Forensic Files (season 1)

Forensic Files (season 1)
Country of origin	United States
Release
Original network	TLC
Original release	April 21 – December 19, 1996

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 HLN, 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
1	1	"The Disappearance of Helle Crafts"	April 21, 1996
Documents the murder of Helle Crafts, a flight attendant, who is reported missing and police suspect her pilot husband Richard of foul play. Why? A snowplow driver thinks he saw the suspect chopping wood near the river at 4:00 AM in the middle of a snowstorm, shortly before he reported his wife gone. In a small eddy downstream, police find fragments of what will be identified as human bone, a fingernail, a tooth and a few strands of hair. This was Connecticut's first murder conviction without a body.
2	2	"The Magic Bullet"	October 17, 1996
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".
3	3	"The House that Roared"	October 10, 1996
Caren Campano disappears and the explanation of her husband Chris doesn't hold up. Police find a large stain on the Campano's bedroom carpet. They perform an eerie chemical test that reveals a room spattered with blood which, when cleaned off, could not be seen by the naked eye. Complex 'reverse paternity' tests of Caren's relatives match her blood type to the blood on the carpet. The evidence convicts Chris Campano of murder, even though the body wasn't found until a year later.
4	4	"The Footpath Murders"	October 23, 1996
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, but are stymied when Richard Buckland confesses to the crime and his DNA does not match. Later, it is discovered that the true killer Colin Pitchfork had avoided giving a DNA sample during the dragnet and this brings the focus on him. This 1986 murder case is the first to use DNA as evidence in a criminal case.
5	5	"Planted Evidence"	October 24, 1996
Single mother Denise Johnson is found dead in a deserted area outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Local investigators ask a molecular geneticist to pick out a tree in a 'lineup' when unidentified seed pods are found in suspect Mark Bogan's truck. The judge rules into evidence DNA profiles linking the pods to a tree near where the body was found. This is the first U.S. case where plant DNA was used to convict a criminal.
6	6	"Southside Strangler"	October 31, 1996
FBI psychological profiling and DNA evidence identify Timothy Wilson Spencer who raped and strangled five young women in Virginia. The U.S. criminal justice system's first use of DNA profiling in a serial murder case frees an innocent man after he spent two years in prison, and convicts a real killer.
7	7	"Legionnaires' Disease"	November 7, 1996
Legionnaires' disease is one of the most famous medical detective stories, especially irritating for its missteps and frustrations. When 180 Legionnaires contract pneumonia-like symptoms after a Philadelphia Convention and 29 of them die, doctors and scientists are mystified. The determination of one scientist helps to determine the cause and likely vector of this deadly disease.
8	8	"The Wilson Murder"	November 14, 1996
Eye doctor Jack Wilson is found dead by his wife Betty, having been beaten, stabbed and lying in a pool of blood with a baseball bat nearby. Police arrest an itinerant painter/handyman who is found with the doctor's credit cards. He accuses the doctor's unfaithful wife and her twin sister of hiring him to commit the murder. The wife is sent to prison, but at her sister's trial, attorneys finally bring in a forensic expert who testifies that the crime could not have been committed the way the painter said. The sister is acquitted. But the wife remains in prison, and the mystery goes unsolved.
9	9	"Deadly Neighborhoods"	November 21, 1996
Troubling clusters of deadly cancer cases strike concerned communities across the country. In a Phoenix suburb, too many children are fatally stricken with leukemia and, on a Connecticut street, there is a disproportionate amount of illness, including four cases of brain cancer. Modern environmental agents such as buried poisons and electrical substations are found... Could these be the culprits?
10	10	"Insect Clues"	November 28, 1996
Drifter Sandra Cwik was murdered in southern California in July 1988. Abandoned in a remote area, her body was discovered several days later decomposing with the aid of maggots. By analyzing the species of fly discovered at the recovery site, forensic entomologist David Faulkner provides the compelling time-of-death evidence that convicted serial rapist Ronald Porter.
11	11	"Outbreak"	December 5, 1996
Alarmingly high levels of thyroid hormones pump through the systems of South Dakota residents. Investigators study one family who all got sick, except their 12-year-old son who is 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.
12	12	"The List Murders"	December 12, 1996
In 1971, John List left a note with the bodies of his mother, wife, and three children in his mansion ballroom, funeral organ music blaring from a central sound system, and disappeared. Eighteen years later, all detectives had to work from is an outdated photograph of List. In 1989, the popular television series America's Most Wanted commissioned an age-scaled bust of List to aid viewers in identifying the confessed murderer. Dr. Frank Bender, nationally-recognized artist and sculptor, worked with forensic psychologist Richard Walter to develop a profile of the aging List. The final bust was so keenly accurate that 350 viewers called with tips, one of which led to List's arrest.
13	13	"Raw Terror"	December 19, 1996
Escherichia coli (E-coli) bacteria can be found in meats, milk and in water. When food is properly processed, prepared and stored, E-Coli are 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.

External links

• Forensic Files episodes on TV Guide