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Forensic Files Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
13 Episodes 1996 - 1996
Episode 1
Disappearance of Helle Crafts
Sun, Apr 21, 1996 25 mins
The case of missing stewardess Helle Craft is recounted. Although her body was never recovered, police used forensic evidence to charge her husband with murder. It became the first murder conviction without a body in Connecticut.
Episode 2
The House That Roared
Thu, Oct 10, 1996 25 mins
The disappearance of Oklahoma City resident Caren Campano leads investigators to suspect her husband, Chris, when blood is discovered on a carpet. Using a "reverse paternity" process, they are able to identify it as Caren's---and Chris is charged with murder and is later convicted of manslaughter.
Episode 3
Magic Bullet
Thu, Oct 17, 1996 25 mins
The death of a 15-year-old boy, shot in the head while sitting in the lobby of his father's gun club, is detailed.
Episode 4
The Footpath Murders
Wed, Oct 23, 1996 25 mins
The first case to use DNA evidence is detailed. In 1983 Leicester, England, police were stymied by a rape/murder of a 15-year-old girl; three years later, faced with a similar crime, they turned to Dr Alec Jeffreys, a molecular biologist with a revolutionary approach to solving the case.
Episode 5
Planted Evidence
Thu, Oct 24, 1996 25 mins
The use of non-DNA evidence to solve crimes is detailed.
Episode 6
Southside Strangler
Thu, Oct 31, 1996 25 mins
The case of Timothy Spencer is related. Dubbed the Southside Strangler, he was the first serial killer convicted on DNA evidence. During a three-month span during 1987, he raped and murdered three women in Richmond, Virginia.
Episode 7
Legionnaires' Disease
Thu, Nov 7, 1996 25 mins
An examination of "Legionnaires' Disease", so named after it decimated a 1976 American Legion convention in Philadelphia. One hundred and eighty attendees developed pneumonia-like symptoms; 29 individuals died.
Episode 8
The Wilson Murder
Thu, Nov 14, 1996 25 mins
The murder of Huntsville, Alabama doctor Jack Wilson is examined. A handyman confessed to the crime, but claimed that Wilson's wife and her twin sister paid him to kill the husband. Based in large part on the handyman's testimony, the wife was convicted. However, the sister was found not guilty, despite the fact that the prosecutors used the same evidence.
Episode 9
Deadly Neighborhoods
Thu, Nov 21, 1996 25 mins
Communities plagued by cancer cases are examined, with an eye towards pinpointing the causes.
Episode 10
Insect Clues
Thu, Nov 28, 1996 25 mins
Police rely on a forensic entomologist to provide time-of-death evidence relating to a murder in which the body had decomposed. By identifying the species of flies milling around the body, he could pinpoint when the victim died.
Episode 11
Outbreak
Thu, Dec 5, 1996 25 mins
High levels of thyroid hormones in a South Dakota community lead investigators to one family whose son was not sick. The reason: he was a vegetarian, and the cause was "extra lean beef" that contained thyroid tissue.
Episode 12
The List Murders
Thu, Dec 12, 1996 25 mins
The John List case is detailed. In 1971, he murdered his wife and children---and promptly vanished. It wasn't until 1989 that he was caught, when the TV show "America's Most Wanted" spotlighted the case.
Episode 13
Raw Terror
Thu, Dec 19, 1996 23 mins
An examination of the E coli bacteria and the dangers it presents.