| ShortSummary
| - 0001-02-07 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- 0001-07-30 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- 0001-09-10 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- 0001-12-07 (xsd:gMonthDay)
- -1980.0 (second)
- Between 1986 and 1989, a disease swept through British cattle herds. The disease came to be known as the Mad-cow disease. Scientist began to suspect that this was somehow related to a human illness. A California neurologist, Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, said that both humans and animals were suffering from mutated proteins known as prions. When prions are transmitted from an infected host to a new host, they convert normal proteins into prions. Therefore, it’s possible for a prion to be transmitted from a cow to a person through beef consumption. (en)
- In 1989, Robert Sims arrived at his Alton, Illinois home and found his wife Paula unconscious on the kitchen floor and their newborn daughter Heather missing. Oddly, the couple’s 2-year-old son Randy was asleep in his bed. Paula reported that a masked individual broke into their home and kidnapped Heather, whose body was later found in a garbage can. When the police learned that the Sims' had another daughter, Loralei, reported kidnapped and, later, found dead near their Brighton, Illinois property in 1986, they began to focus on Paula. They later determined Paula had suffocated Heather and hid the body in her parents' freezer, as they were out of town, but they came home early when they heard about what had happened and Paula had to temporarily move Heather's body back to her own house, hiding it in the basement freezer, before eventually throwing her in the garbage can. Paula Sims was arrested and convicted of the first-degree murder of her daughter. Her husband Robert was cleared of all charges. (en)
- In 1987, a human skull and some bones were discovered at a Boy Scout Camp near Farmington, Missouri. Also found were a pair of blue jeans, which helped determine the approximate height and weight of the victim. A facial reconstruction also helped the investigators. The victim was identified as Bun Chee Nyhuis, a Thai immigrant who had been missing since 1983, and her husband Richard H. Nyhuis was now the prime suspect. Nyhuis was an assistant scoutmaster, which explained why Bun Chee's remains were discovered at a scout camp, and eventually, he confessed. He and Bun Chee had been arguing about money and he killed her in a fit of rage. Richard Nyhuis was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. (en)
- Just before Christmas 1989, Judge Bob Vance was killed when he opened a package that contained a pipe bomb at his Alabama home. Two days later an attorney in Georgia lost part of his arm when he opened a similar package and succumbed to his injuries soon after. The police found two unopened packages that contained similar pipe bombs. The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit provided a psychological profile of the bomber. The profile matched that of Walter Leroy Moody, Jr., who was convicted of a similar bombing in 1972, when he tried to send a bomb to a man who repossessed his car, but his first wife intercepted it and was maimed by the explosion. Moody was imprisoned and his wife divorced him. A store clerk identified Moody and his second wife as the individuals who purchased four pounds of gunpowder and 1,000 CCI primers. Moody wanted to get back at the legal system for denying him the bar exam due to his previous conviction. Moody was convicted and sentenced to seven life sentences. (en)
- In 1992, Laura Houghteling disappeared from her Bethesda, Maryland home and was never seen again. After five days, police found a bloody pillow and pillowcase lying in the woods not far from Laura's house. Laura's bedroom was then searched using luminol, which reacts with the enzymes in blood. The police now had a prime suspect, her part-time gardener Hadden Clark. Amido black was used to enhance the fingerprints found on the bloody pillowcase, which were matched to Clark. In 1993, Clark pleaded guilty to Houghteling‘s murder. (en)
- In 1976, 30-year-old Martin Dillon and his friend Dr. Stephen Scher went skeet shooting in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. By the end of the shooting session, Dillon was dead from a shot to the chest. According to Scher, Dillon's death was an accident , and the police and coroner ruled as such. However, soon after the shooting, Dr. Scher divorced his wife Anne, married Martin's widow, Patricia Dillon, and moved to Lincolnton, North Carolina. This aroused the suspicions of Martin's parents, who fought to get the investigation reopened. Eventually, it was, and it was determined that Martin had been shot from a distance and was in a sitting position, contradicting Scher's story. Police soon uncovered that Patricia was a nurse at Dr. Scher's Susquehanna hospital. In 1996, Dr. Stephen Scher was questioned again and changed his story to self-defense, but investigators uncovered that he was having an affair with Patricia and claimed he had killed Martin to have her for himself. Scher denied this, claiming his new story was the truth, but police had him charged with murder and he was quickly convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 1999, Scher's conviction was overturned by a judge due to possible prejudice, but Scher was convicted again for the same crime in 2008 and was again sentenced to life in prison. The episode was updated to include Scher's release and second conviction. (en)
- In 1984, 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson left her home in Flowing Wells, Arizona to run an errand for her mother. She never returned home. Vicki's pink bicycle was found abandoned and slightly damaged later that afternoon on a nearby street, but there was no sign of her. Police investigators learned that Frank Jarvis Atwood, released after serving time for child molestation in California, had been in the Tucson area but was now gone. The FBI confiscated Atwood's car and found paint from Vicki’s bicycle on his car. They also matched nickel found on the bike to nickel on Atwood's bumper. Atwood was sentenced to death. (en)
- In 1984, a couple set off for a camping trip but got lost and fell asleep at a scenic overlook in rural Virginia. They awoke to a person with a gun tapping on their car window. He ordered the boyfriend to run into the woods and drove off with his girlfriend. The man repeatedly raped and sodomized the young woman, and then he let her go. When she got back to her car, she met her boyfriend, who was there with the police. The girlfriend positively identified Edward Honaker as the man who raped her. Honaker was given three life sentences. Years later, new DNA testing was available, and the girlfriend admitted that she had another man in her life at the time of the rape. The DNA in the semen was not that of Honaker, the boyfriend, or the second man. Honaker was then released from prison after serving 10 years. (en)
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