Forensic Files poster

TV series

Forensic Files

1996TV-MA14 seasons7.9 / 10

No Witnesses. No Leads. No Problem.

Real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world are solved by experts using scientific laboratory analysis which helps them find previously undetectable evidence. Brilliant scientific work helps convict the guilty and free the innocent.

Streaming, rental and purchase options

Where to watch in United States

Checked Jul 22, 2026

Forensic Files is available to stream on Disney+, Hoopla, Hulu, Peacock, Peacock Premium, Prime Video, Fubo, Amazon Freevee, Fawesome, Plex, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Xumo Play, and YouTube in United States. You can also rent or buy it from Google Play and Amazon. Use the direct links below to open the provider.

Availability and prices can change. Confirm the details on the streaming service before you subscribe, rent or buy.

Synopsis

Real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world are solved by experts using scientific laboratory analysis which helps them find previously undetectable evidence. Brilliant scientific work helps convict the guilty and free the innocent.

Season 5 episodes

Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.

← Season 4

Episode 1

Badge of Deceit

23m

For more than a decade, women in a small Louisiana city lived in fear of a serial rapist. Fortunately, computer technology and behavioral science combined to give police a new forensic tool: geographical profiling. Police narrow their search to one man, but to prove he’s the perpetrator they turn to an unlikely piece of evidence--- a discarded cigarette butt.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 2

Dew Process

23m

When the wife of a well-known dentist is found dead, police are unsure who killed her. Some fibers and a study of the weather patterns on the night of the murder break the case open and reveal the real killer.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 3

A Woman Scorned

23m

When a young mother and her infant son are found dead in a cornfield, the obvious suspect is the husband and father of the victims. But some insects found on the bodies reveal a vital clue, as does a long, blonde hair found on the victims.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 4

A Voice from Beyond

23m

When a decomposed body is discovered inside a barrel, police immediately suspect foul play. But the body had been placed there 30 years earlier. One of the few clues was an address book found along with the body but years of moisture had washed away the ink. Scientists desperately searched for a way to unlock the secrets of that address book.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 5

Burning Ambition

23m

In this classic episode of Forensic Files, the longest running true crime series in television history, a Seattle policeman’s home is destroyed by an arsonist. One month later, the officer arrests a low-level drug dealer, who confesses to the arson. But when the suspect vanishes, investigators begin to question the authenticity of his confession.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 6

Memories

23m

Dianna Green was just 20 years-old and pregnant when she was brutally raped and beaten in her apartment. The assault caused the death of her unborn baby. When Dianna came out of a coma 3 weeks later, she told police she knew the identity of her attacker. But was her memory accurate?

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 7

Trail of Truth

23m

A mother and her two young daughters are found brutally murdered. The crime scene yielded a good deal of evidence, but no conclusive link to the prime suspect. To solve the puzzle, an FBI analyst designs a unique experiment.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 8

Material Evidence

23m

A young girl is found dead, the victim of an apparent sex-killer. Authorities are intrigued by unusual orange fibers embedded in clothing found near the victim. Months pass and the case goes cold, until a van turns up with what appear to be the same orange fibers.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 9

Kill'igraphy

23m

In the back woods of Georgia, in a dilapidated house, a 49 year old recluse named Virginia Ridley was found dead. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. But who would murder someone who seldom ventured out of her home? Investigators found some clues in the notes she had written shortly before her death.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 10

Nursery Crimes

23m

Why do children at a Texas hospital seem to be dying at a higher rate than at any other hospital in the country? Medical investigators have no answers until they discover that one nurse seems to be on-duty in almost all the fatal cases. But proving the connection seems impossible until an international team of doctors uncovers an unlikely murder weapon.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 11

Lasting Impression

23m

When the decomposed body of a young girl is discovered, police have no clues to her identity. But days earlier, a stabbing victim told them she thought she might have witnessed a murder. Police think the cases might be related, and to prove it, they turn to an unusual piece of evidence: a tiny wad of chewing gum found near the victim’s body.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 12

Foundation of Lies

23m

At the age of 12, a boy's testimony helped convict the man who murdered his mother. Five years later, discrepancies in the autopsy lead him to question if the murdered woman really was his mother. If it wasn't, an innocent man had been sent to prison.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 13

Unholy Vows

23m

Some of the refugees who sought asylum in the United States after World War II lied about the atrocities in which they’d participated. Years later, when a high-ranking religious figure was suspected of war crimes, there seemed to be no way to prove his guilt or innocence... until a postcard allegedly written by him 40 years earlier was found in a German archive.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 14

Deadly Knowledge

23m

When 23-year-old college co-ed Tina Biggar goes missing, her boyfriend and family fear she has been murdered. A police investigation reveals details about her past that no one, not even her closest friends, suspected: She was a student by day and a $100-an-hour call-girl by night. Her many clients were all suspects in her disappearance, as was her boyfriend. But when her body is discovered, investigators gather evidence that implicates her killer.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 15

Broken Promises

23m

When Russ Stager, a popular gym teacher, is found dead of what appears to be an accidental gunshot wound, his family becomes suspicious. They think his wife may have planned his murder. When police find that her previous husband died in questionable circumstances, they re-examine the crime scene and uncover evidence that the death was no accident.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 16

Time Will Tell

23m

A Canadian financier assumed the name of a co-worker as part of a money-laundering scheme. The man turned up dead in the ocean, with an anchor tied around his torso. Police hoped to identify him with a tattoo and the watch he was wearing. But it would be the ten-pound anchor which enabled them to crack the case.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 17

Second Shot at Love

23m

Cincinnati heart surgeon Dr. Darryl Sutorius had a second chance at love when he married a pretty, young divorcee, but happiness is sometimes elusive. Dr. Sutoruis fell into a serious depression and apparently commited suicide with a .38-caliber pistol. But why did he fire a test shot into the sofa cushion before killing himself?

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 18

Journey to Justice

23m

When a prosecutor discovers evidence linking a habitual drunk driver to a hit-and-run in which a child is killed, he combines the talents of an accident reconstruction expert with a video specialist. This case was the first in which video in the courtroom withstood an appeal, and helped make “video testimony” viable in other cases.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode 19

Video Diary

23m

In 1998, a convience store clerk in Lansing, Michigan, was shot to death during a robbery. No one else was in the store at the time. But there was an eye witness, a security camera. Unfortunately, the story it told was far from clear.

Where to watch Forensic Files

Episode information updated Jul 24, 2026

More about Forensic Files

Cast

Peter ThomasSelf - Narrator (voice)
James E. AshDavid Copenhefer (uncredited)
Jennifer GranholmSelf - Michigan Attorney General (archive footage)
M. William PhelpsSelf - True Crime Author, 'Cruel Death'
John WalshSelf
Frank BenderSelf
Trey GowdySelf
Roy ShulerDetective (uncredited)

Production details

Status
Ended
Series type
Documentary
Episodes
400
Original language
English

Networks & production

  • TLCUnited States
  • truTVUnited States
  • Court TVUnited States
  • Medstar TelevisionUnited States

Themes

coronercriminal investigationevidenceforensic scienceforensic technologyinterviewlaw enforcementmedical examiner