On May 2, 2001, Leslie Preer was found murdered in her Chevy Chase, Maryland home. For 23 years, DNA evidence sat waiting. Then forensic genealogy led detectives to a name they recognized — her daughter's high school boyfriend.

In 1992, a man's body was pulled from Pittsburgh's Allegheny River after a witness reported an assault. Arthur Wiley was convicted of third-degree murder within a year — but the victim remained unidentified for over three decades. This episode examines how genetic genealogy technology finally revealed his name: Allan Barry Keener, born in 1940, with ties to Ohio and Kentucky. Through Othram's proprietary DNA analysis and a $100,000 state grant, investigators closed Allegheny County's longest-running unknown decedent case in February 2026.

Maya Millete, a mother of three, vanished from her Chula Vista home on January 7, 2021 — the same day she called a divorce attorney. Her husband Larry was arrested nine months later and charged with her murder despite her body never being found. Prosecutors revealed he spent over $1,100 on spells from online spell casters, initially asking them to bind his wife to him 'forever,' then escalating to requests for spells causing 'physical harm' and 'accidents to cripple.' Those requests stopped the day Maya disappeared.

In late 2025, the Dallas Police Department closed its oldest missing persons case when Detective Ryan Dalby connected 16-year-old Norman Prater, missing since 1973, to an unidentified hit-and-run victim found the same year. The breakthrough came from a rediscovered photograph—and a brother who recognized his sibling's distinctive scars after more than five decades.

A Massachusetts nurse accused of killing her three children in what her defense calls a psychiatric emergency raises profound questions about postpartum mental illness, medication protocols, and criminal culpability.

In November 2010, Andrew (9), Alexander (7), and Tanner Skelton (5) disappeared after spending Thanksgiving with their father John in Morenci, Michigan. For fifteen years, John Skelton sat in prison on unlawful imprisonment charges while investigators searched in vain for the boys' remains. Days before his scheduled release in November 2025, prosecutors filed open murder charges—a rare move in a case with no bodies and no new physical evidence made public.

How a concealed police report about a break-in at the crime scene—and a detective's false testimony—kept an innocent man imprisoned for four decades. Edward Wright was 22 when convicted. He was 63 when he walked free.

Detective Matt Hutchison earned the nickname 'America's Best Detective' for his relentless pursuit of cold case justice. Working often in his own time, he has solved at least seven murders spanning from 1979 to the present, using DNA genealogy, preserved evidence, and old-fashioned investigative persistence. This episode examines how his methodical approach brought closure to families who waited decades for answers.

How a twisted extramarital affair led to an elaborate catfishing murder plot that ended with two dead and a family destroyed. Brendan Banfield, a former IRS agent, was convicted in February 2026 for orchestrating the murders of his wife Christine and an innocent stranger named Joseph Ryan.

In September 2025, investigators announced the identity of the final victim in New Hampshire's Bear Brook murders: three-year-old Rea Rasmussen, biological daughter of serial killer Terry Rasmussen. This episode traces the 40-year investigation from the discovery of four bodies in barrels to the groundbreaking use of genetic genealogy that identified both the killer and all his victims.