#317 - When a pattern emerges in criminal investigations, it often becomes the strongest lead. In Southern California, that pattern pointed to a serial sexual offender who used a knife to control his victims and left DNA behind at multiple scenes. For years, the DNA sat unmatched. Today’s episode examines the San Diego Knifepoint Rapist case, the forensic evidence that connected the assaults, and how modern genetic genealogy transformed a cold case into a solved one. Learn more about your ad cho...
Jan 26, 2026•47 min•Ep. 317
From the Archives: The Mysterious Death of Tiffany Valiante In 2015, 18-year-old Tiffany Valiante was struck and killed by a train in New Jersey. Authorities quickly ruled her death a suicide but from the very beginning, her family has insisted that explanation doesn’t make sense. Tiffany had made plans for the future. She had no known history of depression. And crucial pieces of evidence, including her phone, shoes, and the circumstances surrounding how she ended up on the tracks, raised troubl...
Jan 19, 2026•45 min•Ep. 316
#315 - In 1975, a three-year-old boy disappeared in Richmond, Virginia. Days later, his body was found in the James River, and a young neighbor, Marvin Grimm Jr. , became the focus of the investigation. After hours of interrogation, Marvin confessed and later pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison. But decades later, advances in forensic science told a very different story. DNA testing excluded Marvin from every piece of biological evidence in the case. Experts identified clear red f...
Jan 12, 2026•45 min
#314 - For decades, Robert Eugene Brashers lived in near-total obscurity. While investigators across multiple states worked unsolved cases involving sexual assault and murder, his name never surfaced. Not because evidence was missing, but because the science needed to connect it all didn’t yet exist. In this episode of Forensic Tales , we trace the full scope of Brashers’ crimes: from a brutal attempted murder in Florida, to a series of sexual assaults and homicides stretching across the South a...
Jan 05, 2026•34 min
#313 - This week, we’re revisiting one of the most downloaded episodes of 2025. The death of UK spy Gareth Williams in 2010 has become one of the most high-profile unsolved mysteries in years after his naked body was discovered padlocked inside a duffel bag. Described as a genius mathematician who the intelligence service had recruited, Gareth’s exact cause of death remains unknown, and people can’t agree whether he could have locked himself in there on his own or whether someone else was respon...
Dec 29, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 313
#312 - In 1991, John Kunco was convicted in Pennsylvania of raping and torturing a 55-year-old woman inside her apartment. There was no DNA evidence tying him to the crime. Instead, the case against him relied heavily on an alleged bite mark and a delayed voice identification. Kunco spent nearly 28 years in prison before advances in forensic science began to unravel the evidence used to convict him. DNA testing excluded him from key physical evidence, and the forensic dentists who testified at h...
Dec 22, 2025•39 min
#311 - In November 2008, 24-year-old Arpana Jinaga was found murdered in her Redmond, Washington apartment—just hours after attending a Halloween party with neighbors in her building. Arpana was a bright, accomplished software engineer with no known enemies, yet the crime scene was chaotic and filled with conflicting forensic clues. Despite multiple suspects, extensive DNA testing, and even a criminal trial, her killer has never been identified. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....
Dec 15, 2025•45 min•Ep. 311
In March 2008, 21-year-old Juliana Redding was found murdered inside her Santa Monica apartment. Juliana had moved to Los Angeles to study communications and pursue modeling, building a life close to the beach and staying closely connected to her family in Arizona. When she stopped responding to calls and messages, police conducted a welfare check and discovered signs of a violent struggle — along with attempts to start a fire inside the home. Investigators collected a significant amount of fore...
Dec 08, 2025•44 min•Ep. 310
A respected veterinarian is found dead under mysterious circumstances in an upscale Rancho Santa Fe neighborhood. What first looked like a car accident quickly turned into a homicide investigation filled with unanswered questions — a wrecked vehicle, blunt-force trauma, and no clear explanation of how Dr. Robert Stonebreaker ended up in a nearby driveway. Nearly 15 years later, the case remains unsolved. In this episode, we break down the timeline, the forensic inconsistencies, and the theories ...
Dec 01, 2025•41 min•Ep. 309
In this episode, we revisit the shocking murder of 23-year-old law student Jane Mixer , long believed to be a victim of Michigan’s “Co-Ed Killer.” When modern DNA testing finally pointed to an unexpected suspect, Gary Leiterman, the case was reopened, re-examined, and fiercely debated. Was the forensic evidence clear-cut? Or did lab contamination muddy the truth? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nov 24, 2025•40 min
When 41-year-old Peggy Carr suddenly fell gravely ill, doctors were stumped. Her symptoms made no sense—burning limbs, hair loss, and paralysis with no clear cause. But when her teenage son and stepson became sick too, investigators uncovered a chilling truth: the Carr family had been poisoned. The substance was thallium—a deadly, nearly undetectable metal once used in rat poison. The discovery launched a full-scale forensic investigation that led detectives to a single suspect: a brilliant but ...
Nov 17, 2025•39 min
In 1983, 19-year-old Barbara Grams was found murdered behind a dental office in Tampa, Florida. Detectives said a small mark on her cheek was a bite — and that 18-year-old Robert DuBoise’s teeth matched it. That single piece of forensic “evidence” sent him to death row. But nearly four decades later, new DNA testing proved what Robert had said all along — he was innocent. The mark wasn’t even a bite. This week on Forensic Tales , we uncover how junk science, unreliable witnesses, and a discredit...
Nov 10, 2025•39 min•Ep. 306
It was Valentine’s Day, 2007, when 39-year-old Jodine Serrin’s parents stopped by her Carlsbad, California condo to check on her. Moments after walking into her bedroom, they realized something was terribly wrong. Jodine had been brutally attacked—and the man they’d seen inside her home had vanished. For over a decade, her murder went unsolved. No witnesses. No leads. Just a single piece of DNA left behind. In this episode, we examine how cutting-edge forensic technology—and one company’s ground...
Nov 03, 2025•40 min•Ep. 305
#304 - In 1981, 31-year-old single mother Linda Slaten was found murdered in her Lakeland, Florida apartment. Her sons were asleep just down the hall. For decades, detectives chased every lead — a violent ex-husband, a mysterious boyfriend, even a convicted predator who once lived next door. But the trail always went cold. Nearly forty years later, a revolutionary forensic tool — genetic genealogy — finally revealed the truth. And the answer shocked everyone: the killer had been hiding in plain ...
Oct 27, 2025•37 min•Ep. 304
In January 1984, 29-year-old Teresa Solecki walked to a payphone in Vista, California, to make a quick call to her sister. She never came back. Hours later, her body was discovered along a remote stretch of Gopher Canyon Road—brutally beaten and strangled. For decades, investigators held onto the evidence: a bite mark, a drag trail, and an unknown male’s DNA. But without modern technology, Teresa’s case went cold. It would take 35 years, new forensic science, and the power of investigative genet...
Oct 20, 2025•42 min•Ep. 303
In June 1991, 70-year-old grandmother Dorothy Donovan was found brutally murdered inside her farmhouse in Harrington, Delaware. The crime stunned the small town—and suspicion immediately turned to the person who discovered her body: her own son. Charles Holden told investigators a strange and terrifying story about a violent hitchhiker he’d picked up earlier that night, a man who threatened him with a screwdriver and chased him through the dark. But detectives weren’t convinced. To them, it soun...
Oct 13, 2025•37 min•Ep. 302
On New Year’s Eve 1989, Mansfield, Ohio was rocked by the disappearance of Noreen Boyle. Her husband, prominent neurosurgeon Dr. John Boyle, insisted she had walked out after an argument. But Noreen’s son, 11-year-old Collier, told a very different story—a scream in the night, suspicious behavior from his father, and threats to stay silent. When investigators dug deeper—literally—they uncovered the truth buried beneath the floor of Boyle’s new home in Pennsylvania. Forensic science, from dental ...
Oct 06, 2025•40 min•Ep. 301
For our 300th episode of Forensic Tales , we’re tackling one of the most infamous and puzzling unsolved cases in American history—the Zodiac Killer. Between 1968 and 1969, a mysterious figure terrorized Northern California with a string of murders, chilling phone calls, and cryptic letters sent to local newspapers. Despite decades of investigation, the Zodiac’s identity remains one of the greatest mysteries in true crime. In this milestone special, we’ll retrace the Zodiac’s crimes and focus on ...
Sep 29, 2025•42 min•Ep. 300
#299 - In June 1983, 37-year-old Noelle Russo was found beaten to death and left naked in a patch of weeds behind a real estate office in Rohnert Park, California. For decades, her case went cold—suspects were interviewed, rumors circulated, but without forensic evidence, detectives had nowhere to go. Nearly forty years later, modern DNA testing finally identified a suspect: a man who had been on investigators’ radar since the very beginning. His arrest has reignited questions about Noelle’s fin...
Sep 22, 2025•34 min•Ep. 299
In 2014, Florida State law professor Dan Markel was shot in his driveway in what prosecutors called a calculated murder-for-hire plot. Over the years, three people—including Donna Adelson’s son, Charlie—were convicted for their roles. But investigators always believed the real mastermind was Donna herself. In September 2025, after nearly a decade of speculation, Donna Adelson finally stood trial. Prosecutors leaned on phone records, wiretaps, financial transfers, digital breadcrumbs, and even te...
Sep 15, 2025•43 min•Ep. 298
In February 1996, 36-year-old Jasmine “Jazzie” Porter was found dead in her Bronx apartment while her five-year-old son was left to survive alone for days. For more than two decades, her case went unsolved—until a cold case detective uncovered long-preserved evidence that changed everything. A DNA match pointed to a man with a violent past, already convicted of killing another woman years earlier. The case is still pending, with no clear motive identified, but after 25 years, Jasmine’s family ma...
Sep 08, 2025•38 min•Ep. 297
In July 2002, the body of 15-year-old Katie Hamlin was discovered in a remote area of Cherokee County, Georgia. She had been brutally murdered, and her killer attempted to erase every trace of evidence by setting her on fire. What followed was a years-long investigation that left a quiet community shaken. Police quickly focused on two suspects who pointed fingers at each other, but with crucial forensic evidence destroyed, the case stalled. It wasn’t until a determined mother, new forensic findi...
Sep 01, 2025•43 min•Ep. 296
#295 - In December 1988, a road crew in rural Ware County, Georgia, discovered an abandoned television console on the side of Duncan Bridge Road. Inside was a black suitcase. Inside that suitcase, a duffel bag. And inside the bag — the body of a little girl. For decades, no one knew her name. She was remembered only as “Christmas Doe.” Thirty-four years later, advances in forensic genealogy finally gave her identity back. Now, investigators say they know who is responsible for her death. This ep...
Aug 25, 2025•38 min•Ep. 295
#294 - In 1989, 37-year-old Patricia Meehan crashed head-on into another car on a Montana highway. She calmly stepped out, stared at the other driver—and walked away into the night. She was never seen again… or was she? Over the years, thousands claimed to spot her across the country, yet not a single sighting was confirmed. Was it amnesia, a planned disappearance, death in the wilderness, or something darker? Decades later, her fate remains one of America’s strangest mysteries. Support If you l...
Aug 18, 2025•42 min•Ep. 294
#293 - In the early 1970s, two young women from Stanford University—Leslie Perlov and Janet Taylor—were strangled and left in remote areas just miles apart. Despite extensive investigations, both cases remained unsolved for decades. Nearly 50 years later, a stunning breakthrough in forensic genealogy revealed their killer: John Getreu, a seemingly ordinary man with a violent past. Hidden behind the mask of a family man and community volunteer was a predator who had escaped justice for far too lo...
Aug 11, 2025•41 min•Ep. 294
#292 - In 1974, 19-year-old Arlis Perry was brutally murdered inside Stanford University’s Memorial Church. Her body was discovered posed in a ritualistic manner, surrounded by religious objects—fueling decades of rumors about satanic cults and ritual sacrifice. Despite the collection of physical evidence, the case would remain unsolved for over 40 years. Arlis’s murder became one of Northern California’s most haunting cold cases. But behind the layers of myth and speculation, forensic science q...
Aug 04, 2025•36 min•Ep. 292
#291 - In 2005, chemist Geetha Angara vanished during her shift at a New Jersey water treatment plant. A day later, her body was found floating inside one of the facility’s massive water tanks—along with more questions than answers. Was it a tragic accident? Or a calculated murder perfectly concealed by the very environment she worked to protect? Support If you love the show, the easiest way to show your support is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. You can also tell your family and ...
Jul 28, 2025•36 min•Ep. 291
#290 - On a cold December night in 2014, first responders in Courtland, Mississippi, arrived at the scene of a car fire—only to discover something far more horrifying. Nineteen-year-old Jessica Chambers was found walking down a rural road, covered in burns and barely clinging to life. Before succumbing to her injuries, she tried to name her attacker. But what exactly did she say? And why has her case remained unsolved for nearly a decade? Support If you love the show, the easiest way to show you...
Jul 21, 2025•44 min•Ep. 290
#289 - Torrey Pines State Beach in California is a place where many come to find peace. But for two young women, it became the backdrop of unspeakable tragedy. In August 1978, police officers responded to the beach, where they found the body of 15-year-old Barbara Nantais lying on the sand. She had been strangled and beaten to death, and one of her breasts had been severed. Her boyfriend was also discovered nearby, suffering from a severe head injury that left him with no memory of the attack. S...
Jul 14, 2025•47 min•Ep. 289
#288 - It was Valentine’s Day, 1988, in Wales. While couples exchanged roses and love notes, in a small flat above a betting shop, a young woman lay brutally murdered. Her name was Lynette White. She was just 20 years old. What followed her death wasn’t just a murder investigation—it was a legal and forensic nightmare. Five innocent men were accused, imprisoned, and publicly vilified for a crime they didn’t commit. And it would take 15 years—and one tiny fragment of DNA—to reveal the true killer...
Jul 07, 2025•40 min•Ep. 288
