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International
Thursdays at 10pm and Saturdays at 11pm (UK Only)
The superstars of forensic science reveal the remarkable trade secrets of crime scene investigation in this eye-opening series. Discover how the world's best sleuths use the latest tools to catch the most elusive criminals.
Each episode of this award-winning series explores one field of forensics applied to a specific case and reveals the amazing science used by criminal experts from around the globe. See how cutting-edge forensic technology and human ingenuity combine to solve violent – and often news-making – crimes.
Highlights from the first series include:
Episode 1 - Nature's Clues
From tropical Hawaii to the frigid waters of Lake Ontario, see forensic experts as they reveal gruesome clues the natural world leaves behind on a human corpse.
Forensic Fast Facts:
• Bugs and insects can be critical for estimating a corpse’s time of death
• Maggots shed their skin 3 times before they turn into flies.
• Between the time of death and the time a body is reduced to skeleton approximately 320 different species of insects will invade the corpse.
• Ten minutes after death maggots and other insects appear on a corpse.
• Calliphorid flies are the first at a corpse where they like to lay eggs around natural body openings.
• Maggot masses on a rotting body can reach temperatures in excess of 50 degrees Celsius.
• Dogs are used to find missing bodies because their sense of smell is 40,000 to 100,000 times stronger than ours.
• Buried remains will cause a visible depression in the ground as soft tissue and muscle decompose.
• Investigators at underwater crime scenes often face an enormous biohazard – fluids from the human body.
• In deep water decomposition slows right down as cooler temperatures preserve the body.
Episode 2 - The Profilers
Sophisticated crime fighters map the psychological and physical terrain of twisted serial killers from Jack The Ripper to modern day, their bizarre behaviour is exposed.
Forensic Fast Facts:
• There are only seven geographic profilers - experts on analyzing the locations of a series of crimes to determine where a criminal lives - working on police forces around the world. Four of them are Canadian.
• Rigel, is named after a star in the constellation Orion – the hunter- because geographic profiling uses a criminals “hunting grounds”.
• Rigel, the computer software used for geographic profiling, was invented by former Vancouver police officer Kim Rossmo.
• Rigel can do more than one million calculations in four seconds.
• Police estimate there are between 200 and 500 serial predators at large in Canada
Episode 3 - Lasting Impressions
Forensic experts reveal how the most cunning of criminals can be caught by the clues their own bodies leave behind at the scene of the crime.
Forensic Fast Facts:
• The surface of the hands and feet are covered with a special kind of skin, called friction skin, it looks like corduroy and helps us keep a grip.
• Latent fingerprints are composed of the material left behind when a finger touches a surface.
• In 1977 it was discovered that, when fumed, crazy glue reveals invisible fingerprints.
• Ear prints are as unique as fingerprints, no two are the same, and investigators now use them to track criminals.
• In Holland police are trained to dust a crime scene for ear prints.
• Right now, in Canada, a footprint database is being developed, similar to the fingerprint databases that exist around the world.
Episode 4 - Future Crime
High-tech forensic tools show how a suspect’s voice can reveal his lie; the crucial moment of crime, buried deep in a damaged video; and how to isolate a guilty face in a crowd.
Forensic Fast Facts:
• Forensic video techniques can ‘borrow’ light from a well-lit section of security tape to illuminate details such as a license plate number in a poorly lit section.
