CrimeMysteryDocumentary1999–2007A&E

The Best Episodes of Cold Case Files

Every episode of Cold Case Files ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Cold Case Files!

Best episode
S2E24 Mommie Dearest
8.638 votes
Worst episode
S1E12 Murder Illustrated/Blood Relations
4.915 votes
Top season
Season 2
7.6avg
Binge time
4d 15h
112 episodes
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons5

All12345

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 24 - Mommie Dearest
    8.6/10(38 votes)

    S2:E24

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 6 - Through the Eyes of a Child / Killer Next Door
    8.2/10(40 votes)

    S1:E6

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 22 - The Original Night Stalker
    8.2/10(32 votes)

    S2:E22

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 12 - The Widow and the Wolf/Unicorns and Alligators
    8.1/10(26 votes)

    S2:E12

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 9 - Lady in the Box
    8.1/10(23 votes)

    S2:E9

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Cold Case Files Season 5 Episode 2 - Finding BTK
    8.0/10(28 votes)

    S5:E2

    The story of the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in recent American history--the BTK killer, who terrorized the Wichita, Kansas, area for years. After committing at least seven brutal murders, BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) vanished for over 25 years before sending clues of his crimes to the media in 2004. He continued to avoid capture until a forensic computer expert traced a computer disc that led investigators to a surprising suspect--a church president.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Cold Case Files

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  7. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 15 - Killer in the County
    7.9/10(30 votes)

    S1:E15

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 11 - Murder On The Menu
    7.9/10(29 votes)

    S2:E11

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 5 - The Hunter Homicides / Skulls in Stanley Park
    8.0/10(20 votes)

    S1:E5

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 14 - Reconstructing Murder/Fire Flicks
    7.8/10(33 votes)

    S1:E14

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 5 - Ticket to Nowhere/The Paper Route
    7.8/10(28 votes)

    S2:E5

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Cold Case Files Season 4 Episode 11 - Sex, Lies and Murder
    7.7/10(45 votes)

    S4:E11

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 7 - Pride and the Fall/The Nail File
    7.8/10(27 votes)

    S2:E7

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 2 - The Boy and the Monster/Secret in the Cellar
    7.7/10(42 votes)

    S1:E2

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 20 - The Missing and the Dead
    7.8/10(22 votes)

    S1:E20

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Cold Case Files Season 5 Episode 13 - The Interrogation/The Slide
    8.0/10(13 votes)

    S5:E13

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 15 - The Unluckiest Man/The Deadly Triangle
    7.8/10(21 votes)

    S2:E15

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Cold Case Files Season 3 Episode 3 - The Accidental Killer/Little Sister Lost
    7.8/10(20 votes)

    S3:E3

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Cold Case Files Season 3 Episode 5 - Daddy Knows Best/Dawn of the Dead
    7.8/10(19 votes)

    S3:E5

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 10 - Crimes of the KKK
    7.7/10(25 votes)

    S2:E10

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 13 - The Burning Secret/Justice Delayed
    7.7/10(24 votes)

    S1:E13

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Cold Case Files Season 3 Episode 13 - Officer Down/Secret Twin
    7.7/10(20 votes)

    S3:E13

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 10 - Diary Of A Serial Arsonist/The Lost Clue
    7.6/10(25 votes)

    S1:E10

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 18 - The Tortured Truth/Portrait Of A Killer
    7.6/10(25 votes)

    S1:E18

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 23 - Family Secret/Blood Trail
    7.6/10(25 votes)

    S1:E23

    Forty-one years after the crime, a woman implicates her brother and cousin in the murder of a New Jersey policeman. And members of the Vidocq Society, a group of law enforcement professionals who volunteer their expertise to crack difficult cases, find blood-spatter evidence that helps solve a Texas murder.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Mommie Dearest" is the best rated episode of Cold Case Files. It scored 8.6/10 from 38 votes. Written and directed by Unknown, it aired on June 11, 2000. This episode scored 0.4 points higher than the second highest rated, "Through the Eyes of a Child / Killer Next Door".

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