A house erupted in flames on a cold January night, killing one person and injuring another. The survivor blamed a kerosene heater but the evidence at the scene did not support her story, and she was charged with arson and murder. It would take a nationally known fire investigator to determine what happened, and who was responsible.

In 1957, California police searched for a man who had committed several crimes in one night – including murder, but after following thousands of leads, eventually, the case turns cold. Almost 50 years later, with advances in computer technology and handwriting analysis, investigators determine the killer.

A man riding a bicycle was fatally injured, the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Tiny clues found at the scene created a picture of the vehicle which struck him and led police to its driver.

When an elderly couple died in a suspicious house fire, their son became the prime suspect. The son insisted he was innocent; he said he tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water on it, but that only made it worse. Investigators turned to forensic science to determine if the fire had been set deliberately, or if it was an unfortunate accident.

A mother of two young children went missing and, less than a day later, her body was found. The evidence was little better than circumstantial, and the crime drifted to the bottom of the cold case files. Twenty years later, advances in technology enabled investigators to see the evidence in a new light, and discover it pointed directly to the killer.

When hunters reported finding a skull in a Texas canyon, police find bits of clothing, a woman's shoe, some small bones and a strand of hair. An anthropologist determined the victim was a Caucasian woman, and that she'd been stabbed repeatedly; a forensic artist reconstructed her face, the image was released to media and, eventually, police learned who she was. Now all they had to do was find her killer.

A married couple decided to escape the cold of winter with a mini-vacation in Key West. The wife went missing, and police searched every square inch of the island; they found nothing but a pair of sandals which might have belonged to her. Then two important pieces of video surfaced, and investigators began to wonder if they should be searching for a missing person or a killer.

A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. It appeared she had killed herself: There were suicide notes near her body, and a pistol was in her hand. Her death was ruled a suicide – but when investigators learned she had almost died in a house fire three years earlier, they decided to take another look at the evidence.

In 1991, when the wife of a serviceman was brutally murdered in the Philippines, the Air Force Office of Special Investigators swung into action. Clues led to the victim's husband, but he insisted he was innocent. To find out if he was telling the truth, investigators would have to do something unprecedented: Reassemble a 5-1/4 inch computer disk which had been cut to pieces with pinking shears.

Bombings are difficult to solve, because the perpetrator isn't usually at the scene, and the evidence goes up in smoke. But there are clues if investigators know where to look. In this case pieces of plastic the size of grains of sand, held the key to a man's murder.

The wife of an Air Force officer was found dead in her bed, with a plastic laundry bag near her face. At first glance, it appeared she'd been doing laundry, fell asleep, rolled onto the bag, and suffocated. But further investigation proved that the scene had been staged. Her death wasn't an accident; it was cold-blooded murder.

When a fire destroyed most of a home and a young boy went missing, police organized the largest search in the history of their small town. First the boy's backpack was discovered five miles from home, and then his body was found 50 miles away. But the killer had been careless, and the evidence he left behind would lead police directly to him.

A highway patrolman was dispatched to what he thought would be a routine traffic accident until he looked in the car. While he had no formal training in forensic science, he had seen hundreds of accidents – but never as much blood as this. He was shocked by the coroner's ruling of accidental death, and then an anonymous phone call breathed new life into his investigation.

The decomposed body of a young woman was discovered in a Bakersfield irrigation canal. If there was trace evidence, it had been washed away. Another victim was found in that same canal a year later; this time, the perpetrator had been careless. The shoe prints found at the scene would lead police to the most unlikely of killers.

A behavioral profile is helpful in a murder investigation, but it's not a road map to the killer. One such profile caused the Baton Rouge Police Department to search for the wrong man. They might not have made an arrest, had it not been for a DNA picture of the suspect, painted by a molecular biologist. [also marked as S10:E15]

An obstetrician returned home from the hospital and found his wife on the floor of the bathroom. She was covered with blood and not breathing. He tried unsuccessfully to revive her, staining his clothes with her blood in the process, and then he called 911. His version of events was not supported by the blood spatter evidence, and investigators had to determine why. [also marked as S10:E17]

A Modesto, CA, teenager went missing. There was no sign of a struggle in her home, and police suspected she'd simply run away until her naked, bruised body was discovered in a ditch 20 miles away. [also marked as S7:E18]

When police recovered the submerged car of a man reported missing, they expected to find his body – but it wasn't there. His broken eyeglasses were on the floor of the vehicle and the interior was coated with motor oil. The investigation which followed would uncover an obsession turned deadly, and the motive for murder. [also marked as S10:E19]

Emergency dispatch received a call from a man who said his girlfriend shot and killed herself. Police found the victim in the caller's house, lying in a pool of blood with the gun next to her on the floor. The autopsy revealed that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted and the evidence found on her body would give police a golden opportunity to catch her killer.

A Native American woman was brutally killed in the desert of New Mexico, and the crime scene was rich in forensic evidence: tyre tracks, shoe impressions and even the murder weapons. The site was less than 10 miles from another crime scene where, two years earlier, a male Native American was beaten and stabbed to death. Police began to wonder: was a serial killer on the loose?

A brilliant young architect became ill and died just before she was to testify in a criminal trial. The autopsy revealed she'd been poisoned with arsenic; it was a slow and painful death, so suicide was unlikely. Investigators had to determine who among her family, friends and business associates had a motive for murder. [also marked as S7:E22]

An employee of a dry cleaner was raped and murdered in the store, and investigators thought themselves fortunate to have two eyewitnesses. Their descriptions were similar but not identical, and the prime suspect didn't come close to resembling that person. Police turned to forensic science for the answers they needed.

The murder of an eccentric millionaire was not entirely unexpected; he flaunted his wealth and cared little for personal security. The evidence at the crime seemed to indicate robbery, but investigators wondered if there was something more.

When a young woman disappeared, police feared she was the latest victim in a string of similar crimes but the MO wasn't quite right. A pair of bloody gloves, unique tire tracks, and ordinary grass and pine needles provided investigators with some extraordinary clues.

Two men were convicted of intentionally shooting and killing a passenger in a moving car, their friend was granted immunity for testifying against them, and the case was closed. Then a bomb exploded in the family home of the state's witness, instantly killing his father. Investigators turned to forensic science, hoping to determine if this was an act of revenge and if there was a way to link the two deadly crimes.