Forensic Firsts

- Season 1

(2012)

DNA testing was originally used only to determine paternity, until a brutal murder in England changed everything. Examining the cases of Colin Pitchfork and Dennis Rader, and how they were caught by DNA evidence.

Fingerprints have helped authorities save the Mona Lisa, catch the infamous criminal John Dillinger, and capture Richard Ramirez. It all begin when in 1892 Argentina police bring Francisca Rojas to justice.

From a sausage factory to the hidden lair of a serial killer, skeletal remains are solving grisly murders and forever changing forensic investigations. Examining the cases of Adolph Luetgert and John Wayne Gacy.

See how maggots, flies, even grasshoppers have become star witnesses in some of the world's most famous murder cases. Examining the cases of Buck Ruxton and Vincent Brothers.

The #1 murder weapon of choice for centuries, poison comes in millions of killer compounds. Can modern science ever detect them all? Examining the cases of Marie Lafarge and Michael Swango.

One case saved a man from the electric chair and another put an end to a sniper's murderous rampage. Revisit two criminal cases where ballistic evidence played a key role in determining the fate of its suspects. First, Charles Stielow, a man sentenced to death for a 1915 murder, is absolved thanks to a pioneering investigation. Then, after a harrowing 22-day span in 2002, detectives in Washington D.C. finally crack the case of a sniper, relying on bullets taken from the victims' bodies.