of the killer is so degraded it seems impossible to positively identify him.

In 1986, Gary Dale Larson was stabbed to death in his Edmond, Oklahoma home. The killer then sexually assaulted Larson's girlfriend, Janet Haynes.

This examination of the role autopsies play in murder investigations focuses on the suspicious death of Virginia Ridley. Police charge her mentally unstable husband with murder, but a medical examiner discovers that she died of natural causes.

When Leann Fletcher is found dead, investigators use blood spatter analysis and forensic computing to find a motive for her murder: her husband, a prominent lawyer, was having an affair with judge Susan Chrzanowski.

When investigators found Bruce Miller dead in the office of his junkyard business, the crime scene was almost pristine. But when a computer forensics expert examined computers owned by the victim's wife and her lover, he found all the evidence needed.

A 29-year-old woman is killed instantly when a bomb explodes in her home. The device is so powerful that it embedded shrapnel in houses across the street. The bomber had not only knowledge and skill, but also a motive for murder.

Investigators find a shoe print, several foreign hairs and unknown fingerprints at a murder scene. But they believe the most telling piece of evidence is the bite mark on the victim's chest.

After the 1996 murder of Seattle residents Raquel Rivera and Jay Johnson, evidence from the couple's dog eventually ties one of the murderers to the scene.

A beautiful young woman falls to her death from a cliff overlooking the ocean. Initially, investigators think it was a tragic accident. But after a forensic examination, police uncover a very different picture of what happened.

The body of a wealthy American businessman was found in his rental car. Teeth and bone fragments were the only remains. When the victim's wife files an insurance claim for $7 million, investigators seek the help of a renowned forensic anthropologist.

The wife of a respected police officer was murdered in her own home. The crime went unsolved for more than a decade, until a newly formed cold case unit took a fresh look at the evidence.

Firefighters find an entire family dead inside their home in an apparent murder-suicide, but there are several inconsistent clues in the rubble. Could ballistics, a time card and some secret audiotapes unravel the mystery?

On Christmas Eve 2005, a man's body is found burning near Baltimore. He's eventually identified as 26-year-old Wesley Person. Distinctive building materials from the 1930s play a crucial role in solving this case.

Investigators are baffled after finding a murder scene devoid of any physical evidence, but they suspect that the victim's dog had witnessed the crime. If so, forensic scientists would have to find some way to learn what the dog had seen.

When 19-year-old Lori Auker left her Pennsylvania home for work and never arrived, it took space-age technology, cat hairs and insects to pinpoint the woman's abductor.

A surgeon is stabbed to death and the most likely suspect is seen in a restaurant at the time of the murder.

A man tells police he shot an intruder who had attacked and murdered his wife. The husband paints a tragic picture and is dubbed a hero. Four years later, forensic evidence leads police to re-examine the motives of this so-called hero.

When Kristine Fitzhugh failed to show up for her music class, her husband found her dead at the bottom of the stairs of their Palo Alto home. Further investigation reveals evidence of murder in the kitchen.

In 1984, a passerby finds the torso of a woman in a cardboard box. A forensic entomologist analyzes nearby insect activity to determine when the victim was killed.

A millionaire and his family were executed in their own home. For three years, the murders went unsolved. Finally, a 30-year-old box of ammunition and some fluorescent fibers revealed the ultimate betrayal.

In 2007, Brian and Beverly Mauck were found dead in their Graham, Washington home. Using a bloody palm print and shoe prints at the scene, investigators focus their attention on Daniel Tavares, who had previously inked a tattoo on Brian's back.

In 2006, Darlene VanderGiesen received threatening emails and then disappeared. Tracking the source of the emails led police to the home of Daphne Wright, where they believe a murder was committed.

One warm summer afternoon, the town of Verona, Wisconsin faced its first triple homicide. To solve the case, investigators had to delve into the world of high rollers and offshore betting.

When a car was found in a drainage ditch with two bodies inside, a fingertip torn from a latex glove would point investigators to both the crime scene and the killer.

6-year-old Nicole Rae Walker was killed in a hit-and-run in her Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood. The prosecutor combines the talents of an accident reconstruction expert with a video specialist to create a graphic demonstration of the moment of impact.

When court clerk Peter Porco doesn't report to work in November 2004, a courts officer is ordered to the Porcos' family home in Bethlehem, NY.

The bodies of several women are found on a remote hill in California. The police get a break when a prostitute escapes and is able to identify her attacker and his automobile.

When the wife of a well-known dentist is found dead, police struggle to identify a suspect. Some fibers and a study of the weather patterns on the night of the murder break the case open and reveal the killer.

A college senior was found raped and murdered near an unpaved footpath used by students to walk from one side of campus to the other.

In 1993, the Amtrak Railroad experienced the deadliest train crash in United States history when the Sunset Limited derailed while crossing Alabama's Big Bayou Canot bridge. 47 passengers and crew were killed; scores more were injured.

The decomposed body of a young woman was discovered in a Bakersfield irrigation canal. If there was trace evidence, it had been washed away.

A behavioral profile caused the Baton Rouge Police Department to search for the wrong man. The real perpetrator may have eluded arrest, had it not been for a molecular biologist who painted DNA picture of the suspect.

An Alaskan police officer finds a woman's body while on routine patrol of a public park. During the autopsy, the medical examiner preserves the portion of her rib cage which sustained the fatal wound.

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