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- 1.893456E8 (second)
- In 1999, expectant mother Leann Fletcher is reported dead in her Hazel Park, Michigan home of an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Was the wound self-inflicted, and if it was, why would this young mother with so much to live for kill herself? Forensic computer analysis, blood spatter analysis, and a painstaking investigation led police to the truth that her lawyer husband Michael "Mick" Fletcher had motive to kill Leann because he was having a sexual affair with local judge Susan Chrzanowski. (en)
- In August 1991, South Portland, Maine resident Pearl A. Bruns is missing after an argument with her husband William “Bill” Bruns. Despite pleas from her children, police insist on treating it as a routine missing person's case. But when an investigation turns up a blood trail that leads to the couple's basement, police are sure that they'll find the victim's body. Initially, they find nothing and the case stalls, until new forensic technology helps investigators find the body. The investigators first use luminal over the cleaned carpet to reveal the blood spatter on the floor and a path down to the basement. Then, they use ground penetrating radar to scan the basement for radiation; they found three feet down, excavated rusted sand everywhere except in a certain area. The body had absorbed the rust and was found there. (en)
- In 1995, police in San Diego, California are baffled by a pair of hands found in a dumpster. Through further investigation, they determine that the hands are those of missing person Don Hardin. With this knowledge, the police focus on local homeless man Dale Whitmer, who had lived with Hardin around the time of his disappearance. However, they can find no forensic evidence on Whitmer, and the case goes cold. About one year later, investigators receive an anonymous letter with information about the crime that had been withheld from the press– information only the killer would know. Laser technology helps to identify the address from where the anonymous letter was mailed, which leads them to Mormon Bishop Mark Davis. Davis cites the privilege between clergy and church member as a reason to not disclose the source of the information, but a judge rules that since Davis sent the letter, he must identify the source. The source was Dale Whitmer's daughter Andrea, who ultimately chooses to testify against her father. (en)
- In 1980, Hillsdale County, Michigan resident Shannon Mohr died in what was reported to be a horseback riding accident by her new husband David Davis. After her death, Shannon's family reported to police their suspicions that Davis seemed far from grief-stricken. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Davis had poisoned Shannon with succinylcholine, an anaesthetic drug used to induce paralysis. After several years evading justice, Davis was finally arrested in American Samoa in 1989, having found work as a pilot. He was extradited to Michigan, where he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. (en)
- In 1991, San Francisco, California pornographer Artie Mitchell was murdered in his home. His brother and business partner Jim Mitchell is found near the scene carrying a rifle and, later, confesses to shooting Artie. The question for investigators is whether the shooting was pre-meditated. A 911 call in which the fatal shots can be heard, and a computer reconstruction of the crime scene, provide the answer. (en)
- In 1999, nine-year-old Valiree Jackson vanished on her way to school near Spokane, Washington. Her father Brad Jackson reported the disappearance and the entire community started searching for her abductor. As police began the investigation, they wondered if her long-lost mother Rosanne Pleasant might be connected to the disappearance. Police used GPS tracking to follow the perpetrator's movements, which not only led them to Valiree's body but also showed the twisted motive in the perpetrator's mind. The Secret Service finds a hidden fingerprint to help detectives seal the case. (en)
- In 1995 in Los Angeles, California, model Linda Sobek goes missing. A park employee discovers photographs and some vital pieces of information in a dumpster, which eventually led investigators to professional photographer Charles Rathbun. Rathbun claims Sobek died during a consensual sexual encounter gone wrong, but Sobek's corpse and some high tech digital imagery tell a more sinister story. (en)
- In 1995, a serial killer was strangling prostitutes in the Tampa, Florida area, then taunting police by leaving the bodies in plain sight. The only clues were a tire impression and some threads. By the time scientists identify the source of these treads and the threads, police discover that the killer James Randall was right under their noses the entire time. (en)
- In 1995, when off-duty Maine State Trooper Vicki Gardner is raped and sodomized by Steven Fortin during a routine stop, it triggers a chain of events which jumpstarts a stalled murder case in New Jersey. The Maine attack appears strikingly similar to the brutal sexual assault and murder of Melissa Padilla in Woodbridge, New Jersey in 1994. There is very little forensic evidence in the New Jersey crime, but the signature the killer left behind– the ritualistic bite mark similarities in both of these crimes– identified him just as convincingly as a DNA match. (en)
- In 1993 in Fort Worth, Texas, 16-year-old Marie Robards suffered the devastating loss of her father Steve Robards. The death was ruled the result of cardiac arrest. One year later, she won a part in her high school production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The lines that she was required to recite onstage were more than the thoughts and feelings of her character; they struck a chord, and hinted at her own inner turmoil from the secret that she had been hiding: barium acetate obtained in her high school chemistry class. (en)
- In March 1990, 22-year-old Dawn Bruce was raped, sodomized, and murdered in her Henrico County, Virginia apartment. The killer left very little evidence, but investigators did notice a blood smear on a pillow case that appeared to have been made by one of the killer's fingers. New technology enabled investigators to identify a fingerprint from the cloth surface of the pillow case. This gave police the means to apprehend Robert Douglas Knight. (en)
- In 1981, six-year-old Cassie Hansen disappeared from her St. Paul, Minnesota church during an evening service. After a tip from a witness that an older man was seen carrying a small body, Cassie's body was found in a dumpster. The FBI created a psychological profile of the perpetrator but were still unable to find the killer. Dorothy Noga contacted police to let them know that Stuart Knowlton was a massage client that liked to discuss his fantasies during his weekly massages and that one fantasy he spoke of closely resembled the church abduction, which caught her attention. Knowlton had also asked Noga to be his alibi on the night of the murder. Even though she was later attacked by Knowlton and stabbed 32 times, Noga testified against Knowlton in the trial. Knowlton died in prison in 2006. (en)
- In 1981, Charlotte Grabbe, wife of prominent Marshall, Illinois farmer Fred Grabbe, disappeared from her farm without a trace. For three years, investigators searched in vain for any trace of Charlotte. Eventually, Fred Grabbe's former lover came forward with a fantastic tale of rage, murder, mutilation and cremation, but there seemed to be no way to test the validity of her story. That is, until a plant pathologist and a dendrochronologist conducted some tests on the plant life where the cremation supposedly occurred, which led to a surprising revelation. (en)
- In 1994, Rhoda Nathan was found murdered in a Cincinnati, Ohio hotel room. Later, when hotel employee Elwood Jones went to a hospital emergency room for an infected hand, which he said was cut on a dumpster at work, the doctor treating him recognized the injury as something else. (en)
- In 1992, two masked gunmen enter the home of Ward and Diana Maracle in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario to rob them, but Ward was shot in the head. This is 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. Knowledge of the shoe led investigators to Peter Benedict and Frank Lanoue, who were convicted of aggravated assault and robbery. (en)
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