Police are baffled when body parts turn up in two different southeast Asia tourist destinations.
Hannah Witheridge and David Miller are perfect strangers who hail from coastal towns in the UK. They both decide to take a backpacking trip to Thailand before pursuing Master's Degrees in their respective fields. These two kindred spirits meet for the first time on the small island of Koh Tao. The island is a tropical paradise. Its' waters teem with scores of fish and wildlife. It's a romantic idyllic setting, and the young pair hit it off immediately. But something sinister is lurking in the shadows, and this budding romance ends in a horrific tragedy that shocks the global community.
On the gorgeous beaches of St. Maarten, happily married couple Michael and Thelma King are living their best lives. Though retired, the Kings are entrepreneurs at heart - they continue to invest in their new community and the people they call friends. One such opportunity to invest in a local rum presents itself, and the Kings are all over it. But their dream never comes to fruition - the Kings are brutally murdered days after signing the deal. The slayings shock an entire island and leave police wondering what happened - does someone have a grudge against the wealthy couple, or could this have been a random act of violence?
In the sweltering heat of a New Orleans summer, a young Japanese tourist, Kanako Ohyma, goes missing. Soon after, a badly decomposing body is discovered. As forensics work to identify the body, police find the suspects are plentiful, but the men photographed on her digital camera seem to always keeping one step ahead.
Sheila Demute and her son Darin are murdered in Thailand by Gerald Lowe in 1995.
In the sweltering heat of a New Orleans summer, a young Japanese tourist, 21 year old Grace Emmie Rose Millane, goes missing. Soon after, a badly decomposing body is discovered. As forensics work to identify the body, police find the suspects are plentiful, but the men photographed on her digital camera seem to always be running one step ahead.
Donald Idiens, a gambler from Canada, loses the ultimate wager when he's clubbed to death in a Las Vegas hotel. In a city known for its constant flood of visitors, police have their work cut out for them to find the killer. It will take nearly a decade to bring the author of this brutal crime to justice.
Pamela Hutchinson is the manager of a car dealership and enjoying a sunny vacation in Fort Meyers, Florida. But after a trip to the casino, she's found dead in her condo with her money and identification stolen. The ensuing manhunt for the killer, Lois Riess, takes authorities across the country where they discover the killer is about to strike again.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, the tenth Earl of Shaftesbury, spends much of his time in the bars of Cannes, in the south of France, spending the remains of the Shaftesbury fortune. As police investigate his disappearance, they discover a double life that includes Lord Shaftesbury's third wife Jamila, his girlfriend Nadia, and the seedy underworld of the French Riviera.
Friends Tatiana and Liubov trade the cold Siberian winter for a few weeks of sun and fun in Thailand. Their vacation package takes them to Pattaya City - a place known for its all-night parties and sex tourism - where the two attract a lot of attention from locals and Russian expats alike. When the women are killed by what appears to be a professional gunman, investigators must wade into the seedy underbelly of the city as they try to unravel the truth about the killings.
Edith Hallock and Joseph Michel, two affluent New York seniors, fly to glamorous Acapulco to mix with the glitterati - and disappear without a trace. Police search high and low with a growing sense of dread. But when a family member rushes from home to assist in the search, the letters she received about the couples' travel provides the clue that cracks the case.
Kirsten Kischnick and her boyfriend, Dieter Riechmann, travel from Germany to Miami Beach, Florida, to enjoy a beautiful beach side vacation. During a night out on the town, the two get lost - and a single gunshot in a sketchy part of town brings the good times to an end. But as investigators look deeper, all might not be as it seems.
A young schoolteacher, Emily Lambert, meets up with her boyfriend in Carlsbad, New Mexico, for a mini vacation. After a day of sight-seeing in the heat, they end up at a hotel bar to unwind. But beautiful Emily attracts some unwanted attention. When she's reported missing, police go on the hunt for a mystery man who flirts with her in the bar.
An ailing young businesswoman is invited by her wealthy boyfriend to find a cure for her Lyme disease at an exclusive retreat in Camps Bay. But when Gaby Albam's body is found desecrated and mutilated, and Diego Novella found wandering stunned on the beach, South African authorities go on the hunt for a monster.
Lynn Ann Jackenheimer goes on a Fourth of July vacation with her two young children and her boyfriend to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, hoping for some quality family time after a rough period in her life. But eight days later, 911 operators get a chilling phone call reporting that Lynn may have been strangled to death. With the suspected killer on the run, authorities go on a country-wide manhunt to bring them to justice.
25-year-old Christine Barbara Rudnicki disappears while walking along Tumon Bay in Guam. Her badly beaten body is later discovered, with clear signs of sexual assault. With at least two other rapes reported on the very same beach, authorities suspect there is a serial-rapist-turned-killer loose in their community. Can investigators uncover the killer's identity before he strikes again?
On the calm waters of Antigua and Barbuda, married adventure-seekers Kathy and William Clever, skipper Ian Cridland and deckhand Thomas Williams have only begun the grip of a lifetime - sailing from the UK to the eastern Caribbean. But their vacation in paradise is cut short when all four are found murdered on board their luxury yacht - the first murders on the tiny island in over 60 years. Could this be a robbery gone wrong, or was something more malicious afoot?
When young couple Lindsay Cutsall and Jason Allen fail to show up to an end-of-summer meeting at their whitewater rafting bible camp, police retrace their steps through Northern California, eventually discovering their bodies on a beach. But when the case goes cold, all hope of finding the killer is lost - until an unexpected break in the case more than a decade later.
Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura takes his wife, Kazumi, to Los Angeles for a vacation; their relaxing holiday takes a terrible turn when the couple are robbed at gunpoint and shot, with Kazumi later dying from her injuries.
Carol Schlosberg is a talented American artist enjoying a well-deserved vacation with her boyfriend in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. But when she goes for a walk on the beach all by herself, she never returns - and the hunt is on for a killer that is on the loose.
Nathaly Salazar Ayala leaves her home in Spain to travel to Ecuador and begin the backtracking trip of a lifetime, venturing across all of South America. But she only gets as far as Cusco, Peru, before everyone back home stops hearing from her. She is soon believed to have been murdered, but as new information comes to light, everything is called into question.
When two young women disappear on a dream backpacking trip through South America, only part of the mystery is solved when strange packages are found near a beach on Ecuador's south shore.
Bryanna Antone visits Hawaii with her mother and brother, Barbara and Ben, to celebrate her 25th birthday. After a night out with new friends, she fails to return to her hotel room and is found floating in the surf off a nearby beach. When her belongings begin to show up in unexpected places, investigators wonder if perhaps it wasn't an accidental drowning after all.
When Anne Neumann arrives in Coober Pedy - a stopover on her tour of the Australian Outback - she vanishes. It's the third case in as many years for local police, who search for links between their missing persons cases and a serial killer who preys on backpackers closer to Sydney, where seven more bodies are found.
Robert Stephenson and his girlfriend Nancy Johnson search the Big Island of Hawaii for the perfect secluded spot to camp out. But when an unknown assailant attacked from the surrounding trees, Robert is lured to his death. Can police catch a killer with so little to go on?
Chris Smith, a young successful businessman in Southern California, leaves it all behind to travel the world, leaving the street of his face-paced life behind him. But after months of sporadic contact via email, his family begins to wonder if something malicious is afoot. Is this a missing persons case, or a homicide? Can investigators solve the mystery behind his whereabouts before it's too late?