Forensic Files

Four young adults are brutally murdered in an affluent Texas neighborhood, and the crime scene yields little evidence. The next door neighbors see two young people dressed in black walking nearby, and their descriptions are used to create composite drawings which become a key element in solving the crime.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A couple is found dead in their Washington home and all signs point to a professional hit. A palm print and two distinct shoe impressions help police separate fantasy from reality and expose a fatal flaw in one state's inmate release procedures.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The woman hadn't shown up for work in two days, and her boss reported her missing. When her body was found, the evidence pointed to suspects who claimed they had nothing to do with the crime. The victim, herself, would help police to prove they were lying.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hikers near Anchorage, Alaska discovered a body wrapped in sheets which were edged in orange stitching. Authorities hydrated the fingers and obtained a fingerprint, enabling them to identify the victim. Clinging to the sheet, they also discovered a tuft of red carpet fibers -- threads of evidence which led them straight to the killer.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For 18 years, a man who murdered his entire family eluded the FBI. Investigators used art and forensic science to find the killer.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a teenaged girl goes missing, no one knows if she ran away or if she was the victim of foul play. Everyone's worst fears are confirmed when a body is found at the bottom of an isolated ravine. Police scour the crime scene, hoping to find enough evidence to identify the killer.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A possible false confession forces investigators to reopen the case of a missing six year old. A decade later, a fresh look at new evidence leads them to someone hiding in plain sight.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The bodies of three women were found floating in Tampa Bay. The water washed away any evidence, but police hoped a handwritten note found in the victims' car would lead to the killer - so they posted huge copies of the note on five highway billboards.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The victim had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on the beach, just ten yards from the hotel where she was staying. A pair of men's tennis shoes was discovered near her body. Police were sure that if they found the man who fit the shoes, they would also find the man who committed the crime.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A mysterious computer crash pushes a thriving manufacturing company to the brink of collapse, jeopardizing the jobs of hundreds of employees. There is no apparent cause and no obvious clues. Forensic investigators must determine if the crash was the result of a computer defect, human error, or sabotage.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Texas woman claims an intruder killed two of her sons but detectives question her story upon discovering inconsistencies.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a young single mother was brutally assaulted and murdered, her brother promised he'd find out who was responsible and bring the killer to justice. It would take more than 30 years, but the young man kept his promise, and in doing so, brought closure to his family.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A young woman suddenly becomes critically ill; her symptoms worsen over time, eventually leaving her unable to walk. Then a bone marrow test reveals the cause; arsenic. Investigators now had to determine if the poisoning was caused by groundwater contamination or something much more sinister.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now it's not only a fingerprint which can link a killer to a crime; a shoe print can be just as telling. Armed with little else, police hoped the show impressions found at a Lansing, Michigan crime scene would put their investigation back on track.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The woman had been sexually assaulted, stabbed repeatedly, and left for dead. She survived and gave police a detailed description of her attacker. When someone who fit that description practically turned himself in, police were sure they had their man... until the DNA evidence proved them wrong.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A man is found shot to death in his home. Determining the time of death becomes critically important to solving the murder, and in order to do so, investigators need to know when the victim ate his last meal.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 13-year-old girl went missing from her Colorado home, and the only evidence the kidnapper left behind was three fingerprints on a window screen. Two years later, a latent print examiner, new to the county and the crime lab, changed the course of the investigation by sharing a little-known fact with his colleagues.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A man tells police he shot an intruder who had attacked and murdered his wife. The husband is dubbed a hero for his valiant attempt to save his wife. Four years later, new evidence leads police to re-examine the motives of this so-called hero.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A young couple was murdered during what appeared to be a drug deal gone awry. The victims' dog eventually led police to the killer.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Abby and Libby - two young girls murdered. Investigators are searching for the killer using their biggest clue: a recording of his voice from one of the victims' phones ordering the girls Down the Hill. Almost three years later, it's a mystery that still haunts the small town of Delphi, Indiana...and the police say the killer may walk among them.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An investigator must think quickly to find a way to capture a shoe impression left to melt in the snow.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Police investigating the 1984 murder of a college student had plenty of suspects, but no conclusive evidence linking any of them to the crime. More than a decade later, sophisticated technology would breathe new life into a case grown cold with the passage of time.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

His daughter suspected something was wrong... and when she learned virtually everything had been removed from her father's home, she was sure of it. Even though she lived almost a thousand miles away, she took it upon herself to find out what happened and who was responsible.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The teeth had been removed from a human skull retrieved from a grave so the killer could keep the victim's identity secret. But did he?To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The crime scene was especially violent; A husband and wife had been shot to death in their bedroom. At first, investigators thought their 16-year-old daughter was lucky to have escaped unharmed... but after awhile, they wondered if the reason she was alive had more to do with careful planning than good fortune.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even though their daughter had run away before, she'd always come back. Her parents were sure this time would be no different... but they were wrong. Workers discovered the teen's half-naked body on the other side of the road; her throat had been slit. Police hoped the single foreign hair found in a defensive wound on her thumb would lead them to the killer.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A serial killer was strangling prostitutes then leaving the bodies in plain sight. The only clues were a tire impression and some threads.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the wife of a noted doctor goes missing, authorities believe it may have to do with an allegedly shady adoption ring. But then her husband goes house-shopping with another woman claiming to be his wife, and a friend finds a strange pile of concrete in his backyard. Investigators use the concrete and the hazy recollections of a young child in an attempt to find the missing woman.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a severed leg is found in a dumpster, investigators are faced with the challenge of identifying the victim.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A beautiful model goes missing. No one can clue to her whereabouts until a park employee discovers photographs in a trash dumpster.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A woman's body was found at the bottom of the stairs. When an investigator recreates the fall, the results are surprising. Was this just a freak accident, or murder by an angry spouse.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was one of the most unusual cases in forensic history. Investigators had to find a way to solve a murder case with evidence which consisted of a squashed tomato found at the crime scene, and tiny, pinpoint reflections of light in a photograph. Would it be enough to catch a killer?To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The news of a flight attendant's brutal murder prompted the son of a victim who had been killed five years earlier to contact police. The MO of both murders was remarkably similar, and analysis of the biological evidence from the crime scenes proved that these were serial killings.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A woman is shot to death but the case's prime suspect has a solid alibi: a video of his activities the day of the murder. Police asked a local professor to help them verify the tape, and he enabled them to see the killer hiding in the shadows.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Six-year-old Nicole Rae Walker was killed in a hit-and-run in her Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood. This was the first case in the United States where video animation was considered admissible to show to a jury.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The murder of a surgeon in an apartment community left police in St. Petersburg, Florida baffled. Cell phone mapping, wiretapping and a host of other forensic evidence would uncover a conspiracy, and bring the doctor's killers to justice.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A woman's death in Pennsylvania triggers a investigation into another woman's death in North Carolina. The similarities in the cases were striking, and medical examiners must determine if the suspect's story about accidental drowning is all wet.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Five years earlier, a student was assaulted and killed in her off-campus apartment, and a year after that, another student was killed in almost the same way. Police feared a serial killer was on the loose and they needed to determine what - or who - these women had in common.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a student is reported missing, police believe she'd turn-up a few days later. But when they discover blood in her boyfriend's bedroom - which someone had gone great lengths to hide - they know this case is going to be different.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A woman's dead body is found in a public park. When a knife through to be the murder weapon turned up, investigators had an opportunity which seldom occurs: to compare the microscopic marks on the weapon with the marks on the victim's body.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The crime scene was awash with blood. Analysis showed it had come from two people, one of whom was female. The male DNA was the victim's, which meant the killer was a woman. Leads dried up and the case went cold... until a suspect arrested for drug possession offered police a deal, and told a bizarre tale of an exotic dancer who listened to voices in her head.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The bodies of two women are found in the ashes of a fire, which appeared to have been set deliberately. Evidence found leads investigators to a suspect, but it would take a blood stain no bigger than the head of a pin to convict him.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two different men telephoned 911 to report a woman had been murdered; neither knew the other had called. Examination of bloodstains, a discarded candy wrapper, and a few tiny seeds enabled forensic scientists to determine who committed the crime.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An aspiring model turned up dead, and the prime suspect was her boyfriend. When he was eventually cleared, investigators had to dig deeper to find the perpetrator. With the help of a forensic geologist, they identified the most unlikely suspects.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For seven years, a trio of men robbed one bank after another. They always got away before the police arrived, and they left no evidence behind. But the way they stood and the clothes they wore told a story... a story that could be read by forensic scientists.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Painstaking forensic analysis of a murder victim leads police to a suspect, who turned out to be the same person who made what he thought was an anonymous 911-call.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two young women were brutally murdered in Napa, California on Halloween night. The killer left his DNA behind, and a groundbreaking test revealed his race and even the color of his eyes and hair. Technology was able to tell investigators what he looked like... now all they had to do was find him.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A woman's body was found on a deserted road outside of San Antonio. After years, the victim's family hired a private investigator who finds her personal diary and uses its entries to find the perpetrator.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A heart surgeon is found dead in his home. Police assume suicide, but further investigation reveals his new wife was out for money.To learn more about how HLN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.