Cold Case: Season 3
Season 3 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Picks up essential narrative continuity directly following the events of Cold Case Season 2.
- Character alliances, factions, and personal loyalties undergo significant shifts under escalating stakes.
- Addresses unresolved cliffhangers and thematic mysteries introduced during previous seasons.
- Establishes the primary seasonal conflict that drives serialized character arcs toward the finale.
Episode Guide
Season 3 Progress Shield
Family
Sep 25, 2005 · 45 min
When a young girl is contacted by a man claiming to be her father, Det. Rush and her team reopen a 1988 case of a teenaged boy, killed on the same night the girl was born.
The Promise
Oct 2, 2005 · 43 min
Lilly re-opens the case of young girl, an overweight college freshman named Laurie, who died in a fraternity house fire in 2004. The fire was deemed accidental at the time, but a c
Bad Night
Oct 9, 2005 · 42 min
The 1978 murder of a young man is re-opened after the victim's mother finds a letter suggesting that his death wasn't random.
Colors
Oct 16, 2005 · 41 min
Det. Rush re-opens the 1945 case of a baseball player, bludgeoned to death with his own bat.
Commited
Oct 23, 2005 · 44 min
In 1954, 9-year-old Otis Petrowski last saw his mother in a mental institution. Now over 50 years later, after the death of an elderly woman who had been using Otis' mother's ident
Saving Patrick Bubley
Nov 6, 2005 · 42 min
When a mother of five loses her fourth son to gang violence, Lilly sets out the save the youngest, reopening one of her first cases on the homicide squad.
Start-Up
Nov 13, 2005 · 43 min
Lilly re-opens the 1999 case of a young, healthy woman who nevertheless died of a heart attack. In the late 1990's, she was briefly an Internet millionaire, but due to bad business
Honor
Nov 20, 2005 · 45 min
When a box filled with POW support bracelets is found in an abandoned drug den, Det. Rush re-investigates the 1972 shooting of Carl, a veteran of the Vietnam War.
A Perfect Day
Nov 27, 2005 · 45 min
When a fisherman finds evidence of a young girl's death washed up on a shore in New Jersey, Lilly re-opens the 1965 case of 4-year-old child who had a seemingly abusive mother.
Frank's Best
Dec 18, 2005 · 43 min
The team re-opens the 2001 case of a robbed and murdered deli owner when the brother of the man convicted of the crime brings forth new evidence, suggesting the man may have been w
8 Years
Jan 8, 2006 · 45 min
Four close high school friends each went their separate ways in 1980. Eight years later, in 1988, one of them was murdered. The homicide team receives a tip about the murder, promp
Detention
Jan 15, 2006 · 42 min
When a note connected to a supposed suicide is found, the team re-opens the 1994 case of a high-school kid who fell from the roof of the school building after having served detenti
Debut
Jan 29, 2006 · 41 min
Lilly re-opens the 1968 case of an 18-year-old girl who died -- apparently accidentally -- at the night of her debutante ball. Now her mother comes forth with new evidence when a l
Dog Day Afternoons
Feb 26, 2006 · 45 min
The case of a female bank teller shot to death in her work in 2000 is reopened when the same bank is robbed again by perpetrators wearing identical masks and equipped with identica
Sanctuary
Mar 12, 2006 · 41 min
The 1998 case of a female drug smuggler is re-opened. The woman was involved with Scotty at the time he was working undercover on a high-profile drug case, and he has been keeping
One Night
Mar 19, 2006 · 45 min
Lilly and the cold case team will have to decode the clues given by a twisted killer in order to save the life of a young boy who has been left to die alone. But first they must fi
Superstar
Mar 26, 2006 · 44 min
When a poison-soaked towel turns up at the station, Lilly re-opens the 1973 case of a murdered female college tennis star.
Willkommen
Apr 2, 2006 · 45 min
The team re-opens the 2002 case of a murdered amateur actor when the owner of a local community theater finds a gun hidden inside prop furniture.
Beautiful Little Fool
Apr 9, 2006 · 45 min
Lilly re-opens the 1929 case of a woman found dead in a ravine on Christmas Day when the victim's great-granddaughter comes in asking for help. Meanwhile, Lilly's estranged mother
Death Penalty: Final Appeal
Apr 16, 2006 · 45 min
The 1994 case of a raped and murdered 16-year-old girl is re-opened when Det. Jeffries gets a call from a prisoner on death-row -- scheduled to be executed in just three days.
The Hen House
Apr 30, 2006 · 42 min
The 1945 case of a murdered newspaper reporter is reopened when new evidence suggests that the woman was thrown in front of a passing train by someone she knew.
The River
May 7, 2006 · 45 min
When a new witness steps forward, Lilly and the team are prompted to re-open the 1984 shooting of a respected and beloved ER doctor who had a secret he had been hiding from his fam
Joseph
May 21, 2006 · 45 min
When the victim's credit card is suddenly used a year after his death, Lilly re-opens the 2005 case of a counselor at a teens' rehab center who was shot to death just two weeks bef