Forensic Files
Upcoming episodes
Nov 17th
900a
Army of Evidence
A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. It appeared she had killed herself: There were suicide notes near her body, and a pistol was in her hand. Her death was ruled a suicide – but when investigators learned she had almost died in a house fire three years earlier, they decided to take another look at the evidence.
Nov 17th
930a
"Shear" Luck
In 1991, when the wife of a serviceman was brutally murdered in the Philippines, the Air Force Office of Special Investigators swung into action. Clues led to the victim’s husband, but he insisted he was innocent. To find out if he was telling the truth, investigators would have to do something unprecedented: Reassemble a 5-1/4” computer disk which had been cut to pieces with pinking shears.
Nov 17th
1000a
Tagging a Suspect
Bombings are difficult to solve, because the perpetrator isn’t usually at the scene, and the evidence goes up in smoke. But there are clues if investigators know where to look. In this case, pieces of plastic the size of grains of sand held the key to a man’s murder.
Nov 17th
1030a
Strong Impressions
The wife of an Air Force officer was found dead in her bed, with a plastic laundry bag near her face. At first glance, it appeared she’d been doing laundry, fell asleep, rolled onto the bag, and suffocated. But further investigation proved that the scene had been staged. Her death wasn’t an accident; it was cold-blooded murder.
Nov 17th
400p
Fatal Fungus
An infant was rushed to a Cleveland emergency room with serious breathing problems. The baby’s lungs were bleeding, a life threatening, extremely rare condition. Within months, there were more than 30 cases – an incidence more than a thousand times higher than anywhere else in the world. Doctors had never seen anything like it, and searched frantically for the cause and a cure.
Nov 17th
430p
Charred Remains
Shortly after daybreak in Vancouver, British Columbia, a fire was set in a dumpster. No one saw either the arsonist or the fire, and it burned for hours in the deserted parking lot. But there was more than garbage in the container, and it would take sophisticated science to find the evidence in the ashes.
Nov 17th
500p
Something's Fishy
Two people in Seattle, Washington died after taking an over-the-counter pain reliever; lab analysis of the pills showed they were tainted with a lethal concentration of cyanide. The investigation which followed led police to a suspect with a motive for murder and a callous disregard for others.
Nov 17th
530p
Sealed With a Kiss
For more than a year, angry, hateful letters were sent to a first grade school teacher in a small town in Pennsylvania. When scientists analyzed the letters, they found evidence that the sender knew a lot about the victim – more, in fact, than anyone could possibly have imagined.
Nov 17th
600p
Postal Mortem
On October 15, 1985, two bomb explosions rocked Salt Lake City and resulted in two deaths. A third explosion occurred the next day; this time, the victim was injured but survived. As the investigation progressed, police came to believe the survivor was more than an innocent by-stander. When they turned to forensic science for help, they uncovered an almost unbelievable story of forgery, fraud and murder.
Nov 17th
630p
Micro-Clues
After a day of fishing in a small, quiet village in Switzerland, a teenage boy did not return home as planned. The investigation revealed some important microscopic evidence in the water near where he was last seen. It was the only forensic evidence detectives had... but would it be enough for them to find him?