Explore notes from the casefile — unusual cases, historical crimes and the darker side of human behavior.
Los Angeles prosecutors said a mortuary employee and alleged accomplices tried to obtain about $1.2 million in life-insurance payouts by using false death certificates and an empty-casket funeral for people who were not actually dead.
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Wolfgang Beltracchi’s forgery scheme succeeded not just because of painted fakes, but because fabricated provenance, labels, and documents made the works seem historically authentic.
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John Drewe helped pass forged paintings as authentic by planting false provenance records in trusted museum archives.
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An SD card found on an Anchorage street led police to a homicide investigation and the arrest of Brian Steven Smith, who was charged in the killing of Kathleen Henry and later also linked by investigators to the death of Veronica Abouchuk.
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Microdots were tiny photographic images used in espionage to hide pages of text or photos inside ordinary-looking mail.
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Narco-submarines are low-profile semi-submersible vessels used by trafficking groups to move large drug shipments while reducing the chance of detection at sea.
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The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston still displays empty frames where 13 artworks were stolen in its unsolved 1990 art heist.
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Operation Trojan Shield was an FBI-run encrypted messaging platform designed to lure criminals into using it so investigators could read their messages and gather evidence.
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Authorities found about 55 grams of cocaine hidden inside a Styrofoam box of frozen fish during a cargo inspection.
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The CIA’s Operation Midnight Climax used covert brothel safehouses to secretly dose unwitting men with LSD while observing them for MKUltra-related research.
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A shopkeeper's memory of selling a jacket to a buyer later linked to Libya played an important role in the Lockerbie investigation.
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Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, claiming he was returning it to Italy.
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In June 2009, four inmates escaped from St. Tammany Parish Jail in Louisiana using hacksaw blades hidden in the spine of a Bible.
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Christopher Tapp was wrongfully convicted for the murder of Angie Dodge but was exonerated in 2019 after about two decades, aided by genetic genealogy.
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Aileen Wuornos was convicted of murder despite claiming self-defense, raising significant questions about justice and mental health.
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The East Area Rapist, responsible for over 50 attacks in California, was identified in 2018 through genetic genealogy techniques.
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The Sandy Hook shooting investigation faced significant challenges due to the spread of misinformation on social media.
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Albert DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler, but inconsistencies in the case raised doubts about his sole involvement.
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The Chicago Tylenol Murders in 1982 led to a nationwide panic and significant changes in product safety regulations.
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In 2008, Anthony Curcio executed a meticulously planned heist of a Brink’s armored truck in Monroe, Washington.
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Ohio investigators reopened a decades-old murder case and identified a suspect using genetic genealogy and family-tree research.
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Adnan Syed's murder conviction is being challenged due to doubts about the reliability of cell-tower evidence used against him.
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The Great Brink's Robbery in 1950 involved a group of thieves stealing approximately $2.7 million and executing a clever getaway strategy.
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The Golden State Killer was apprehended in 2018 through familial DNA matching after evading capture for decades.
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D.B. Cooper hijacked a flight in 1971, demanded ransom, and parachuted away; his fate remains unknown.
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The FBI used linguistic analysis of Ted Kaczynski's writings to connect him to the Unabomber attacks, helping lead to his arrest in 1996.
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The Bermuda Triangle is often associated with mysterious disappearances, but investigations attribute many incidents to human error and weather conditions.
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The Brady Rule requires prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence, but its application can lead to wrongful convictions.
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The Central Park Jogger case involved the wrongful conviction of five teenagers who gave false confessions under intense police questioning for a brutal attack in 1989.
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The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, is often cited as triggering the start of World War I.
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