The New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science

- Season 4

(1998)

Blind ambition, rage, and desire can lead to murder.

The smallest clues can solve a case.

As technology becomes more advanced, people can't help but leave electronic traces wherever they go.

Criminals often attempt to change crime scenes to hide a crime. Forensics can detect how.

Sometimes killers leave behind unintentional traces, like shoe treads and fingerprints.

Though women kill in less violent ways, they're equally as deadly as men.

Why some killers hire others to kill for them.

The New Detectives examines several disturbing cases of serial killers including the Hillside Stranger (Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono) in Los Angeles, the Trailside Killer (David Carpenter) near San Francisco, and the Interstate Killer (Larry Eyler) who dumped bodies along Interstate 294 in Illinois and Indiana.

Those who poison must first put their victims at ease and earn their trust.

The passage of time can convince people to talk and coupled with new technologies can help to solve old cases.

The New Detectives looks at several crimes investigated by the Texas Rangers including the murder of Billy Staton who tape recorded his own death, the rape and murder of seventy-two year old Lydia Schumacher by Charles Supak Jr., and a body discovered in Cooke County that eventually leads to Terry Brown a truck driver and multiple murderers.

How forensics can be used to crack drug rings.

Some of the best clues com from the least likely places. Baffling crimes betrayed through evidence provided by insects, beer bottles and other seemingly meaningless objects.

Telling the stories of the 1996 shooting of Dr. Darryl Sutorius; the 1978 murder of Karla Brown and the 1993 murder of Jerry Boggs.

Two noteworthy coroners describe their job and its importance in solving cases.