Episode
Forensic Files: Without a Prayer
Overview
In 1995, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of American Atheists, disappears along with one of her sons, her granddaughter, and $500,000 in gold coins. The discovery of a mutilated body helps police catch the culprit.
Details
- Series
- Forensic Files
- Season
- Season 7
- Episode
- Episode 10
- Air date
- 2002-03-05
- Runtime
- 23 min
Episode context
Without a Prayer is Episode 10 in Season 7 of Forensic Files. It aired on 2002-03-05. The runtime is 23 min.
Previous / Next
Episode 9: A Shot in the Dark
A woman is found dead from a gunshot wound and police suspect her husband; however, forensic teams prove what really happened and the truth is stranger than fiction. [also marked as S7:E17]
Episode 11: A Clutch of Witnesses
In January 2001, in Duluth, MN, two people witness a truck driving over an unconscious man twice, and they flee into a nearby bar. When the police turn up, the truck, the victim and the witnesses are gone. The eyewitnesses may hold the key to the death of motorcycle gang member, Erik Schrieffer.
More episodes from this season
Episode 8: Bio-Attack
A look into the 1984 Oregon food poisonings, we're detectives track down the outbreak to a cult which aims to use germ warfare to take down the government. [also marked as S7:E16]
Episode 12: Scout's Honor
In Pennsylvania 1984, a passer-by finds the torso of a woman in a cardboard box. Investigators rely on insect activity analysis by a forensic entomologist to determine when the murder victim was killed. She remained unknown until a year later, when her sister called to report her missing. Eventually she was identified and a man was convicted of her murder, but would further forensic entomology change the outcome?
Episode 7: Purr-fect Match
In 1994, on Canada's Prince Edward Island, the body of Douglas Beamish's estranged wife, Shirley Duguay, was discovered. In a groundbreaking case using animal dna, investigators use forensic testing on a cat to help them solve the case.
Episode 13: A Touching Recollection
An 18-year-old Ohio woman, who is abducted and then released soon afterwards, uses her knowledge of forensics to lead police to the kidnapper.
Episode 6: A Bite Out of Crime
In 1997, two years after a series of unsolved kidnappings and sexual assaults in California. One of the victims suddenly recalled an important detail of the crime which she had not told police. She left some forensic evidence in the assailant's vehicle, evidence that left quite an impression.
Episode 14: A Leg to Stand On
The police investigate when a severed leg is discovered in the garbage. Conventional means of identifying the victim are impossible, leading investigators to rely on DNA, forensic anthropology and toxicology to identify the victim. The victim was identified as Norman Klaas and, through forensic investigation of his home, investigators follow the trail of evidence to his killer.
Episode 5: The Alibi
In a small South Carolina town in 1991, 17-year-old Crystal Faye Todd, a popular high school student, is raped, murdered and dumped in a deserted field, after attending a party. With few leads, authorities test the DNA of several friends and one match shocks everyone.
Episode 15: Partners in Crime
How Illinois scientists solved a 1992 murder case involving cremation. It takes a long time and a very hot fire to cremate a human body, and thus destroy all evidence of foul play, but the coroner who performed the autopsy on the badly burned body of Charles "Jack" Lynch found telltale clues. Not only had the victim been burned, he’d also been stabbed -- 24 times, with two different knives. Police knew that a person, acting alone, would probably use only one weapon. So investigators were on the lookout for a couple of killers.
Episode 4: Who's Your Daddy
In 1988, when a young prostitute's body turns up in an Ohio waterway under ice, authorities have one tiny clue which could point to her killer, but face huge challenges due to her policemen clients and DNA evidence being washed away.
Episode 16: Within a Hair
A look back at the case of the River Park Rapist, who sexually assaulted four women in South Bend, IN, during 1996. Law enforcement officers arrested Richard Alexander, who was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to 70 years in prison. In 2001, Michael Murphy confessed to one of the two rapes of which Alexander had been convicted and forensic developments reveal new facts about the case.