Episode
Forensic Files: Traffic Violations
Overview
The body of an attractive young woman was found a mile from her abandoned car. Police were especially concerned when they realised the victim had come to them for protection just two weeks earlier, after a road rage incident. Concern turned to dread when the evidence began to point not to an aggressive driver, but to one of their fellow police officers.
Details
- Series
- Forensic Files
- Season
- Season 12
- Episode
- Episode 21
- Air date
- 2008-05-09
- Runtime
- 23 min
Episode context
Traffic Violations is Episode 21 in Season 12 of Forensic Files. It aired on 2008-05-09. The runtime is 23 min.
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Episode 20: Jean Pool
In 1984, the body of college co-ed Laura Salmon was found on a Georgia farm, covered with her own denim jeans as well as the jeans of the killer. Investigators had plenty of suspects, including former boyfriend David Kyle Gilley, but no conclusive evidence linking any of them to the crime. More than a decade later, sophisticated technology would breathe new life into a case grown cold with the passage of time and implicate her killer.
Episode 22: Brotherly Love
In 1969, 25-year-old phone operator Diane Maxwell is raped and murdered by a black man. Her brother promised he'd find out who was responsible and bring the killer to justice. It would take more than thirty years, but the young man kept his promise and, in doing so, brought closure to his family.
More episodes from this season
Episode 19: All Butt Certain
A 6-year-old girl ran and hid when she saw her grandmother being beaten to death, but the man followed her, beat her and assaulted her. The girl said he was her Uncle Clarence, and he was convicted because of her identification. She recanted her testimony years later, but the court denied Clarence's petition for a new trial. His wife was convinced he was innocent, and decided to conduct her own investigation to prove it.
Episode 23: Disrobed
The crime scene was especially violent: A husband and wife had been shot to death in their bedroom. At first, investigators thought their 16-year-old daughter was lucky to have escaped unharmed... but after a while, they wondered if the reason she was alive had more to do with careful planning than good fortune.
Episode 18: Shattered Innocence
The killer probably hoped to cover his tracks by staging the crime scene. But investigators saw through the attempt almost immediately, and they turned to forensic science to learn what really happened that night. [also marked as S12:E19]
Episode 24: Driven to Silence
A young, attractive hairdresser was sexually assaulted and murdered in her own beauty salon. The evidence at the crime scene didn't match any of the suspects and, after the initial investigation, the case went cold for ten years. Then a witness who had been silent for more than a decade decided to do the right thing.
Episode 17: Dog Day Afternoon
A woman was brutally murdered in her home, and the only witnesses to the crime were the family dogs. An expert in canine behavior was convinced the killer knew both the victim and the animals, and he was determined find out exactly what the dogs had seen.
Episode 25: Printed Proof
When two women went missing and were later found brutally murdered, police wondered if they were victims of a hate crime; the women lived together and were politically active, outspoken advocates of gay rights. But the motive turned out to be something age old, something with which investigators were all too familiar: greed, fueled by obsession.
Episode 16: Freedom Fighter
After the suspect was convicted of arson and murder, he steadfastly maintained he did not commit the crimes, but he was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. He had no money, no lawyer and only a fifth grade education, but he never gave up. He turned to the law books in the prison library and television programs about forensic science, and set out to prove his innocence. [also marked as S12:25]
Episode 26: About Face
A human skeleton was discovered in the North Carolina marshlands and, when investigators learned she'd been dead for 18 months, they knew it would be difficult to find out who she was, much less who killed her. A forensic anthropologist was able to determine the victim's race, age and height, but it would take an inventive computer consultant to give her a face and a name.
Episode 15: Good as Gold
On Halloween night 2004, Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara were brutally murdered in their Napa, CA, home. The killer was not seen by their downstairs roommate, but he left his DNA behind in some cigarette butts and a groundbreaking test revealed his race and even the color of his eyes and hair.
Episode 27: In the Bag
After shooting his victims in the head, the killer staged the scene, placed the incriminating evidence into a plastic bag and tossed it into the river. Instead of floating downstream, it became entangled in overhanging branches. Days later, when police found it, they hoped clues to the killer's identity and the solution to the crime were "in the bag."