The series examines each piece of forensic evidence, each witness, each possible lead, and each turn in the road that ultimately leads detectives to their killer. Cold Case Files is a pioneer in the nonfiction forensics genre.
A kidnapper grabs 8-year-old Chad Choice from his home in Texas, then torments his parents with two ransom demands. The case goes cold until the parents receive a chilling package in the mail that contains a letter--and a skull.
Police hunt for a man who killed three women in three different hotels, not far from one another in Des Moines, Iowa, over a 5-year period; and police get a killer to confess.
A scheme to bribe a country music magazine to manipulate the charts leads to murder in Nashville and a 13-year hunt for the killer; and a murderer's plan to hide his gun and ammunition is foiled.
An eerie note left on a grave helps solve a 12-year-old case of murder, and an exhaustive questioning of a mother helps police unravel the mysterious deaths of three of her children.
Police play a wild hunch that pays off in the capture of a serial rapist. And after 26 years, investigators finally solve the murder of a 6-year-old girl who had been forced to take a cold-water bath as punishment for painting her nails.
A phone-sting operation produces a big surprise and helps police nab the killers of a San Diego man several years after the case went cold. And a California district attorney uses an unprecedented legal strategy--a "John Doe" warrant.
Police suspect brothers J.R. and Coco Duvall beat two Michigan hunters to death, chopped up the bodies, and fed them to pigs; and a serial rapist, who holds a mini-flashlight in his mouth to blind victims, is nabbed.
Business cards found at a murder scene plus 38 years of advances in DNA technology reveal the killer of a 19-year-old New York woman. And, the lead suspect in a 22-year-old murder confesses after police take DNA samples from him.
