Countries: CA

April, 1992. An elderly couple is found dead in the trunk of their car at their home in upscale Toronto. The investigation eventually leads authorities to the couple’s vacation home one hour north of the city. Police soon learn of the “House Hermit”- a mysterious intruder breaking into area cottages and camping in them. He becomes the prime suspect in the murders, but though police finally identify him they cannot find him anywhere. That’s because he’s moved 3,000 miles away to Vancouver, where he abducts and assaults three women before finally being caught red handed,tstrangling one of his victims.

For 23 days in October, 2002 a sniper terrorizes the Washington DC area, shooting thirteen people and killing ten. The victims are ordinary people doing routine activities. Nothing links them; they are chosen at random. Police mount one of the largest investigations in American history to catch a ruthless and elusive killer. In the end, their most productive clue comes from the sniper himself, who calls a police tip line and brags about a previous shooting in Alabama. Authorities are able to recover a single fingerprint from that crime, which eventually leads them to not one, but two killers, including a seventeen year old boy.

A retired fireman on a morning bike ride notices a burning bundle in a farmer’s field…and recognizes the smell of burning human flesh. Investigators at the scene find an unrecognizable body, a distinctive lighter, 2 pairs of latex gloves and the box they came in, paper towels and torn scraps of an office memo. State of the art forensics, dogged police work, and some extraordinary turns of events lead police to the murder scene – the medical room of a ball bearings factory, and the arrest of a former Armenian mafia thug turned English family man for the brutal murder of his cruel ex-boss.

The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia are rocked by a massive pipe bomb explosion. A woman is killed and hundreds injured. Subsequent bombs at an abortion clinic and a gay bar show a similar M.O., and increasing refinement. Police have no clue who is behind the bombings until they receive a letter signed by ‘The Army of God’, an anti-abortion, anti-gay, white supremacist group. When another abortion clinic is bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, a witness sees a suspicious man leaving the scene and gets his license number. Police are soon on the trail of Christian extremist Eric Rudolph, but it will take a five year manhunt through the rugged terrain of the Natahala National Forest before they can catch America’s Most Wanted criminal.

A reign of terror that spans more than eighteen years. A serial rapist who stalks and preys on elderly women living in isolated Southern Ontario. With the victim count pushing ten, the attacker’s thirst for violence suddenly escalates to murder. Who is this monster that continues to elude Colchester police? Only a revolution in forensic science can strike fear into the heart of this predator.

A self-appointed angel of death on a mission beyond the law. A sniper who targets abortion doctors and then disappears into the shadowy underground that supports and protects him. But when the sniper’s mission moves to murder, a city is thrown into blind panic that spreads across the country and beyond. Armed with the very latest in forensic technology, this is one game the cops have no intention of losing.

When the police in Farmington, New Mexico discover a broken window at a local head shop called The Eclectic, they expect to find evidence of a robbery. Instead they uncover a horrific crime scene, with two badly mutilated bodies. One year later, a battered body is found tossed into a canyon, the eyes and genitals gouged. Then the bloodied corpse of a naked woman is discovered on a remote road outside of town. As police search for clues to her death, tracking a lost cell phone, scattered footprints and layers of tire marks far into the desert, they soon come to a terrible realization – that one man and his friends are suspected in all three crimes. And when a renowned blood spatter expert finally determines who the murderer is, the community is shocked to learn that a serial killer has been living in their midst.

The world’s top criminal investigators, forensic scientists and behavioral analysts go behind the scenes of some of their most challenging serial murder cases to reveal the cutting edge forensic science, technology, behavioral psychology and investigative techniques involved in tracking down a serial killer. The detection and apprehension of the Gainesville Ripper, who brutally attacked and murdered five college students in Florida, provides the core narrative against which the unique forensic and investigative details of four other cases are compared and contrasted.

One by one, prostitutes in Spokane, Washington are being hunted down and discarded in remote wooded areas by a vicious serial killer. On each victim’s head, police find his macabre calling card – a plastic bag emblazoned with an ironic Smiley Face. Investigators soon realize they are dealing with the worst type of serial killer – an Average Joe with no criminal background and with the extraordinary ability to blend in with the community. With few clues to work with – and as the death toll continues to rise – investigators turn to ballistics experts, space age fingerprinting technology, and to a Forensic Botanist who believes he can solve the crime by reading plants and trees.

A double homicide in Hudson, Wisconsin leaves a small town reeling and two young detectives with little to go on. The victims are upright citizens, shot execution style, with no apparent motive. In Agatha Christie-like fashion, a tantalizing array of suspects emerge but after two years, there are still no arrests. Richard Walter, the famed criminal profiler, becomes intrigued by the cold case and narrows the suspect list down until only one man is left standing. And no one can believe who that person is. A combination of expert crime scene analysis, computer forensics and the perpetrator’s own pathological urge to talk… the bereaved families finally see justice served.