The BEST episodes of Cold Justice season 1

Every episode of Cold Justice season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Cold Justice season 1!

Texas prosecutor Kelly Siegler and Yolanda McClary, a crime-scene investigator for the Las Vegas Police Department, help local law-enforcement agencies in small towns across the country solve violent crimes that have sat cold because of lack of funding and proper forensic technology.

Last Updated: 4/25/2024Network: OxygenStatus: Continuing
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Mother (Collinston, LA)
star
8.40
116 votes

#1 - Mother (Collinston, LA)

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/10/2013

Siegler and McClary travel to Morehouse Parish, La., as they look to reopen a 2006 cold case and hope to discover new clues that help solve the murder of an active church member in the community.

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Small Town Suicide? (Cuero, TX)
star
8.03
179 votes

#2 - Small Town Suicide? (Cuero, TX)

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/3/2013

Pam Shelly was a loving mother of two. Shortly after splitting from her husband, she reconnected with Ronnie Hendrick, an old family friend. They fell in love, and she moved with her kids from Arkansas to Texas to live with him. Ronnie and Pam had a passionate but volatile love affair, which eventually became combative. One day, after a heated argument, Ronnie reportedly pushed Pam’s daughter, Kayla. Pam became enraged and jumped to her daughter’s defense. Pam and Ronnie fought before she finally told him she was leaving him for good. After packing up her and the kids’ things, Pam was putting on make-up in the bathroom when her daughter said she heard a scream and ran to find Pam on the floor with a bullet wound to her head. Pam later died in the hospital, and her case was ruled a suicide. But Pam’s children and Carl Bowen, a detective at the time of the incident, have always believed that Ronnie committed murder.

Watch Now:Amazon
Hiding in Plain Sight (Dickson, TN)
star
7.90
80 votes

#3 - Hiding in Plain Sight (Dickson, TN)

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/1/2013

Eric Baxter grew up in the small town of Dickson, Tennessee. At 32-years-old, he was running a successful chain of grocery stores that he owned with his mother. He was popular with customers and employees alike. On the night of August 20, 1998, Eric’s mother arrived home to find her son lying bloody on the hallway floor with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest. She was devastated by Eric’s death, and spent the rest of her life trying to figure out who would commit such a horror on her fun-loving son. The killing also shook the small Dickson community, which had rarely seen any murders. To this day, Eric’s death remains their only unsolved murder case.

Watch Now:Amazon
Hatchet (Bellevue, OH)
star
7.81
67 votes

#4 - Hatchet (Bellevue, OH)

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/15/2013

In the early morning hours of January 24, 1988, 49-year-old mother of six Isabel Cordle fell asleep on her couch watching TV. Sometime before 6:00 A.M., someone snuck up on her while she slept and hit her on the head with a hatchet four times. She died on the couch, never waking from her slumber. Her husband found her the next morning as he prepared to go to work and called 911. When the police arrived, Isabel’s husband and three of her children were upstairs, scared and confused. Police not only found trails of blood, they also found what could have been the murder weapon: a hatchet, propped up on a tree outside, right by the door. Why would the murderer leave the hatchet in plain sight? Were they trying to set someone up? Or did the murderer leave it there and then run back in the house?

Watch Now:Amazon
Home Town Hero (Blessing, TX)
star
7.75
115 votes

#5 - Home Town Hero (Blessing, TX)

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/17/2013

Born and raised in the small town of Palacios, TX, Charlene Corporon was considered a nice “Southern lady” by all who knew her. She owned the most successful agricultural business in town, where she worked with many friends and relatives, including her son, Gary. Charlene and Gary developed a combative relationship after Gary’s father and Charlene’s husband, Willy, died in a tragic accident. Gary was allegedly verbally abusive and physically abusive towards Charlene. One morning, Charlene’s boyfriend called her house looking for her and Gary answered saying, “Charlene doesn’t look too good.” When the police got to the house, she was dead: shot in the head with a .22. Could her own son have murdered her? Or was it her troubled boyfriend? For Matagorda County and the small rural towns within, murders are rare, let alone an unsolved one. The town hopes that native Kelly Seigler and her team of highly-experienced investigators can finally crack this cold case.

Hit and Run (Globe, AZ)
star
7.75
75 votes

#6 - Hit and Run (Globe, AZ)

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/24/2013

Rachelle Escalante was a vibrant 17-year-old who had just finished her junior year at Miami High School. She loved her friends, loved to play sports, and while she was known to be fun-loving and generous, if pushed into a corner, she would not back down from a fight. July 6, 1988, was a hot summer day and Rachelle went to a party with many of her friends from high school. After an argument broke out at the party, Rachelle stormed off by foot. That same evening, patrol officers saw what they thought was a dog moving slowly across the road as they drove home. As they got closer, they realized it was actually a young woman crawling. They quickly stopped the car, got out, ran to the woman, and witnessed Rachelle gasp for her last breath of air, then die in front of them. Rachelle had been the victim of a hit-and-run. Could jealousy over a guy have pushed one of Rachelle’s schoolmates to take revenge, or did Rachelle have other enemies who may have wanted her dead?

Small Town Tragedy (Thatcher, AZ)
star
7.68
69 votes

#7 - Small Town Tragedy (Thatcher, AZ)

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/8/2013

Mary Anne Holmes was a young and vibrant single mother of two. She escaped an abusive ex and moved to Thatcher, and was working hard to fit into her new, close-knit community through school and church. One Saturday, after hosting a yard sale at her house, she and her two young daughters fell asleep in the living room, as always. The next morning, four-year-old Ashleigh ran across the street to her neighbor’s house naked, her hands bound. She wanted to know why her mommy wouldn’t wake up. While neither Ashleigh nor her 18-month-old sister Sara were harmed, their mother, Mary Anne, was brutally abused and murdered, right in front of her babies. To this day, Ashleigh and the town of Thatcher have searched for answers. Was this a sick stranger passing through town? Someone who happened upon the house that day? Or could it have been someone close to Mary Anne?

Blind Love (Seagraves, TX)
star
7.38
69 votes

#8 - Blind Love (Seagraves, TX)

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/22/2013

In the small town of Seagraves, TX, Rocky Bryant was universally loved. You couldn’t find anyone to say a bad word about him. Instead, people would regale you with stories of his great sense of humor, big smile, and giant heart. Rocky worked for the local feed plant for more than 20 years, and his coworkers were his biggest fans. Rocky made coffee for his crew every morning, and always started his day with a joke. But on March 25, 2008, what started as a normal workday quickly turned into a nightmare. Approximately 30 minutes after clocking in, Rocky was found brutally beaten in the dry feed building. As Rocky was being loaded into the ambulance, his old friend Deputy Shane Scott arrived, responding to the call. “They got me good, Shane. They got me good,” was all Rocky could say about his attack, before being whisked off to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. Deputy Scott has never stopped searching for whoever did this to his friend.