Forensics: The Real CSI

The forensics team must identify a gunman from evidence left at a shooting scene and determine the cause of death of a body found under suspicious circumstances.

In central Newcastle, a teenage girl has been raped by a stranger in a local park. It is the job of Northumbria Polices head of forensics Kirsty Potter and senior investigating officer Shelley Hudson to find the unknown suspect and put him behind bars as quickly as possible. With every hour that passes the chances of obtaining forensic evidence reduce and intimate forensic samples from the teenager who has been raped are fast-tracked to a specialist lab in order to try and identify the suspect. A scour of local CCTV identifies a man wearing the same distinctive jacket as the teenager described. Alongside the traditional forensic search for body fluids, DNA and fibres, the police also deploy the rapidly evolving skills of their digital forensic team. Criminals may think they can withhold passwords and delete incriminating search histories from their computers, tablets and smart phones, but it won’t give head of digital media Jerry Hewitt and his team too much difficulty.

When a 15-year-old teenager is fatally stabbed in a park in Coventry, the forensic team must identify the murderers through evidence left behind at the crime scene. But with the murder weapon nowhere to be found, the investigation relies on two key pieces of evidence: a mobile phone found a short distance from the body and the victim’s blood-soaked jacket. Through fingerprint enhancement, DNA testing and a pioneering partnership between academic researchers and the forensic team, West Midlands Police utilise a wide range of expertise in an effort to identify the killers.

Police respond to a call from a residential area of Dudley, where a woman reports that a house is being smashed up and a group are beating someone up outside it. When the forensic team from West Midlands Police arrive shortly afterwards, the attackers have fled. They find the body of a young man and a complex crime scene with evidence that a series of violent incidents have taken place over several hundred yards. Soon afterwards, a second man, brought to hospital from the crime scene, is declared dead. When strange puncture wounds are discovered on the bodies of both victims, a detailed forensic investigation is mounted to piece together a full picture of how and why the men were killed, what the murder weapon was, and who is responsible.

As the victim of a violent knife attack fights for his life in hospital, Crime Scene Coordinator Jo Ward is dispatched to his home in Birmingham to lead the forensic investigation into identifying his attacker. The victim is unable to tell police what happened because he has been put in a medically induced coma, and the investigation becomes more challenging when no witnesses are prepared to give a statement to the police. Jo and her team work to gather vital evidence that could help police quickly identify and arrest the attacker.

A young woman arrives at a police station to report that she has been raped. She was attacked by a stranger at a derelict house in the early hours of the morning. The victim agrees to undergo a forensic examination at a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) to recover potentially critical evidence that could help identify her unknown attacker. A hunt for the unknown attacker ensues. Using a doorbell recording and CCTV footage, the police begin the hunt to bring the perpetrator to justice.

As firefighters attempt to get a major fire at a Birmingham factory under control, fire investigator Luke Beckett is deployed to investigate before vital evidence is destroyed by the blaze. With no natural sources of ignition, Luke thinks that the fire may have been started deliberately, and a police investigation is launched. Although no forensic leads are found in the wreckage, in a stroke of luck, the factory’s CCTV room is left intact after the fire. Luke and the police have to work together to investigate whether this was a deliberate act, a reckless act of arson or something else altogether.

After a decomposed body is found in a freezer at a waste disposal site, West Midlands Police must identify who it is, and track down the person who concealed it.

West Midlands Police work with ballistics experts to find out whether a man with a haul of rifles in his bedroom has used a 3D printer to make potentially deadly weapons.

West Midlands Police and forensic teams attending the scene of a brutal stabbing in a brothel turn to a trail left in blood in a bid to track the killer.

An elderly man is found dead in his home amid signs of forced entry and a brutal attack. West Midlands Police must identify when and how he died in a bid to track down his killer.