Anthony Hopkins is a traveling preacher in Mobile, Alabama. Left with eight children to raise after his wife purportedly leaves him, he tells his congregation that she died giving birth. But it's not as it seems - Hopkins was forcing his stepdaughter to engage in sexual acts. When his wife finds out, he kills her and forces his stepdaughter to help him conceal the body. No one finds out until years later, when the girl becomes pregnant with his child and the harrowing story spills out.

Gary Evans makes his living robbing antique stores throughout New York State and is well known by police in the area. After two years of having no contact with him, police are thrust back onto his path in late 1997 - a path that is littered with bodies of his former associates and a few store owners who didn't get out of the way fast enough. Evans is eventually captured and confesses to the murders before killing himself, having never been prosecuted.

Over a two year period, eight women disappear from Poughkeepsie, NY. All of the women are prostitutes who work in the area. Several suspects come to light, but no evidence can ever be connected to them. Then in September 1998, a prostitute tells police that Kendall Francois tried to kill her. He had been questioned previously but said nothing incriminating and even passed a lie-detector test. When he finally confesses, a search of his home reveals eight bodies

Bruce Firman is found dead in his garage by soon to be ex-wife, Margaret Benesch, and her daughter, Elizabeth Gatenby. Suspicion immediately falls on Benesch - as the sole heir in Firman's will, she is entitled to receive everything, but produces a rock-solid alibi. When investigators dust Gatenby's rental car for fingerprints, one match those of a 17-year-old teenager. He said he'd been hired to kill Firman by Gatenby's son, Byron, who confesses that his mother planned it all.

18 year old Erin Chorney goes missing. Investigators immediately suspect her abusive boyfriend, Michael Bridges, but do not have enough evidence to arrest him. Over a year later, they turn to police for help. Officers go undercover as figures in charge of a powerful criminal organization. They tell Bridges that if he comes clean about his past, they will be able to trust him to join their association. When Bridges confesses to murdering Chorney, police move in and finally get their man.

The body of Katherine Foster is discovered at the University of Alabama. A student reports hearing gunshots the night before she was found, leading police to conclude that Foster was shot and left in the woods. Suspicion falls on a campus security guard, an apparent suicide who was obsessed with Foster's murder. The guard is cleared and the case goes cold for two decades before a whispered confession to an AA sponsor leads police to arrest and convict Jamie Letson, a friend of Katherine's.

Investigators find David Castor dead with a glass of bright green liquid nearby. His wife Stacey's fingerprints are on the glass and police locate a turkey baster in the garbage with David's DNA on the tip. They suspect Castor poisoned her husband. As evidence against her mounts, her daughter Ashley is found unconscious with a note proclaiming she killed David. Upon Ashley's recovery, Stacey is found to have poisoned both of them - and her first husband too.

Nikia Shanell Kilpatrick, 19, is found bound and strangled with a cord in her Jacksonville, Florida apartment. Within a month, three more bodies are discovered and attributed to the same killer, each found strangled with a cord fashioned into a peculiar slipknot. Police begin to find links - including DNA samples, fiber analysis, and cab and cell phone records - connecting taxi driver Paul Durousseau to the murders. He is eventually convicted of five counts of first-degree murder.

In 1987, Kathy Odom is found stabbed to death in her home. There are several signs suggesting that she knew her attacker, but detectives cannot make an arrest. Years later, a new technique is developed that allows DNA to be collected from items used in a murder. The lamp cord that was tied to Odom's wrist is subsequently tested for DNA. Her brother-in-law, Greg Markwardt, turns out to be a match for the profile and after fifteen years, is arrested for the murder of Kathy Odom.

In 2002, San Antonio police find Susan McFarland's abandoned vehicle. Soon after, her husband, Richard, files a missing persons report. Police find a stolen SUV across from the McFarland home with blood on the back bumper. The SUV leads police to Rick Clemmer, who has a shady past and a link to Susan. But evidence is found that also links Richard to the SUV - did Clemmer frame Richard? After 53 days of searching, police find Susan's body and tie it to Richard based on circumstantial evidence.