Cold Case: Season 1

2003 · 23 episodes · ★ 7.6

What Season 1 of Cold Case

Blue Bloods? No, this is Cold Case: Lilly Rush, a homicide detective played by Kathryn Morris, joins a Philadelphia unit that reopens murders shelved for lack of evidence. She works under Lieutenant John Stillman, the veteran head of the department and her mentor, whom she turns to when an investigation stalls. When new evidence or witnesses surface, she reopens cases going back years. Her blunt manner lands her in tense confrontations with suspects that can put her safety at risk. The pressure to solve homicides that time has left unanswered drives the team's day-to-day work.

23episodes

Sep 28, 2003premiered

May 23, 2004latest episode

17.1 hrtotal runtime

Season 1 Episodes

1x01 Look Again
Sep 28, 2003 · 45 min · ★ 7.6
Lilly investigates a 1976 case involving a teenage girl who was beaten to death on a tennis court during a party at a plush estate.
Directing: Mark Pellington · Writing: Meredith Stiehm · Starring: Elizabeth Franz, Tim Choate, Becki Newton, Sherman Howard
1x02 Gleen
Oct 5, 2003 · 45 min · ★ 7.7
The fiancé of a fireman asks Lilly to help prove that a convicted felon, about to be paroled on an unrelated crime, is responsible for the murder of the fireman's first wife. The young mother was killed by a homemade bomb shortly before she was to testify in court against a man who exposed himself to her.
Directing: Paris Barclay · Writing: Jan Oxenberg · Starring: Madeline Carroll, Delane Matthews, Doug Spinuzza, Brett Cullen
1x03 Our Boy Is Back
Oct 12, 2003 · 44 min · ★ 7.7
A serial rapist sends a letter to the squad announcing his return to Philadelphia after five years and his plan to strike again. Lilly's best hope of catching the rapist comes from a victim who is able to provide a composite sketch.
Directing: Bryan Spicer · Writing: Stacy Kravetz · Starring: Bree Turner, Gwendolyn Whiteside, Christopher Shea, Joy Hooper
1x04 Churchgoing People
Oct 19, 2003 · 45 min · ★ 7.1
Lilly re-investigates the case of a murdered church organist, when his Alzheimer's-stricken widow begins having flashbacks of the night in question.
Directing: Mark Pellington · Writing: Meredith Stiehm · Starring: Douglas Smith, Jimmi Simpson, Aimee Teegarden, David Forsyth
1x05 The Runner
Oct 26, 2003 · 43 min · ★ 7.5
After a drug addict brings in an audio tape she found on which a fatal shooting is heard, Lilly reopens a 1973 murder case involving the death of a twenty-one-year-old rookie cop. The young officer was shot three times in the chest while responding to a call at a drug-infested housing project.
Directing: David Straiton · Writing: Veena Sud · Starring: Cory Hardrict, Marlene Warfield, Matt Bushell, Steve Ryan
1x06 Love Conquers Al
Nov 9, 2003 · 44 min · ★ 7.4
A petty crook, Ricky, hoping to get a reduced sentence, relates witnessing a young man washing blood out of his car the night a teen track runner was murdered.The young athlete, Paige Pratt, was found shot, and her boyfriend Al Clarkson was originally imprisoned for the crime.
Directing: Greg Yaitanes · Writing: Kim Newton · Starring: Vincent Ventresca, James DuMont, Josh Hopkins, Summer Glau
1x07 A Time to Hate
Nov 16, 2003 · 45 min · ★ 7.0
Lilly investigates the case of Daniel Holtz, a college baseball player who was found beaten to death in an alley behind a gay bar in 1964. Daniel's mother comes to Lilly in the hopes that his killer can be brought to justice before she dies. Lilly discovers the maltreatment gay victims received in the 60's, when her investigation discloses that it may have been a policeman's nightstick that made the lethal blows.
Directing: Deran Sarafian · Writing: Jan Oxenberg · Starring: Jack Guzman, Brandon Routh, Willam Belli, Barbara Tarbuck
1x08 Fly Away
Nov 30, 2003 · 46 min · ★ 7.9
When a young woman, Rosie, wakes up from a coma, Lilly re-opens the fall in which her 6-year-old daughter Toya died.Things get complicated when the mother remembers very little of that night, and Lilly feels especially motivated to find the killer.
Directing: James Whitmore Jr. · Writing: Veena Sud · Starring: Laura Regan, Beata Poźniak, Victor Togunde, Svetlana Efremova
1x09 Sherry Darlin'
Dec 7, 2003 · 46 min · ★ 7.4
Lilly gets an anonymous phone call from a man claiming he killed an elderly woman back in 1989 and buried her body in the basement of a house. When Lilly checks the dwelling, a body is recovered, but the alleged murderer refuses to identify himself.
Directing: Rachel Talalay · Writing: Sean Whitesell · Starring: Lois Hall, Christina Cox, Jake Bern, Silas Weir Mitchell
1x10 The Hitchhiker
Dec 21, 2003 · 44 min · ★ 7.7
Rush and Valens investigate the case of a cold-blooded killer who shot a young man trying to hitchhike his way home to Philly from Atlanta.
Directing: Marita Grabiak · Writing: Sean Whitesell · Starring: Garrett Strommen, Nathan Baesel, Franklin Dennis Jones, Fredric Lehne
1x11 Hubris
Jan 11, 2004 · 46 min · ★ 7.8
A college professor (Jeffrey Nordling), who lost everything − his career, his family, his reputation − after being suspected of murdering one of his female students (Kaitlin Doubleday) in 1995, offers new information regarding the case that he hopes will clear his name. He believes the student's death is connected to a copycat murder of a prostitute. Rush investigates the woman who was killed and the men in her life in order to discover which one of them killed her.
Directing: Agnieszka Holland · Writing: Kim Newton, Stacy Kravetz · Starring: Kaitlin Doubleday, Lisa Dean Ryan, Robert LaSardo, Josh Hopkins
1x12 Glued
Jan 18, 2004 · 46 min · ★ 8.4
Det. Stillman asks Lilly to re-open a case he couldn't solve, wherein an 8-year-old boy, Tim Barnes, was murdered in 1980. The prime suspects included a catholic priest, three glue-sniffing teenagers, one elusive suspect, and the boy's own parents.
Directing: Peter Markle · Writing: Tyler Bensinger · Starring: Marc McClure, Chelsea Field, Jordan Wood, Josh Hopkins
1x13 The Letter
Jan 25, 2004 · 45 min · ★ 6.9
Rush and Valens re-open the case of a 25-year-old black woman, who was murdered in 1939, after the woman's granddaughter comes forward with new information. The woman was assumed to be a prostitute murdered by a client, but letters written by the victim indicate that she was afraid of a milkman.
Directing: Tim Hunter · Writing: Veena Sud · Starring: Anne Marie Howard, Keke Palmer, Lillian Lehman, Josh Hopkins
1x14 Boy in the Box
Feb 15, 2004 · 43 min · ★ 8.1
The 1958 death of an unknown 6-year-old boy found in a field inside a cardboard box is reinvestigated after a small suitcase with the child's picture and his old cowboy hat is left in front of a church. The new probe reveals that the rowdy boy lived at a Catholic-run orphanage and was adopted two days before his suspicious demise.
Directing: Karen Gaviola · Writing: Meredith Stiehm · Starring: Molly Cheek, Jacqueline Scott, Delaney Williams, Bruce Gray
1x15 Disco Inferno
Feb 22, 2004 · 46 min · ★ 8.0
Construction workers discover a skull with bullet hole under the ruins of a disco club burned down in 1978. 22 people died in the fire. Rush and Valens come to the conclusion that the burning of the club was arson, meant to cover up a murder leaving them with not one, but 23 cold cases.
Directing: James Whitmore Jr. · Writing: Tyler Bensinger · Starring: Johnny Palermo, Amanda Wyss, Michael Fairman, Josh Hopkins
1x16 Volunteers
Mar 7, 2004 · 46 min · ★ 7.5
When the remains of a young black man and a white woman are found under the foundation of a building, Rush and Valens discover that not only did the two go missing in 1969, but that they may have been killed professionally for their work in an underground abortion clinic.
Directing: Allison Anders · Writing: Jan Oxenberg · Starring: Trever O'Brien, Karen Austin, Chris Sarandon, Doug Spinuzza
1x17 The Lost Soul of Herman Lester
Mar 14, 2004 · 46 min · ★ 7.5
When the son of a murdered high-school basketball star receives a death threat, Rush and Valens reopen the 1987 case of Herman Lester who was stabbed to death only hours after leading his team to win the state championship.
Directing: Tim Matheson · Writing: Sean Whitesell · Starring: Tyrone Burton, Tommy Hinkley, Mehcad Brooks, Sam Scarber
1x18 Resolutions
Mar 28, 2004 · 43 min · ★ 7.9
Lilly investigates an unsolved hit-and-run accident from New Year's Eve 1999 that left a man dead, after a recovering alcoholic comes forward and claims she is the one who hit him. But the evidence points to the guy being murdered, not accidentally run down.
Directing: Alex Zakrzewski · Writing: Kim Newton · Starring: John Kapelos, Cameron Dye, Stacy Edwards, Kevin McCorkle
1x19 Late Returns
Apr 4, 2004 · 43 min · ★ 7.5
The shooting death of a man in his driveway is connected to the unsolved 1992 murder of a Democratic campaign worker whose lifeless body was thrown into a nearby river on election night. The investigation centers on the relationship the dead woman had with a present-day congressman. Apparently, the victim in the current homicide probed into the earlier slaying and discovered damning new evidence. Elsewhere, Lilly spies Kite flirting with a new ADA and gets jealous.
Directing: David Straiton · Writing: Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin · Starring: Hilary Angelo, Laura Allen, Josh Hopkins, Jim Meskimen
1x20 Greed
Apr 18, 2004 · 43 min · ★ 8.0
The team reopens the 1985 case of a wealthy stock broker. At the time it was deemed that Charles Danville was killed when someone attempted to steal his car, but new evidence suggests that he may, in fact, have been murdered.
Directing: Karen Gaviola · Writing: Stacy Kravetz · Starring: Michael Paré, Sam Ball, T.J. Thyne, William Bumiller
1x21 Maternal Instincts
Apr 25, 2004 · 43 min · ★ 7.4
The 1989 case of a woman murdered in front of her 3-year-old son is re-opened. A psychologist asks Det. Rush to look into the case again when the son, now a 17-year-old teen, suffers from intense nightmares and troubled behavior.
Directing: Kevin Hooks · Writing: Laurie Arent · Starring: W. Earl Brown, Heidi Bohay, J. Downing, Michael Nouri
1x22 The Plan
May 2, 2004 · 46 min · ★ 8.5
The 1999 drowning death of a military academy's swim coach, which was originally ruled as accidental, is reinvestigated after the homicide division receives a note that suggests it was murder. Back at the office, Valens searches for Elisa after she goes missing.
Directing: Agnieszka Holland · Writing: Veena Sud · Starring: Noel Fisher, Spencer Daniels, Robert Rusler, Tequan Richmond
1x23 Lover's Lane Season Finale
May 23, 2004 · 44 min · ★ 6.6
When DNA evidence reveals that a wrong man was convicted for killing 15-year-old Eve Kendall back in 1986, the team re-opens her case in an attempt to find the real killer.
Directing: Nelson McCormick · Writing: Meredith Stiehm · Starring: Larry Joshua, Ronne Troup, Josh Hopkins, Mae Whitman