Subjects: Physical Science

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.

After the owner of a private school for Asian students vanishes from his driveway, police scramble to find him. The search grows desperate as time begins to run out on the diabetic man who is desperately in need of his medication. Investigators soon have their answer he has been kidnapped. Now, can they save him before it is too late?

Winner at the 21st Annual Gemini Awards: Best Photography in an Information Program or Series – J.P. Locherer C.S.C., Damir Chytil csc.
The discovery of an abandoned suitcase containing a young Asian woman’s body leads North Yorkshire police to London. But instead of answers, the mystery only deepens when they discover that a second woman is missing. The killer’s trail leads investigators and forensic scientists halfway around the world – only to discover that the key to unlocking the mystery has been under their noses all along.”

The murder of a gay couple in rural California has police stymied – who would want to hurt the well-liked pair? As investigators and forensic scientists dig deeper, they suspect that the killings are linked to a series of arsons that have destroyed several synagogues and an abortion clinic. The trail leads them to the sinister world of hate crimes — and a chilling plan that must be stopped.

When a Russian prostitute is found murdered, Los Angeles Homicide detectives quickly find the case to be anything but routine. Following a tangled string of clues, investigators are drawn into the murky world of high-end prostitution, illegal alien smuggling and Russian Organized Crime. Police must navigate their way through the dark underworld of Los Angeles – and hope that forensic science can nail the killer.

Four brutal murders in one bloody weekend devastate the small town of Barrie, Ontario. The prime suspects, three violent, escaped convicts, are on the loose. But while police conduct a massive manhunt, they begin to discover that the evidence isnt adding up. As the frightened city demands answers, detectives and forensic scientists find themselves in a desperate race to find those responsible – before they can kill again.