Seasons & episodes

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.

Several monks are massacred at a Buddhist temple in Arizona in 1991. Four men from Tucson, referred to as the "Tucson Four", were initially charged with the crime and gave confessions under controversial conditions, including the actual murder weapon – connected to unassociated individuals who were ignored by authorities – being left untested by the sheriff's department. However, the "Tucson Four" later recanted the confessions and were released when investigators finally confirmed that they had nothing to do with the murders. Local teenagers Johnathan Doody and Allessandro Garcia were arrested and imprisoned.

Over 40 years after the 1963 assassination of president John F. Kennedy, a majority of Americans still believe that there was a cover-up. Was Lee Harvey Oswald the sole gunman? Could one bullet pass through both the president and governor John Connally? Does a police radio recording hold the truth?

The 1932 kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. is reviewed.

A look back on 25 years of Forensic Files/Medical Detectives, featuring interviews with key figures behind the scenes as well as highlights of favored episodes and scenes.

S1 · E1The Disappearance of Helle Crafts 1996-04-21 · 23 min＋

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.

S1 · E2The Magic Bullet 1996-10-03 · 23 min＋

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".

S1 · E3The House That Roared 1996-10-10 · 23 min＋

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.

S1 · E4The Footpath Murders 1996-10-17 · 23 min＋

The first case to use DNA evidence is detailed. In 1983 Leicester, England, police were stymied by a rape/murder of a 15-year-old girl; three years later, faced with a similar crime, they turned to Dr. Alec Jeffreys, a molecular biologist with a revolutionary approach to solving the case.

S1 · E5Planted Evidence 1996-10-24 · 23 min＋

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.

S1 · E6Southside Strangler 1996-10-31 · 23 min＋

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 the real killer. FBI psychological profiling and DNA evidence identify the man who raped and strangled five young women in Virginia.

S1 · E7Legionnaires' Disease 1996-11-07 · 23 min＋

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.

S1 · E8The Wilson Murder 1996-11-14 · 23 min＋

On the night of May 22, 1992, Betty Wilson returned home after a meeting. She walked up the stairs to the bedroom and discovered her husband, Eye doctor Jack Wilson, beaten and stabbed to death, lying in a pool of blood with a baseball bat nearby. Jack Wilson had obviously been murdered... but how? And by whom? Even the experts couldn’t agree.

S1 · E9Deadly Neighborhoods 1996-11-21 · 23 min＋

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?

S1 · E10Insect Clues 1996-11-28 · 23 min＋

Between 1985 and 1988, 18 people were choked, molested and left for dead in the remote desert mountains of California. The only witnesses were the insects – and they also proved to play an important role in solving the crimes.

S1 · E11Outbreak 1996-12-05 · 23 min＋

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.

S1 · E12The List Murders 1996-12-12 · 23 min＋

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.

S1 · E13Raw Terror 1996-12-19 · 23 min＋

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.

S2 · E1The Common Thread 1997-10-02 · 23 min＋

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.

S2 · E2The Dirty Deed 1997-10-09 · 23 min＋

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.

S2 · E3Killer Fog 1997-10-16 · 23 min＋

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.

S2 · E4Sex, Lies & DNA 1997-10-23 · 23 min＋

While Earl Morris was vacationing in California, he learned his wife had gone missing from their home in Arizona. The search for Ruby Morris involved dozens of investigators and scientists, even the coast guard. And the results of that investigation surprised everyone... especially Earl Morris.