Cold Case discusses the story of the nearly 20-year hunt for the man responsible for the murders of 49 prostitutes and other women in the Seattle, Washington area.

An eerie note left on a grave helps solve a 12-year-old case of murder, and an exhaustive questioning of a mother helps police unravel the mysterious deaths of three of her

Thirty-two years after the killing of University of Michigan law student Jane Mixer, police use DNA found on her pantyhose to finally track down the killer. And psychologists help solve a cold case by suggesting the lead detective take a page from the game of romance, and play hard to get with the killer.

A mother is suspected in the murders of two of her daughters, when her third daughter finally convinces police to reopen two cold cases.

A boy's toy Batmobile car provides an important clue for detectives struggling to make a case against a serial killer who stalks and kills waitresses.

Bill Kurtis examines one of the most infamous cold cases in Los Angeles history -- the 1947 murder of actress Elizabeth Short, who was found nude and cut in half in an empty lot. Though charges have never been filed in the case, theories abound, and Kurtis investigates some of the most prominent ones. He talks to a retired LAPD detective whose 3 year investigation led to the stunning conclusion that his own father committed the murder. Kurtis also probes the theory that the killer was a surgeon named Walter Bayley. Kurtis finally explores the possibility that there may have been a police cover-up in the case to protect the real killer.

A dry cleaning tag inside a sweatshirt left at a crime scene helps police track down a serial killer and rapist who had been eluding them for years.

Testimony about the growth of larvae in dead bodies helps convict the man who stabbed a couple to death and strangled their 4-year-old daughter in 1993. And the 2001 murder of a young girl, whose head was cut off, remains unsolved.

Answer in the Box Alison Parrott was a runner. Not only was she was runner she was a great runner, So much so that she had the local media interested in her, So when she got a call from a photographer to take some pictures of her running she didn't think anything wrong with it. She left to go to her photo session and wasn't seen alive again. The police had a fellow runner as the lead suspect but nothing ever happened with that lead. A cold case detective named Vic Matanovic was going through some files 10 years later and came across the case. When the detective was looking for clues to solve the case the Answer is in the Box. Usually DNA is enough to prove a case but in this case the criminal who lured Alison to her death had a plan to lure the jury to believe in the lie he was about to tell. Maternal Instinct 1981 a brother and sister fell victim to a heartless mother with no regard for life. 3 month old Seth Davis was rushed to the hospital because of insulin poisoning. He was left brain damaged. 5 months later his sister, Tenga Davis, is rushed to the hospital. There she dies of Caffeine poisoning. Even though the autopsy that was turned in by the M.E. stated cause of death was a homicide, the police treated this as an accident. Their mother Mary Beth Davis moves on with her own life by moving to a different state. She starts a new family and forgets all about what happened back in her past. That is until 10 years later when Mary Beth gets a knock on her door by the cold case detectives which brings back her past as the detectives are there to prove a case of murder.

The Boy and the Monster In Wisconsin in the winter of 1991 a young woman's body was found naked, badly beaten and to make it harder to identify her, her fingertips were cut off. After months of trying to figure out who she was they finally came up with a name. Doris McLeod. After finding out who she was the police find out a lot more about her. She had a troubled past. After being on the streets she ended up connected to a pimp. Only one month of being on the streets she is never seen again. It takes a 3 year old boy to finally tell the police about Doris and the Boy and the Monster. Secret in the Cellar The second part of this episode is about a young woman from South Portland, Maine who was in search of her mother. She contacts the police but they get nowhere. They question Bill Bruns, the missing woman's husband who told the police a story about how Pearl drank and ran off with another man. Elaine Woodward, the missing womans daughter, went to the media for help. An investigator takes the case and with the help of science and man power he finds out what happened to Pearl with the Secret in the Cellar.

Shoot outside her bedroom, Eva Shoen was shot to death. Living in Telluride, on the mountain side. Eva was married to the son of the billion dollar Shoen family who owned the U-Haul empire. With lacking evidence the case runs cold. Even though the police believe that her death was related to a fued in the family business. Years later the case is solved by a secret that was finally revealed and a recorded conversation is played. DNA also helped the killer to confess to the crime. Signature of a Killer Taylor Courtney was a 20 yr old man who was brutaly murdered in his apartment. The crime scene was bloody and vicious. A single print is found but in 1974 when fingerprint technology was still in its infancy it meant nothing. 20 years would pass before a cold case detective would pick up the case and look at it again. What they found was a match in the system which leads to a friend of Taylor's who had committed this murder because of mistaken suspicions and jealousy.

A police investigator discovers a letter written 16 years earlier that provides clues to a woman's murder. And a firearms expert supplies the evidence that South Carolina authorities need to put a man on trial in 2002 for a murder committed in 1961. It was the oldest murder case ever tried in the state.

The murder of an Ohio woman in 1974 is solved more than 20 years later after police get a crucial clue--the woman's husband was seen building a coffin-shaped box about the time the woman disappeared.

A kidnapper grabs 8-year-old Chad Choice from his home in Texas, then torments his parents with two ransom demands. The case goes cold until the parents receive a chilling package in the mail that contains a letter--and a skull.

Police hunt for a man who killed three women in three different hotels, not far from one another in Des Moines, Iowa. And police get a killer to confess when they tell him prosecutors will show photos of the gruesome crime scene.

Police run down more than 11,000 leads before coming up with a suspect in the murders of three Virginia girls; and the abduction and strangulation of a California woman continues to baffle investigators more than 11 years after the crime.

Texas Drifter Two women in two separate towns in Texas who where raped. The rapist uses a knife to threaten these women then rapes them and leaves his DNA behind. Back when these happened DNA was not profected yet so having the DNA was useless. Many years later when CODIS was developed which is a database for DNA a match to the rapists DNA was found. It was to a known serial rapist. Fingerprint File It was two days before Christmas a woman if found stabbed to death with the only clue left is a fingerprint left on a pop bottle. The forensic people were able to lift the print but had no success in matching it to anybody. Years later a man still working on cold cases finds a match to the fingerpprint which gives the police a lead to a killer. Rose Among Thorns Juliet Rowe was the victim who got shot in the bedroom of her English Countryside home. She was shot execution style then was shot again in the heart. The killer wanted to make sure that Juliet was dead. After thousands of endless attempts her case remained unsolved. 8 years later a stranger comes into a pub and starts talking to Mr Rowe Juliet's husband. The stranger's name was Keith Rose. He was arrested on kidnapping charges 6 weeks later. Because of his arrest he brings attention to himself to the cold case investigators who then look at him in the "Rose Among Thorns" case.

A prostitute who fights off a screwdriver-wielding man helps police track down a serial killer; and undercover agents acting as mobsters conduct an elaborate sting to solve a murder case that had gone cold for years. Then, detectives from three different police departments in Westchester County, New York team up to track down a serial killer.

Police in Albany, N.Y., get a surprise when a killer they think targets only older women is suspected in the murder of an elderly man. And the contents of a secret storage shed holds the grisly clues to a murder that has gone cold for more than 14 years.

On a summer night in 1987 a mother worries and waits for her 19-year-old daughter to come home. But Diana never comes home and she's found raped and strangled near the Hudson River. Investigators suspect her friend, Michael because his alibi is shaky and witnesses place his truck near the crime scene. Trouble is, he passes a polygraph and his DNA is no match. Nevertheless, Michael remains the chief suspect for 17 years, until DNA fingers another man who offers a chilling story of Diana's last breath. Then, a young family's life is shattered when a San Antonio interior design shop becomes a crime scene. In 1983, a young mother is raped and murdered at work. The crime remains unsolved for two decades. Then in 2003 detectives reopen the case pegging their hopes on DNA. But when the evidence turns up missing, detectives worry this case could be over before it starts.

A New Orleans police officer goes undercover on a Baton Rouge riverboat to gain a confession from one of the ship's maintenance workers who is suspected of murder. And a Wisconsin man, suspected of committing murder using a nunchukus, a weapon consisting of handles connected by a chain, goes on trial nearly 10 years after the victim's body was found on Christmas Eve 1987.

Included: Los Angeles detectives solve a 46-year-old murder case; and DNA leads to a suspected killer who has a twin brother. Host: Bill Kurtis.

In the 1980s, a serial killer prowled the posh streets of Orange County. Police were unaware of the serial attacks until 1996, when DNA revealed the killer's secret and they linked four murders to a single DNA profile. Detectives uncovered three more crimes attributed to the man dubbed "The Original Night Stalker" before learning he had an earlier career as a serial rapist! Watch as cold case detectives compare the attacker's DNA with nearly every convicted violent offender in California.

A rapist is captured seven years after the crime, but when he is released on a technicality his victim is determined to fight back. Fifteen years after a fire claimed the lives of a father and son, detectives interview the grown surviving son and learn a tragic tale of a mother who burned her family.

Alligators feasting on a human corpse help police to crack a murder investigation. Phoenix police discover that a preacher is the culprit in a 20-year-old murder.

Included: the case of Douglas J. Wright, a former state trooper whose 1993 murder of his wife brought a conviction in 2003. Also: the murder of a Navy seaman. Host: Bill Kurtis.

In the first case in this episode Felicia Prechtl is found raped and murdered in Dallas, Texas/ The only thing the killer left behind was a fingerprint which was smudged. The fingerprint was left on a piece of duct tape that the killer used to tie up Felicia. It would take many years before Felicia would get justice. It would take the work of a dedicated detective to runs the prints through the system and find not only a match to the print but also finds the killer. And he wants to confess. The second story in this episode is about a little girl, Surrette Clark, who lived in the Arizona desert. She disappeared with nobody to even recognize that she was gone. After Surrette went missing at the age of 3 it would take more then 20 years to solve this mystery. Her parents took off across the Canadian border right after her disappearance. Finally a woman comes forward to tell of the families secret. With this information cold case detectives find out about a story of child abuse and how deadly some people will go to hide them. The third story in this episode is about a known man. One who has passed through our live via television either from watching the show or somebody talking about it. Its Bob Crane. Best known for his role on Hogan's Heroes as Colonel Hogan. Crane was strangled and beaten to death in his own bed in 1978. The story goes that Bob and a friend of his had a fight one night. With the small evidence that the police did have the police suspected his friend of his murder but could not prove it. It would be 12 years before anybody takes a second look at this case. On the second try police do find the evidence they need but will it be enough? In the fourth installment to this episode is about Ronnie Bullock. He was a man who had served 10 years of his sentence for raping an 11 year old girl. Through the entire time of his imprisionment he stayed stedfast to his claim of innocence. It would not be until DNA was founded that someone would listen to him and prove him innocent.

Every 2 years, a group of fire investigators meet for a conference. While attending the conference in 1987 in Fresno, California, 3 suspicious fires break out near the conference. They were in 3 different fabric stores nearby each other. The only clue being left behind is one latent pint. Two years later when the conference is held again in Monterey, California another group of fires break out. The firefighters at the conference begin to think that it's one of themselves. With fingerprinting in it's more advanced stage they were able to tie the arsons to one of the investigators. While searching through his things they find a manscript called DIARY OF A SERIAL ARSONIST which contained not only information on arson but instructions on murder. In the second story line an elderly woman from San Antonio, Texas lay in her room naked from the waist down with her throat slashed. In the next room was her 80 year old husband who had just suffered his 3rd stroke. But there was no evidence to charge him. With pressure from a Texas Ranger the case is re-looked at where in they find the LOST CLUE in solving the case.

The search for a killer with a distinctive tattoo is recalled. Host: Bill Kurtis.

While hiking with husband Dennis in Montana, Leslee Larson fell into Wolf Creek. Then Dennis is convicted of murdering his wife, while in Main. And 15-year-old papergirl Penny Parker goes missing, then her body is found by a search volunteer.

A man in Florida is reported missing and his roommate is the main suspect. Then, at first it looks like L.A.P.D. Sgt. George Arthur died in a car crash. But two days later, four bullets are found in his skull.

After the murder of her aunt goes cold, a woman helps launch Citizens Against Homicide, an advocate group that brings awareness to cases that have gone unsolved. And police solve a young girl's rape and murder when the car where her body was discovered acts like a refrigerator, preserving half of her body and allowing authorities to recover incriminating DNA from semen in her body.

Nine years after police had to release the teenage suspect in a woman's murder due to lack of evidence, they find a new lead in the case. Twenty years after a young woman is murdered while babysitting her nephew, police are able to find DNA evidence that points to her killer.

A woman who takes down the license plate number of a car that had been following her helps police solve the murder of another young woman.; a phone call gives police the lead they need to solve a 30-year-old crime.

A sunset boat ride in Florida leads to death for a vacationing woman and her two daughters, and police investigate a Texas man whose three wives all died in mysterious fashions.

When a passing motorist spots a fire along a country road in South Carolina and calls it in, police arrive to discover the badly burned and battered remains of a woman, her skull smashed in to 97 fragments. After a forensic anthropologist at the University of South Carolina painstakingly pieces the bones back together, investigators use the skull to solve the murder.

Using a hair dryer to thaw a frozen corpse, detectives get to the bottom of a grisly murder. And the discovery of a child's skeleton in a Chicago garden puts police on the trail of an "oddball" family.

Detectives from three different departments in Westchester County, NY team up to track down a serial killer; and a man known as the Bus Stop Rapist becomes the lead suspect decades after a woman is found murdered under a hotel bed in the case.

A man suspected of the cold case murder of his wife and son hatches a new plot to kill his mother and father; and detectives solve the 20-year-old murder of a teenager by tricking her killer into licking an envelope, then extracting DNA from the saliva.

A serial killer of four women, Faryion Wardrip, is brought to justice in Wichita Falls, Texas after a DNA sample is found on a coffee cup.

Students of the University of Cincinnati and Texas Tech University Innocence Project take on the cases of jailed murderers who claim they're innocent. With exclusive, behind-the-scenes access, viewers watch as the students visit the inmates, track down key witnesses, and seek DNA testing that could prove their clients' innocence. While their focus is on the cases of Texas death row inmate, Anthony Graves, and mentally ill Ohio inmate Glen Tinney, who plead guilty but now professes his innocence.

The Chicago Police Department launches the Women's DNA initiative to fund the testing of backlogged rape evidence kits and help rape victims find justice. Meanwhile in Sacramento County, California, the deputy district attorney hunts for the killer of a man who was brutally stabbed to death in his home 16 years earlier, using a new grant for DNA testing.

A scheme to bribe a country music magazine to manipulate the charts leads to murder in Nashville and a 13-year hunt for the killer; and a murderer's plan to hide his gun is foiled when the man who buried the evidence for him spills the beans to cops.

A new fingerprint identification system known as I-AFIS helps Texas detectives track down a killer after three years of searching. And a Georgia investigator gets to the bottom of a 16-year-old murder case when he discovers where the victim's body had been hidden -- in the bottom of a well.

The accidental discovery of a human scalp leads to the conviction of a man for murder 18 years after the killing. And a teenager who likes to kidnap younger boys and break their bones, kills one and tortures another.

Michael Johnson was convicted of the senseless killing of Jeff Wetterman, 11 years earlier. While being interviewed in his last days, cameras capture how Michael's family fights to save him from being executed, and the rising tension leading up to the execution date. In a shocking twist, the story ends in a way no one could have foreseen.

The testimony of three prison inmates helps convict a man who viciously killed a woman out for a bike ride nearly two decades prior; and a self-admitted sex addict who strangled his cat is a suspect in the 30-year-old murder of a neighbor.

A bloody dagger and a phone tap help detectives solve a 20-year-old murder case. And DNA taken from an eyelash found on a dead prostitute's body brings a killer to justice.

A serial rapist seals his own fate when he sends a taunting letter to police, who use the DNA extracted from the saliva in the envelope's seal to track him down. And when a man is found dead in South Dakota, his head bashed in by a 50-pound rock, investigators go on a 20-year search for the killers--a man and woman who were part of a free-loving hippie group and are known only by the names "Outlaw" and "Inlaw."

Police solve a murder when divers find a skeleton in a car at the bottom of a river, and a dead dog's DNA helps crack open a 6-year-old case.

Police solve an old murder case with a painstaking examination of the tool mark on the plastic flex cuff that bound the victim's hands, and a 15-year-old murder case is finally cracked open when a disgruntled wife tells police that her husband committed the crime.

Detectives are baffled when two young girls are raped, murdered, and dumped in an abandoned house in Akron, Ohio. And a 26-year-old mother of three disappears on Christmas Eve in 1995, but the missing persons case goes cold when police can find few clues to her whereabouts.

A series of brutal rapes in St. Louis goes unsolved for many years until a fluke audit of a license plate number leads police to the culprit.

After 23 years, investigators finally track down the killers of an Atlanta policeman when the ex-wife of one of the killers phones in a tip; and a mother keeps the skeletal remains of the 3-year-old daughter she killed in a footlocker.

DNA found on a marijuana joint in Florida in 2005 helps to solve the 1988 rape and murder of a California woman. And a cold case of murder in Illinois heats up when a jailhouse lawyer turns jailhouse snitch.

Included: the 1998 murder of waitress Corey Parker in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., by Robert Erik Denney. Host: Bill Kurtis.

In Wisconsin, advances in forensic clay modeling help investigators identify a murder victim whose skin was stripped from her head, neck, and legs. And in California, police track down two boys who enjoy satanic rituals and setting fires.

The murder of scientist Helena Greenwood, who was helping to develop DNA forensic technology when she died, is solved 12 years later with the help of DNA evidence. And a Los Angeles County prosecutor uses criminal profiling to nab the notorious South Bay Rapist, who abducted and raped six young girls.

A killer's bite marks and a jailhouse snitch lead to a murder conviction in a case gone cold for eight years, and Bill Kurtis joins a group of super sleuths trying to solve the slaying of 18-year-old Jamie Weiss, found dead in her bathtub in 1996.

It takes nine years and the work of cutting-edge forensic toxicologists to solve the murder of a medical examiner's wife. Then, a determined Alabama sheriff reopens the case of the deaths of two babies, hoping to get their mother to confess.

A thumbprint connects two separate murders and it is later discovered that the suspect had a strange fetish for women's lingerie. Then, an elderly woman is found murdered in her bed and the only evidence is a single strand of hair.

A detective works for 15 years to nab a man who murdered his wife and dismembered her body to hide the sexual abuse of his children. Then, 20 years after the shooting murder of a gas station attendant, detectives get a lead.

Police must wait nearly 30 years before advances in DNA technology give them the chance to convict the killer of a young hitchhiker, and Philadelphia police wage a 16-year hunt for the man who raped and killed a 10-year-old girl.

A Texas woman's murder is solved when the killer's plan to murder another woman and stuff her into a duffel bag goes awry; and a reporter doing a story on unsolved homicides helps crack a case of murder that had been ruled an accidental death.