The WORST episodes of Forensic Files
Every episode of Forensic Files ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Forensic Files!
American reportage-style crime series that zooms in on startling true crimes and, in particular, how these crimes are solved.
#1 - Out of the Ashes
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/21/1999
On a cold December night in 1993, Rose Larner stopped in a convenience store on her way to her boyfriend’s house. She was never seen or heard from again. Rose’s disappearance remained a mystery, until a tiny clue found years later revealed a tragic tale of drugs, romance and revenge. Originally aired as Season 3, Episode 13.
#2 - A Case of the Flue
Season 11 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/15/2006
It was a case unlike most others. Forensic evidence proved the perpetrator broke out of the crime scene rather than breaking in. No one knew why until some evidence on the victim's hands provided the answer.
#3 - Dark Waters
Season 11 - Episode 14 - Aired 10/18/2006
A young is killed in a boating accident, and his friend is left critically injured. Investigators are able to use forensic evidence to track down the driver of the boat that led to this tragedy.
#4 - As the Tide Turns
Season 11 - Episode 29 - Aired 1/31/2007
The 2007 murder of FL resident April Barber is investigated. She was shot and killed on a beach. At first, investigators thought it was a robbery gone bad. But the forensics evidence showed it was a calculated and cold-blooded plan.
#5 - Sole Searching
Season 10 - Episode 35 - Aired 2/1/2006
Now it's not only a fingerprint which can link a killer to a crime; a shoe print can be just as telling. Armed with little else, police hoped the shoe impressions found at a Lansing, Michigan crime scene would put their investigation of Audrey Nichols' murder back on track.
#6 - Honor Thy Father
Season 8 - Episode 38 - Aired 7/30/2005
A sixteen-year-old girl was killed by her mother and father, in her own home. Her parents said they acted in self-defence, but the forensic evidence indicated otherwise. Definitive proof would come from an unlikely source: a recording made by an FBI electronic surveillance device.
#7 - Blanket of Evidence
Season 11 - Episode 38 - Aired 4/4/2007
Two women, both murdered in the same state park. Indiana police feared it was the work of a serial killer until the forensic evidence pointed them in two different directions. Originally aired as Season 11, Episode 38.
#8 - Purr-fect Match
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/12/2002
A woman vanished from her home on Prince Edward Island. Her abandoned car was found in a field; inside, the windows were spattered with blood. During the search for her body, police found a plastic bag containing a pair of sneakers and a bloody leather jacket. On the jacket were white hairs that investigators discovered had come from a cat. Forensic testing on a cat had never been done before anywhere in the world. This case made history: It was the first time that animal DNA was used to solve a crime.
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#9 - The Wilson Murder
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/14/1996
On the night of May 22, 1992, Betty Wilson returned home after a meeting. She walked up the stairs to the bedroom and discovered her husband, lying in a pool of blood. Jack Wilson had obviously been murdered... but how? And by whom? Even the experts couldn’t agree. Originally aired as Season 1, Episode 8.
#10 - Naughty or Nyce
Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/19/2006
A pharmaceutical tycoon's mail-order bride is found in her SUV in a half-frozen creek. Could a few flecks of sawdust and a shoe print determine whether a death is an accident or a homicide?
#11 - A Clean Getaway
Season 10 - Episode 22 - Aired 11/2/2005
An employee of a dry-cleaner was raped and murdered in the store, and investigators thought themselves fortunate to have two eyewitnesses.
#12 - If I Were You
Season 11 - Episode 28 - Aired 1/24/2007
Amid the rustic beauty of rural Idaho a retired school teacher vanished, but even though he was missing his bills were payed on time and he continued to correspond with his family. But they couldn't contact him, making this one of the most bizarre missing persons cases in US history. Originally aired as Season 11, Episode 28.
#13 - The House That Roared
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/10/1996
Caren Campano disappears and the explanation of her husband Chris doesn't hold up. Police find a large stain on the Campano's bedroom carpet. They perform an eerie chemical test that reveals a room spattered with blood which, when cleaned off, could not be seen by the naked eye. Complex 'reverse paternity' tests of Caren's relatives match her blood type to the blood on the carpet. The evidence convicts Chris Campano of murder, even though the body wasn't found until a year later.
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#14 - Past Lives
Season 8 - Episode 31 - Aired 11/20/2005
When a car catches fire and swerves off the road. Then it burns completely, there isn't a whole lot left to make identifications with. Lucky for Mr. Rutherford a medic alert and a watch survived the fire and lead forensic anthropologists onto the case.
#15 - Summer Obsession
Season 10 - Episode 27 - Aired 12/7/2005
In an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning. The investigation gradually focused on one person, a suspect who had more than a million reasons to want the victim dead. Originally aired as Season 10, Episode 27.
#16 - Sip of Sins
Season 7 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/15/2003
In Wichita Falls, Texas, police had four unsolved murders-- the worst crime spree in the small town's history. For more then a decade, the killer successfully eluded police. But a discarded coffee cup in a trash bin solved the mystery.
#17 - Textbook Murder
Season 14 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/31/2010
The victim was brutally murdered. Police learn her fiancé was having affairs with other women, and he becomes the prime suspect... that is until a man comes forward who not only believes he owns the murder weapon, he also knows who used it.
#18 - Legionnaires' Disease
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/7/1996
Legionnaires' disease is one of the most famous medical detective stories, especially irritating for its missteps and frustrations. When 180 Legionnaires contract pneumonia-like symptoms after a Philadelphia Convention and 29 of them die, doctors and scientists are mystified. The determination of one scientist helps to pinpoint the cause and likely vector of this deadly disease.
#19 - Pastoral Care
Season 6 - Episode 24 - Aired 10/29/2001
The Donna Payant Case When the body of a female prison guard shows up in a landfill, investigators immediately view hundreds of prisoners as suspects. The medical examiner not only identified the cause of death, he found an important clue. It was a ""signature"" element to the crime, and was similar to a murder the medical examiner investigated ten years earlier. When he checked further, he discovered that the same perpetrator was an inmate at the same prison. Was it possible that the inmate committed this crime, too?
#20 - A Shot in the Dark
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/7/2002
When a woman is found dead of a gunshot wound, police conclude that she was murdered by her husband. Investigators theorized the couple had argued, and during the ensuing struggle, the husband shot his wife in the back and then staged the scene to make it look like a suicide. Forensic scientists were able to piece together the clues and determine what really happened. In doing so, they proved once again that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
#21 - Planted Evidence
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/24/1996
Single mother Denise Johnson is found dead in a deserted area outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Local investigators ask a molecular geneticist to pick out a tree in a 'lineup' when unidentified seed pods are found in suspect Mark Bogan's truck. The judge rules into evidence DNA profiles linking the pods to a tree near where the body was found. This is the first U.S. case where plant DNA was used to convict a criminal.
#22 - Dessert Served Cold
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/1/2003
The Richard Alfredo Case. When a Massachusetts man dropped dead of an apparent heart attack, no one thought foul play was a possibility until police looked into his girlfriend’s odd behavior in the days before his death. Controversy surrounded the case for almost a decade, which pitted competing teams of toxicologists against each other: One claimed the death was due to natural causes, and the other said it was cold-blooded murder.
#23 - Foreign Body
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/22/1998
Between 1986 and 1989, a disease swept through British cattle herds. The disease came to be known as the Mad-cow disease. Scientist began to suspect that this was somehow related to some human illness. A California neurologist, said both humans and animals were suffering from a mutated prion. When defective prions are transmitted from an infected host to a new host, they convert any normal prions they come across into copies of themselves. So it is possible for a mutated prion to be transmitted from a cow to a person by eating beef. Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner received a Nobel prize for his work with prion.
#24 - Sibling Rivalry
Season 6 - Episode 23 - Aired 10/22/2001
Two of America’s premier pornographers happen to be brothers. When one turns up dead, his brother confesses to shooting him. The question for investigators is whether the shooting was pre-meditated. A 911 call in which the fatal shots can be heard, and a computer reconstruction of the crime scene, provide the answer. Originally aired as Season 6, Episode 23.
#25 - Body of Evidence
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/24/1999
Karla Brown was the youngest of three girls in the Brown family. After many failed relationships, Karla became engaged to Mark Fair. The couple began moving into their dream home in June 1978. On the morning of June 20, Mark left for work and Karla remained at home. When Mark and a friend returned home that evening, they found Karla dead. The condition of Karla's body told investigators that she was a victim of sexual assault; she had resisted, struggled, and was killed. The Police questioned Paul Main and John Prante, who lived across the street. They were considered low-level suspects. After a second autopsy, they were able to re-examine bite marks. A Computer enhancement gave a better view of the bite marks, and the science of forensic odontology identified John Prante. On July 15, 1983, five years after the murder, Prante was found guilty and sentenced to 75 years in prison.