Cold Case Files
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Cold Case Files | |
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Created by | Kurtis Productions, Ltd. |
Starring | Bill Kurtis (host) |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 125 |
Production | |
Running time | Approx. 45–50 minutes |
Production company | Kurtis Productions, Ltd. |
Original release | |
Network | A&E |
Release | January 1, 1999 – November 18, 2006 |
Cold Case Files is a reality legal show/documentary on the cable channel A&E Network. It is hosted by Bill Kurtis and produced by Tom Golden. The show documents the investigation of many long-unsolved murders (referred to as "cold cases" in detectives' parlance) through the use of modern forensic science (especially recent advances in DNA techniques), and criminal psychology, in addition to recent breakthroughs in the case(s) involving previously silent witnesses.
Overview
According to A&E, the show has been widely praised by law enforcement agencies, and its investigative reports are commonly used in the training of detectives.[1]
Cold Case Files first aired as a sub-series of another A&E crime documentary program, Investigative Reports, also hosted by Bill Kurtis, which ran from 1991–2011. Reruns of the series currently air on broadcast syndication in the United States, usually in lower-profile time slots, and on many RTV stations.
Episode list
Season 1 (1999)
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Pilot Episode" | January 1, 1999 | |
Cold Case #1: Murder of Felicia Prechtl by Karl Chamberlain; Cold Case #2: My Brother The Killer; Cold Case #3: The Bob Crane Murder; and Cold Case #4: Case Resolved | |||
2 | "The Boy and the Monster/Secret in the Cellar" | January 8, 1999 | |
3 | "The Texas Drifter/The Fingerprint File/A Rose Among Thorns" | January 15, 1999 | |
DNA test link a drifter to two girls raped in Granbury, Texas in 1993. | |||
4 | "The Answer in the Box/Maternal Instinct" | January 23, 1999 | |
5 | "The Hunter Homicides/The Skulls Of Stanley Park" | January 29, 1999 | |
Two hunters are murdered in Florida in 1993. Two skulls are found belonging to boys who disappeared in 1989. | |||
6 | "Through Eyes of a Child/The Killer Next Door" | February 6, 1999 | |
"Through Eyes of a Child" told the story of solving the murder of Michelle Morgan, a 4-year-old child abuse victim who was murdered by her stepmother in 1961.[2] "The Killer Next Door" told the story of John Mcrae, who started killing at age 15. | |||
7 | "One Night on the Bayou/The Buckeye Misdemeanor" | February 12, 1999 | |
A sex offender is found murdered in a swamp in 1994. A hotel clerk is shot to death in 1974. | |||
8 | "The Mark of Cain/Death on The Freeway" | February 19, 1999 | |
9 | "Terror in Telluride/Signature of a Killer" | February 26, 1999 | |
"Terror in Telluride": Eva Schoen's (wife of the eldest son of U-Haul founder Leonard Shoen) 1990 murder in Telluride, Colorado baffles detectives, until a surprising lead comes from over 1,500 miles away, from a telecenter caller. "Signature of a Killer": The 22-year-old cold case of Taylor Courtney's murder by Larry Gibson, linked to the crime scene by fingerprints. | |||
10 | "Diary Of A Serial Arsonist/The Lost Clue" | March 3, 1999 | |
11 | "Killer on the Strip/The Doll Murder" | March 12, 1999 | |
A prostitute is found beaten to death in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1990. Susan Doll is murdered in her Ft. Collins, Colorado home in 1989 | |||
12 | "Murder Illustrated/Blood Relations" | March 19, 1999 | |
13 | "The Burning Secret/Justice Delayed" | March 26, 1999 | |
14 | "Reconstructing Murder/Fire Flicks" | April 9, 1999 | |
15 | "The Missing Informant/Man's Best Friend" | April 30, 1999 | |
"The Missing Informant": The 1990 murder of BATF informant Christine Elkins, as described in the Nodaway County article. "Man's Best Friend": Suspect of the 1991 murder of Daniel Schraeder linked to the crime by the DNA of the victim's dog on his blue jeans. | |||
16 | "Killer in the County" | April 16, 1999 | |
The murders committed by Faryion Wardrip are linked by DNA. | |||
17 | "Presumed Dead/The Tow Truck Killer" | April 23, 1999 | |
18 | "Portrait of a Killer/The Tortured Truth" | April 30, 1999 | |
"Portrait of a Killer" told about how NecroSearch, a volunteer team of victim advocates with technical investigation skills, successfully investigated the disappearance of photographer Michelle Wallace, age 25, who had been reported missing from Gunnison, Colorado, in 1974.[3] And in Baraboo, Wisconsin a teenager who likes to kidnap younger boys and break their bones, kills one and tortures another. | |||
19 | "Vanished" | May 7, 1999 | |
20 | "The Missing and the Dead" | May 14, 1999 | |
21 | "Silent Witness/Innocence Lost" | May 21, 1999 | |
22 | "Frozen in Time/Little Girl Lost" | May 28, 1999 | |
A woman goes missing in 1991 in California and is found dead three years later. The remains of a girl not seen since 1969 are found behind her old family home. | |||
23 | "Family Secret/Blood Trail" | June 4, 1999 | |
A New Jersey police officer is shot to death in 1958. | |||
24 | "Bodies In The Bay/Till Death Do Us Part" | June 11, 1999 | |
Three women go missing during a vacation in Florida in 1989. |
Season 2 (2000)
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Operation Jambalaya/Footprints in the Snow" | January 1, 2000 | |
A New Orleans police officer goes undercover on a riverboat casino to gain a confession from one of the ship's maintenance workers. A Mauston, Wisconsin man, suspected of committing murder using a nunchukus, goes on trial nearly 10 years after the victim's body was found. | |||
2 | "The South Side Rapist" | January 8, 2000 | |
3 | "Mark of a Killer/Dead Ends" | January 15, 2000 | |
"Mark of a Killer": Suspected serial killer Alfred Swinton, convicted of murdering Carla Terry via bite marks on her body. "Dead Ends": Murder of 18-year-old Jamie Ellen Weiss by soon-to-be husband, Billy Justin Charles. | |||
4 | "The Baiting Game" | January 22, 2000 | |
5 | "Ticket to Nowhere/The Paper Route" | January 29, 2000 | |
6 | "Traces of Murder/The Bathtub Killer" | February 5, 2000 | |
7 | "Pride and the Fall/The Nail File" | February 12, 2000 | |
A woman's fall from a cliff in the Grand Canyon leads police to uncover a series of grisly murders, and investigators smoke out a killer in the infamous Roy Rogers Restaurant Slaying when they find crucial DNA evidence on his cigarette butts. | |||
8 | "In the Care of a Killer/Deadly Lies" | February 19, 2000 | |
Babysitter Tawny Sue Gunter is suspected of killing a toddler in 1990 after a second child dies in her care in 1998. James Kent Hill is convicted of killing Frank Ross in 1986, after Ross's body was found in Claremore Lake by scuba divers searching for a car. | |||
9 | "Lady in the Box" | February 26, 2000 | |
10 | "Crimes of the KKK" | March 5, 2000 | |
11 | "Murder on the Menu" | March 12, 2000 | |
12 | "The Widow and the Wolf/Unicorns and Alligators" | March 19, 2000 | |
A woman suspects her boyfriend murdered her aunt in 1983. A man is suspected of killing two girls in 1985 and 1996. | |||
13 | "Vintage Murder/Trouble in Paradise" | March 26, 2000 | |
Dawn Magyar is found raped and shot to death in 1973. | |||
14 | "The Perfect Murder/Death of the Innocents" | April 2, 2000 | |
15 | "The Unluckiest Man/The Deadly Triangle" | April 9, 2000 | |
A man is suspected of killing his wife in 1995 and burning down houses he owned to collect the insurance on them. | |||
16 | "Cat and Mouse/Cabbie Killer" | April 16, 2000 | |
17 | "The Cuff Link/Graveyard Shift" | April 23, 2000 | |
Zip tie handcuffs are used to link a man to a woman's murder in 1986. | |||
18 | "The Good Samaritan/Gun Shy" | April 30, 2000 | |
19 | "A Map To Murder/Life on the Run" | May 7, 2000 | |
20 | "Soft Kill/Unsolved" | May 14, 2000 | |
21 | "License to Kill/The Tell-Tale Mark/The Supermarket Mystery" | May 21, 2000 | |
22 | "The Original Night Stalker" | May 28, 2000 | |
23 | "Cold Hit/Silent Kill" | June 4, 2000 | |
24 | "Mommy's Rules" | June 11, 2000 | |
25 | "A Sealed Fate/Deadly Divorce" | June 18, 2000 | |
"A Sealed Fate": Clyde Carl Wilkerson is convicted of murder as DNA links him to two 37-year-old cold cases. "Deadly Divorce": Larry Britt is finally convicted of murdering his ex-wife 24 years earlier after DNA from blood found in his truck is matched to her. |
Season 3 (2001)
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Cop Killer/Evil Twin" | January 1, 2001 | |
2 | "The Zodiac Killer" | January 8, 2001 | |
3 | "The Accidental Killer/Little Sister Lost" | January 15, 2001 | |
4 | "The Merry Widow/The Bad Cop" | January 22, 2001 | |
"The Merry Widow" describes how a woman arranges the murder of her husband to obtain insurance money. "The Bad Cop" covers an attempt by a former state trooper to disguise a murder as a suicide. | |||
5 | "Daddy Knows Best/Dawn of the Dead" | January 29, 2001 | |
"Daddy Knows Best" reveals a child-molesting father who killed his wife and nearly got away with it. "Dawn of the Dead" pursues the murder of a gas attendant on his first day at work in San Jose, California. | |||
6 | "The Killer's Tattoo" | February 5, 2001 | |
7 | "The Green River Killer" | February 12, 2001 | |
8 | "A Hitchhike to Murder/Never Forgotten" | February 19, 2001 | |
9 | "The DNA Link/The Secret Slide" | February 26, 2001 | |
10 | "Death Before I Do/Hollywood Homicide" | March 5, 2001 | |
"Death Before I Do": After being tipped to the police by his fiancé, Michael Schultz is convicted for raping and strangling Cindy Berger. "Hollywood Homicide": After almost getting away with two murders, Kenneth Dean Hunt is convicted of raping and killing two elderly women, Myra Davis and Jean Orloff, 10 years apart. | |||
11 | "Blood Money/Precious Doe" | March 12, 2001 | |
12 | "Unholy Bible/A Daughter's Justice" | March 19, 2001 | |
13 | "Officer Down/Secret Twin" | March 26, 2001 | |
14 | "Weepy-Voiced Killer/The Mr. Big Sting" | April 2, 2001 | |
15 | "Blood on the Badge/Bump in the Night" | April 9, 2001 | |
16 | "The Lady Killer/A Husband's Secret" | April 16, 2001 | |
17 | "Mistaken for a Killer/A Woman Scorned" | April 23, 2001 | |
18 | "The Missing Hunters/The Flashlight Rapist" | April 30, 2001 | |
David Tyll and Brian Ognjan vanished after failing to return from a hunting trip in 1985. | |||
19 | "Cowboys on the Case/Office Politics" | May 7, 2001 | |
20 | "The Flaming Gorge Falls/Caught in the Mail" | May 14, 2001 | |
A man is suspected of killing his family by pushing them off a cliff in 1996. A 13-year old girl is murdered in Seattle in 1982 and DNA on a envelope may lead to her killer. | |||
21 | "Murder Checks In/Killer in the City" | May 21, 2001 | |
"Murder Checks In": Three women raped and killed in Iowa hotels are the work of a serial killer with keys. "Killer in the City": A frightened Bronx woman is stabbed 39 times, but the suspect claims self-defense. | |||
22 | "The Shopping Cart Killer" | May 28, 2001 | |
23 | "The Hitmakers/Favor for a Friend" | June 4, 2001 | |
24 | "Lil Miss/Skeletons in the Closet" | June 11, 2001 | |
25 | "Innocent Prey/The Punishment" | June 18, 2001 | |
Police in Portland, Oregon play a wild hunch that pays off in the capture of a serial rapist. After 26 years, investigators finally solve the murder of a 6-year-old girl in Harbor Springs, Michigan, who had been forced to take a cold-water bath as punishment for painting her nails with pink polish without permission. |
Season 4 (2002)
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Love Triangle/2nd Story Rapist" | January 1, 2002 | |
2 | "The Calling Card/Carol's Diary" | January 8, 2002 | |
"The Calling Card": Donald Sigsbee is convicted of killing Regina Reynolds after accidentally leaving his business card near the scene of her body. "Carol's Diary": 16-year-old Carol Hutto's homicide is a cold case for over 20 years until James Kuenn confesses under the threat of DNA evidence. | |||
3 | "Beauty Queen Killer/The Fingerprint" | January 15, 2002 | |
4 | "Friend of the Family/Remains of Murder" | January 22, 2002 | |
"Friend of the Family": After 18 years, Manny Pacheco is convicted of murdering his 11-year-old friend, Angela Wong. "Remains of Murder": James Crummel reports finding the remains of 13-year-old Jamey Trotter during a hike, and six years later police arrest him for adbucting, molesting, and murdering Jamie 15 years earlier. | |||
5 | "Under a Spell/Justice for Lisa" | January 29, 2002 | |
"Under a Spell": Francisco del Junco confesses to killing and torching four homeless women. "Justice for Lisa": After 23 years, Stephen Robert Smith confesses to killing 6-year old Lisa after DNA links him to the murder. | |||
6 | "A Man Scorned/The Dungeon" | February 5, 2002 | |
"A Man Scorned": Archie Talley is convicted of murdering Elizabeth Herrington, after seeing her with his ex-lover. "The Dungeon": John Jamelske kidnapped multiple women and held them in a concrete bunker behind his home. | |||
7 | "A Killer Named Korn/The Night Watchman" | February 12, 2002 | |
"A Killer Named Korn": Donald Korn is convicted of the 1974 rape and murder of Mildred Ruth Doench, and the assault and rape of Dorothy Hendren in 1975. "The Night Watchman": Security guard Dimas Garcia is murdered by a local car thief, Steven Peace. | |||
8 | "The Bedroom Basher" | February 19, 2002 | |
A serial killer is suspected of killing five women in Orange County, California in 1978 and 1979, and of another crime that a man was falsely convicted of. | |||
9 | "Baby for Sale/The Barrel" | February 26, 2002 | |
10 | "The Bitemark/Justice for Eglena" | March 5, 2002 | |
"The Bitemark": Forensic dentistry is the key to solving a teen's murder, using a photo of a bite mark on the arm of child killer Wayne Garrison. "Justice for Eglena": 15-year old Eglena Deleon is murdered by Guadalupe Sandoval less than a block from a Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebration. | |||
11 | "Sex, Lies and Murder" | March 12, 2002 | |
The episode describes the investigations that lead to the arrest of John Edward Robinson, the "Internet slave master". | |||
12 | "The Monster/A Cousin's Promise" | March 19, 2002 | |
"The Monster": Charles Vines is caught raping a 16-year old, and his DNA links him to the rape and murders of two elderly women. "A Cousin's Promise": Darlene Hines's murderer, James Mertini, is only sentenced to five years in prison. | |||
13 | "A Brother's Burden/The Midnight Attacker" | March 26, 2002 | |
14 | "The Well/The Deadly Ex" | April 2, 2002 | |
An elderly man is murdered and tossed into his well in 1996, and his stolen guns lead to his killers. When a young mother's body is found beaten to death in her car's trunk in October 1988, her ex-husband is suspected of the crime. | |||
15 | "Déjà Vu/Secret in the Well" | April 9, 2002 | |
16 | "The Tourniquet/Burning Desire" | April 16, 2002 | |
"The Tourniquet": The murders by Anthony Allen Shore. "Burning Desire": After being linked by fingerprints to the death of Andrea Born, Kevin Mitchell points a finger at his friend, J. L. Travis, as the murderer. | |||
17 | "Manhunt" | April 23, 2002 | |
18 | "The Family/The Clue That Stuck" | April 30, 2002 | |
A Mexican crime family is suspected of a teen girl's murder; DNA on a duct tape is "The Clue That Stuck." | |||
19 | "Man in the Shadows/The Hitchhiker" | May 7, 2002 | |
20 | "A Confession for Carmen/The Girls" | May 14, 2002 | |
21 | "A Sister Lost/Rumors of Murder" | May 21, 2002 | |
22 | "Smoky Mountain Mystery/A Drop of Blood" | May 28, 2002 | |
23 | "Rear Window/The Peeper" | June 4, 2002 | |
"Rear Window": A 23-year-old fails to show up for work, and police find her body. A suspect emerges, but getting a DNA sample requires finesse. "The Peeper": A neighborhood with a peeping Tom is shocked when a man is murdered and assaulted. Clues include DNA and a footprint. Fourteen years later the assailant is caught during another 'peep' job. | |||
24 | "The Closers/Caught by an Eyelash" | June 11, 2002 | |
"The Closers": Edmund Marr is suspected of killing Elaine Graham, but isn't convicted until 22 years later. "Caught by an Eyelash": James Suknaich is connected to the murder of prostitute Kiva Bible by a single eyelash found on Bible's sock. | |||
25 | "Kidnapped" | June 18, 2002 | |
The parents of Chad Choice, a missing 8-year-old boy in Tyler, Texas, receive a grisly package containing his skull. |
Season 5 (2006)
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Obsession: Dave Reichert and the Green River Killer" | December 15, 2005 | |
2 | "Finding BTK" | December 22, 2005 | |
A special on the BTK Killer who murdered 10 people in Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1990. | |||
3 | "Death of a Deacon/A Wife's Mission" | January 14, 2006 | |
4 | "Snatched/A Detective's Promise" | January 21, 2006 | |
5 | "The Sunday Morning Slasher" | February 4, 2006 | |
Police in Michigan hope to link Carl Watts to two murders in 1974 and 1979 before he is released from a Texas prison. | |||
6 | "Caught on Tape/A Son Remembers" | February 11, 2006 | |
7 | "On the Case: Nacole's Killer" | February 18, 2006 | |
Atlanta police detectives attempt to solve the 1995 rape and murder of Nacole Smith. | |||
8 | "Killer on Campus/The Bow Hunter" | April 2, 2006 | |
A college student is murdered in a cemetery in 1969. A hunter is murdered in 1993. | |||
9 | "Something Snapped/A Killer's Dream" | April 7, 2006 | |
10 | "Daddy Dearest/A Pastor's Wife" | May 6, 2006 | |
"Daddy Dearest": Estanislao Gonzalez is convicted nine years after murdering his wife and two teenage daughters. "A Pastor's Wife": Pastor Rick Pulley convicted of killing his wife after scratches on his body connect him with her disappearance. | |||
11 | "A Killer's Skin/Where's Peggy?" | June 3, 2006 | |
"A Killer's Skin": Violent serial killer Raymon McGill is convicted of over a dozen rape-murders spanning over a decade, after accidentally leaving skin cells at the site of a robbery. After he is convicted, police discover there may be an accomplice. "Where's Peggy": Peggy Reome's body is found in a storage unit in Clay, New York, 14 years after she was reported missing. | |||
12 | "Innocence Stolen/Danger at the Door" | July 8, 2006 | |
13 | "The Interrogation/The Slide" | July 15, 2006 | |
14 | "The Taunt/Death in Deadwood" | July 29, 2006 | |
A rapist/murderer's taunting postcard provides DNA to identify him. Deadwood, South Dakota uses the FBI fingerprint database to locate "Outlaw," an elusive hippie who bashed David Rose to death with a 70 pound boulder in 1982. | |||
15 | "On the Case: A Child Remembers" | August 12, 2006 | |
One detective checks into a rapist/murderer's background, which includes the death of an 11-year-old girl and photos of children. The detective finds out if there are more than the victims the killer has been convicted of. The same detective meanwhile reopens an unsolved domestic killing which ends with the uniting of siblings who didn't know each other existed. | |||
16 | "The Black Dahlia" | September 9, 2006 | |
The 1947 murder of actress Elizabeth Short, the oldest unsolved case in L.A.. | |||
17 | "The Deadly Stroll/Unholy Secret" | September 23, 2006 | |
18 | "A Deadly Affair/The Sting Operation" | September 30, 2006 | |
"A Deadly Affair" leads to a dead husband in Olathe, Kansas, unsolved for over 20 years. "The Sting Operation" catches a drugstore robber who killed an officer in Beebe, Arkansas. | |||
19 | "NCIS/Exhuming the Truth" | September 7, 2006 | |
Federal agents reopen the 1968 disappearance of a navy ensign who was labeled a deserter. An Illinois college student is raped and murdered in 1981. | |||
20 | "Cross Country Connection/Eyes at the Window" | October 21, 2006 | |
DNA leaks sexual assaults in Florida to a woman murdered in California in 1988. | |||
21 | "Abandoned Houses/A Son's Memory" | October 28, 2006 | |
22 | "A Knock at the Door/Shattered" | November 18, 2006 | |
23 | "A Deadly Pattern/A Desperate Housewife" | November 18, 2006 | |
24 | "Murder He Wrote/Caught by the Past" | October 21, 2006 | |
A Michigan taxi company owner is murdered outside his home in 1989. | |||
25 | "Evidence Kit" | October 28, 2006 | |
26 | "Left for Dead/On the Case" | November 18, 2006 | |
"Left for Dead": Fingerprints on a beer bottle connect two suspects, Andre Robinson and Adrian Sutherland, to the murder of a prostitute, Pamela Shelley. "On the Case": Two Kansas City police detectives solve the two separate homicides of Linda Winfield and John Sehanchuk using DNA evidence. |
Awards and nominations
- Outstanding Nonfiction Series (2005) nomination: Michael Harvey (executive producer), Laura Fleury (executive producer), Tania Lindsay (supervising producer), Michael West (supervising producer), Mary Frances O'Conner (producer), Bill Kurtis (host)[4]
- Outstanding Nonfiction Series (2004) nomination: Laura Fleury (executive producer), Michael Harvey (supervising producer), Mike West (producer), Bill Kurtis (host)[5]
See also
- Solved, USA / ID, 2008 (true cases)
- Cold Justice, USA / TNT, 2013 (true cases)
- To Catch a Killer, CAN / OWN, 2014 (true cases)
References
- ^ About Cold Case Files, A&E Television Networks website.
- ^ "Death Investigation: Part 5" (PDF). A&E. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
- ^ "2" (PDF). A&E. 2007. p. 4. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
- ^ [1], IMDB 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards
- ^ [2], IMDB 2004 Primetime Emmy Awards