The BEST episodes of Cold Case
Every episode of Cold Case ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Cold Case!
Cold Case stars Kathryn Morris as Lilly Rush, the lone female detective in the Philadelphia homicide squad who finds her calling when she's assigned to "cold cases" -- crimes that have never been solved. Previously, she used her instinctive understanding of the criminal mind on current murders. Now, she's interrogating witnesses whose lives and circumstances have since changed, making use of today's new science and finding fresh clues to solve cases that were previously unsolvable, all of which appeals to this smart, driven detective. She's also prepared for the consequences: that her work will open up old wounds and may lead suspects to commit new crimes.
#1 - Stalker
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/6/2007
In the fourth season finale, a hostage situation arises when the entire team is held captive while they're investigating the 2006 killings of a family who had just moved into a new house.
#2 - Death Penalty: Final Appeal
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/16/2006
The 1994 case of a raped and murdered 16-year-old girl is re-opened when Det. Jeffries gets a call from a prisoner on death-row -- scheduled to be executed in just three days.
#3 - The Letter
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/25/2004
Rush and Valens re-open the case of a 25-year-old black woman, who was murdered in 1939, after the woman's granddaughter comes forward with new information. The woman was assumed to be a prostitute murdered by a client, but letters written by the victim indicate that she was afraid of a milkman.
#4 - A Dollar, A Dream
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/18/2007
The 1999 murder of a homeless woman, whose body is found at the bottom of a river in a station wagon, is investigated.
#5 - The Woods
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/22/2005
The discovery of nine human skulls leads Rush back to George Marks, the serial killer she was unable to incriminate months earlier, and who walked away a free man. As the detectives reinvestigate his mother's murder from 1972, George is forced to emerge from hiding to face Rush again. This time, their very lives are at stake in their final showdown.
#6 - The Plan
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/2/2004
The 1999 drowning death of a military academy's swim coach, which was originally ruled as accidental, is reinvestigated after the homicide division receives a note that suggests it was murder. Back at the office, Valens searches for Elisa after she goes missing.
#7 - It's Raining Men
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/14/2004
An HIV-positive gay man asks Rush and Valens to re-investigate the case of his dead partner who died of strangulation in 1983. Not only was the victim outspoken in his views about AIDS education within the 1980's secretive gay community, he was also the member of a very prominent family, disowned by his father for his sexual orientation.
#8 - The Road
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/6/2008
The team re-investigates the suspected 2007 murder of a bride-to-be who was kidnapped on the day of her engagement party. Lilly and Scotty travel to West Virginia to escort the prime suspect to Philly, and on their way back, they hear his side of the story.
#9 - Offender
Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/25/2007
A father pushes a registered sex offender off of a building and threatens to kill a different sex offender each day until the cold-case unit solves his son's 1987 rape and murder.
#10 - Blank Generation
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/9/2005
The team re-opens the case of Matthew Adams, a teen-aged cult member who apparently committed suicide back in 1978, when his sister comes forth with new evidence about the deprogrammer her family hired to rescue her brother.
#11 - The Sleepover
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/7/2004
Lilly reopens a 1990 murder case, in which a prep-school girl was found dead in a local swimming hole, after a present-day victim with similar markings is discovered at the same place. The investigation reveals that the victim of the earlier crime was routinely tormented by a trio of classmates who invited her to a sleepover the night she was killed.
#12 - Revolution
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/20/2005
Rush and the team investigate the 1969 murder of a 19-year-old girl whose body was found in her boyfriend's apartment the day he fled to Canada to avoid fighting in Vietnam.
#13 - Shuffle, Ball Change
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/11/2007
When a body is found in a dumpster, the team re-opens the 1984 case of a murdered teenage boy who wanted to become a dancer against his father's wishes.
#14 - Fireflies
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/2006
The 1975 disappearance of an 8-year-old girl who was never found is reinvestigated after a note written by the girl shortly before she vanished turns up. Their friendship rattled many in the predominantly white neighborhood and the girls quickly became targets of hatred.
#15 - Mind Hunters
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/28/2004
The headless torso of a woman who disappeared in 1985, on the same day she filed domestic-abuse charges against her husband, is found by hikers in a wildlife preserve. The investigation quickly leads to the grisly discovery of 8 more decapitated bodies, the victims of a serial killer.
#16 - Who's Your Daddy
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/31/2004
Det. Rush investigates the 1991 double murder of married illegal immigrants from Cambodia who were shot to death in their apartment and found by their 6-year old daughter. The now-teenage girl brings the case to Lilly after she discovers a bracelet once owned by her mother is for sale on the internet. The probe reveals that the parents had dark secrets unknown to their daughter.
#17 - The Hen House
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/30/2006
The 1945 case of a murdered newspaper reporter is reopened when new evidence suggests that the woman was thrown in front of a passing train by someone she knew.
#18 - The Long Blue Line (1)
Season 6 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/3/2009
The team re-opens the case of the first ever female cadet in a local military school who was murdered in 2005.
#19 - Fly Away
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/30/2003
When a young woman, Rosie, wakes up from a coma, Lilly re-opens the fall in which her 6-year-old daughter Toya died. Things get complicated when the mother remembers very little of that night, and Lilly feels especially motivated to find the killer, as Rosie was poor and living on welfare, reminding Lilly of her own past, and giving her an emotional bond to Rosie.
#20 - Andy in C Minor
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/30/2008
After traces of blood linked back to a missing teen are found, the team re-investigates the 2006 case of a boy who disappeared from a high school for deaf children.
#21 - True Calling
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/2008
The 1991 death of an inner-city schoolteacher is reinvestigated when new evidence indicates she may have been murdered instead of dying accidentally during a carjacking that got out of control.
#22 - A Time to Hate
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/16/2003
Lilly investigates the case of Daniel Holtz, a college baseball player who was found beaten to death in an alley behind a gay bar in 1964. Daniel's mother comes to Lilly in the hopes that his killer can be brought to justice before she dies. Lilly discovers the maltreatment gay victims received in the 60's, when her investigation discloses that it may have been a policeman's nightstick that made the lethal blows.
#23 - Maternal Instincts
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/25/2004
The 1989 case of a woman murdered in front of her 3-year-old son is re-opened. A psychologist asks Det. Rush to look into the case again when the son, now a 17-year-old teen, suffers from intense nightmares and troubled behavior.
#24 - Wunderkind
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/28/2007
The team re-opens the 2002 case of a 14-year-old math whiz whose half-brother exploited his unusual talents: card counting and safe cracking.
#25 - Thrill Kill
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/2007
Recovered from the shooting, Lilly wants to convince her boss that she's ready to get back to work. The team re-opens the 1994 case of three 10-year-old kids who were beaten to death when Lilly suspects the teens convicted of the killings may have been wrongfully incarcerated.