Forensics True Crime

It's time to go beyond all the thoughts and prayers, misguided blame on mental illness, and dug-in disputes over the Second Amendment. Through meticulous reporting and panoramic storytelling, journalist Mark Follman chronicles the decades-long search for identifiable profiles of mass shooters and brings listeners inside a groundbreaking method for preventing devastating attacks. Eight years in the making, Trigger Points illuminates a way forward at a time when the failure to prevent mass shootings has never been more costly—and the prospects for stopping them never more promising.

When Gregory M. Cooper, former head of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, founded the Cold Case Foundation in 2013, he had high expectations, but couldn't anticipate the level of response. What started with just a half-dozen or so retired FBI agents and homicide detectives has ballooned to more than 150 women and men who volunteer their time to help families of deceased or missing loved ones bring closure to cases that have gone "cold."

Agatha Christie revelled in the use of poison to kill off unfortunate victims in her books; indeed, she employed it more than any other murder method, with the poison itself often being a central part of the novel. Her choice of deadly substances was far from random—the characteristics of each often provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. Christie's extensive chemical knowledge provides the backdrop for A Is for Arsenic, in which Kathryn Harkup investigates the poisons used by the murderer in fourteen classic Agatha Christie mysteries.

Body cams and dashcams have fundamentally transformed law enforcement in recent years. These innovations can help prove someone committed a crime, or didn't. Real-life footage has cleared people initially accused of wrongdoing, and in certain instances even implicated officers. But that same type of footage can also be used to clear police falsely accused of misdeeds. From allegations of harassment or bias to false arrests or even criminal conduct, these videos can prove officers did not cross a line as, sometimes, they are alleged to have done.

This is not CSI. What you encounter as a true bomb detective-or "Bomb Doctor," as some in the FBI call me-are fields of twisted metal containing soot-covered fragments intermingled with human remains. You have carnage and chaos. As you wade into that sea of wailing sirens and screaming survivors awash with the stench of diesel fuel and decaying bodies, your job is to ferret out forensic clues in a type of macabre scavenger hunt to ultimately reconstruct the scene and the explosive device and determine what happened and what the bomb looked like before it was torn asunder.

On June 9, 2008, the butchered body of Travis Alexander was found in his Mesa, Arizona, home. The grisly nature of his death made instant headlines: With 29 knife wounds, his throat slit, and a gunshot to the head, Travis was left to die. The prime suspect in the case was Alexander's ex-girlfriend, the attractive and soft-spoken Jodi Arias. Though Arias initially said that she was nowhere near the scene of crime, little about this case was as it seemed, and before long she had been caught lying to police. As the investigation progressed, her lies evolved multiple times before finally resting on an appalling claim: She had killed Travis in self-defense.

In his 26 years in the field, Richard Taylor has worked on well over a hundred murder cases, with victims and perpetrators from all walks of life. In this fascinating memoir, Taylor draws on some of the most tragic, horrific and illuminating of these cases - as well as dark secrets from his own family's past - to explore some of the questions he grapples with every day: why do people kill? Does committing a monstrous act make someone a monster? Could any of us, in the wrong circumstances, become a killer?

Chilling. One of the best words to describe the cases recounted in this audiobook. These gruesome crimes seemed to hit a dead end. That is until the case was reopened for investigation years later and solved. From the more famous cases to the more obscure, the crimes and hardships that the victims had to suffer will send shivers down your spine. Notably detailing the disappearance of Chandra Levy to the multiple murders committed by Dennis Rader.

A pioneer in forensic anthropology, Dr. Bill Bass created the world's first laboratory dedicated to the study of human decomposition. Bill Bass' research at "the Body Farm" has revolutionized forensic science, helping police crack cold cases and pinpoint time since death. In this riveting book, the bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science, using cases from his career to take readers into the real world of "CSI".

For twelve years the Golden State Killer terrorized California, stalking victims and killing without remorse. Then he simply disappeared, for the next forty-four years, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop. In I Know Who You Are, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to hunting for a notorious serial killer—and how she became the nation’s leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most dazzling new crime-fighting weapon to appear in decades.

Mary Jumbelic has been obsessed with death since the loss of her father when she was 13. The sudden departure of her dad, the mother left behind, and her position as an only child led her to grow up quickly. Yet the why and how of her father's death plagued her. She chose to view an autopsy at the age of 15 and discovered a science that explained the process. College, medical school and becoming a forensic pathologist wasn't a given. She struggled before ultimately deciding on a career as a medical examiner.

When widow Frances Lacey was murdered in July 1960 on Mackinac Island, only a few meager clues were found by police, and the case soon turned cold. But more than sixty years later, will those same clues finally solve the mystery?

Federal agents never know what to expect from day to day. During his 25-year career with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Special Agent Wayne M. Miller investigated dozens of remarkable and sometimes high-profile horrific gun, bombing, and arson cases. These accounts show true crime enthusiasts what federal investigators regularly face. All investigators could use this as a detailed textbook to see and feel the highs and lows, with the good and bad experienced by someone who has been through it.

The number-one best-selling “master of narrative journalism” (New York Times) and author of Black Hawk Down presents a compelling collection of true crime stories.

Nashville 1964. Eighteen-year-old babysitter Paula Herring is murdered in her home while her six-year-old brother apparently sleeps through the grisly event. A few months later, a judge's son is convicted of the crime. Decades after the slaying, Michael Bishop, a private citizen, stumbles upon a secret file related to the case and with the help of some of the world's top forensic experts - including forensic psychologist Richard Walter (aka "the living Sherlock Holmes") - he uncovers the truth. What really happened is completely different from what the public was led to believe.

Before Edward Snowden's infamous data breach, the largest theft of government secrets was committed by an ingenious traitor whose intricate espionage scheme and complex system of coded messages were made even more baffling by his dyslexia. His name is Brian Regan, but he came to be known as the Spy Who Couldn't Spell.

The dead talk. To the right listener, they tell us all about themselves: how they lived, how they died--and who killed them. Val McDermid uncovers the secrets of forensic medicine with groundbreaking research and her own experience. Along the way you’ll wonder at how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine time of death and how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer.

The trial of 25-year-old Casey Anthony for the death of her daughter, Caylee, was the most sensational case in America since O.J. Simpson’s. After being acquitted in July 2011, Ms. Anthony instantly became one of the most infamous women in the world. Dr. Keith Ablow distills tens of thousands of pages of documents he has obtained, his behind-the-camera, one-on one interviews, and his decades of experience in the world of forensic psychiatry to make sense of this troubled young woman.

In this audiobook is a unique, never-before-published look at the investigations undertaken to stop the depredations of America's most infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy. Presented here in an easy-to-follow chronology are the raw, unedited and most fascinating official case files as they appeared to the detectives from the Pacific Northwest to the Rocky Mountains to Florida.

Ermittlungen im Detail ist ein Format, das tief in die Arbeit von Ermittlungsexpert:innen eintaucht, wo winzige Spuren und Details der Schlüssel zur Lösung grausamer Verbrechen sind. Von Leichenfunden bis zur entscheidenden DNA-Analyse werden Mordfälle akribisch mit Hilfe von Expert:innen und Ermittler:innen rekonstruiert und aus Sicht der Forensik aufgeklärt. Es werden Einblicke in die Gedankenwelt und Methoden von Ermittler:innen gewährt und präsentiert einige der spannendsten und düstersten Fälle der jüngeren Kriminalgeschichte in großer Intensität.