In the quaint city of Portage, IN, everyone starts pointing fingers when 8-year-old Sarah Paulsen is brutally assaulted and murdered in 1995. Cops wade through hundreds of tips to try and figure out if her killer is a creepy local or a sketchy stranger.
When divorcee Adele Curtis, a mom of 5 adult children, meets a terrible end in her Phoenix, AZ rental property in 1996, detectives delve into a series of suspects to find the killer. But when the search goes cold as a desert night, it takes the dawn of DNA to catch this murderer.
When 10-year-old boy Vernie Mitchell makes a quick run to the store in Trenton, NJ in January 1976, he runs into a nightmare instead. He was found deceased with 47 stab wounds and severe blunt trauma to his head. A strange slew of suspects pops out of the woodwork, but the case goes cold. When police zero in on the bad guy 18 years later, his motive is more shocking than anyone can imagine.
On May 22, 2004, Baton Rouge, LA, self-made millionaire Alan Waters, a divorced father of 2, is found shot to death inside his mansion. Police think his real estate business is to blame but they can't solve this deadly puzzle until someone close to Alan comes forward with the missing piece.
In Lanett, AL, things just aren't adding up when 49-year-old Charlotte Waites, a beloved former teacher and mayor's wife, is found dead in her home in 1998. Friends try to put two and two together, but they come up with zero reasons anyone would want her dead, and police are just as stymied.
When a Texas City, TX girl, 13-year-old Krystal Baker, a great-niece of Marilyn Monroe, is found dead off the banks of Galveston Bay in 1996, investigators round up a herd of suspects. But with little physical evidence on the scene, the case goes cold. It takes a dedicated detective to solve this case 14 years later.
After 16-year-old Sherita Williams takes a quick trip to the nail salon in Pennsauken, NJ, she is sexually assaulted, strangled to death and dumped under a bridge in 2003. Police dig up a cast of potential villains but the case goes cold. When the true killer finally appears through a DNA match 4 years later, they find he's in a class all his own.
In early fall of 1992, the rural community of Wantage, NJ, is rocked by the murder of beloved local Christine Schurman. Police are at a loss for suspects until a tip about another murder committed in Missouri connects them to their killer.
When Manchester, NH, single mom Mary Stetson goes out to her favorite haunt, she ends up murdered in a house of horrors. The police investigate, but only a tip from a mystery woman reveals Mary's killer.
Holiday cheer ends in holiday fear, when Jean Wholaver and her two daughters are murdered in their home on Christmas Eve. Detectives in Middletown, PA, check their list of suspects twice and are shocked by the killer's true identity.
When the lifeless body of Christian Rojas is found battered, his friends in Bensalem, PA are beside themselves with fear. Detectives are on the hunt for a savage killer but are surprised that it's one of Christian's friends that has become a murderous foe
Joliet, IL, firefighters are shocked to find 28-year-old Melissa Plut strangled to death when they respond to a fire in her duplex. Police search the nurse's love life with no luck until a 9-1-1 call unmasks her killer hiding in plain sight.
When pretty Nags Head, NC, tourist Janet Siclari turns up dead on the beach outside her hotel, the fun comes to an end. When a hurricane blows leads out of town, police wonder if the killer escaped too. Only time can help detectives catch the culprit.