Forensic Files

It appeared the victim had accidentally fallen and hit her head at the bottom of the stairs. But the odd position of her shows and the absence of blood splatter led police to suspect the scene had been stage... and Luminol proved they were right.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 who survived a deadly childhood fire sends police a letter charging her father killed her mother 30 years ago.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 federal agency ruled a fire that killed a child intentionally set, charging the mother with murder. Were government officials 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 young college student is found dead in her apartment. There are no obvious signs of foul play, but skin cells under her fingernails yield DNA of an unknown male suspect, and petechial hemorrhages in her eyes prove this is a homicide.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 12-year-old's death shakes a suburban Minnesota town. Police have no leads until a string of burglaries months after the murder leads them to the victim's possessions, and 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.

After a day of fishing in a small village in Switzerland, a teenage boy did not return home as planned. His body was found in a cornfield, but investigators found microscopic one-cell organisms on him, which could only be found in water.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.

In 1993, worldwide attention focused on robberies which targeted tourists in Florida. Some vacationers were killed in thee attacks; some fought and survived, despite severe injuries. A bite mark is the key used to convict a suspect.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 pregnant woman is brutally attacked in her own home and her unborn child is killed. Was her husband wrongly convicted?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 truck fell off the hydraulic jack, crushed the man working beneath it, and sparked a fire... or so it seemed. Investigators turned to forensic science to determine if they were dealing with a tragic accident or a carefully orchestrated 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 funeral director is murdered and his son, the sole beneficiary of his estate, is considered a likely suspect... until witnesses provide him with an ironclad alibi. When police find a mask near the crime scene, they hope it will lead 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.

Orange fibers may link a van and a murdered girl'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.

Three homicides on two continents look like professional executions. Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic needed to find out if they were related and, if they were, who or what they 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.

The woman was missing for a month. Police find her car but no evidence of foul play... only a fingerprint and a set of keys. There's a code on one of the keys, which they hope will unlock not only a door, but also the mystery of her disappearance.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 six years, a serial killer prowled the streets of New York City. He wrote letters to police and "The New York Post," indicating he would kill twelve people, one for each astrological sign. Forensic astronomy, handwriting analysis, and DNA extracted from the flap of an envelope gave investigators a profile of the killer, and a stroke of luck enabled them to 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.

The woman could have lost control of her SUV on the icy road, and plunged down an embankment into a shallow creed, But there were footprints in the snow leading away from the vehicle and bloodstains on both the inside and the outside. Investigators were convinced this was the scene of a crime, not an accident.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 woman is found dead of a gunshot wound, forensic scientists proved once again that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.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 Modesto, California teenager went missing. There was no sign of a struggle in her home, and police suspected she'd simply run away... until her naked, bruised body was discovered in a ditch 20 miles away.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 gym teacher is found dead of what appears to be an accidental gunshot wound, his family is suspicious. When police find that the wife's previous husband died in questionable circumstances, they re-examine the crime scene.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.

While in high school, Marie Robards suffered the devastating loss of her father to cardiac arrest but Marie had a secret.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.

War criminals who moved to the United States are captured many years later thanks to forensic technology.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 in its second season, Hell And Gone is a podcast from iHeartRadio and School of Humans that follows writer and private investigator Catherine Townsend as she investigates unsolved deaths in small-town Arkansas This season, she dives into the mysterious death of Janie Ward, a 16-year old high school student who died at a party in 1989 in Marshall, Arkansas. In the 30 years since her death, no one has been able to determine how she died even though there have been multiple investigations and her body has been autopsied three times. Season 1 investigated the cold-case murder of Rebekah Gould, a beautiful and popular college student who was killed in 2004.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 Canadian scam-artist, Albert J. Walker, assumes the identity of co-worker Ronald Platt as part of a money-laundering scheme. Platt later turns up dead and the only clues to his real identity are a Rolex watch and a maple leaf tattoo.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 brilliant young architect became ill and died just before she was to testify in a criminal trial. The autopsy revealed she'd been poisoned with arsenic; it was a slow and painful death, so suicide was unlikely. Investigators had to determine who among her family, friends and business associates had 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 murder mystery theater performance turns into a real life whodunit when a badly burned body is discovered after the performance.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 year was 1984, and a serial killer was on the loose in Florida. Eight women had been found dead. At each crime scene, investigators found tiny red fibers, fibers they hoped 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 woman disappears without a trace; even though foul play is suspected, the leads don't pan out and the trail turns cold. Twenty years would pass before police are able to link a clump of hair discovered in an isolated area with the missing woman. Members of "NecroSearch," a group of volunteer forensic scientists, searched a remote area of Colorado a meter at a time, found the victim's body, and gave authorities the evidence they needed to bring the killer 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.

Police find an abandoned car on a busy Philadelphia highway; later, strange marks on the driver's body lead police to her 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 young woman was killed in a senseless act of revenge. Could police identify the killer through a fingerprint on cloth?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 huge amount of blood at the crime scene spoke of the violence of the attack; investigators describe it as "overkill," and it's usually an indication that the victim knew the attacker. Police hoped that, during the struggle, the killer had left some of his own blood - and his DNA - behind. Their challenge was to find it.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 hunters reported finding a skull in a Texas canyon, police immediately began an investigation. At the scene, they found bits of clothing, a woman's shoe, some small bones and a strand of hair. An anthropologist determined the victim was a Caucasian woman, and that she'd been stabbed repeatedly. A forensic artist reconstructed her face, and the image was released to media. Eventually, police learned who she was. Now all they had to do was find her 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.

After the rape and murder of a popular high school student, authorities ask the males in her social circles to volunteer DNA. When a match is found, the community is stunned.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.

While staying at a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, a Louisiana woman drowns in a bathtub. Her husband claims it was an accident, but detectives are skeptical as they discover evidence of foul play.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 story of nurse Tanya Reid who may have murdered her own baby and was planning to murder her son.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 retired police officer is discovered dead in his bed. Examination of the evidence at the crime scene, the tape from a bank surveillance camera, and forensic textbooks found in the victim's home are used to solve the 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 fire erupted in the Kings Cross Underground Station in London, killing 31 people and injuring dozens more. Arson investigators were able to pinpoint the cause of the fire, but it would take state-of-the-art computer technology and experts in the field of fluid dynamics to explain why it became a deadly inferno.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 ingested a massive amount of cyanide. An unlikely clue - a flaw on a mailing envelope -- exposed a murderer who was willing to kill innocent people to get the one person he wanted.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 series of murders near Sacramento, Calif., where prostitutes were gagged and molested, their clothes cut off in random patterns and their hair cut off.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 confesses to killing his wife but forensic evidence may lead to another suspect.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 body of a female prison guard shows up in a landfill, investigators suspect the prisoners in the facility where she worked. The medical examiner found an important clue, a "signature" element, which figured in two other murders.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 someone dies under mysterious circumstances, the spouse almost always is a suspect -- especially if they are in bed, sleeping beside the individual at the time of their death.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 29-year-old pregnant wife is found dead in her home of a gunshot wound to the head. Blood spatter analysis led police to the truth.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 gas station employee was shot at point blank range. Police find the entire murder was caught on the station's security camera.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 considered unstable by his neighbors is accused of killing his wife. But a medical detective holds a different view.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 looked like sixty-two-year-old Phillip Rouss, Jr. had it all: family, friends, and a new business which was the culmination of a life-long dream. Then his health began to deteriorate. Doctors couldn't pinpoint the cause of the illness and Phil began to suspect his condition was no accident. Toxicologists and investigators identified the real problem just in time to save Phil's life.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 once called America's most hated woman and her top two lieutenants disappeared, there was no shortage of 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.

Murder in a Seattle homeless encampment known as The Jungle. Three teenage brothers were charged, but are they the real killers? Only The Jungle knows. Join former federal prosecutor David Payne and producer Jody Gottlieb as they investigate. Somebody Somewhere Season 2: The Jungle Murders premieres June 11, 2019.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.

Just weeks before a witness is to testify against the man accused of sexually assaulting her, she is murdered in the front yard of her own home. Investigators immediately suspect her attacker, but they don't have enough evidence to prove his guilt. It would take fifteen years, and the remarkable advances in forensic science and DNA testing which occurred during that time, to enable police to nail 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.

An employee of a dry-cleaner was raped and murdered in the store, and investigators thought themselves fortunate to have two eyewitnesses. Their descriptions were similar but not identical, and the prime suspect didn't come close to resembling that person. So police turned to forensic science for the answers they needed.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 fireman died from what appeared to be serious but undiagnosed heart disease, his family and friends were devastated but they had no proof of foul play. Then they learned that, six years earlier in a nearby town, a young police officer died in the same way. The men had one thing in common: At the time of their deaths, they were married to the same 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.

A 33-year old woman meets, falls in love with, and marries a successful young doctor, but an unusual amount of discomfort during her pregnancy arouses her suspicions, prompting a personal investigation that culminates in a startling revelation.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.