Forensic Files

- Season 9

(2004)

In the Season Nine premiere of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, the investigation of a discarded sleeping bag, containing bloody sneakers and a purse, leads police to the body of a young woman. Only a mark found on the victim's body enables police to track the killer. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 1.

On the last day of deer hunting season, a woman is killed while walking her dogs in the woods. Police assume it was a hunting accident, until a strange letter turns up, allegedly written by the woman before her death. Police begin to wonder if the woman may have been the target all along. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 2.

An Alaskan police officer discovered a woman's body while patrolling a public park. A knife thought to be the murder weapon was found days later, two thousand miles away. Forensic scientists now had an opportunity, which seldom occurs: to compare the microscopic marks on the presumed murder weapon with the marks on the victim's bone. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 3.

Nearly two decades after a photographer went missing, her skeletal remains are discovered in the Colorado mountains.

A talented television news anchor was shot to death outside her home; it appeared to be a crime of passion, perpetrated by an obsessed fan. A police dog tracked the scent of the killer through the adjacent woods and back to the crime scene. Could the murderer be one of the onlookers, watching the police conduct their investigation? Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 5.

Investigators sifted through the ashes of a fire that had killed a 40-year-old woman, the estranged wife of a police officer. At first glance, the fire appeared to have been started by an unattended cigarette. But when forensic scientists looked closely, they discovered the cause was far more complicated. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 6.

During the 1990s, a trio of bank robbers struck in both North and South Carolina. They got away with their crimes for years, until forensic experts studied the bank surveillance tapes and identified them by their clothes and stances.

When a plastic surgeon's wife becomes the victim of arsenic poisoning, investigators must determine who is trying to kill her and why.

Residents of Noel, Missouri were stunned to learn that their bank had been robbed and the bank president was found floating in a lake, securely bound to a chair with duct tape. When the tape was carefully reassembled using a technique known as end match analysis, investigators discovered one piece was missing, and that piece would solve the crime. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 9.

A young couple goes camping in Oregon with their dog and only one of them comes out alive. Detectives work to determine whether the incident was accidental or intentional.

The body of a 16-year-old girl was discovered nine months after she disappeared. Forensic scientists found clues that painted a virtual portrait of her killer. They knew that he had a dog, that he worked for the postal service, and that he had red carpeting in his home. Now all they had to do was find him. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 11.

In California, woman appears to have accidentally fallen to her death from a cliff, until an investigation uncovers proof of murder and a financial motive.

Haunted by the disappearance of her mother some twenty years earlier, a young woman undertook an investigation of her own. Her mother's diary was in the now "cold" case file; there, in her mother's own handwriting, she discovered a dark family secret, which might have been the reason her mother vanished. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 13.

Murder of a retired couple in California. It took 10 years to bring their killer to justice.

After a street fight claimed the life of a national wrestling champion, a jury decided it was murder, and sentenced the accused to twenty years in prison. Six years later, he was granted another trial; a forensic animator, who testified on his behalf, gave a different explanation for the most shocking piece of evidence. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 15.

19 year old Devon Guzman is part of a love quadrangle that ends up getting her killed.

A man fond of square-dancing disappears exactly one year after starting an affair with his friend's wife. Fifteen years later, a hobbyist with a metal detector helps police find evidence proving what happened, and who was responsible.

The body of a young California co-ed was found under an isolated ramp of the Interstate, and San Diego police had no idea who would want this girl dead. But their questions would be answered when they discovered a tiny, unique fiber on the victim's clothing, which led them straight to the most unlikely of killers. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 18.

An Ohio go-go dancer went missing in 1974. Twenty-six years later, her disappearance was solved with the help of tool mark analysis, a homemade box, and an old car.

Newlyweds go on a hunting trip in the Colorado wilderness. Three bullets end the husband's life, in an "accident" that authorities believe is murder.

In 1984, California firefighters had battled ten arson fires in three weeks. When cigarettes and a scrap of paper connected the southern California fires to several fires further north, the hunt was on for a dangerous pyromaniac. Investigators finally found a fingerprint, and it pointed to a most unlikely suspect. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 21.

A small community in upstate New York was devastated when a car accident claimed the life of a well-respected nurse. Investigators initially thought alcohol was to blame, but blood tests proved the victim was not intoxicated. The seedpods found in her hair and on her clothes would prove that this was no accident. It was cold-blooded murder. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 22.

A woman in Austin, Texas disappears and police begin investigating two possible explanations: kidnapping, and murder. They become even more concerned when they learn two other women vanished under similar circumstances. Careful investigation, the talents of a forensic artist, forensic anthropology and DNA profiling enabled police to link the crimes to a single suspect.

Hikers near Anchorage, Alaska discovered a body wrapped in sheets that 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 that led them straight to the killer. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 24.

Nancy Ludwig is found stabbed to death her hotel room in Detroit. Nancy's death is similar to another woman who was murdered 5 years earlier, Margaret Eby.

Two fishermen get caught in the gulf in the middle of a storm. Only one man swims out alive. Was it an accident or was it murder?

When a wealthy real estate tycoon went missing, it appeared to be foul play. He had been aware that he was in danger. In his will, he left instructions regarding what was to happen if he died under violent circumstances - instructions which were carried out after a hiker came across a bullet-ridden skull. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 27.

The cold-blooded murder of an American tourist in a Mexican resort focused law enforcement resources on both sides of the border. At first glance, the motive appeared to be robbery, but careful analysis of the forensic evidence pointed to something much more sinister. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 28.

Entomology and computer forensics help solve the 1988 kidnapping and murder of a Pennsylvania banker's wife.

In the middle of the night, a neighbor witnessed a man stab his wife, push her into the swimming pool, and hold her head under water. When questioned by the police, the husband not only had no explanation for his actions, he had no recollection of the crime. A jury would have to decide between the evidence at the scene and the mysteries of the mind. Originally aired as Season 9, Episode 30.