The essential episodes of Forensic Files
Watch these 14 in order and you've got Forensic Files — each pick states its reason.
- 01
The Disappearance of Helle Crafts
In the series premiere (pilot) of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, a Connecticut flight attendant went missing and was never seen again. Police suspected her husband was guilty of murder, and they were able to prove it - even though they never found the woman's body.
- 02
A police investigation of a pediatrician, after the mysterious death of one of her patients, leads them to a Texas hospital where the pediatric mortality rate was higher than at any hospital in the country. The common link was nurse Genene Jones.
- 03
When Russ Stager, a popular gym teacher, is found dead of what appears to be an accidental gunshot wound, his family becomes suspicious. They think his wife may have planned his murder. When police find that her previous husband died in questionable circumstances, they re-examine the crime scene and uncover evidence that the death was no accident.
- 04
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 graphic demonstration of the moment of impact. This was the first case in which video in the courtroom withstood an appeal, and helped make video testimony viable in other cases.
- 05
If a perpetrator leaves a shoe print in the mud, investigators use established techniques to made a mold of the shoe impression for later identification. But what happens if the impression is left in the snow? Here's the story of one investigator, whose quick thinking and knowledge of science enabled him to capture a shoe impression made in snow, before the evidence melted away.
- 06
The wife of prominent Illinois farmer Fred Grabbe disappeared from her farm without a trace. For three years, investigators searched in vain for any trace of her. Eventually, Fred Grabbe's former lover came forward with a fascinating tale filled with rage, murder, mutilation and cremation, but there seemed to be no way to test the validity of her story.
- 07
It takes a long time and a very hot fire to cremate a human body and destroy all evidence. But the coroner who performed the autopsy on the badly burned body of Charles Lynch found telltale evidence. Not only had the victim been burned, he'd also been stabbed twenty-four times with two different knives. Police search for more than one murderer.
- 08
Details the case of the Beltway sniper attacks, a 3-week shooting spree which left 10 people dead in the Washington, D.C. area.
- 09
While investigating the case of a Colorado hunter shot three times and killed, police suspect two murder weapons, and two killers, but forensic evidence points them closer to home. A newlywed is found dead in the Colorado wilderness.
- 10
A married couple decided to escape the cold of winter with a vacation in Key West. The wife went missing and police searched every inch of the island; they found nothing but a pair of sandals that may have belonged to her. Then two pieces of video surfaced and investigators started to wonder if they should be searching for a missing person or a murderer.
- 11
A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. It seemed 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 discovered she had almost died in a house fire three years earlier, they decided to take a deeper look at the evidence.
- 12
While on the phone with 911, a woman is murdered in her bathroom, during a break in at her home. The investigation's strongest evidence is a shoe print on a piece of glass.
- 13
A woman who was known to have suffered from depression seemingly took her own life. But her sister told police that, a year before her death, she said if anything were to happen to her, there would be a note in the china cabinet. Police read the note and found the killer.
- 14
The killer was meticulous, washing everything at the scene, including the victim's body. The only definitive evidence was a single hair. Three years later he struck again and, this time, what he left behind would prove he committed both crimes.
Shows like Forensic Files
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