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Up in Smoke

Documentary

21

Jun 28, 2005

When an elderly couple died in a suspicious house fire, their son became the prime suspect. Investigators turned to forensic science to determine if the fire had been set deliberately, or if it was an unfortunate accident.

Full Episodes

Season 10, 40 episodes

Marked for Life,

It would take 46 years, handwriting analysis and new fingerprint technology to solve the 1957 murders of two California police officers.

21m May 17, 2005

Plastic Puzzle,

A man riding a bicycle was fatally injured in what police believed to be 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.

22m May 31, 2005

When an elderly couple died in a suspicious house fire, their son became the prime suspect. Investigators turned to forensic science to determine if the fire had been set deliberately, or if it was an unfortunate accident.

21m Jun 28, 2005

Police instituted an intense search when the mother of two young children went missing. Twenty years after her body was found, new technology recontextualized old evidence and pointed directly to the killer.

21m Jul 5, 2005

When hunters reported finding a skull in a Texas canyon, police immediately began an investigation. With a forensic artist's reconstruction, police eventually learned the victim's identity. Now all they had to do was find her killer.

21m Jul 12, 2005

One for the Road,

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.

21m Jul 19, 2005

Army of Evidence,

A mother of two young children was found dead in her bedroom. 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.

21m Jul 26, 2005

In 1991, when the wife of a serviceman was brutally murdered in the Philippines, investigators had to reassemble a tiny computer disk that had been cut to pieces in order to find the killer.

21m Aug 2, 2005

Tagging a Suspect,

Bombings are difficult to solve because the perpetrator isn't usually at the scene and the evidence goes up in smoke. In this case, pieces of plastic the size of grains of sand hold the key to finding a murderer.

22m Aug 9, 2005

Strong Impressions,

The wife of an Air Force officer was found dead in her bed with a plastic laundry bag near her face. Further investigation proved that the scene had been staged. Her death wasn't an accident — it was cold-blooded murder.

22m Aug 16, 2005

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, then his body was found 50 miles away.

21m Aug 23, 2005

A highway patrolman was dispatched to what he thought would be a routine traffic accident — until he looked in the car. He had seen hundreds of accidents, but none with as much blood as this.

21m Aug 30, 2005

A Leg Up On Crime,

The decomposed body of a young woman was discovered in a Bakersfield irrigation canal. If there was trace evidence, it had been washed away.

22m Sep 6, 2005

Tight-Fitting Genes,

A behavioral profile caused the Baton Rouge Police Department to search for the wrong man. The real perpetrator may have eluded arrest, had it not been for a molecular biologist who painted DNA picture of the suspect.

21m Sep 13, 2005

Deadly Valentine,

An obstetrician returned home from the hospital and found his wife on the bathroom floor. She was covered with blood and not breathing. He tried unsuccessfully to revive her, staining his clothes with her blood in the process.

21m Sep 20, 2005

A Modesto, California teenager goes missing. With no signs of struggle in her home, police suspect she has simply run away — until her naked, bruised body is discovered in a ditch 20 miles away.

21m Sep 27, 2005

Oily in the Morning,

When police recovered the submerged car of a missing man, they expected to find his body — but it wasn't there. The investigation that followed would uncover an obsession turned deadly.

21m Oct 4, 2005

Emergency dispatch received a call from a man who said his girlfriend shot and killed herself. The autopsy revealed that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted, and the evidence on her body would give police a golden opportunity to catch her killer.

22m Oct 11, 2005

Four on the Floor,

When a Native American woman is brutally killed in the desert of New Mexico, her killers leave a crime scene rich in forensic evidence: tire tracks, shoe impressions and even the murder weapons.

22m Oct 18, 2005

Writer's Block,

A brilliant young architect falls ill and dies just before she is to testify in a criminal trial. The autopsy reveals she'd been poisoned with arsenic. Investigators must determine who had a motive for murder.

21m Oct 25, 2005

A Clean Getaway,

When a dry cleaner employee is raped and murdered in her store, police turn to forensic science for the answers they need.

21m Nov 1, 2005

Prints Among Thieves,

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.

21m Nov 8, 2005

Unholy Alliance,

When a young woman disappeared, police feared she was the latest victim in a string of similar crimes. A pair of bloody gloves, unique tire tracks and ordinary pine needles provided investigators with some extraordinary clues.

21m Nov 15, 2005

Signed, Sealed & Delivered,

A car carrying three young men pulls up alongside another on an Alaskan highway — and shots are fired.

22m Nov 22, 2005

When a college student is found dead, evidence suggests that he knew his killer. With just three hairs and some microscopic cells, police unravel a web of lies and find the motive for murder.

22m Nov 29, 2005

Summer Obsession,

In an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning. The investigation gradually focused on one suspect who had more than a million reasons to want the victim dead.

22m Dec 6, 2005

Elemental Clue,

When two women from the same town were murdered in the same way, police feared a serial killer was on the loose. At first they thought the victims had nothing in common until they found tiny clues linking them to the same man.

21m Dec 13, 2005

Moss, Not Grass,

A young woman was found dead on a golf course in the Bahamas. The grass on that course was so distinctive, it had evidentiary value. The evidence led police to two suspects, each of whom blamed the other.

22m Dec 20, 2005

Material Witness,

A teenager went missing after an evening of horseback riding. Her body was found a month later, three miles from her home. But the killer unknowingly left trace evidence behind.

22m Dec 27, 2005

Garden of Evil,

When a popular disc jockey was found murdered in a community garden, police swung into action. A sniffer dog and a blood spatter expert led police to the killer, who had been much closer than they realized.

22m Jan 3, 2006

Sunday School Ambush,

When a man is gunned down in his own garage, investigators use science to unravel a twisted tale of lust, greed and deception.

21m Jan 10, 2006

Penchant for Poison,

Three seemingly unrelated deaths prove to be serial murders. The killer had been careful; he used poison which had no taste or odor. Fortunately for investigators, it also had a unique chemical signature.

21m Jan 17, 2006

Bump in the Night,

When a victim is brutally murdered in his own bed, investigators find a shoe impression in the mud outside — physical evidence they hope will lead to the killer.

22m Jan 24, 2006

Sole Searching,

Armed with little else, police hoped that shoe impressions found at a Lansing, Michigan crime scene would put their investigation of Audrey Nichols' murder back on track.

21m Jan 31, 2006

Murder on the Menu,

When the head chef of a historic Philadelphia restaurant was found dead, investigators interviewed the usual suspects: family, friends and coworkers. As they sifted through the evidence, police uncovered a chilling tale of debt and deceit.

22m Feb 7, 2006

Hot on the Trail,

When Washington, DC is plagued by a series of arson fires — each started with the same type of incendiary device — it's up to forensic scientists to find the clues that lay in the ashes.

22m Feb 14, 2006

When Genell Plude is found dead in her bathroom, the scene points to suicide. But a coroner's inquest and a unique application of forensic science give investigators a different explanation for her death.

22m Feb 21, 2006

Faced with three homicides that appear to be professional executions, investigators on both sides of the Atlantic must find a common thread between the victims.

22m Feb 28, 2006

Wired for Disaster,

A 29-year-old woman is killed instantly when a bomb explodes in her home. The device is so powerful that it embedded shrapnel in houses across the street. The bomber had not only knowledge and skill, but also a motive for murder.

22m Mar 7, 2006

Wood-be Killer,

A killer tries to incinerate everything that could link him to his crime. But in doing so, he inadvertently creates new forensic evidence. Detectives employ a technique never before used in a criminal investigation to bring it to light.

22m Mar 14, 2006