When school teacher Catherine Edwards missed a family outing, her worried parents went to her apartment to check on her. There, they made the horrifying discovery: Catherine had been restrained with law enforcement style handcuffs and murdered. Investigators followed dozens of leads as the alarmed community worried about a killer on the loose. Given the handcuffs, investigators even looked at fellow police officers but the case remained a mystery. Nearly three decades later, a team of dedicated detectives, a Texas Ranger, and forensic genealogists teamed up to catch an unlikely killer, finally bringing justice to the Edwards family and the city of Beaumont.

The sheriff's office responds to a 911 call from a distraught husband, who said his wife had killed herself with a gun. Once on the scene, detectives uncover chilling evidence that turned the case into a murder investigation.

In 2002, a blueberry farmer in Ottawa County, Michigan, made a shocking discovery in his fields: the severely burned and beaten body of a man inside a trunk. Despite exhaustive efforts, investigators were unable to identify him, and he became known only as "Jack in the Box." The case sat cold on investigators' desks until 2015, when a detective started receiving emails with clues about the victim's identity. Investigators followed the tips, finally unraveling the chilling details of a gruesome crime, and a calculated cover-up, leading to an international manhunt and an ultimate betrayal by family.

The cold-blooded murder of four family members in their own living room in a normally peaceful neighborhood shattered the local religious Sikh community. The wide-ranging investigation left many questioning if they truly knew their neighbors.

Rap musician Martell DeRouen, known as "Kardone," was found shot to death in his luxury apartment, the door locked from the inside. Detectives faced a challenging mystery as they investigated the puzzling murder.

A masked intruder stormed into a house party, murdering three young members of Detroit's LGBTQ community. As detectives worked to track down the killer, they uncovered a surprising and troubling motive.

25-year-old Army veteran Ashley Biggs, a single mom and pizza delivery driver, was murdered on a late-night delivery for Dominos in New Franklin, OH. Police arrested her former boyfriend Chad Cobb, who had been in a custody battle with Ashley for their daughter. For eight years, Cobb refused to tell police who had helped him lure Ashley to her death until he felt betrayed.

When Richard Smith failed to show up for work, police discovered the murdered bodies of Smith, his mother and brother in their home in Pensacola, FL. Sheriff's deputies told the media they were investigating possible ritual links to the Wiccan religion and the timing of the killings with the "blue moon sky."

In Iowa, hog farmer Todd Mullis claimed his wife, Amy, fell on a four-pronged corn rake; she was found by her teenage son and they raced to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. But when investigators found more than four holes in Amy Mullis' body; they knew her death was no accident.

An investigation into the murder of Clauddine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard, who is found face down in the bedroom of her house just outside Springfield, MO, in June of 2015.

13-year-old Dylan wasn't eager to fly to Colorado for the court-ordered long-distance visit with his dad, Mark Redwine, in Durango during November 2012. When Dylan didn't show up for a playdate the next morning, he was reported missing, setting off a manhunt in the rough Colorado wilderness. In a stunning twist, in a national television interview, Dylan’s older brother, Cory, accused Mark of being responsible for his brother’s disappearance, a charge the father vigorously denied.

Dr. Teresa Sievers was a rising social media star when she was found bludgeoned to death in her kitchen in Bonita Springs, FL. Detectives quickly came to focus on her husband Mark, who had taken out a large life insurance policy on his successful wife, in a murder for hire scheme.

When 63-year-old Wisconsin wife and mom Victoria Prokopovitz went missing in 2013, her three grown children were beside themselves with worry. Her husband of 24 years, Jim, seemed oddly unconcerned, telling police she often wandered off and had tried to commit suicide twice. Despite a massive search, Victoria was never found. A private detective was brought in by her daughters; conducting his own investigation, he learned of a secret affair.

Popular Dallas dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher was in a deep romance with fellow dentist Dr. Ricardo Paniagua when she was brutally murdered in the garage of her upscale apartment building in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong. Police soon uncover a love triangle, a stalker, and a murder-for-hire plot.

Todd Kendhammer called 911 in a panic, describing a freak accident that occurred while he was driving with his wife, Barbara, in the passenger seat. He said a metal pipe had fallen from a passing flatbed truck, piercing the windshield and fatally injuring his wife. But Wisconsin police were suspicious of Todd's responses in the interrogation room, when his story continued to change, and his alibi didn't check out. Forensic details from the autopsy report cast further doubt on his story.

Carlisle, OH, high school senior Skylar Richardson told no one of her pregnancy. However, when a newborn's body was found buried in the family's backyard, Skylar was charged with murder.

When 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts went missing during her regular evening jog in Brooklyn, IA, her disappearance was headline news. Police had few clues until a local resident shared his garage surveillance camera, which had captured a brief glimpse of Mollie running down the street and a black car driving by.

The quiet community of Crestview, FL was shaken following the 2006 vicious murder of beautiful 33-year-old nurse and single mom Melissa Howard, described as a caring angel, found with her throat slashed in her own living room. The case went cold for over a decade.

When interior designer Jade Janks discovered her beloved stepfather, butterfly conservationist Thomas Merriman, had secretly downloaded nude photos of her onto his computer, she set out to put an end to the abuse. A 911 call was received from Jade's friend, which prompted a welfare check; Tom was missing.

The Amatos were a close-knit, middle-class family with three professional sons. So, it was a shock when Margaret and Chad Amato and their youngest son Cody were found dead, shot execution-style in their suburban Seminole, FL home. Suspicion quickly turned to middle son Grant, a trained nurse, who had quarreled with his family over money he had stolen from them.

Mengqi Ji, a Chinese exchange student, found a career and a love match with Joe Elledge in the idyllic Missouri university town of Columbia; they married and started a family. It was a shock to her loved ones when she disappeared in October 2019 apparently to be with another man, leaving both her child Anna and her cell phone behind. Her remains were eventually found by a hiker in February 2020. [also shown as S3:E2]

Jazz trumpet player Scott Sessions, from Greeley, CO, fails to show up for a gig. A few days later, his body is found wrapped in plastic and duct tape, partially burned, and hidden in a forest in Pingree Park, CO. Detectives soon discover a relationship that Scott didn't tell his loved ones about.

James Ray III, a prominent attorney, former NYC police officer, and former U.S. Marine, lived in an upscale Upper Montclair, NJ home with his girlfriend Angela Bledsoe, a successful businesswoman, and their young daughter. After a weekend away, Angela didn't show up for an appointment; Ray dropped their daughter off with his brother who found a note in her suitcase and promptly called 911. The police are dispatched to their house and find Angela dead on the kitchen floor; Ray and his BMW are nowhere to be found.

When the body of single mom and former policewoman Taylor Wright was discovered buried on a remote Pensacola, FL, farm, detectives had a lineup of suspects to investigate including her ex-husband, her new girlfriend, and her best friend.

For decades, the mystery of Michelle Martinko's murder in the mall parking lot in December 1979 haunted her family and the town of Cedar Rapids, IA, as police searched for her killer without success; the case went cold. 39 years later, through creative detective work and modern investigative techniques, the case took a new twist, leading to an arrest and first-degree murder charges in a long awaited, dramatic trial.