Hot on the Trail

February 15, 2006

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Forensic Files - S10 - E37

A serial arsonist was on the loose in Washington, DC. Each of the fires was started with the same type of incendiary device. The perpetrator was very careful and seemed to leave no evidence behind but there were clues in the ashes and it was up to forensic scientists to find them.

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Forensic Files: Season 10 - 42 Episode s

10x1 - Trial by Fire
April 27, 2005
A house erupted in flames on a cold January night, killing one person and injuring another. The survivor blamed a kerosene heater but the evidence at the scene did not support her story, and she was charged with arson and murder. It would take a nationally known fire investigator to determine what happened, and who was responsible.
10x2 - Marked for Life
May 18, 2005
In 1957, California police searched for a man who had committed several crimes in one night – including murder, but after following thousands of leads, eventually, the case turns cold. Almost 50 years later, with advances in computer technology and handwriting analysis, investigators determine the killer.
10x3 - Plastic Puzzle
June 1, 2005
A man riding a bicycle was fatally injured, the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Tiny clues found at the scene created a picture of the vehicle which struck him and led police to its driver.
10x4 - Up in Smoke
June 29, 2005
When an elderly couple died in a suspicious house fire, their son became the prime suspect. The son insisted he was innocent; he said he tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water on it, but that only made it worse. Investigators turned to forensic science to determine if the fire had been set deliberately, or if it was an unfortunate accident.
10x5 - Soiled Plan
July 6, 2005
A mother of two young children went missing and, less than a day later, her body was found. The evidence was little better than circumstantial, and the crime drifted to the bottom of the cold case files. Twenty years later, advances in technology enabled investigators to see the evidence in a new light, and discover it pointed directly to the killer.
10x6 - Headquarters
July 13, 2005
When hunters reported finding a skull in a Texas canyon, police find 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, the image was released to media and, eventually, police learned who she was. Now all they had to do was find her killer.
10x7 - One for the Road
July 20, 2005
A married couple decided to escape the cold of winter with a mini-vacation in Key West. The wife went missing, and police searched every square inch of the island; they found nothing but a pair of sandals which might have belonged to her. Then two important pieces of video surfaced, and investigators began to wonder if they should be searching for a missing person or a killer.
10x8 - Army of Evidence
July 27, 2005
A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. It appeared she had killed herself: There were suicide notes near her body, and a pistol was in her hand. Her death was ruled a suicide – but when investigators learned she had almost died in a house fire three years earlier, they decided to take another look at the evidence.
10x9 - Shear Luck
August 3, 2005
In 1991, when the wife of a serviceman was brutally murdered in the Philippines, the Air Force Office of Special Investigators swung into action. Clues led to the victim's husband, but he insisted he was innocent. To find out if he was telling the truth, investigators would have to do something unprecedented: Reassemble a 5-1/4 inch computer disk which had been cut to pieces with pinking shears.
10x10 - Tagging a Suspect
August 10, 2005
Bombings are difficult to solve, because the perpetrator isn't usually at the scene, and the evidence goes up in smoke. But there are clues if investigators know where to look. In this case pieces of plastic the size of grains of sand, held the key to a man's murder.
10x11 - Strong Impressions
August 17, 2005
The wife of an Air Force officer was found dead in her bed, with a plastic laundry bag near her face. At first glance, it appeared she'd been doing laundry, fell asleep, rolled onto the bag, and suffocated. But further investigation proved that the scene had been staged. Her death wasn't an accident; it was cold-blooded murder.
10x12 - Cereal Killer
August 24, 2005
When a fire destroyed most of a home and a young boy went missing, police organized the largest search in the history of their small town. First the boy's backpack was discovered five miles from home, and then his body was found 50 miles away. But the killer had been careless, and the evidence he left behind would lead police directly to him.
10x13 - Crash Course
August 31, 2005
A highway patrolman was dispatched to what he thought would be a routine traffic accident until he looked in the car. While he had no formal training in forensic science, he had seen hundreds of accidents – but never as much blood as this. He was shocked by the coroner's ruling of accidental death, and then an anonymous phone call breathed new life into his investigation.
10x14 - A Leg Up on Crime
September 7, 2005
The decomposed body of a young woman was discovered in a Bakersfield irrigation canal. If there was trace evidence, it had been washed away. Another victim was found in that same canal a year later; this time, the perpetrator had been careless. The shoe prints found at the scene would lead police to the most unlikely of killers.
10x15 - Tight-Fitting Genes
September 14, 2005
A behavioral profile is helpful in a murder investigation, but it's not a road map to the killer. One such profile caused the Baton Rouge Police Department to search for the wrong man. They might not have made an arrest, had it not been for a DNA picture of the suspect, painted by a molecular biologist. [also marked as S10:E15]
10x16 - Deadly Valentine
September 21, 2005
An obstetrician returned home from the hospital and found his wife on the floor of the bathroom. She was covered with blood and not breathing. He tried unsuccessfully to revive her, staining his clothes with her blood in the process, and then he called 911. His version of events was not supported by the blood spatter evidence, and investigators had to determine why. [also marked as S10:E17]
10x17 - Picture This
September 28, 2005
A Modesto, CA, 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. [also marked as S7:E18]
10x18 - Oily in the Morning
October 5, 2005
When police recovered the submerged car of a man reported missing, they expected to find his body – but it wasn't there. His broken eyeglasses were on the floor of the vehicle and the interior was coated with motor oil. The investigation which followed would uncover an obsession turned deadly, and the motive for murder. [also marked as S10:E19]
10x19 - Gold Rush
October 12, 2005
Emergency dispatch received a call from a man who said his girlfriend shot and killed herself. Police found the victim in the caller's house, lying in a pool of blood with the gun next to her on the floor. The autopsy revealed that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted and the evidence found on her body would give police a golden opportunity to catch her killer.
10x20 - Four on the Floor
October 19, 2005
A Native American woman was brutally killed in the desert of New Mexico, and the crime scene was rich in forensic evidence: tyre tracks, shoe impressions and even the murder weapons. The site was less than 10 miles from another crime scene where, two years earlier, a male Native American was beaten and stabbed to death. Police began to wonder: was a serial killer on the loose?
10x21 - Writer's Block
October 26, 2005
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. [also marked as S7:E22]
10x22 - A Clean Getaway
November 2, 2005
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. Police turned to forensic science for the answers they needed.
10x23 - Prints Among Thieves
November 9, 2005
The murder of an eccentric millionaire was not entirely unexpected; he flaunted his wealth and cared little for personal security. The evidence at the crime seemed to indicate robbery, but investigators wondered if there was something more.
10x24 - Unholy Alliance
November 16, 2005
When a young woman disappeared, police feared she was the latest victim in a string of similar crimes but the MO wasn't quite right. A pair of bloody gloves, unique tire tracks, and ordinary grass and pine needles provided investigators with some extraordinary clues.
10x25 - Signed, Sealed & Delivered
November 23, 2005
Two men were convicted of intentionally shooting and killing a passenger in a moving car, their friend was granted immunity for testifying against them, and the case was closed. Then a bomb exploded in the family home of the state's witness, instantly killing his father. Investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to determine if this was an act of revenge and if there was a way to link the two deadly crimes.
10x26 - Cop Out
November 30, 2005
Police initially suspect that the death of a gay student is a hate crime, until just three strands of hair and some microscopic cells help them unravel a web of lies, and to find the real motive for the murder.
10x27 - Summer Obsession
December 7, 2005
In an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning. The investigation gradually focused on one person, a suspect who had more than a million reasons to want the victim dead.
10x28 - Elemental Clue
December 14, 2005
When two women from the same town were murdered in the same way, police feared a serial killer was on the loose. At first they thought the victims had nothing in common until they found tiny clues linking them to the same man.
10x29 - Moss, Not Grass
December 21, 2005
A young woman was found dead on a golf course in the Bahamas. The grass on that course was so distinctive, it had evidentiary value. The evidence led police to two suspects. Each blamed the other, and they had to find out who the killer was.
10x30 - Material Witness
December 28, 2005
A teenager went missing after an evening of horseback riding. Her body was found a month later, three miles from her home. The killer unknowingly left trace evidence behind – tiny but unmistakable clues which pointed to him and him alone.
10x31 - Garden of Evil
January 4, 2006
When a popular disc jockey was found murdered in a community garden, police swung into action. A sniffer dog and a blood spatter expert led police to the killer and he'd been much closer than they realized.
10x32 - Sunday School Ambush
January 11, 2006
When a woman's husband was gunned down in his own garage by intruders, investigators worked tirelessly to find the assassins. But when they discovered that a wound sustained during the attack by the grieving widow may have been self-inflicted, they turned to science to help them unravel a twisted tale of lust, greed and deception.
10x33 - Penchant for Poison
January 18, 2006
Three seemingly unrelated deaths proved to be serial murders. The killer had been careful – he used poison which had no taste or odor. Fortunately for investigators, it also had a unique chemical signature.
10x34 - Bump in the Night
January 25, 2006
The crime scene was awash with blood. The victim had been brutally murdered as he slept in his own bed. There were no foreign fingerprints in his home, but investigators did find a shoe impression in the mud outside physical evidence they hoped would lead them to the killer.
10x35 - Sole Searching
February 1, 2006
Now it's not only a fingerprint which can link a killer to a crime; a shoe print can be just as telling. Armed with little else, police hoped the shoe impressions found at a Lansing, MI crime scene would put their investigation of Audrey Nichols' murder back on track.
10x36 - Murder on the Menu
February 8, 2006
When the head chef of a historic Philadelphia restaurant was found dead, investigators interviewed the usual suspects: family, friends and coworkers. As they sifted through the evidence, police uncovered a chilling tale of debt and deceit.
10x37 - Hot on the Trail
February 15, 2006
A serial arsonist was on the loose in Washington, DC. Each of the fires was started with the same type of incendiary device. The perpetrator was very careful and seemed to leave no evidence behind but there were clues in the ashes and it was up to forensic scientists to find them.
10x38 - High 'n Dry
February 22, 2006
When Genell Plude was found dead in her bathroom, the scene pointed to suicide. But a coroner's inquest and a unique application of forensic science gave investigators a different explanation for her death. It was a theory which, if true, could turn her husband Doug into the prime suspect.
10x39 - To the Viktor
March 1, 2006
Three homicides on two continents looked 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.
10x40 - Wired for Disaster
March 8, 2006
A 29-year-old woman was killed instantly when a bomb exploded in her home. The device was so powerful that shrapnel was embedded in houses across the street. The bomber had not only knowledge and skill, but also a motive for murder.
10x41 - Wood-be Killer
March 15, 2006
A killer tried to incinerate and destroy everything that could link him to his crime. But in doing so, he inadvertently created new forensic evidence, evidence which came to light with a technique never before used in a criminal investigation.
10x42 - Enemy Within
December 7, 2005
Kansas City attorney Richard Armitage was brutally murdered in his office in broad daylight. The first prime suspect was Lou Campbell, who had previously threatened Armitage, but he was later cleared. Police turn their suspicions to Armitage's law partner Richard Buchli, who had very little success as a lawyer and was in debt for more than ,000.

10x1 - Trial by Fire

10x2 - Marked for Life

10x3 - Plastic Puzzle

10x4 - Up in Smoke

10x5 - Soiled Plan

10x6 - Headquarters

10x7 - One for the Road

10x8 - Army of Evidence

10x9 - Shear Luck

10x10 - Tagging a Suspect

10x11 - Strong Impressions

10x12 - Cereal Killer

10x13 - Crash Course

10x14 - A Leg Up on Crime

10x15 - Tight-Fitting Genes

10x16 - Deadly Valentine

10x17 - Picture This

10x18 - Oily in the Morning

10x19 - Gold Rush

10x20 - Four on the Floor

10x21 - Writer's Block

10x22 - A Clean Getaway

10x23 - Prints Among Thieves

10x24 - Unholy Alliance

10x25 - Signed, Sealed & Delivered

10x26 - Cop Out

10x27 - Summer Obsession

10x28 - Elemental Clue

10x29 - Moss, Not Grass

10x30 - Material Witness

10x31 - Garden of Evil

10x32 - Sunday School Ambush

10x33 - Penchant for Poison

10x34 - Bump in the Night

10x35 - Sole Searching

10x36 - Murder on the Menu

10x37 - Hot on the Trail

10x38 - High 'n Dry

10x39 - To the Viktor

10x40 - Wired for Disaster

10x41 - Wood-be Killer

10x42 - Enemy Within

S0: Specials

S1: Season 1

S2: Season 2

S3: Season 3

S4: Season 4

S5: Season 5

S6: Season 6

S7: Season 7

S8: Season 8

S9: Season 9

S10: Season 10

S11: Season 11

S12: Season 12

S13: Season 13

S14: Season 14