Thursday

A Michigan State University grad student disappeared and was presumed dead. With the help of a professor of geological sciences, police hoped to get the “dirt” on her killer.

How unlucky could one man be? His wife had taken her own life, and his college sweetheart had killed herself in much the same fashion fourteen years earlier. Investigators had to determine if this was a bizarre coincidence, or an attempt to get away with murder... twice.

A woman was ambushed in her driveway and shot to death. During their investigation, police learned that a co-worker half her age was in love with her, and that she’d spurned his advances. They now had to determine if love had turned into obsession... and a motive for murder.

When killers are driven by jealousy and desire, their desperation is evident in both the crime and their efforts to avoid detection. But forensic science can reveal even the slightest mistake to solve crimes of passion.

When a paramilitary faction used bombs and robbery to further their cause, they crossed the line. The well-organized terror cell was difficult to define, and even harder to stop.

In 1992, a woman disappeared from her Memphis home. When the ransom went uncollected, the FBI suspected a desperate amateur and feared the worst.

In 1979, 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was found brutally stabbed to death in her car in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. For decades, the police and her family searched for answers -- who did this and why? But the case grew cold. Thirty-nine years later, DNA evidence from the crime scene finally led to a suspect and a murder trial.

Texas officers respond to what looks like a murder-suicide between a mother and her teenage son. Forensic testing of gunshot residue, body temperatures, and toxicology will decide whether this was a family tragedy or a staged scene.

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.

She appeared on the highway in the spring, a young woman, her life cut short, her past and her identity a mystery. Only by finding out who she was could we ever hope to find her killer.

A motel housekeeper in Oakley, Kansas, discovers the body of her co- worker, Alice Pepperl. The room lacks hard evidence to point to any one suspect, but a special coin taken from the cash registered could be all it takes. Even after a suspect confesses, the question of responsibility looms over the town.

Housewife Elsie Jennes is found dead in the basement of her burning home. Lt Joe Kenda has no leads until Elsie’s son, William, turns up in a police station over 50 miles away, equipped with a suitcase, a pet golden retriever, and a bizarre story to tell.

In november 1986, a snowstorm rips through connecticut, leaving wife and mother helle crafts missing. Her husband, airline pilot richard crafts, evades suspicion for weeks by claiming that helle had left the country to visit her sick mother. Groundbreaking forensic work and an eyewitness to a gruesome scene involving an industrial-sized woodchipper, results in a conviction that shocks a community.

Soon after Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, an 18-year-old freshman is found shot to death in the woods behind campus. Detectives take a hard look at several suspects, but thirty years go by before a stunning confession cracks the case.

After moving to Las Vegas, 19-year-old mother Sarah's colleague is found dead, and when she starts getting threatening messages, she realizes she might be next.