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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When 31-year-old real estate appraiser Mike Williams mysteriously vanishes while duck hunting in the Florida swamps in December of 2000, authorities suspect he accidentally drowned. For sixteen years Mike’s disappearance remains a mystery. The case heats up when police receive a distress call from the victim’s wife in 2016. Featuring interviews with detectives and the victim’s mother as well as rare footage of the crime scene and recorded audio confessions with the accused, the episode explores how the disappearance unfolded into a sinister plot to cash in on millions of dollars of life insurance.