The BEST episodes of Cold Case Files (2017)

Every episode of Cold Case Files (2017) ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Cold Case Files (2017)!

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America, and only about 1% are ever solved. With recent advancements in technology and the methods used to solve these cases, as well as the unwavering dedication of victims’ families, law enforcement and the public, “Cold Case Files” explores the cases that defied the odds.

Last Updated: 7/22/2025Network: A&EStatus: Continuing
star
8.00
24 votes

#1 - A Family Secret

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/15/2017

Ten years after a 17-year-old girl is found strangled in the woods in small-town Kentucky, detectives uncover a terrible family secret.

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star
7.85
26 votes

#2 - A Family Cursed

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/22/2017

One family faces two unsolved murders of loved ones and authorities finally uncover the missing clue that leads to solve the case 13 years after the murders occurred.

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star
7.79
43 votes

#3 - She Never Came Home

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/13/2017

The case of a gruesome stabbing death of a bullied teenager remains unsolved for 27 years.

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star
7.65
46 votes

#4 - Killings on Christmas Eve

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/6/2017

The death of an elderly couple, Edward "Ed" and Wilhelmina "Minnie" Maurin Ed in Washington state on Christmas Eve 1985.

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star
7.62
13 votes

#5 - Written in Blood

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/18/2022

In July of 1970, the brutal murder of single mom Loretta Jones leaves four-year-old Heidi Jones motherless. Nearly 40 years later, Heidi vows to solve her mother's cold case and calls on an old high school friend to help her find justice for Loretta.

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star
7.62
13 votes

#6 - Taken in Tacoma

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/24/2022

In 1986 Tacoma, two young girls are murdered months apart. Convinced a predator is on the loose, law enforcement pursues a 32-year investigation to identify and apprehend the killer.

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star
7.60
10 votes

#7 - Lone Survivor

Season 2 - Episode 27 - Aired 5/13/2022

Aurora, Colorado: In 1984, three-year-old Vanessa Bennett becomes the lone survivor of her family's brutal murder. Initial investigators suspect a serial killer is at large, but decades pass before DNA narrows the suspect pool to one man.

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star
7.56
9 votes

#8 - Dark Angel

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/11/2022

Thirteen days after Pam Pitts disappears in 1988, her charred body is found at a popular hangout spot in the Arizona desert; when a second victim is discovered in a mine shaft, detectives suspect the killer may have known them both.

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star
7.53
17 votes

#9 - The Devil in Disguise

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/24/2021

23-year-old teacher Irene Garza was a former beauty queen and devout Catholic who vanished the evening before Easter after giving confession. Residents of her close-knit border town did their best to find her, but after a series of false leads, her body was found floating in a drainage canal clearly the victim of a violent sexual predator. At the time, a key witness hinted that a member of the Catholic clergy may have been responsible, but the clue remained buried for 42 years until a former priest comes forward with a damning confession from another man of the cloth that reveals a sinister cover up.

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star
7.45
11 votes

#10 - Death of a Hero

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/10/2022

A fire in January 2007 claims the life of WWII vet Bennie Angelo. A closer look at the crime scene during investigation reveals Bennie was dead before the fire, bumping an arson case up to homicide.

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star
7.44
34 votes

#11 - Sweethearts, Silenced

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/16/2017

A killer authors a book about his con-man past that becomes the key to solving a 29-year-old cold case of two high school sweethearts--and three other cold case murders--leading police to believe he could be the Zodiac Killer.

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star
7.40
5 votes

#12 - The Lost Patient

Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/29/2022

In 1979, Janie Landers disappears from a home for the impaired. When Janie's body is found, there are many suspects but it takes years before the killer and the atrocities in the care facility are revealed.

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star
7.37
19 votes

#13 - The Heartland Killer

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/17/2021

In the 1980s, a suspected serial killer preyed on women in small towns located on the banks of the Mississippi River until the murders abruptly ceased and went unsolved. In 2006, 26 years later, a cold case detective and producer on the set of "Cold Case Files" unknowingly began to connect the dots that would crack the case while discussing the murder of Deborah Sheppard, a Southern Illinois University student whose death had remained a mystery since 1982.

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star
7.36
11 votes

#14 - A Lesson in Homicide

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/21/2022

When beloved Red Bank middle school teacher Jonelle Melton is found murdered in her Neptune City, New Jersey apartment in the fall of 2009, suspicion is cast on her soon-to-be ex-husband, who eventually helps solve the crime years later.

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star
7.33
12 votes

#15 - The Clock Strikes Murder

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/25/2022

When 23-year-old Tonya McKinley is found brutally murdered on New Year's Day 1985, a boy is left motherless; a family waits 35 years for advancements in forensic science to finally catch a killer using familial DNA.

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star
7.30
33 votes

#16 - The Night Shift

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/25/2017

College student Brad Perry shows up to work his graveyard shift at the gas station and is never seen alive again.

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star
7.30
10 votes

#17 - One Tough Mother

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/11/2022

In July 1997, the brutal murder of 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston rocks the small town of Bethany, Oklahoma. DNA points to her killer over a decade later and leads investigators across state lines to Texas, and the buried bodies of two other missing women.

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star
7.29
7 votes

#18 - Friday Night Ghosts

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/18/2022

In late 1983, the bodies of five people abducted from a local fast food restaurant are found brutally murdered in an oil field. The main suspect is long believed to be a well-connected local man, until new evidence reveals the true killers had been hiding in plain sight for decades.

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star
7.29
7 votes

#19 - A is for Arson

Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 4/15/2022

Everett, Washington firefighter Gary Parks is killed in an arson fire at Everett Community College on Feb 16, 1987. A serial arsonist is thought to be the culprit, but it will take a dogged detective to find the killer. One suspect is Elmer Nash Jr of Snohomish, WA.

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star
7.27
11 votes

#20 - Queen of the Ozarks

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/1/2022

June 1985: 20-year-old "Sucker Day" Festival Queen Jackie Johns has gone missing, and soon her body is found in Lake Springfield. The small community of Nixa, Missouri, is certain her blood is on the hands of a local wealthy businessman, Gerald Carnahan, but it takes 25 years and the advent of DNA testing to find the true killer.

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star
7.27
11 votes

#21 - Woman in the Woods

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/21/2022

In 1972, the body of Jody Loomis is found in the woods. Thirty-four years later, the killer's DNA is recovered from Jody's old clothing, but it isn't matched until 2018 when genetic genealogy helps point to one suspect.

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star
7.27
15 votes

#22 - Circle of Friends

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/8/2017

When 18-year-old Shannon Siders' body is found in the woods, everyone in the small town of Newaygo, Michigan, becomes a suspect--but no one is convicted of the crime.

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star
7.26
53 votes

#23 - Little Girl Lost

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/27/2017

Halloween in a small town is cancelled indefinitely when a young girl is kidnapped and killed on her way home from a costume party.

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star
7.25
16 votes

#24 - Murder in the Midwest

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/3/2022

15-year-old Lori Nesson went missing after attending a party. Her nude body was found the next day in a ditch. Decades later, a news story about the case led to a viewer providing information that solved the murder.

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star
7.21
19 votes

#25 - Missing in Altoona

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/3/2021

When Sherry Leighty goes missing in 1999, her family is left wondering how a dedicated mother of three could vanish without a trace. A decade later, the cold case heats up when Sherry's sister launches a social media campaign to help solve her sister's mysterious disappearance. An online tip unearths the truth and a sinister family secret.

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