Forensic Files

This episode covers the 1993 disappearance and murder of twenty-year-old Bobby Kent in Weston, Florida, whose death was the work of seven people. The case, which became well known, is also the subject of a book and a movie.

A young sailor named Billy Bosko married his high school sweetheart, Michelle Moore Bosko. When he returns to his home port of Norfolk, Virginia on July 8, 1997, he finds his 19-year-old bride lying on the floor in a pool of blood. She had been raped and murdered. The police investigation focuses on a neighbor, who confesses. But his DNA does not match the killer's. That begins a series of police interrogations and "confessions," all of which are in conflict with the forensic evidence. Four men are eventually sent to prison. Three others are accused. Finally, an eighth man confesses in a letter, and his is the only DNA that matches. Defense investigators and others wonder why were the other men accused and sent to prison.

Beginning in December 1990, police uncover a string of murdered prostitutes. Each victim has had her eyes carved out. Charles Albright was eventually convicted of murder in 1991.

The case of missing stewardess Helle Craft is recounted. Although her body was never recovered, police used forensic evidence to charge her husband with murder. It became the first murder conviction without a body in Connecticut.

At the Dallas 'Pistol & Revolver' club in 1991, Trey Cooley, a young spectator, was watching a shooting competition, seated behind an air gun range. He was struck and killed by a stray bullet. See how ballistics, lasers, and forensic animation solve the riddle of the "magic bullet".

Caren Campano disappeared and her husband, Chris became the prime suspect -- especially after police found a huge bloodstain on the Campano's bedroom carpet. When they sprayed the bedroom with Luminol, they discovered it was awash with blood spatter. Complex DNA testing - 'reverse paternity' tests - proved it was Caren's blood. Now all they had to do was find her body.

The year was 1984, and a serial killer was on the loose in Florida. Eight women had been found dead. At each crime scene, investigators found tiny red fibers, fibers they hoped would lead them to the killer.

In this classic episode of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, Eileen and Derrick Severs disappeared from their home in the small village of Hambleton in Great Britain, and police found evidence which suggested foul play. Careful analysis of a soil sample would tell investigators not only what happened to the couple, but who was responsible for the dirty deed.

It was the single, most deadly automobile accident in American history. Almost a hundred vehicles were involved, twelve people died, and more than fifty people were injured. It happened along a three mile stretch of highway long known for dense, thick fog. Investigators set out to determine if the fog was a natural phenomenon, or the result of something else.

In Omaha, the deaths of a child and a truck driver in the same hospital on the same day are investigated to see if there is a link between them.

In the mid-1980s, bodies of nude woman were found in remote hill of California. The killer gags and molests prostitutes, cuts their clothes in random patterns and cuts off their hair; microscopic evidence helps solve the case.

In 1987, a human skull and some bones were discovered at a Boy Scout Camp near Farmington, Missouri. A facial reconstruction aided the investigators in this case. Once the victim was identified as Bun Chee Nyhuis, her husband Richard H. Nyhuis, was no longer just a person of interest.

In 1996, police received a call from Darlie Routier telling them of her two sons' murders. However, investigators were not certain about the validity of Darlie's story and began an intensive search of the crime scene. The police found out who the killer was by analyzing blood spatter, doing behavioral profiling and analyzing Darlie's 911 call.

Scott Dunn was missing and when the police sprayed his bedroom with Luminol, a scene of horrific violence emerged. Now investigators faced a daunting task: to prove Scott Dunn had been murdered, even though they had no body, no weapon, and no witnesses.

A 1995 fire razes the mansion of Kansas doctor Debora Green, killing two of her three children; disturbing accounts from her ex-husband, Mike Farrar, lead investigators to believe she set the blaze herself.

For more than a decade, women in a small Louisiana city lived in fear of a serial rapist. Fortunately, computer technology and behavioral science combined to give police a new forensic tool: geographical profiling. Police narrow their search to one man, but to prove he’s the perpetrator they turn to an unlikely piece of evidence--- a discarded cigarette butt.

When the wife of a well-known dentist is found dead, police are unsure who killed her. Some fibers and a study of the weather patterns on the night of the murder break the case open and reveal the real killer.

When a young mother and her infant son are found dead in a cornfield, the obvious suspect is the husband and father of the victims. But some insects found on the bodies reveal a vital clue, as does a long, blonde hair found on the victims.

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.

In 1991, Maine resident Pearl Smith is missing after an argument with her husband, Bill Bruns. Despite pleas from her children, police treat 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 certain they'll finally find the victim's body.

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 neighborhood dogs, but the injuries on her body didn't match their account of what happened. Investigators believed April's wounds were 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 parent's prayers were answered when a forensic scientist saw something in the crime scene photographs that had been missed the first time around.

Exploring how an American hit single from 1966 -- the cheater by Bob Kuban And The In-man -- foreshadowed the demise of the group's lead singer, Walter Scott (Walter Notheis Jr.), who disappeared in 1983.

In Texas 1988, Nancy DePriest was raped and murdered while working at Pizza Hut. After a suspect confessed and implicated another, they were both imprisoned; the case was considered closed. Eight years later, another man claims that he committed the crime, and investigators must use forensic evidence to determine the true killer.

Although a group of teenage thugs are suspected of attacking two boys on a fishing trip, there is no solid evidence until a murky fishing hole provides some answers.

A man died in his home after a long history of heart disease. It was assumed that this was the cause of his death. A few weeks after the funeral, rumors surfaced that the death was no accident.

In 1999, a 12-year-old was found murdered in her home and it changed the feeling of security residents had in the small town of Waseca, Minnesota. Despite a meticulous search of the home and an exhaustive investigation, police had no suspects.

In 1962, the people of the small town of Hanford, CA lost their sense of peace when one of their own, 15-year-old Marlene Miller, was murdered. Booker T. Hillery was convicted and after countless appeals, Hillery received a re-trial in 1983. Forensic scientists had to use new knowledge of microscopic evidence to be able to place Hillery at the scene.

The investigation of a discarded sleeping bag, containing bloody sneakers and a purse, leads police to the body of a young woman, Carrie Love. Evidence from the autopsy and the crime scene was carefully collected and analyzed, but it would be a mark found on the victim's body, which would enable police to track the killer.

On the last day of deer hunting season, a woman is killed while walking her dogs in the woods. The victim has no enemies and her husband has an alibi, so police assume it was a hunting accident... until a strange letter turns up, allegedly written by the woman before her death. Police begin to wonder if the woman may have been the target all along, and a forensic document examiner, a slingshot, and an unusual physics experiment answer their question.

An Alaskan police officer found a woman's body while on routine patrol of a public park. The victim had been stabbed to death and, during the autopsy, the medical examiner preserved the portion of her rib cage which sustained the fatal wound. A knife thought to be the murder weapon turned up days later, two thousand miles away. Forensic scientists now had an opportunity, which seldom occurs, to compare the microscopic marks on the presumed murder weapon with the marks on the victim's bone.

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.

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.

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.

The woman could have lost control of her SUV on the icy road, and plunged down an embankment into a shallow creek. But there were footprints in the snow leading away.

A successful stockbroker told his wife he'd be working late, and when he didn't come home, she reported him missing. Investigators found his car a few blocks from his office and, two days later, proof that he had been murdered.

The prime suspect had a criminal record, and his driver's license was found at the scene of a brutal, double homicide. That physical evidence seemed damning, but it wasn't the only evidence. DNA extracted from a discarded spoon would point investigators in a different direction.

When a young girl was found dead, police quickly arrested the most likely suspect. But cutting-edge technology from NASA enabled a forensic odontologist to prove the wrong man was behind bars. With the killer still on the loose, the investigation was far from over.

It's usually easy to determine how a criminal entered the crime scene. But in this case, it was far from clear. It looked like the killer vanished into thin air...and perhaps he had.

When a young fireman died from what appeared to be serious but undiagnosed heart disease, his family and friends were devastated but they had no proof of foul play. Then they learned that, six years earlier in a nearby town, a young police officer died in the same way. The men had one thing in common: at the time of their deaths, they were married to the same woman.

In 2004, Mary Ann Clibbery was found brutally murdered in her Illinois business and investigators had to determine if this was a robbery gone wrong or a calculated murder. The evidence at the scene told police what happened and they got a huge break when evidence from the murder was found on top of a nearby frozen river.

In 2006, Texas real estate agent Sarah Anne Walker was found brutally murdered in a model home. Weeks later, a witness came forward who may have seen the killer and police used forensic hypnosis to help him recall every detail of the man's appearance. His description was used to create a composite sketch, which police used to draw the killer out of hiding.

In 2003, St. Cloud teenager Jason MacLennan returned home after a night out with friends and discovered his father Ken's body lying in a pool of blood. There were shoe impressions outside in the new-fallen snow; because the victim's wallet and watch were missing, the motive may have been robbery. But before making that determination, police needed to find out who had the most to gain from his death.

A young mother is murdered after years of domestic abuse. There are clues at the scene: bloody footprints and DNA from the victim’s rape kit.

Threatening emails, a missing person and an abandoned truck lead police to a home where they believe a murder was committed. The evidence is overwhelming and investigators are sure they have the killer. What they don’t have is the body of the victim.

In 2000, Kristine Fitzhugh failed to show up for her music class and her husband Ken found her dead at the bottom of the stairs of their Palo Alto home. Upon further investigation, luminol reveals evidence of murder in the kitchen. As detectives investigate the crime further, they uncover a long-held family secret that provides motive.