Episode
Forensic Files: Skeleton Key
Overview
In 2004, nursing student Tamika Huston went missing from her Spartanburg, SC home. A tip led detectives to her car and they find an unknown house key that could help solve the case. Further investigation leads to the only other clues: a fingerprint and a code.
Details
- Series
- Forensic Files
- Season
- Season 14
- Episode
- Episode 19
- Air date
- 2011-05-20
- Runtime
- 23 min
Episode context
Skeleton Key is Episode 19 in Season 14 of Forensic Files. It aired on 2011-05-20. The runtime is 23 min.
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Episode 18: Auto-Motive
In 2001, Michelle Harris went missing from her Owego, NY home. Since they were going through a contentious divorce, her husband Cal was a suspect, as well as several other men that Michele had been in contact with before her disappearance. But, no arrests were made until one of the men made an incriminating remark.
Episode 20: Funeral Services
In 2002, funeral director Lonnie Turner, Sr. was found shot to death in his Navasota, TX home. His son Lonnie Jr. became the prime suspect, particularly after it was discovered that the murder was committed with his gun. However, he had an alibi for the time of the murder. Later, detectives found a mask near the crime scene and DNA evidence may lead to the killer.
More episodes from this season
Episode 17: Seeing Red
In 2005, the body of young mother Summer Baldwin was found in a suitcase in a Texas landfill. The suitcase leads investigators to a suspect, Rosendo Rodriguez, and the forensic evidence against him was formidable. Further evidence leads them to teenager Joanna Rogers, who had gone missing in 2004. Upon extensive search of the same landfill, Rogers' decomposing body was also found in a suitcase.
Episode 21: Expert Witness
In 1993, young mother Tammy Tatum was found sexually assaulted and murdered in her Longmont, CO apartment. Police initially suspect her estranged husband, but did not have enough evidence to charge him and the case went cold. Three years later, another young woman was raped and police suspect the cases may be related. Despite meticulous washing of the crime scene, a single hair remains to lead authorities to the culprit.
Episode 16: Gone Ballistic
In 2008, Colorado real estate developer Alan Helmick was found shot to death at home. His wife Miriam became the prime suspect. Police had a wealth of evidence against her, but it is circumstantial. The case will turn on a .25 caliber bullet fired 20 years ago from the now-missing murder weapon.
Episode 15: Trail of a Killer
In 2003, Kathy Lorick was raped and murdered on a Concord, California jogging trail in the middle of the day while talking to her husband on her mobile phone. The leads from Kathy's cell phone records and search dogs go nowhere. Nine days later, a witness tells police about a chance encounter.
Episode 14: Fate Date
In 2003, Rebecca Barney and her soon-to-be ex-husband Fred were found shot to death in their Tulsa, OK, home, which had been set on fire. After the fire was extinguished, Kenneth Maxwell, who was the man who had called 911 to report the fire, was also found shot dead in his car. Only the computer had been taken from the Barney home and with it, seemingly the means to identify the killer.
Episode 13: Low Maintenance
In 2008, college co-ed Jenna Verhaalen was found dead in her Bryan, Texas apartment and petechial hemorrhages in her eyes indicated that she was strangled. The victim's boyfriend, a neighbor and the apartment maintenance man are all suspected, but it takes DNA evidence to identify the killer.
Episode 12: Social Circle
In 2003, Tiffany Rowell and three of her friends were brutally murdered in their affluent Clear Lake, TX, neighborhood and the crime scene yielded little evidence. The next-door neighbors had seen two young people dressed in black walking nearby and their descriptions were used to create composite drawings, which become a key element in solving the crime.
Episode 11: Water Logged
In 1989, the bodies of Joan Rogers and her two teenage daughters were found floating in Tampa Bay. The water washed away any evidence, but police hoped a handwritten note found in the victims' car would lead to the killer, so they posted huge copies of the note on five highway billboards.
Episode 10: Filtered Out
In 2000, when teenager Tara Munsey goes missing after a work shift at a Virginia restaurant, it is unknown if she ran away or if she was the victim of foul play. Everyone's worst fears are confirmed when a body is found at the bottom of an isolated ravine. Investigators scoured the crime scene, hoping to find enough evidence to identify the killer.
Episode 9: Textbook Murder
In 2006, Jackson, MS, resident Avis Banks and her unborn child were brutally murdered in her garage and discovered by her fiancé Keyon Pittman. Police learn Pittman was having affairs with other women and he became 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.