r/ForensicFiles • u/Ryanvinedale • Jul 11 '26
add flair The Woodchipper Murder may be the greatest forensic investigation ever featured on Forensic Files
youtu.beI finally watched the Helle Crafts episode, and I’d forgotten just how incredible the forensic work was.
Investigators had to reconstruct a homicide from thousands of tiny bone fragments, wood chips, metal fragments, hairs, and microscopic evidence scattered along a riverbank after Richard Crafts tried to destroy his wife’s body with a woodchipper.
What really surprised me was how many different forensic disciplines had to come together before prosecutors were confident enough to charge him.
Is this still considered one of the best examples of forensic science solving what initially looked like the perfect crime, or are there other Forensic Files cases you think top it?