The Best Episodes of Cold Case Files

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
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   REVEAL THE WINNER
   

   8.6/10(36 votes)

   #1 - Mommie Dearest

   S2:E246/11/2000

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

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2. 

   8.2/10(33 votes)

   #2 - Through the Eyes of a Child / Killer Next Door

   S1:E62/6/1999

   In Missouri, a part-time missionary is convicted, 38 years later, of killing her 5-year-old stepdaughter, and the skeleton of a Michigan boy, dead for 10 years, leads police to a serial killer.

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3. 

   8.1/10(19 votes)

   #3 - Lady in the Box

   S2:E92/26/2000

   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.

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4. 

   8.1/10(28 votes)

   #4 - The Original Night Stalker

   S2:E225/28/2000

   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.

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5. 

   8.0/10(25 votes)

   #5 - Obsession: Dave Reichert and the Green River Killer

   S5:E212/15/2005

   In this special 100th edition of Cold Case Files, we look at the biggest serial murder case in U.S. history - the 20-year hunt for the Green River Killer. Dave Reichert, the detective who made finding the killer his obsession, walks us through the case. He tells vivid, sometimes harrowing stories about the murders, saying, "You never forget the sight of a 16-year-old body lying on her back on the riverbank with ligature around her neck." Reichert headed up two Green River task forces until forensic DNA technology helped crack the case and brought him face to face with the killer thought to be responsible for 48 deaths.

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6. 

   8.0/10(12 votes)

   #6 - The Interrogation/The Slide

   S5:E137/15/2006

   A 14-year-old boy is charged with the murder of his sister, but his public defender believes the police coerced the boy's confession and that the real killer is still on the loose. And two deteriorated medical examiner's slides, made in a murder investigation 16 years earlier, give police the evidence they need to reopen the cold case and bring the lead suspect to trial.

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The 20 WORST Episodes of Cold Case Files
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7. 

   7.9/10(21 votes)

   #7 - Reconstructing Murder/Fire Flicks

   S1:E154/9/1999

   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.

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8. 

   7.9/10(20 votes)

   #8 - The Widow and the Wolf/Unicorns and Alligators

   S2:E123/19/2000

   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.

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9. 

   7.8/10(33 votes)

   #9 - The Boy and the Monster/Secret in the Cellar

   S1:E21/8/1999

   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.

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10. 

    7.8/10(16 votes)

    #10 - The Hunter Homicides / Skulls in Stanley Park

    S1:E51/29/1999

    DNA tests identify a skull of a 14-year-old boy who went missing 6 years earlier. When a second skull is found, investigators fear they have a serial killer in the area. In Florida, detectives trace a gun used in a 4-year-old murder.

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11. 

    7.8/10(20 votes)

    #11 - Ticket to Nowhere/The Paper Route

    S2:E51/29/2000

    A 13-year-old girl's mother is murdered and 20 years later she helps bring the killer to justice; and a dogged policeman gets to the bottom of the brutal murder of a 63-year-old newspaper delivery woman.

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12. 

    7.8/10(24 votes)

    #12 - Murder On The Menu

    S2:E113/12/2000

    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.

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13. 

    7.8/10(22 votes)

    #13 - Soft Kill/Unsolved

    S2:E205/14/2000

    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.

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14. 

    7.7/10(24 votes)

    #14 - Man in the Shadows/The Hitchhiker

    S1:E144/2/1999

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15. 

    7.7/10(18 votes)

    #15 - Vanished

    S1:E205/7/1999

    The story of serial killer James Rodney Hicks, who left a trail of bodies and kept police, prosecutors, and the FBI quite busy working on his cases for over 20 years. Hicks murdered his wife, his children's babysitter, and a girlfriend.

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16. 

    7.7/10(20 votes)

    #16 - Pride and the Fall/The Nail File

    S2:E72/12/2000

    A woman's fall from a cliff in the Grand Canyon leads police to uncover a series of grisly murders, and investigators smoke out a killer when they find crucial DNA evidence on his cigarette butts.

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17. 

    7.7/10(17 votes)

    #17 - The Unluckiest Man/The Deadly Triangle

    S2:E154/9/2000

    Fire investigator Jack Malooly helps crack the case of an arsonist and killer who set a series of fires to collect insurance money; and a prison inmate tells a homicide detective that he can't help him with his current murder investigation, but knows plenty about another murder that took place in California 15 years earlier.

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18. 

    7.7/10(43 votes)

    #18 - Sex, Lies and Murder

    S4:E113/12/2002

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19. 

    7.6/10(16 votes)

    #19 - Hour 1 - Cold Case Files

    S1:E11/1/1999

    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.

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20. 

    7.6/10(21 votes)

    #20 - The Missing Informant/Man's Best Friend

    S1:E184/30/1999

    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.

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21. 

    7.6/10(19 votes)

    #21 - Frozen in Time/Little Girl Lost

    S1:E235/28/1999

    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.

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22. 

    7.6/10(21 votes)

    #22 - Crimes of the KKK

    S2:E103/5/2000

    Klan leader Sam Bowers goes on trial for ordering the murder of an African-American storeowner 32 years prior, and investigators reopen the unsolved case of an African-American truck driver who was forced to leap to his death from a bridge by Klan members.

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23. 

    7.6/10(17 votes)

    #23 - The Bedroom Basher

    S4:E82/19/2002

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24. 

    7.6/10(14 votes)

    #24 - NCIS / Exhuming the Truth

    S5:E1910/7/2006

    After U.S. Navy sailor Andrew Muns disappears in 1968, the Navy claims that Muns went AWOL from his ship. But his sister works tirelessly for over 30 years to prove that Muns was really killed. And DNA surreptitiously gathered from a cigarette butt helps detectives to unravel a 20-year-old case of rape and murder.

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25. 

    7.5/10(18 votes)

    #25 - The Burning Secret/Justice Delayed

    S1:E133/26/1999

    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.

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