Cold Case Files Episode Rating Graph

13 days after Pam Pitts disappears in 1988 her charred body is found at a popular hangout spot in the Arizona desert. When a second victim is discovered in a mineshaft, detectives suspect the killer may have known them both, but the truth is decades away.

One family faces two unsolved murders of loved ones and authorities finally uncover the missing clue that leads to solve the case 13 years after the murders occurred.

In late 1983, the bodies of five people abducted from a local fast food restaurant are found brutally murdered in an oil field. The main suspect is long believed to be a well-connected local man, until new evidence reveals the true killers.

Ten years after a 17-year-old girl is found strangled in the woods in small-town Kentucky, detectives uncover a terrible family secret.

A killer authors a book about his con-man past that becomes the key to solving a 29-year-old cold case of two high school sweethearts--and three other cold case murders--leading police to believe he could be the Zodiac Killer.

In early 1984, three-year-old Vanessa Bennett becomes the lone survivor of her family's brutal murder. Initial investigators suspect a serial killer is at large, but decades pass before DNA narrows the suspect pool to one man.

When a beloved schoolteacher is found murdered in her Neptune, New Jersey apartment in the fall of 2009, suspicion is cast on her soon to be ex-husband. Long after the case goes cold, a detective embarks on a mission to help the man clear his name and track down the real killers.

The case of a gruesome stabbing death of a bullied teenager remains unsolved for 27 years.

When 13-year-old Jennifer Bastian is abducted and murdered in August of 1986, residents of Tacoma panic. This is the second young girl killed in five months. Convinced a predator is loose, police embark on a 32-year inquiry.

When 23-year-old Tonya McKinley is found brutally murdered on New Years Day 1985, a little boy is left motherless. A family must wait 35 years for advancements in forensic science to finally catch a killer using familial DNA.

The death of an elderly couple, Edward "Ed" and Wilhelmina "Minnie" Maurin Ed in Washington state on Christmas Eve 1985.

A fire in January 2007 in Canton, OH, claims the life of WWII vet Bennie Angelo; a closer look at the crime scene reveals Bennie was dead before the fire, bumping an arson case up to homicide.

When Gary Parks is killed in a fire-ruled arson, the investigation into his death shifts to homicide.

College student Brad Perry shows up to work his graveyard shift at the gas station and is never seen alive again.

Just two years into their marriage, Chuck and Cheryl Hall are torn apart when Cheryl is murdered. Though Cheryl's family is certain they know her killer, the law isn't as sure. After several decades, a DNA match erases all doubt.

A woman's promise to bring her missing aunt back home unexpectedly took a lifetime.

When a 30-year-old mother fails to report for duty in Virginia, the Army lists her as AWOL. Her family immediately suspect foul play. They embark on a 13-year quest for answers before an eyewitness blows the case wide open.

In December 1985, when human bones are discovered in the woods, it puts an end to the search for missing teen David Reed. David's skull fractures point to murder; but it will be decades before investigators can find his killer.

Easter Sunday of 1992, the body of missing woman Lisa Ziegert is found in a field. The investigation yields hundreds of leads but no true suspect. After more than two decades on ice, the case is revived when DNA phenotyping puts a face to the killer.

Just after the last day of school in 1984, 15-year-old Reesa Trexler is found murdered in her grandparents' home. For decades, a stalled investigation only fuels the town rumor mill, pointing an accusing finger at Reesa's 13-year-old sister, Jodie.

On a bitter morning in 1980, radio intern Helene Pruszynski is found brutalized in a snowy field. After 37 years of fruitless leads, investigators tap into a public genealogy website that leads them across the country to the killer they've been hunting.

Twenty-six years after a schoolteacher's murder, cold-case detectives get a break when a relative of the killer uploads DNA to a public genealogy website.

In August 1972, the body of Jody Loomis is found in the woods. 34 years later, the killer's DNA is recovered from Jody's old clothing but it isn't matched until 2018, when genetic genealogy helps point to one suspect--whose guilt must be proven in court.

In March 1984, Jack Kennedy discovers his daughters brutally murdered. Their mother and niece spend their lives keeping the case alive. DNA leads nowhere. Thirty years later, an informant gives up a name. But the family's ordeal is far from over.

The quiet town of Redding, Calif., is rocked by the disappearance of Frank McAlister, a teen with a recent cash windfall who leaves only a blood-stained car behind; 25 years will pass before someone makes a stunning on-air confession.

When 19-year-old Tara Sidarovich goes missing from her Punta Gorda home, Florida police consider her a runaway; then her body turns up in a swamp; shocking prison recordings will send detectives on a nationwide hunt for her killer.

When 34-year-old Freddie Farah is gunned down in his Florida grocery store, police urgently seek his killer; decades later, Farah's son will have a chance encounter with a cold case detective which brings the case back to life and exposes a killer.

The 1964 murder of 9-year-old Marise Chiverella leaves the town of Hazelton, Pa., in fear; an intense manhunt yields numerous suspects but no killer; five decades pass before a student moonlighting as a genetic genealogist reignites the case.