Cold Case Files backdrop
Crime•Mystery•Documentary

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 10.0/10

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

Airs on
A&E
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons5

All12345

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Click to reveal
    Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 4 - The Answer in the Box/Maternal Instinct
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - The Answer in the Box/Maternal Instinct

    S1:E4

    Answer in the Box Alison Parrott was a runner. Not only was she was runner she was a great runner, So much so that she had the local media interested in her, So when she got a call from a photographer to take some pictures of her running she didn't think anything wrong with it. She left to go to her photo session and wasn't seen alive again. The police had a fellow runner as the lead suspect but nothing ever happened with that lead. A cold case detective named Vic Matanovic was going through some files 10 years later and came across the case. When the detective was looking for clues to solve the case the Answer is in the Box. Usually DNA is enough to prove a case but in this case the criminal who lured Alison to her death had a plan to lure the jury to believe in the lie he was about to tell. Maternal Instinct 1981 a brother and sister fell victim to a heartless mother with no regard for life. 3 month old Seth Davis was rushed to the hospital because of insulin poisoning. He was left brain damaged. 5 months later his sister, Tenga Davis, is rushed to the hospital. There she dies of Caffeine poisoning. Even though the autopsy that was turned in by the M.E. stated cause of death was a homicide, the police treated this as an accident. Their mother Mary Beth Davis moves on with her own life by moving to a different state. She starts a new family and forgets all about what happened back in her past. That is until 10 years later when Mary Beth gets a knock on her door by the cold case detectives which brings back her past as the detectives are there to prove a case of murder.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 5 - The Hunter Homicides / Skulls in Stanley Park
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #2 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 6 - Through the Eyes of a Child / Killer Next Door
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #3 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 14 - Reconstructing Murder/Fire Flicks
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #4 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 15 - Killer in the County
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #5 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 16 - Presumed Dead/The Tow Truck Killer
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #6 - Presumed Dead/The Tow Truck Killer

    S1:E16

    One will take 10 years and one will take 17 years to solve but they do get solved. Dedication, science, luck, and even hypnosis is used to make sure justice is done for the dead.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Cold Case Files

    READ
  7. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 17 - The Missing Informant/Man's Best Friend
    10.0/10(1 votes)

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

    S1:E17

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 12 - The Widow and the Wolf/Unicorns and Alligators
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #8 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 14 - The Perfect Murder/Death of Innocents
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #9 - The Perfect Murder/Death of Innocents

    S2:E14

    It takes nine years and the work of cutting-edge forensic toxicologists to solve the murder of a medical examiner's wife. Then, a determined Alabama sheriff reopens the case of the deaths of two babies, hoping to get their mother to confess.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 21 - License to Kill/The Tell-Tale Mark/The Supermarket Mystery
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #10 - License to Kill/The Tell-Tale Mark/The Supermarket Mystery

    S2:E21

    A quarter of a century after the murders of two nurses, Canadian police suspect that a former Toronto cop committed the crimes. A blow to the head of a garbage collector in San Jose leaves strange markings, and decades later a detective, with help from forensic science, matches the markings to the etchings of a vintage bar sign. California police hope that DNA will help them track down the man who stabbed and killed a woman as she sat in her parked car in front of a supermarket in 1985.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 23 - Cold Hit/Silent Kill
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #11 - Cold Hit/Silent Kill

    S2:E23

    A thumbprint connects two separate murders and it is later discovered that the suspect had a strange fetish for women's lingerie. Then, an elderly woman is found murdered in her bed and the only evidence is a single strand of hair.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 8 - The Mark of Cain / Death on the Freeway
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #12 - The Mark of Cain / Death on the Freeway

    S1:E8

    A man in Florida is reported missing and his roommate is the main suspect. Then, at first it looks like L.A.P.D. Sgt. George Arthur died in a car crash. But two days later, four bullets are found in his skull.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 10 - Diary Of A Serial Arsonist/The Lost Clue
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #13 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 11 - Killer on the Strip/The Doll Murder
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #14 - Killer on the Strip/The Doll Murder

    S1:E11

    In the beautiful byways of West Palm Beach, along the canals a woman was fond dead in the canal. After some research they found that the woman was a prostitute. Even with all the evidence and DNA collected at the scene The detecives still had nothing to go on so the case went cold. Four yeas would pass before her case got looked at again. One of the Cold Case detective's who was reviewing some cases where crimes were committed in the area in which he worked his beat. With some new perspective on the case he finds signs that this womans killer has all the signs of a serial attacker and a kille. His trickery is to pose as a police officer to the local prostitutes and lures them into hidden places where he has privacy and assults them and rapes them. And at least 1 case he murders them. Doll Murder A woman from For Collins, Colorado thought she was safe in her own home, but one night in 1989 that myth was shattered. She was found murdered in her own home. The only things that were missing from her home were all her underwear. Semen and fingerprints were collected bt since there was no testing of DNA back then the case went cold. It would be 6 years when across town the womans underwear was found in a furnace. With this new discovery the case was re-opened to be looked at to finally settle the case

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 12 - Murder Illustrated/Blood Relations
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #15 - Murder Illustrated/Blood Relations

    S1:E12

    Nine years after police had to release the teenage suspect in a woman's murder due to lack of evidence, they find a new lead in the case. Twenty years after a young woman is murdered while babysitting her nephew, police are able to find DNA evidence that points to her killer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 13 - The Burning Secret/Justice Delayed
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #16 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 19 - Vanished
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #17 - Vanished

    S1:E19

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 20 - The Missing and the Dead
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #18 - 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

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 21 - Silent Witness/Innocence Lost
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #19 - Silent Witness/Innocence Lost

    S1:E21

    The murder of scientist Helena Greenwood, who was helping to develop DNA forensic technology when she died, is solved 12 years later with the help of DNA evidence. And a Los Angeles County prosecutor uses criminal profiling to nab the notorious South Bay Rapist, who abducted and raped six young girls.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 24 - Bodies In The Bay/Cold Hit
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #20 - Bodies In The Bay/Cold Hit

    S1:E24

    A sunset boat ride in Florida leads to death for a vacationing woman and her two daughters, and police investigate a Texas man whose three wives all died in mysterious fashions.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 1 - Operation Jambalaya/Footprints in the Snow
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #21 - Operation Jambalaya/Footprints in the Snow

    S2:E1

    A New Orleans police officer goes undercover on a Baton Rouge riverboat to gain a confession from one of the ship's maintenance workers who is suspected of murder. And a Wisconsin man, suspected of committing murder using a nunchukus, a weapon consisting of handles connected by a chain, goes on trial nearly 10 years after the victim's body was found on Christmas Eve 1987.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 2 - The South Side Rapist
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #22 - The South Side Rapist

    S2:E2

    A series of brutal rapes in St. Louis goes unsolved for many years until a fluke audit of a license plate number leads police to the culprit.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 3 - Mark of a Killer/Dead Ends
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #23 - Mark of a Killer/Dead Ends

    S2:E3

    A killer's bite marks and a jailhouse snitch lead to a murder conviction in a case gone cold for eight years, and Bill Kurtis joins a group of super sleuths trying to solve the slaying of 18-year-old Jamie Weiss, found dead in her bathtub in 1996.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 4 - The Baiting Game/The Killer's Tattoo
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #24 - The Baiting Game/The Killer's Tattoo

    S2:E4

    Investigators in Virginia, probing the murder case of a sailor, seek the help of a forensic anthropologist from the "body farm" in the Great Smoky Mountains. Dr. William Bass became an expert on the human body's rate of decay by watching bodies rot at his plot at the University of Tennessee and keeping tables of weather data.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  25. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 8 - In the Care of a Killer/Deadly Lies
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #25 - In the Care of a Killer/Deadly Lies

    S2:E8

    The suspicious death of 2-year-old Billy Blankenship is solved when police force his babysitter to re-enact the circumstances of his death. Then, a murder case is solved when the dead man's body is accidentally found by divers searching underwater for an antique car.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Best Episodes Summary

"The Answer in the Box/Maternal Instinct" is the best rated episode of "Cold Case Files". It scored 10/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/23/1999. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Hunter Homicides / Skulls in Stanley Park".