Episode list

A phone-sting operation produces a big surprise and helps police nab the killers of a San Diego, David Stevens, man several years after the case went cold. And a California district attorney uses an unprecedented legal strategy--a "John Doe" warrant--in the 6-year-old hunt for a rapist.

Nineteen-year-old college student Regina Marie Reynolds is a student at Morrisville State College in New York. Around 5 PM, she is driving with her boyfriend Robert MacDonald and asks to be dropped off on Route 20, in front of the Arizona Diner parking lot. She plans to hitchhike the 5 miles west back to campus to have dinner with friends, while MacDonald plans to continue on to his home. When Regina misses classes on Friday, then the following Monday, her friends become concerned. She is a conscientious student and unlikely to skip out on school. Her roommate, Catherine Dixon, goes to campus security to report her friend missing. Campus security, in turn, files a missing persons report with the New York State Police. (Regina's mother, Barbara Smith, also happens to work for the New York State Police.) As soon as the missing persons case is opened, friends and colleagues of Regina Reynolds' are questioned. Detective Eugene Rifenberg of the New York State Police helps work the missing persons case. Some people say they saw a girl who looks like Regina get into a blue and white Volkswagen van the night of her disappearance. Some witnesses describe three white men who were possibly talking to someone who looked like Regina. Missing person fliers are posted all over the community. We have copies of the missing persons flier.

Forensic evidence solves the 1978 murder of a beauty queen; Fingerprints and a killer's addictive habit solves a decades-old double-homicide case.

Looks at how law enforcers stick with cases for many years, after they've gone cold, using fresh evidence to win convictions or to free prisoners who were wrongfully jailed.

A Miami undercover operation nabs the man who beat four black prostitutes, doused their bodies with gasoline, and set them aflame. Vida Hicks was the first victim. And DNA helps solve the cold case of a man who posed as a fisherman to get a 6-year-old girl's attention, then raped and killed her.

Police suspect a gay man murdered a woman because she became too friendly with his boy friend. And a man goes on a monstrous crime spree, abducting five women over 15 years and forcing each to spend months and even years as his sex slave.

The conviction of a man found guilty of sexually assaulting and stabbing an Ohio woman to death is overturned because his Miranda rights were violated when he was arrested. And police spend 13 years looking for the killer of a Houston security guard who was shot 11 times when he tried to stop a car theft.

In 1979, Dianna Green was struck while in her apartment bedroom. She received a blow to head and, as a result, she suffered the loss of her ability to speak and communicate. Dianna's husband Kevin, is charged.

Valarie Jensen explains that she and her ex-husband adopted baby Francine from their friends, the Meegans. Months later, a mother decides she wants her baby back, and if not that, then more money. When the Jensens refuse to hand over more cash, Lillian Meegan demands her child returned. Valerie Jensen unwillingly hands over the baby. It is the last time she will see the child. It is not however the last time she will hear her. James Meegan calls Valerie frustrated that he could not console the baby. Valerie hears the child crying in the background. It is the last time she ever hears the baby. Police then confront the Meegans. Valerie Meegan claims Francine was stolen out of their car and has been missing for years. James Meegan is tight-lipped about the entire affair. Las Vegas police decide to release the couple, but not without a watchful eye. In the middle of the night police catch the couple trying to skip town. Police have enough to hold James Meegan, but not nearly enough to support a conviction. Cold case detectives then decide to reach out the public. There they find friends of the Meegans pointing fingers at James Meegan. One such friend is a man named Marcell Peet. Peet claims James Meegan confessed shaking his baby to death in a moment of frustration. The Meegans are charged with murder and abuse. An Arizona resident reads about Meegan case and connects it to Yavapai's Baby Jane Doe.

"The Bitemark": In 1989. a 13-year-old, Justin Wiles, is missing in the Tulsa area, thought to be a runaway. When a dismembered body is found in Lake Bixhoma, he is ID'd because of surgical scars. The case will not be solved for more than a decade. A forensic odontologist links a bite mark on a suspect's arm with the victim's exhumed body to secure a conviction. "Justice for Eglena": A naked body is discovered at the site of a church-sponsored fiesta at Seguin, Texas. An officer finds her clothing in a nearby storm drain, but traces of blood must wait a decade for DNA analysis to link victim and perpetrator. The Texas Rangers live up to their reputation in this cold case, the first they have been assigned.

When three young women and a baby go missing, police fear a serial killer is at work in Kansas. When ties are found to an embezzler paroled from Missouri, surveillance begins. Links to sadomasochism, forgery and finally theft of sex toys provide probable cause for a search warrant of his properties and storage facilities. The finds astound authorities in both Kansas and Missouri, and shock a teen "niece" in Illinois.

"The Monster": Police are convinced they have caught the rapist/murderer of an elderly woman, even after DNA evidence is exculpatory. They keep him in custody until an identical incident occurs. Later, the culprit is caught in the act of attacking a teen and brought to justice on several cases shown to have the same DNA. "A Cousin's Promise": Twenty-one years after her cousin's death, Cheryl Cowans prods Reynoldsburg, Ohio to reopen the case. Once again, DNA appears to link the victim and murderer, but legal maneuvering puts him in prison for only five years.

"A Brother's Burden": Dilemma--as a cop, which brother do I believe? A wired conversation settles the question. A wife long suspected of involvement in her husband's murder is ensnared at last in North Carolina. "The Midnight Attacker" in California is thought to be two men because of the varied MO. After one suspect is dismissed because of DNA, the 18 attacks are proved to be one rapist, and the rapes continue. Eighty-one DNA samples are excluded. Nearly six years pass before the attacker is caught.

The Last Frontier, New Mexico is far removed from the bright city lights. It's also the place where 72 year-old Bruce Stark has decided to retire. On September 11, 1996, Bruce Stark goes missing and his friends, Bob Nelson and Ken Hamel are unable to locate the retiree.After four days of searching through the wilderness of The Last Frontier, Bob Nelson is just about fresh out of places to look for his missing friend Bruce. As a last ditch effort, Bob decides to check in Bruce's well, just 200 feet from his trailer home. After removing planks of wood covering the well, Bob takes a peek in and finds Bruce lying at the bottom of the well submerged in water.New Mexico State Police take up the hunt for Bruce's killer. They begin their search at the Eagle Guest Ranch Restaurant, a major hub and meeting spot for residents of The Last Frontier. Investigators are able to determine that just days before Bruce disappeared, waitresses witnessed Bruce dining with two unknown males. Composite photos are generated but no one can identify the anonymous faces. Then, Bruce Stark's son Johnny Ray alerts investigators that five of his father's guns are missing from the home. Using the serial numbers of the missing guns, investigators crosscheck them in the NCIC database with hopes of tracing the weapon.

A new fingerprint identification system known as I-AFIS helps Texas detectives track down a killer after three years of searching. And a Georgia investigator gets to the bottom of a 16-year-old murder case when he discovers where the victim's body had been hidden -- in the bottom of a well.

In August of 1994 9-year-old Dianna Rebollar is found raped and strangled to death in an empty Houston parking lot. Det. Bob King of the Houston PD takes note of the tourniquet left around the young victim's neck and, thinking it might be one killer's signature, shares photos of the deadly device with other investigators. Back at the station, King learns of a similar attack two years earlier in which 21-year-old Maria del Carmen Estrada was sexually assaulted, strangled with a tourniquet and dumped in a Dairy Queen drive-thru.Though forensic evidence is collected, both cases remain unsolved for another year when Barbara Magana at Houston's Channel 2 News contacts the Harris County Sheriff's Office and tells them about a call she received on the tip line. Turns out Magana may have taken a call from a serial killer who told her that in a field just beyond Houston's city limits a woman's dead body awaits investigators. Det. Roger Wedgeworth and his team head out to the field, and follow a foul odor to the body of severely decomposed woman that lies in the grass with a tourniquet tightly cinching her neck. This scene immediately calls to mind the cases detectives at the PD have been working, so investigators from the sheriff's office contact the city PD and a City-County Task Force is established to track down the tourniquet killer. Every lead is pursued, but after six months of hard work the team has nothing to show for its efforts.

A look at the case of James Allen Selby, a serial rapist who eluded police for years while attacking 11 women in five states - Oklahoma, Nevada, California, Arizona, and Colorado.

A detective vows not to shave until he solves the murder of a young Oregon woman. It takes three years and a string of Mexican Mafia informants to crack the case and allow the dedicated detective to shave his beard. And in a California case, investigators track down a killer with the help of DNA found on the duct tape used to wrap the murder victim's head.

After running DNA tests on more than 50 suspects, Ohio police finally get a good a lead on a serial rapist suspected of attacking at least 14 women. And a cigarette butt found at a murder scene helps investigators to smoke out the killer, Robert N. Patton Jr., 29 years later.

A forensic scientist's painstaking examination of a rape kit helps solve the 15-year-old murder of a teenage girl Carmen Berrocal. And when California investigators probe the murder of a 71-year-old man Jack Irwin, they get help from a surprising source - a top suspect's former therapist.

In the summer of 1974, 11-year-old John Wilson does a cannonball into the local swimming pool in Prairie Village, Kansas. He lands on his sister Lizabeth, 13, who starts running home to tell Mom and Dad what John has done. John also races home, trying to beat Lizabeth to the house. He takes a lead on his sister, passes the local high school and continues homeward. John wins the race, but by 10 p.m., Lizabeth is still a no-show. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson become concerned and call 9-1-1 to file a missing persons report. Police canvas the neighborhood, but still no sign of Lizabeth. When police go to the nearby high school, they discover that the only person working at the school around the time of Lizabeth's disappearance was a janitor named John Henry Horton. After talking with the other custodians, police learn that Horton clocked out at 8 p.m. and didn't clock back in until much later than normal. When Horton returned to the school, he claimed car trouble and had scratches on his body, which he claimed he got from working on his car. Police are suspicious of Horton and pay him a visit. When they pop the trunk of his car, they find a bottle of chloroform and a butcher knife. Horton says he stole the chloroform to get high and the knife was a present for his wife. Detectives don't buy his story, and the FBI gets involved in the investigation. Investigators then talk with Beth Reichmeier, 15, who encountered Horton the same day Lizabeth went missing.

On April 15, 1979, 41-year-old Harriet Simmons finishes her night shift at the bar, jumps in her car and heads to Nashville for a weekend road trip. She tells her seven children that she will call the next morning when she arrives. The call never comes. The children call police and report her missing. Harriet's family searches the route the mother took and find her car abandoned at a rest stop. Nothing of evidentiary value is gained from the car and there is no sign of Harriet Simmons. Eleven months later, the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office is called when skeletal remains are discovered near the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville, NC. Simmons' missing person case becomes a murder investigation when dental records confirm the remains belong to Harriet Simmons. An examination of the bones reveals the mother died of multiple stab wounds. With no strong leads, the case goes cold. Meanwhile another crime unfolds. On August 25, 1979, 21-year-old Betty Sue McConnell is found on the banks of the French Broad River bleeding to death from stab wounds. Her car is found submerged in the river a few miles upstream. The car is pulled out of the river and searched but no valuable evidence is found.At autopsy it is determined that McConnell died of stab wounds to the chest. The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation work the case, but fail to develop any suspects. The case falls cold, and stays that way for two decades.

The brutal stabbing murder of a Florida woman, Corey Parker, is solved when police find crucial DNA evidence in spit left on a pavement. And a man is put away for rape and murder when his footprint matches the footprint he left at the crime scene 18 years before.

After a woman's disappearance the Los Angeles police get an anonymous call to investigate a suspect; an eyelash is a clue in the death of Kiva Bible stabbed many times.

Chad Choice, an 8-year-old boy, is kidnapped from his home in Tyler, Texas. Two ransom notes follow but no one shows up for the money. Chad's parents receive a package containing his skull! Five years later, various bones are sent to jail inmates with demands to keep quiet or else. Can one of them find leniency by revealing Chad's burial place?