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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!

Binge this in 4d 15h•Peaking at 8.6/10

Explore compelling cases that have gone cold for years, chronicling the journeys of the detectives who reopened them. The detectives relive the events of the crimes, reveal new twists and startling revelations, relying on breakthroughs

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Episode Rankings

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

    #1 - Mommie Dearest

    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)

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

    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)

    #3 - The Original Night Stalker

    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 9 - Lady in the Box
    8.1/10(23 votes)

    #4 - Lady in the Box

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

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

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

    #6 - The Hunter Homicides / Skulls in Stanley Park

    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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    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Cold Case Files

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  7. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 26 - Man in the Shadows/The Hitchhiker
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #7 - Man in the Shadows/The Hitchhiker

    S1:E26

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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

    #8 - Finding BTK

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

    #9 - The Interrogation/The Slide

    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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  10. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 14 - Reconstructing Murder/Fire Flicks
    7.9/10(32 votes)

    #10 - Reconstructing Murder/Fire Flicks

    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 1 Episode 15 - Killer in the County
    7.9/10(29 votes)

    #11 - Killer in the County

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

    #12 - Murder On The Menu

    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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  13. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 2 - The Boy and the Monster/Secret in the Cellar
    7.8/10(41 votes)

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

    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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  14. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 13 - The Burning Secret/Justice Delayed
    7.8/10(23 votes)

    #14 - The Burning Secret/Justice Delayed

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

    #15 - The Missing and the Dead

    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 2 Episode 5 - Ticket to Nowhere/The Paper Route
    7.8/10(27 votes)

    #16 - Ticket to Nowhere/The Paper Route

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

    #17 - Pride and the Fall/The Nail File

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

    #18 - The Unluckiest Man/The Deadly Triangle

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

    #19 - The Accidental Killer/Little Sister Lost

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

    #20 - Daddy Knows Best/Dawn of the Dead

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

    #21 - Crimes of the KKK

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

    #22 - Officer Down/Secret Twin

    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 4 Episode 11 - Sex, Lies and Murder
    7.7/10(44 votes)

    #23 - Sex, Lies and Murder

    S4:E11

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 1 - Hour 1 - Cold Case Files
    7.6/10(21 votes)

    #24 - Hour 1 - Cold Case Files

    S1:E1

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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

    #25 - Diary Of A Serial Arsonist/The Lost Clue

    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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Best Episodes Summary

"Mommie Dearest" is the best rated episode of "Cold Case Files". It scored 8.6/10 based on 38 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 6/11/2000. This episode scored 0.4 points higher than the second highest rated, "Through the Eyes of a Child / Killer Next Door".