The Robert Roberson Case: Shaken Baby Syndrome, Junk Science, and a Death Row Controversy In 2002, a two-year-old girl named Nikki Curtis was rushed to a hospital in Palestine, Texas. She was unresponsive, struggling to breathe, and quickly went into cardiac arrest. Despite doctors’ efforts to save her, Nikki died later that day. Within months,…

The Murder of Mackenzie Cowell It’s easy to believe that something like this could never happen in a place like Wenatchee, Washington. A quiet town. A tight-knit community. The kind of place where people feel safe raising their families. But in February 2010, that sense of safety was shattered when a teenage girl vanished. Her…

The Murder of Cathy Swartz: How Forensic Genealogy Solved a 34-Year-Old Cold Case In a quiet town like Three Rivers, Michigan, most people don’t expect to hear about a brutal, unsolved murder. With a population of just around 8,000 people, it’s the kind of place where neighbors know each other and crime feels distant. But…

The Murder of Shirley Ramey: How Ballistic Forensics Solved a Random Killing in Rural Idaho On April 4th, 2017, the tiny town of Hope, Idaho was shaken by a crime that seemed impossible to understand. Hope is a quiet community near the Canadian border, home to only about one hundred residents. It’s the kind of…

Stella Nickell and the Excedrin Murders: How Cyanide-Laced Capsules Killed Two Innocent People In the 1980s, Americans were terrified of product tampering. The 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders had shaken public trust in over-the-counter medication. Seven people died after taking cyanide-laced capsules, and the crime was never solved. Tamper-evident packaging became the new standard — but…

The Case of Melissa Lucio: Confession, Forensics, and a Death Row Sentence In 2007, a two-year-old girl died in Texas. Within hours, her mother was under arrest. That mother was Melissa Lucio — a woman who would later be convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. But in the years since that conviction, the…

The Murder of Johnia Berry: How Forensic Evidence Solved a Brutal 2004 Case In the early morning hours of December 6, 2004, 21-year-old Johnia Berry was attacked inside her apartment in Knoxville, Tennessee. What followed would become one of the most closely watched homicide investigations in the region. A case defined not just by its…

The Murder of Fred Engel How Cell Phone Forensics Exposed a Carefully Planned Crime In 2008, a quiet Myrtle Beach community became the setting for a murder that would ultimately be solved not by eyewitnesses or confessions—but by digital forensic evidence. Fred and Sherry Engel met the way many modern couples do: online. Their relationship…

The West Memphis Three: When Fear Replaced Evidence In May of 1993, a small Arkansas town was forever changed. On the evening of May 5th, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, all just eight years old, disappeared while riding their bikes in West Memphis, Arkansas. By the following afternoon, their bodies were discovered submerged…

In February 2005, an Ohio woman suddenly collapsed and died while driving to a local movie theater. At first, her death was thought to be the result of a minor car accident. But as the forensic evidence started to reveal itself, the thought that this woman died in a car accident seemed impossible. And the…