
Eagle-eyed technical experts prove there is no such thing as a perfect crime as they assemble the pieces every criminal leaves behind. Dramatic crime re-creations and, sometimes, part of the investigations are a staple of the series. Some of the re-creations include alternate versions of the crimes, which are disproved by science. The show's episodes follow each case from the initial investigation until it reaches its legal resolution.

Two women who lived in the same apartment complex were brutally murdered; the similarities of the crime scenes led police to believe they were dealing with a serial killer who hated women, and they had to find him before he struck again.

When prison guard Donna Payant's body is discovered at a landfill, a medical examiner uses a "signature" clue to link her death to a murder the same examiner investigated 10 years earlier.

Weeks after a student vanishes, the body of an unknown female is found in the ashes of a fire 700 miles away; an alert policeman realizes the crimes could be connected.

The pornography empire cultivated by brothers Artie and Jim Mitchell crumbles when one turns up dead and his brother confesses to shooting him; investigators question whether the shooting was premeditated.