True crime measured by the evidence.
Forensic Tales follows violent crimes, cold cases, trials, and disputed convictions through the forensic details that shaped them. Its steady narration favors timelines, suspect lists, forensic evidence, and the uncomfortable gaps between a story and what the evidence can prove.
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Forensic Tales is a forensic-minded true crime show about what evidence can reveal, distort, or leave unresolved. The series follows real cases through the details that investigators, prosecutors, defense teams, and juries must weigh. A home invasion in Oklahoma becomes a long search for a prowler and killer who avoided capture for years. A Hawaii hiking trail case turns on two competing stories and the question of what the physical evidence says when only two people were present. A Texas death penalty case is framed through the changing debate over shaken baby syndrome and whether older convictions relied on evidence now viewed differently. The show is direct. It does not linger on dread for its own sake. Episodes usually open with a disturbing scene, then narrow into timelines, suspect behavior, forensic testing, and the clues that do or do not fit. That structure gives the series a clear investigative rhythm. One suspect may appear to match a criminal profile. Another may be cleared by blood typing, fingerprints, shoe prints, or an alibi. A witness may become essential because they connect a defendant to drugs, a weapon, or a motive. A cold case may sit for years until technology and a better suspect finally meet. The tone is grave and controlled, with enough repetition to keep complicated case details organized. Recent installments cover murders, attempted murder allegations, trial verdicts, wrongful-suspect concerns, forensic controversies, and sudden updates in old cases. Courtney Fretwell’s narration keeps the emphasis on what can be shown rather than what sounds dramatic. That makes the show especially useful for listeners who like true crime but want more than a sequence of shocks. The appeal is in the method. Forensic Tales asks what happened, what the evidence supports, and which unanswered detail still refuses to sit quietly.
Made for: Forensic Tales is for true crime listeners who care about timelines, testing, suspect elimination, and courtroom interpretation. It especially suits people drawn to cold cases, forensic controversy, and methodical case narration.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its disciplined focus on forensic logic: how blood typing, fingerprints, shoe prints, DNA, profiles, medical evidence, and testimony change the direction of a case. It keeps the storytelling plainspoken while staying close to the question of proof.
Not all stories have happy endings... A weekly true crime podcast with a forensic twist. Each episode features real stories highlighting how forensic science was used. From fingerprinting to criminal profiling to familial DNA, we have every investigative angle covered.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Courtney Fretwell shows how forensic evidence can narrow a case, complicate suspicion, and gain new meaning years later.
Forensic Tales tracks how a case changes when physical evidence is tested, questioned, or revisited. Courtney Fretwell moves carefully through suspect theories and the facts that weaken them.
Hair in her hands, an airtight alibi: your snap verdict won't survive the next question.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A strange break-in report turns into a patient forensic chase.
Forensic Tales starts with an Oklahoma woman saying a man in gloves and underwear broke into her house, killed her boyfriend, and tortured him for hours, then lets the investigation test that account against what the scene can support.
A Hawaii hiking-trail assault case where injuries and rival self-defense claims leave the jury to read the clues.
Gerhard Koenig's trial turns a birthday hike on a scenic Hawaii trail into a hard question of credibility. Prosecutors say the anesthesiologist tried to push his wife off a cliff, struck her repeatedly with a rock, and left her for dead.
A cold case built around blood typing, fingerprints, footprints, and paternity testing.
Forensic Tales centers on the 1988 murder of a 19-year-old mother in Three Rivers, Michigan, beginning with the unsettling detail that her 8-month-old daughter was still sleeping in the crib in the bedroom next door when the body was found.
A 15-day trial turns on a housekeeper, a fentanyl trail, and a circumstantial case.
An apparent fentanyl overdose becomes a courtroom case built from witness accounts, behavioral patterns, and forensic evidence in this review of the Richins trial.
An Idaho case built around neighbor suspicion, a brother's report, and security footage.
Shirley Ramey's case starts in the quiet of a home in Hope, Idaho, with Daryl leaving to play cards and Shirley staying behind. The pace picks up once investigators build a stronger theory around neighbor Nathan Ott, and the brother's account, together with bar security footage,…
A cold case shaped by forensic evidence, an alibi, and early-90s limits.
The story treats Jeannie Childs as a cold case with a procedural spine. A woman is stabbed to death, Arthur Gray has an apparent alibi, and the forensic trail points to hair from Gray in the victim's hands plus DNA on the comforter.
A careful case update that keeps the evidence and the gaps in view.
PlayNext returns to the Holly Bobo case with a steady update that stays close to what the record supports. It revisits the abduction and murder of the 20-year-old nursing student whose disappearance drew national attention and the largest search effort in Tennessee history, then…
Outdoor mysteries, mapped with human common sense.
Georgia politics from inside the room.
Mysteries, lore, and nervous laughter.
American crime history, told with gravity.
This episode of Forensic Tales explores the mysterious death of UK spy Gareth Williams, whose body was found padlocked in a duffel bag, examining forensic evidence and competing theories.
This episode of Forensic Tales examines the San Diego Knifepoint Rapist case, detailing how forensic evidence and modern DNA testing solved a cold case serial sexual assault investigation.
A forensic podcast episode detailing the disappearance and murder of Noreen Boyle in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1989, and the subsequent investigation that uncovered a dark secret.
A 70-year-old grandmother is murdered in Delaware, leading to a bizarre case involving a confession from a stranger and mistaken identity.
The episode recounts the 1984 murder of Teresa Solecki in Vista, California, and the decades-long investigation that followed.
Forensic Tales host Courtney Fretwell interviews ABC News Senior National Correspondent Eva Pilgrim about updates in the Holly Bobo case.
In 1993, Jeannie Childs was found stabbed 65 times in her Minneapolis apartment, with the case going cold for decades.
A woman reports a home invasion where her boyfriend is killed and she is tortured, leading detectives to uncover a predator who had been stalking her for years.
A recap of the Gerhardt Konig trial, where an anesthesiologist is accused of attempting to murder his wife during a hike in Hawaii, with the defense claiming self-defense.
This episode examines the case of Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death for the death of his two-year-old daughter based on shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis now questioned by some experts.
The episode details the 2010 disappearance and murder of 17-year-old beauty school student Mackenzie Cowell in Washington, focusing on the investigation and forensic evidence.
A bonus episode announcing the arrest in the 30-year-old Lovers Lane murders case.
A 54-year-old plumber in South Carolina matched Kathy Swartz’s 1988 fingerprint after 34 years.
Carmen Lauber testified that Corey Richens asked for “the Michael Jackson stuff” and got fentanyl pills.
Forensic Tales covers the 2017 murder of 78-year-old Shirley Ramey, shot twice at close range in her Hope, Idaho home while her husband Daryl was out playing cards.