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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!

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There are over 100,000 cold cases in America, and only about 1% are ever solved. With recent advancements in technology and the methods used to solve these cases, as well as the unwavering dedication of

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 1 - Little Girl Lost
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Little Girl Lost

    S1:E1

    Halloween in a small town is cancelled indefinitely when a young girl is kidnapped and killed on her way home from a costume party.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 2 - Killings on Christmas Eve
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #2 - Killings on Christmas Eve

    S1:E2

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 3 - She Never Came Home
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #3 - She Never Came Home

    S1:E3

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 4 - Sweethearts, Silenced
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #4 - Sweethearts, Silenced

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 5 - The Night Shift
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #5 - The Night Shift

    S1:E5

    College student Brad Perry shows up to work his graveyard shift at the gas station and is never seen alive again.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 6 - Officer Down
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #6 - Officer Down

    S1:E6

    The longest running cold case of a law enforcement officer in the United States was the murder of Sheriff's Lt. Joe Clark.

    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 9 - A Family Cursed
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #7 - A Family Cursed

    S1:E9

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Cold Case Files Season 1 Episode 10 - A Killer Slips Away
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #8 - A Killer Slips Away

    S1:E10

    Two decades after a close-knit family's loving aunt is stabbed in her home, detectives return to the crime scene and discover a pivotal clue hidden in plain view.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 1 - The Voice in the Lake
    7.5/10(4 votes)

    #9 - The Voice in the Lake

    S2:E1

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 14 - Dark Angel
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #10 - Dark Angel

    S2:E14

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 16 - The Clock Strikes Murder
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #11 - The Clock Strikes Murder

    S2:E16

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 17 - Sisters In Death
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #12 - Sisters In Death

    S2:E17

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 18 - One Tough Mother
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #13 - One Tough Mother

    S2:E18

    The murder of Tiffany Johnston rocks the town of Bethany, Oklahoma. DNA points to her killer over a decade later.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 20 - Cold Ashes
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #14 - Cold Ashes

    S2:E20

    When a deadly house fire claims the life of a family in rural Oklahoma, investigators suspect foul play and it sends a mother on a decades-long crusade to find out what happened to her missing teenage daughter and best friend.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 2 - Devil at the Door
    7.0/10(4 votes)

    #15 - Devil at the Door

    S2:E2

    When 36-year-old computer programmer Lisa Valdez fails to show up for work, her apartment manager finds her brutally murdered in her tiny studio. Her body is riddled with stab wounds, the walls are covered in blood. Evidence shows the killer cut off her long, dark hair, taking it as an apparent trophy. Detectives ask, could she be the victim of a brutal serial killer? Or was Lisa murdered by someone she knew? Clues left on an answering machine point to a co-worker who was known to have feelings for Lisa, but two bloody fingerprints left on a toilet seat clear him as a suspect, and the case goes cold for thirteen years. Things heat up when a detective gets a hit during a search of the state's DNA database, leading to an unsuspected person from Lisa's past.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 3 - Missing in Altoona
    7.0/10(4 votes)

    #16 - Missing in Altoona

    S2:E3

    When Sherry Leighty goes missing in 1999, her family is left wondering how a dedicated mother of three could vanish without a trace. A decade later, the cold case heats up when Sherry's sister launches a social media campaign to help solve her sister's mysterious disappearance. An online tip unearths the killer truth and a sinister family secret. Featuring an interview with Shelly Leighty, who never gave up on solving her sister's case, along with rare home video of Sherry and her family.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 12 - Woman in the Woods
    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #17 - Woman in the Woods

    S2:E12

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 13 - Eyes of a Killer
    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #18 - Eyes of a Killer

    S2:E13

    On February 2, 2010, two masked gunmen commit a violent robbery and shoot Michael Temple Jr., rendering him a quadriplegic for five years before his death. In this unusual cold case, DNA from a knife is used to create a sketch of the killer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 4 - The School Teacher
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #19 - The School Teacher

    S2:E4

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 5 - The Heartland Killer
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #20 - The Heartland Killer

    S2:E5

    In the 1980s, a suspected serial killer preyed on women in small towns located on the banks of the Mississippi River until the murders abruptly ceased and went unsolved. In 2006, 26 years later, a cold case detective and producer on the set of "Cold Case Files" unknowingly began to connect the dots that would crack the case while discussing the murder of Deborah Sheppard, a Southern Illinois University student whose death had remained a mystery since 1982.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 6 - The Devil in Disguise
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #21 - The Devil in Disguise

    S2:E6

    23-year-old teacher Irene Garza was a former beauty queen and devout Catholic who vanished the evening before Easter after giving confession. Residents of her close-knit border town did their best to find her, but after a series of false leads, her body was found floating in a drainage canal clearly the victim of a violent sexual predator. At the time, a key witness hinted that a member of the Catholic clergy may have been responsible, but the clue remained buried for 42 years until a former priest comes forward with a damning confession from another man of the cloth that reveals a sinister coverup.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 7 - Love and Hate
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #22 - Love and Hate

    S2:E7

    Near what's known as the hanging tree, the mutilated body of Timothy Coggins is found in late 1983. The investigation is thwarted and the case freezes for over 30 years, until a newly elected sheriff vows to bring the killers to justice.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 8 - Ice Cold in Denver
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #23 - Ice Cold in Denver

    S2:E8

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 9 - Murder by Moonlight
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #24 - Murder by Moonlight

    S2:E9

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 10 - Suspicious Minds
    6.7/10(3 votes)

    #25 - Suspicious Minds

    S2:E10

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Little Girl Lost" 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 2/27/2017. This episode scored 2.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Killings on Christmas Eve".