
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.

When a fundamentalist group is accused of robbing banks, authorities know they are dealing with experienced criminals and overwhelming evidence, but the defense is very well-funded.

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.