Forensic Files (season 6)
| Forensic Files (season 6) | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Release | |
| Original network | truTV |
| Original release | May 21 – December 10, 2001 |
| Season chronology | |
Forensic Files is an American documentary-style series which reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on truTV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with truTV Original Productions. It has broadcast 400 episodes since its debut on TLC in 1996 as Medical Detectives.
Episodes
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | 1 | "Missing in Time" | May 21, 2001 |
| A young woman was reported missing after a fight with her husband. She was presumed to be dead and her husband was the prime suspect. Police were suspicious of a secondary suspect when he reported a suspicious fire in his car. Two tiny drops of blood were found in the burned interior. Traditional DNA testing was difficult, since there was no body for DNA comparison. But a tiny clue inside the suspect's watchband and a popular television show helped solve the case. | |||
| 73 | 2 | "Missing Pearl" | May 28, 2001 |
| In 1991, Maine resident Pearl Smith is missing after an argument with her husband Bill Bruns. Despite pleas from her children, police insist on treating it as a routine missing person's case. But, when an investigation turns up a blood trail that leads to the couple's basement, police are sure they'll find the victim's body. Initially, they find nothing and the case stalls, until new forensic technology helps investigators find the body. The investigators first use luminal over the cleaned carpet to reveal the blood spatter on the floor and a path down to the basement. Then, they use ground penetrating radar to scan the basement for radiation; they found three feet down, excavated rusted sand everywhere except in a certain area. The body had absorbed the rust and was found there. | |||
| 74 | 3 | "Man's Best Friend?" | June 4, 2001 |
| In 1989, 4-year-old April Loveless was found dead in the backyard of her Texas home. Her mother Debbie Loveless and step-father John Miller told police that she was attacked and killed by the family dogs. Investigators did not agree and believed that April's wounds were not dog bites at all, but slashing injuries, consistent with a knife wound. John and Debbie were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Five years later, the parents' prayers were answered when a forensic scientist saw something in the crime scene photographs that had been missed the first time around. | |||
| 75 | 4 | "Hand Delivered" | June 11, 2001 |
| In 1995, police in San Diego, CA, are baffled by a pair of hands found in a dumpster. Through further investigation, they determine that the hands are those of missing person Don Hardin. With this knowledge, the police focus on local homeless man Dale Whitmer, whom had lived with Hardin around the time of his disappearance. However, they can find no solid, forensic evidence on Whitmer and the case goes cold. About a year later, investigators receive an anonymous letter with information about the crime that had been withheld from the press – information only the killer (or someone close to the killer) would know. Laser technology helps to identify the state, city, street address and even the office number from where the anonymous letter was mailed, which leads them to LDS (Mormon) Bishop Mark Davis. Davis cites the privilege between clergy and church member as a reason to not disclose the source of the information, but a judge rules that since Davis sent the letter, he must identify the source. The source was Dale Whitmer's daughter Andrea, who ultimately chooses to testify against her father. | |||
| 76 | 5 | "Death Play" | June 18, 2001 |
| In 1993, 16-year-old Marie Robards suffered the devastating loss of her father Steve Robards. The death was ruled the result of cardiac arrest. One year later, she won a part in her high school production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The lines she was required to recite onstage were more than the thoughts and feelings of her character; they struck a chord, and hinted at her own inner turmoil, from the secret she had been hiding: Barium acetate obtained in her high school chemistry class. | |||
| 77 | 6 | "Fire Dot Com" | June 25, 2001 |
| In 1996, 17-month-old Josh Hinson died in a fire in his North Carolina home. A federal agency ruled that a fire was intentionally set and Josh's mother Terri Strickland was charged with murder. But are government scientists, with all of their resources, always right? Using the then-emerging resources of the Internet, Terri Strickland undertook her own investigation. An independent fire investigator was able to poke enough holes in the government's scientific conclusions to raise serious questions about whether the fire was intentionally set. | |||
| 78 | 7 | "Mistaken for Dead" | July 2, 2001 |
| In 1988, when a patient identified as Gene Hanson dies unexpectedly in the office of California neurologist Richard Boggs, police begin what they think will be a routine investigation. What they find throws doubt on the time of death, the identity of Hanson and raises questions about the doctor's role in his death. Soon they uncover a bizarre story of corpse stealing, fake identities and sexual perversion – all part of an elaborate insurance case that will center on what actually caused the victim's death: a sex act gone wrong or premeditated murder? | |||
| 79 | 8 | "Frozen Evidence" | July 9, 2001 |
| In 1992, two masked gunmen enter the Canadian home of Ward and Diana Maracle to rob them, but Ward was shot in the head. If a perpetrator leaves a shoe print in the mud, investigators use established techniques to make a mold of the shoe impression for later identification. In this case, the impression is left in the snow? Here's the story of one investigator, whose quick thinking and knowledge of science enabled him to capture a shoe impression made in snow, before the evidence melted away. Knowledge of the shoe led investigators to Peter Benedict and Frank Lanoue, who were convicted of aggravated assault and robbery. | |||
| 80 | 9 | "Soft Touch" | July 16, 2001 |
| In 1992, 22-year-old Dawn Bruce was brutally murdered in her Virginia apartment. The killer left very little evidence, but investigators did notice a blood smear on a pillow case that appeared to have been made by one of the killer's fingers. New technology enabled investigators to identify a fingerprint from the cloth surface of the pillow case. This gave police the means to apprehend Robert Douglas Knight, who killed Dawn Bruce in a senseless act of revenge. | |||
| 81 | 10 | "Church Disappearance" | July 23, 2001 |
| In 1981, six-year-old Cassie Hansen disappeared from her St. Paul, Minnesota church during an evening service. After a tip from a witness that an older man was seen carrying a small body, Cassie's body was found in a dumpster. The FBI created a psychological profile of the perpetrator, but are still unable to find the killer. Dorothy Noga contacted police to let them know that Stuart Knowlton was a massage client that liked to discuss his fantasies during his weekly massages and that one fantasy he spoke of closely resembled the church abduction, which caught her attention. Knowlton had also asked Noga to be his alibi on the night of the murder. Even though she was later attacked by Knowlton and stabbed 32 times, Noga testified against Knowlton in the trial. Knowlton died in prison in 2006. | |||
| 82 | 11 | "Photo Finish" | July 30, 2001 |
| In 1995, California model Linda Sobek goes missing. A park employee discovers photographs and some vital pieces of information in a dumpster, which eventually led investigators to professional photographer Charles Rathbun. Rathbun claims Sobek died during a consensual sexual encounter gone wrong, but Sobek's corpse and some high tech digital imagery tell a more sinister story. | |||
| 83 | 12 | "Whodunit" | August 6, 2001 |
| In 1998, an evening out at a Maryland murder mystery theatre performance turns into a real life whodunit when the badly burned body of Stephen Hricko is discovered in his hotel room after a fire. Upon initial investigation, it appeared to be an accidental fire. Lies, greed and medical trickery can't match the skills of forensic scientists, who bring the curtain down on the real killer, his wife Kimberly Hricko. | |||
| 84 | 13 | "Horse Play" | August 13, 2001 |
| In 1980, Michigan resident Shannon Mohr died in what was reported to be a horseback riding accident by her new husband David Davis. After her death, Shannon's family reported to police their suspicions that Davis seemed far from grief-stricken. Upon further investigation, police discovered a web of lies and a proficiency with pharmaceuticals in Davis' background, that provide an alternative explanation for Shannon's accidental death. | |||
| 85 | 14 | "Treads and Threads" | August 20, 2001 |
| For 15 months, a serial killer was strangling prostitutes in Florida, then taunting police by leaving the bodies in plain sight. The only clues were a tire impression and some threads. By the time scientists identify the source of these treads and the threads, police discover the killer James Randall was right under their noses the entire time. | |||
| 86 | 15 | "Killer's "Cattle" Log" | August 27, 2001 |
| When police in the Great Plains are called to retrieve a dead body, they do a background check on the victim. The trail leads them into a bizarre web of homeless drifters, cattle auctions and bad checks – all fronted by elderly couple Ray and Faye Copeland with a penchant for money and murder. | |||
| 87 | 16 | "Skin of Her Teeth" | September 3, 2001 |
| In 1994, a human skull retrieved from an Ohio pond reveals a ghastly crime. Markings on the skull indicate that the victim had been stabbed multiple times and that the teeth had been removed with needle-nose pliers, in an attempt to keep the victim's identity a secret. A mitochondrial DNA match between the skull and Tina Mott's 18-month-old son was used to positively identify the remains as 21-year-old Tina Mott, who was reported missing two months earlier. Investigators focus on Tina's live-in boyfriend Timothy Bradford and faced with the forensic evidence against him, Bradford confessed to killing and dismembering Mott. | |||
| 88 | 17 | "Line of Fire" | September 10, 2001 |
| In 1996, when a fundamentalist group starts attacking and robbing banks in the Spokane, WA area, authorities know immediately that they are dealing with experienced criminals. A tip leads them to Sandpoint, Idaho residents Verne Jay Merrell, Robert S. Berry and Charles Barbee and the evidence found at their homes is extensive and incriminating. In court, two juries are presented with a combination of old fashioned forensic science and the latest in crime technology in order to render a verdict. | |||
| 89 | 18 | "Bad Blood" | September 17, 2001 |
| In 1992, in a rural Canadian community, Dr. John Schneeberger is accused of sedating and sexually assaulting one of his female patients and his step daughter. DNA tests demonstrate that the doctor is innocent, but the female patient still insists that he sedated and raped her. On three occasions, blood was taken from the doctor's arm for DNA testing, and each time, the results exonerated Schneeberger. Seven years later, a private investigator takes lip balm from Schneeberger's car, has it DNA-tested and the results were a match to the perpetrator. So, how did Dr. Schneeberger trick earlier investigators? | |||
| 90 | 19 | "Pure Evil" | September 24, 2001 |
| Creating a profile of a serial killer, is part science and part intuition. The science involves studying criminals who have committed similar crimes, to see what characteristics they all have in common. One common trait among serial killers, is a past history of abusing animals. In a search for the killer of two teenagers in Texas, a behavioral profile led to suspect Jason Massey – and hard science proved the profile was correct. Massey was executed by lethal injection on April 3, 2001. | |||
| 91 | 20 | "Root of all Evil" | October 1, 2001 |
| In 1981, Charlotte Grabbe, wife of prominent Illinois farmer Fred Grabbe, disappeared from her farm without a trace. For three years, investigators searched in vain for any trace of Charlotte. Eventually, Fred Grabbe's former lover came forward with a fantastic tale of rage, murder, mutilation and cremation, but there seemed to be no way to test the validity of her story. That is, until a plant pathologist and a dendrochronologist conducted some tests on the plant life where the cremation supposedly occurred, which led to a surprising revelation. | |||
| 92 | 21 | "Where the Blood Drops" | October 8, 2001 |
| When someone dies under mysterious circumstances, the spouse almost always is a suspect – especially if they are in bed, sleeping beside the individual at the time of their death. In 1987, Susie Mowbray was charged for her husband Bill Mowbray's death, which had the appearance of suicide. Her son was so convinced of her innocence that he enrolled in law school, studied all of the evidence and, eventually, discovered the truth of what really happened that fateful night between his mother and father. | |||
| 93 | 22 | "Punch Line" | October 15, 2001 |
| In 1994, Rhoda Nathan was found murdered in a Cincinnati hotel room. Later, when hotel employee Elwood Jones went to a hospital emergency room for an infected hand, which he said was cut on a dumpster at work, the doctor treating him recognized the injury as something else. | |||
| 94 | 23 | "Sibling Rivalry" | October 22, 2001 |
| In 1991, San Francisco pornographer Artie Mitchell was murdered in his home. His brother and business partner Jim is found near the scene carrying a rifle and, later, confesses to shooting Artie. The question for investigators is whether the shooting was pre-meditated. A 911 call in which the fatal shots can be heard, and a computer reconstruction of the crime scene, provide the answer. | |||
| 95 | 24 | "Pastoral Care" | October 29, 2001 |
| In 1981, New York correctional officer Donna Payant disappeared and was later found in a landfill. The medical examiner not only identified the cause of death, but also found an important clue. It was a signature element of a murder committed by Lemuel Smith 10 years earlier, which was also investigated by the medical examiner. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Smith was an inmate at the same prison and could have committed the crime. But, did he? | |||
| 96 | 25 | "Bagging a Killer" | November 5, 2001 |
| In 1999, nine-year-old Valiree Jackson vanished on her way to school near Spokane, WA. Her father Brad Jackson reported the disappearance and the entire community started searching for her abductor. As police began the investigation, they wondered if her long-lost mother Rosanne Pleasant might be connected to the disappearance. Police used GPS tracking to follow the perpetrator's movements, which not only led them to Valiree's body, but also showed the twisted motive in the perpetrator's mind. The Secret Service finds a hidden fingerprint to help detectives seal the case. | |||
| 97 | 26 | "Double Trouble" | November 12, 2001 |
| In 1995, when off-duty Maine State Trooper Vicky Gardner is attacked by Steven Fortin during a routine stop, it triggers a chain of events which jumpstarts a stalled murder case in New Jersey. The Maine attack appears strikingly similar to the brutal sexual assault and murder of Melissa Padilla in New Jersey. There is very little forensic evidence in the New Jersey crime, but the signature the killer left behind – the ritualistic bite mark similarities in both of these crimes – identified him just as convincingly as a DNA match. | |||
| 98 | 27 | "Cats, Flies & Snapshots" | November 19, 2001 |
| In 1989, 19-year-old Lori Auker left her Pennsylvania home for work, but never arrived. She left behind her infant son, a family who loves her and a job she enjoys. Police investigators viewed this case as a missing persons or possible homicide and focus on her estranged husband Robert Auker. It takes space-age technology, cat hairs and insects to pinpoint the image of the woman's abductor before the real story can be told. | |||
| 99 | 28 | "Naked Justice" | November 26, 2001 |
| In 1999, expectant mother Leann Fletcher is reported dead in her Michigan home of an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Was the wound self-inflicted, and if it was, why would this young mother with so much to live for kill herself? Forensic computer analysis, blood spatter analysis and a painstaking investigation led police to the truth that her lawyer husband Michael "Mick" Fletcher had motive to kill Leann, since he was having a sexual affair with judge Susan Chrzanowski. | |||
| 100 | 29 | "Treading Not So Lightly" | December 3, 2001 |
| In 1980, 4-year-old Vicky Lyons is found unconscious in a parking lot with severe head trauma. Police concluded it was a hit-and-run vehicle accident, and left it at that. But Vicky's mother Crystal suspected there was more to the story and was determined to find out exactly what had happened. Being a fan of murder mysteries and forensic science shows, Crystal used much of what she had learned to determine who was responsible for the accident, which permanently injured her daughter. | |||
| 101 | 30 | "Shopping Spree" | December 10, 2001 |
| In 1995, Lisa Manderach and her daughter Devon left their Pennsylvania home to go shopping, but didn't return home at the expected time. Lisa's husband Jimmy called police in a panic to report their disappearance and he directed them to a nearby shopping center. Later that day, Devon's body was found dumped off of a roadside, but there was no sign of Lisa. Looking further into the store Lisa had said she was going to, police shift their focus to store employee Caleb Fairley. | |||
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