The Disappearance of Helle Crafts

In the series premiere of Forensic Files, the longest-running true crime series in television history, a Connecticut flight attendant went missing and was never seen again. Police suspected her husband was guilty of murder and they were able to prove it – even though they never found the woman’s body.

The Magic Bullet

A fifteen-year-old boy died from a mysterious gunshot wound to his head while he was sitting in the lobby of his father’s gun club. Ballistics, laser technology, made-to-scale models and the latest in forensic animation showed that bullet had followed a tragic course after a misfire at the outdoor range. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 2.

The House That Roared

A woman disappeared and her husband became the prime suspect -- especially after police found a huge bloodstain on the carpet of their bedroom. When they sprayed the bedroom with Luminol, they discovered it was awash with blood spatter. Complex DNA testing proved it was the wife’s blood. Now all they had to do was find her body. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 3.

The Footpath Murders

English detectives team up with a pioneering scientist to crack a case of sexual assault and serial murder. In 1983, a quiet country village is gripped with fear as authorities search for the killer of 15-year-old Lynda Mann. Clueless, they start again when Dawn Ashworth is killed three years later. They enlist the help of Dr. Alec Jeffreys, a molecular biologist who uses his breakthrough technique of genetic fingerprinting to rule out one suspect by comparing his DNA with that of semen found on the victims' bodies. Police set up a DNA dragnet to trap and convict the real killer. This 1986 murder case is the first to use DNA as evidence in a criminal case.

Planted Evidence

Early one morning in a deserted area outside of Phoenix, a motorcyclist discovered the body of a young woman. She had been beaten, bound, strangled and possibly raped. The nearby plants would tell investigators more about the killer than any other single piece of evidence. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 5.

Southside Strangler

Shortly after Thanksgiving in 1987, an intruder broke into the Tucker residence in Arlington Virginia. It might have been just another statistic, but the crime committed that night launched a new era in police investigations. This is how DNA evidence and psychological profiling helped catch a serial killer and set an innocent man free.

Legionnaires' Disease

Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States, played host to millions of tourists and hundreds of gatherings as America celebrated its 200th year of independence. History was made that summer of 1976 -- not because of the bicentennial, but because of the mysterious death of 34 Legionnaires.

The Wilson Murder

On the night of May 22, 1992, Betty Wilson returned home after a meeting. She walked up the stairs to the bedroom and discovered her husband, lying in a pool of blood. Jack Wilson had obviously been murdered... but how? And by whom? Even the experts couldn’t agree. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 8.

Deadly Neighborhoods

Eleven children in an elementary school in Phoenix contracted childhood leukemia; nine of them died. And in Guilford, Connecticut, five people were diagnosed with brain tumors on a street where there were only nine homes. Two towns, two cancer clusters, two mysteries. The investigation answered some questions, but raised many more.

Insect Clues

Between 1985 and 1988, 18 people were choked, molested and left for dead in the remote desert mountains of California. The only witnesses were the insects – and they also proved to play an important role in solving the crimes and bringing the killer to justice. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 10.

Outbreak

Alarmingly high levels of thyroid hormones pump through the systems of South Dakota residents. Investigators study one large family whose 12-year-old son did not get sick. The tip-off: he's a vegetarian. It seems that when drug companies started manufacturing synthetic thyroid hormones, they stopped buying thyroid tissue from butchers who did not trim these parts, but rather sold them as 'extra lean beef.' The outcome: the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture bans meat plants from using meat in or near the gullet for beef and pork products. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 11.

The List Murders

For 18 years, a man who murdered his entire family successfully eluded the FBI. This episode describes how investigators used art and forensic science to catch a killer.

Raw Terror

The E-Coli bacteria live in our meat supply, in our milk and in water. When food is properly prepared and stored, E-Coli is harmless. But in the absence of these simple precautions, E-Coli can have deadly consequences. Raw Terror tells the story of Damion Heersink, an eleven-year-old boy who almost died after eating an improperly cooked hamburger teeming with E-Coli, and the people who saved his life.