Crime Stories

A rape-murder case is followed.

When a convicted rapist is realized from prison after serving out his sentence, he becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young girl.

After a twenty year frenzy of rape and murder, a serial killer makes one critical mistake.

DNA evidence holds the key to solving the murders of two suburban housewives almost thirty years after their deaths.

Two people are sadistically murdered and two more are missing at the hands of a reclusive loner.

A community is forever changed by the torment of a killer and his horrific crimes.

An entire town is held captive in fear when a troubled man escapes police custody and embarks on a seven month crime spree.

A man who was once accepted into a small Quebec community and commonly referred to as Bill l'Anglais turns out to be a murderer, whose crimes cover nearly twenty years. When he makes four trips from Barrie, ON to Montreal, QC in the fall of 1999 in an accelerating frenzy of rape and murder, he leaves behind a single fingerprint. Through skillful police work and intense surveillance, the police are able to catch their killer in the process of disposing incriminating evidence.

When two suburban housewives are killed in their homes within a week of each other in May 1970, it leaves the rural areas surrounding Toronto in fear. Thirty years later, the murders are solved, and the man responsible is caught, thanks to the meticulous collection and preservation of DNA evidence. But there is a surprising twist - Ronald West was a Toronto police officer at the time of the murders.

In 1983 the ex-wife of Cabinet Minister Colin Thatcher is found brutally murdered in her garage. Police have their suspect, but pointing the finger at powerful politician Colin Thatcher is dangerous business. Through intense interrogations and a brilliant sting operation, police gather the evidence they need to shake the halls of power and bring the killer to justice.

For three weeks in May of 1994, a brutal killer had a nation on edge. A bloody spree of rapes, kidnappings, and murders resulted in the deaths of six Oklahoma residents, including a local radio personality and an elderly widower. Gary Alan Walker, an emotionally disturbed ex-convict, was eventually captured and executed for these crimes.

In the early 1990s, the tourist hotspot of New South Wales, Australia became a place of fear when backpackers started going missing. Over the course of a year, the bodies of seven missing backpackers were found in Belanglo State Forest, 150 km from Sydney. After an intense police investigation, local construction worker Ivan Milat was found guilty of these crimes.

When the body of a local beauty queen is found in a farmer's field near Sydney, Australia, the entire country is riveted. Eyewitness accounts lead to John Travers, an out of control kid leading a notorious gang that terrorized the area. Police work tirelessly on the case, wrapping up their investigation with multiple raids to bring in the loathsome crew.

A common-law couple were found guilty of the 1990 rape and murder near Portland of Taunja Bennett. But a letter signed with a happy face sent to a Portland newspaper claimed responsibility for Taunja's murder, and others. The Happy Face Letter remains a mystery until Keith Jesperson is arrested on an unrelated murder. Investigators unravel the truth, convict Jesperson of Taunja's murder and free the wrongly convicted couple.

On November 14, 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk goes to a party at the Craigflower Bridge, near Victoria, Canada. It is there where her 'friends' swarm, burn and beat her down. When she walks away, Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatski follow her, beat her again and drown her. They are arrested a week later by Saanich Police. The unfolding coverage shocks the country due to the senseless violence of the young crowd. Almost ten years later, Kelly Ellard was convicted of second-degree murder, ending one of the most tragic chapters in Canadian history.

In 2002, San Antonio police find Susan McFarland's abandoned vehicle. Soon after, her husband, Richard, files a missing persons report. Police find a stolen SUV across from the McFarland home with blood on the back bumper. The SUV leads police to Rick Clemmer, who has a shady past and a link to Susan. But evidence is found that also links Richard to the SUV - did Clemmer frame Richard? After 53 days of searching, police find Susan's body and tie it to Richard based on circumstantial evidence.

In 1987, Kathy Odom is found stabbed to death in her home. There are several signs suggesting that she knew her attacker, but detectives cannot make an arrest. Years later, a new technique is developed that allows DNA to be collected from items used in a murder. The lamp cord that was tied to Odom's wrist is subsequently tested for DNA. Her brother-in-law, Greg Markwardt, turns out to be a match for the profile and after fifteen years, is arrested for the murder of Kathy Odom.

Nikia Shanell Kilpatrick, 19, is found bound and strangled with a cord in her Jacksonville, Florida apartment. Within a month, three more bodies are discovered and attributed to the same killer, each found strangled with a cord fashioned into a peculiar slipknot. Police begin to find links - including DNA samples, fiber analysis, and cab and cell phone records - connecting taxi driver Paul Durousseau to the murders. He is eventually convicted of five counts of first-degree murder.

Investigators find David Castor dead with a glass of bright green liquid nearby. His wife Stacey's fingerprints are on the glass and police locate a turkey baster in the garbage with David's DNA on the tip. They suspect Castor poisoned her husband. As evidence against her mounts, her daughter Ashley is found unconscious with a note proclaiming she killed David. Upon Ashley's recovery, Stacey is found to have poisoned both of them - and her first husband too.

The body of Katherine Foster is discovered at the University of Alabama. A student reports hearing gunshots the night before she was found, leading police to conclude that Foster was shot and left in the woods. Suspicion falls on a campus security guard, an apparent suicide who was obsessed with Foster's murder. The guard is cleared and the case goes cold for two decades before a whispered confession to an AA sponsor leads police to arrest and convict Jamie Letson, a friend of Katherine's.

18 year old Erin Chorney goes missing. Investigators immediately suspect her abusive boyfriend, Michael Bridges, but do not have enough evidence to arrest him. Over a year later, they turn to police for help. Officers go undercover as figures in charge of a powerful criminal organization. They tell Bridges that if he comes clean about his past, they will be able to trust him to join their association. When Bridges confesses to murdering Chorney, police move in and finally get their man.

Bruce Firman is found dead in his garage by soon to be ex-wife, Margaret Benesch, and her daughter, Elizabeth Gatenby. Suspicion immediately falls on Benesch - as the sole heir in Firman's will, she is entitled to receive everything, but produces a rock-solid alibi. When investigators dust Gatenby's rental car for fingerprints, one match those of a 17-year-old teenager. He said he'd been hired to kill Firman by Gatenby's son, Byron, who confesses that his mother planned it all.

Over a two year period, eight women disappear from Poughkeepsie, NY. All of the women are prostitutes who work in the area. Several suspects come to light, but no evidence can ever be connected to them. Then in September 1998, a prostitute tells police that Kendall Francois tried to kill her. He had been questioned previously but said nothing incriminating and even passed a lie-detector test. When he finally confesses, a search of his home reveals eight bodies

Gary Evans makes his living robbing antique stores throughout New York State and is well known by police in the area. After two years of having no contact with him, police are thrust back onto his path in late 1997 - a path that is littered with bodies of his former associates and a few store owners who didn't get out of the way fast enough. Evans is eventually captured and confesses to the murders before killing himself, having never been prosecuted.

Anthony Hopkins is a traveling preacher in Mobile, Alabama. Left with eight children to raise after his wife purportedly leaves him, he tells his congregation that she died giving birth. But it's not as it seems - Hopkins was forcing his stepdaughter to engage in sexual acts. When his wife finds out, he kills her and forces his stepdaughter to help him conceal the body. No one finds out until years later, when the girl becomes pregnant with his child and the harrowing story spills out.