Forensic Files (season 3)

Forensic Files (season 3)
Country of origin	United States
Release
Original network	TLC
Original release	October 1 – December 24, 1998

Forensic Files is an American documentary-style series which reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on truTV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with truTV Original Productions. It has broadcast 400 episodes since its debut on TLC in 1996 as Medical Detectives.

Episodes

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Original air date
27	1	"Without a Trace"	October 1, 1998
In 1978, 11-month-old Chad Shelton was admitted to an Omaha hospital because of chronic vomiting. The next day Chad went into a coma and died. Duane Johnson was also admitted to the hospital with the same symptoms. He died the next day. Dr. Renea Kimbrough discovered that all of the sick individuals had visited the Johnson home on Sunday, September 10, and all ate a meal together. Everything in the Johnson home was analyzed. They came to a conclusion that DMN was added to the lemonade they were all drinking. Steven Roy Harper, an old boyfriend of Sandra Johnson, worked for a local company in Omaha, Nebraska called the "Eppley Institute". Harper admitted to spiking their lemonade with DMN. In 1979, Steven Harper was sentenced to death in the electric chair, although the sentence was never carried out as Harper committed suicide while on death row in 1990.
28	2	"Knot for Everyone"	October 8, 1998
In the mid-1980s, bodies of nude woman were found in remote hill of California. The police got a break when a known prostitute escaped an attacker and was able to identify him and his automobile. The suspect was 50-year-old Roger Kibbe. A criminalist was assigned to review the evidence in the case. Human hair found on one of the victims was similar to several hairs recovered from Kibbe's inner thighs. He was later charged with first-degree murder.
29	3	"The Talking Skull"	October 15, 1998
In 1987, a human skull and some bones were discovered at a Boy Scout Camp near Farmington, Missouri. Also found were some blue jeans, which helped determine the approximate height and weight of the victim. A facial reconstruction helped the investigators in this case. The victim was identified as Bun Chee Nyhuis and her husband Richard H. Nyhuis was now the prime suspect. Nyhuis was an assistant scoutmaster, which explained why his wife's remains were discovered at a scout camp and, eventually, he confessed to killing his wife. Richard H. Nyhuis was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
30	4	"Foreign Body"	October 22, 1998
Between 1986 and 1989, a disease swept through British cattle herds. The disease came to be known as the Mad-cow disease. Scientist began to suspect that this was somehow related to some human illness. A California neurologist, said both humans and animals were suffering from a mutated prion. When defective prions are transmitted from an infected host to a new host, they convert any normal prions they come across into copies of themselves. So it is possible for a mutated prion to be transmitted from a cow to a person by eating beef. Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner received a Nobel prize for his work with prion.
31	5	"Deadly Delivery"	October 29, 1998
In 1989 Judge Bob Vance was killed when he opened up a package that contained a pipe bomb. Two days later an Attorney lost part of his arm when he opened a similar package. The police found two unopened packages that contained similar pipe bombs. The FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit provided a psychological profile of the bomber. The profile matched that of Walter Leroy Moody, who was convicted of a similar bombing in 1972. A store clerk identified Moody as the individual who purchased four pounds of gunpowder and one thousand CCI primers. Walter Leroy Moody was convicted, and sentenced to seven life sentences.
32	6	"Similar Circumstances"	November 5, 1998
In 1989, Robert Sims arrived at his Alton, Illinois home and found his wife Paula unconscious on the kitchen floor and their newborn daughter Heather missing. Oddly, their 2 year old son Randy was asleep in his bed. Paula reported that a masked individual broke into their home and kidnapped Heather, whose body was later found in a garbage can. When the police learned that the Sims' had a daughter reported kidnapped and, later, found dead on their property in 1986, they began to focus on Paula. Paula Sims was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
33	7	"Grave Evidence"	November 12, 1998
In 1976, Martin Dillon and Dr. Stephen Scher went out skeet shooting. By the end of the shooting session, Dillon was dead. According to Scher, Dillon's death was an accident and the police and coroner ruled Dillon's death an accident. Soon after the shooting, Dr. Scher divorced his wife and married Patricia Dillon, the widow of Martin Dillon. In 1996, Dr. Stephen Scher was arrested and charged with first and third-degree murder in the death of Martin Dillon.
34	8	"Deadly Formula"	November 19, 1998
In 1989, Patricia and David Stallings moved to their dream home in Hillsboro, Missouri. There they had their first child, Ryan, whose health took a turn for the worse by the time he was five months old. Ryan had a series of blood tests, which showed unusually high levels of ethylene glycol, a main ingredient in antifreeze. Patricia Stallings was arrested, and a few days after, Ryan Stallings died. While in prison, Patricia was admitted to the hospital, and gave birth to another son, David. David suffered from the same symptoms as his dead brother Ryan, but was not in Patricia's care at the time. After re-testing both Ryan's and David's blood, results showed there were no evidence of ethylene glycol. Patricia Stallings was released on July 30, 1991, for a crime she never committed. It was determined that both children had a rare genetic disorder called Methylmalonic acidemia.
35	9	"Beaten by a Hair"	November 26, 1998
In 1992, Laura Houghteling disappeared from her Bethesda home and was never seen again. After five days, police found a bloody pillow and pillowcase lying in the woods not far from Laura's house. Laura's bedroom was then searched and police used Luminol, which reacts with the enzymes in blood. The police now had a prime suspect, her part-time gardener Hadden Clark. Amido black 10B was used to enhance the fingerprints found on the bloody pillowcase, which were matched to Clark. In 1993, Clark plea-bargained to a reduced charge of murder in the second degree.
36	10	"Crime Seen"	December 3, 1998
In 1984, a couple set off for a camping trip but got lost and fell asleep at a scenic overlook in rural Virginia. They awoke to a person tapping on their car window; they both got out of the car to find out this man had a gun. He ordered the boyfriend to run to the woods and drove off with his girlfriend. The man repeatedly raped and sodomized the young woman and threatened to kill her. Instead, he let her go. When she arrived back to her car, she met her boyfriend, who was there with the cops. The young lady positively identified Edward Honaker as the man who raped her. Honaker was given three life sentences, but new DNA testing might provide new information about the rapist. The young lady admitted she had another man in her life at the time of the rape. The DNA in the semen was not that of Honaker, the fiancée, or the second man. Honaker was released from prison after serving 10 years.
37	11	"Speck of Evidence"	December 10, 1998
In 1984, nine-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson left on her pink bicycle to run an errand for her mother. She never returned to home. Vicki's bike was found abandoned later that afternoon on a nearby street, slightly damaged, but there was no sign of her. Police investigators found that Frank Jarvis Atwood, released after serving time for two child molestation convictions in California, had been in the Tucson area, but was now gone. The FBI decided to confiscate Atwood's car to search for forensic evidence. The nickel on the bike was tested and found to be the same as the nickel on Atwood's bumper. The two-way transfer was the deciding factor. Atwood was sentenced to death.
38	12	"Broken Bond"	December 17, 1998
In 1983, Morgan, the 3-month-old daughter of Jim & Tanya Reid, suffered a sleep apnea episode and was admitted to the hospital for four days. Morgan continued to experience occasional apnea episodes and her last attack was on February 7, 1984. Little Morgan did not respond to resuscitation and died. In 1985, Tanya Reid gave birth again, this time to a son named Brandon Michael. Brandon was hospitalized over 20 times during the next two years. When Brandon was temporarily taken away from his mother, he did not experience any seizures or apnea episodes. When prosecutors asked pathologists to re-open Morgan's autopsy records, they discovered that an x-ray taken during the autopsy revealed that she did not die of SIDS, but showed brain damage consistent with being shaken violently. Doctors then determined that Tanya was exhibiting symptoms of Münchausen syndrome by proxy. The outcome of the first of Tanya's trials ended in a conviction for felony child endangerment of Brandon Michael, and was found guilty of the murder of her daughter, a conviction that was later overturned by an appellate court.
39	13	"Out of the Ashes"	December 24, 1998
In 1993, 18-year-old Rose Larner went missing in Albion, Michigan. Her boyfriend, John Ortiz-Kehoe, and her childhood friend, Billy Brown, told police they saw her early on December 7, but they had no idea where she went after that. Two years later, an investigation revealed that Billy Brown and John Kehoe were both local drug users and dealers and Brown feared he might be implicated in Rose's disappearance, so he decided to cooperate with police. He told them that Rose Larner was murdered by John Kehoe two years earlier in Kehoe's grandparents' home. According to Billy Brown, Larner refused to participate in a sexual threesome, so Kehoe strangled her, placed her in the shower, slit her throat and dismembered her body. Police compared a tiny speck of blood found at Kehoe's grandparents' home to a blood sample taken from Rose Larner four years before the murder and it matched. Kehoe was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Billy Brown was convicted for being an accessory, but as part of the deal, in which he gave up Kehoe, Brown served only a year in prison.

External links

• Forensic Files episodes on TV Guide