Sherlock Holmes, the most famous fictional detective in the world, was also the first Crime Scene Investigator. Based on a real surgeon, Holmes was a scientist who used chemistry, bloodstains, and minute traces of evidence to solve the crime. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle added his own knowledge of fledgling forensic techniques to create the fictional sleuth and his revolutionary crime-scene methods, set in an era when eyewitness reports and "smoking gun"...

Most murderers use a weapon. One of the top-priority tasks for detectives is to find that weapon. It can lead to the killer but it can also reveal so much more. Using cutting-edge forensic techniques, the murder weapon can now give us an insight into the mind of the killer. This program examines the murder weapon that until 150 years ago left no trace, how 3D crime-scene modelling is revolutionising gun crime investigations, and why, until recently,...

In 1888, Jack the Ripper—the most infamous serial killer of all time—began his reign of terror in the East End of London. He committed five horrifically violent murders in Whitechapel between August and November of that year. There was a huge manhunt, but the Ripper was never caught. Since then, there has been endless speculation about who the Ripper was, what motivated his crimes, and how the killer escaped justice. Emilia Fox, the star of BBC...

It was a landmark achievement with the implication to solve any crime. In March 2018, US police tracked down the Golden State serial killer, who had gone undetected for 40 years, by identifying members of his family on a commercial DNA database. It was the first time investigative genetic genealogy had been used to crack a case and helped spawn a new discipline. Since then, genetic genealogy has been used to catch nearly 300 killers. If the DNA profiles...

Look inside the undercover sting to catch the world's most-wanted money launderer.

I Am Evidence exposes the shocking number of untested rape kits in the United States today, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Despite the power of DNA to solve and prevent crimes, these kits containing potentially crucial evidence languish untested in police evidence storage rooms. Behind each of these kits lies an individual’s unresolved sexual assault case. I Am Evidence introduces viewers to several of these survivors, who still await...

The events behind Kurt Cobain's death as seen through the eyes of Tom Grant, the private investigator hired by Courtney Love to track down her missing husband only days before his deceased body was found. The film develops as a narrative mystery with cinematic re-creations, interviews with key experts and witnesses, and the examination of official artifacts from the 1994 case.

This A&E Special traces the origins of four critical weapons in the war against crime: ballistics, trace evidence, polygraph tests, and psychological profiling. Stories of headline-making crimes such as the "Mad Bomber" investigation in New York during the 1950s help show how these techniques were developed and refined, while dramatic reenactments introduce viewers to innovators like Calvin Goddard, the father of modern ballistics, and Leonard Keeler,...

Eighteen months after Chinese student Lin Jun was brutally killed and dismembered, a group of Internet users attempted to track down Luka Rocco Magnotta, whom they also linked to online videos showing kittens being slowly suffocated. In this program, we meet these trackers and witness a re-enactment of their Magnotta investigation. See how they carefully studied videos to determine that the first kittens had been killed in Toronto, and how Magnotta...

Geographical offender profiling is now being used by police forces around the world to help focus investigations into a connected series of crimes where there are no obvious suspects. This film introduces students to the principles and key concepts of geographical profiling - least effort principle, distance decay, crime pattern theory and opportunity spaces - and their application to criminal investigations.Please Note: Although this is a standalone...