History Main / ThatOneCase

** ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsPhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' has the murder of the alchemist Sir Newton Belduke, preceded by only a few days by a bell tower suddenly appearing in flames at the town square. These two events, which took place three months before the game's plot, were notorious for being the only major incidents in Labyrinthia not to have been foretold by the Storyteller. [[spoiler:The former is solved in the second witch trial, where Phoenix discovers that Sir Belduke died by his own hand due to despair, while the latter is solved in the final trial, where the characters realize that Labyrinthia's magic isn't real but an elaborately crafted illusion; the bell tower was always there, just concealed by a giant cloth made of invisible material, and when the tower was struck by lightning, the cloth burned away revealing it]].

->''"The case that makes you and the case that breaks you...The one you never solve, the one that keeps you awake at night. The case that gnaws at your guts and ruins your marriage. The case that keeps you propping up a bar as you relive the what-ifs, the might-have-beens, the half-leads and half-truths. The case that other cops murmur about whenever you walk past. The case you never...''ever''...discuss."''

** Kogoro's One Case ended with a ShootTheHostage; he quit the police and separated from his wife Eri soon after this. The NonSerialMovie "The Fourteenth Target" circles around the suspect supposedly taking revenge for this incident.
** Sato has ''two'' One Cases, both of them "inherited": in one, her father perished chasing the suspect from a bank robbery, and in another, she lost her former partner [[spoiler: and TheLostLenore]] Matsuda to a serial MadBomber (who himself had an earlier That One Case that lost ''his'' prior partner Hagiwara).
** Subverted with Megure's That One Case, where a serial hit-and-run driver critically injured both himself and [[DecoyDamsel the girl who offered herself up as bait]]--turns out that was how he met his wife and he's embarrassed to tell the tale since she is both a FormerTeenRebel ''and'' [[MayDecemberRomance much younger than Megure himself]]. Also, the criminal was caught by the police because of Megure remembering the plate number when he and Midori got hit by the car.

** Superintendent Matsumoto has his own That One Case. [[spoiler:During a chase following two murders, the biggest suspect of said killings rammed Matsumoto's partner and best friend Morimura with his car; Morimura bled to death [[DiedInYourArmsTonight in Matsumoto's arms]] while still trying to relay {{dying clue}}s. It's really not helped by the culprit being the one who gave Matsumoto his [[EyeScream infamous scar across his eyes]] few later]].
* [[ImplacableMan Runge]] in ''Anime/{{Monster}}'' believes that Dr. Tenma is a SerialKiller and chases after him relentlessly. It gets to the point where his wife and daughter leave him. [[spoiler:By the end of the series, however, he's given a second chance by his daughter.]]

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', Ginga Nakajima (Subaru's big sister) still cannot let go of the "Combat Cyborg incident" that had cost her mother her life eight years prior. The case has been cold ever since [[spoiler:because Ginga's own superiors are covering it up--as well as the fact of being in cahoots with the cyborgs' creator and boss, Dr. Jail Scaglietti]].
* The LiveActionAdaptation of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'' turns the slaying of the Sugimoto family into this for Josuke's maternal grandfather, Officer Higashikata, to the point where he broke a watch he received from the police department as a reminder of his inability to solve it. In the source material itself, it serves a similar function to the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' example mentioned below for Rohan Kishibe, who was the sole survivor.

* ''ComicBook/SinCity: That Yellow Bastard'' is all about That One Case for John Hartigan: a serial child rapist/murderer who happens to be the son of one of the most powerful people in Sin City.
* An occasional form of plot in Franchise/{{Batman}} comics.

** In the ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'' series, Nightwing resolved the One Case of a cop in time for the man's retirement party, so he wouldn't let the unresolved case eat him alive.
** During the ''ComicBook/BruceWayneFugitive?'' storyline, [[SecretIdentityIdentity Batman]] was called to the bedside of an old dying cop who had been the one to talk to Bruce after he'd [[DeathByOriginStory witnessed the murder of his parents]]. The man asked Batman to [[ClearMyName clear Bruce Wayne's name]] in memory of the case he'd never been able to resolve, saying that the child he'd seen on that night could not have grown to be a murderer.
** Similarly, depending on the continuity, the murder of his parents is Batman's One Case. It's referenced in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' that Batman wants to prevent the murder of Robin's parents from becoming that one case and ruining ''his'' life, too.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Ghoul Detective Series}}'', the death of Kuroto Kai, Kansuke and Yui's childhood idol becomes one. Then, there was the Furinkazan Case. [[spoiler:Then, it was revealed that Kaneki was the final part of the Furinkazan strategy. Kai was also part of it as the 'shadow' part of the strategy. It was planned by Tatsue Torada who vowed to make Yui's life a living hell because the latter rejected her son's proposal. She invited Kaneki and the Nagano triad to Nagano so she could kill Kaneki and finish the strategy. The heroes foiled her plan and Kai's soul was finally able to rest in peace, symbolized by the Osmanthus flowers at his grave.]]

* This is actually the plot of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndBatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', as Mystery Inc helps Batman solve a case that plagued him since his first year: [[spoiler:two of Professor Milo's lab assistants were getting sucked into a portal Milo opened. While Batman rescued one of them (who'd go on to become the Riddler), he failed to save the other.]]

* The titular protagonist ''Film/KidDetective2020'' is haunted by the unsolved disappearance of a friend 18 years before the events of the film.

* Inspector Toschi in ''Film/{{Zodiac|2007}}'' obsesses over his inability to catch the titular murderer, to the extent that seriously jeopardizes his career. Definitely TruthInTelevision.

* Paula Myo chases Adam Elvin and the Guardians of Selfhood in the ''Literature/CommonwealthSaga'' by Creator/PeterFHamilton. The case is not so much unsolved as open, because she can't catch the perpetrators - but it is firmly established that it is Paula's only case not closed by an arrest and conviction. The child/gruesome murder angle applies, but not as you might think.
* ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]'' features two; the murders of Rebekka Jakobson and Harriet Vanger. Both of the cases were fretted over by different cops, to the same effect; even long into retirement, neither case was solved nor dropped by the head investigator until the titular Salander came along.

* In one Literature/HerculePoirot short story, "The Chocolate Box," the Belgian detective tells [[TheWatson Hastings]] about a case early in his career that he actually failed to solve. It's haunted him ever since, because Poirot is something of an InsufferableGenius who absolutely ''despises'' making errors. Unlike other examples, justice is somewhat done--[[spoiler: the murderer was the victim's mother, she openly confesses to the crime, and she had a very good reason for what she did; she was also terminally ill and said that God would judge her, so Poirot chose to not report the truth to the police]]--but Poirot still considers it his One Case because he missed an obvious clue and thus didn't succeed.

* ''Series/ColdCase'' revisits a suspicious death that happened during the Civil Rights era which haunts Jeffries because he grew up in that neighborhood and discovered the victim's body as a boy.

** There was also at least one episode where the original investigator of the team's latest cold case was the one who brought it to the team's attention in the first place.
* The episode "Unfinished Business" of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' involved a police officer just about to retire who announced he'd be reopening the investigation into the murder of a DA at a resort. [[spoiler:He was actually guilty and reopening the investigation as a way to kill a blackmailer and disguise it as an attempt on his life]].

** One led to [[spoiler:Aiden's death]]. She obtained her one case, got fired after considering forging evidence to put the serial rapist away and in a later episode [[spoiler:is killed by said rapist while following him. She is able to leave a bite mark on him (which Mac would think to look for, as she solved a case this way in the past) and her former colleagues are able to put him away]].
** Mac also had one that involved a bodega robbery and the kidnapping of a girl; he finally solved it in the season 7 finale, "Exit Strategy".
* ''Series/{{Monk}}''
** Trudy's murder is the only one the main character has not solved, and it's haunted him for many years. He only manages to solve it in the GrandFinale. Ironically, [[spoiler:he probably could have solved it any time he wanted to. All he had to do was open Trudy's last gift to him]].
** Stottlemeyer has one of his own in one episode. During the investigation of the world's oldest man's death, Stottlemeyer recalls the one case he couldn't solve involving a young man's hit and run death. [[spoiler:It turns out that the same man was responsible for both deaths]]. A second one involves an arson at a golf course.
** Randy's involves a string of murders committed by a BlackWidow, the last of which was from his previous post in Philadelphia.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'' has this with the Lily Kane case in Season 1.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Sort of an informed That One Case; Alex's husband was shot in the line of duty, and a later case made a plot point out of the circumstances surrounding said shooting.
** Nicole Wallace becomes this for Goren. Something of an unusual case in that Goren ''knows'' the who and what of the various cases she's involved with; the reason it haunts him is because in spite of all that, he's never been able to hold her accountable or have her punished for her crimes.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': In "Name", Stabler teams up with a LabRat, Millie, when he realizes that the case he's working is related to her deceased father's One Case -- the murder of an unidentified Hispanic boy. The case so deeply affected Millie's father that he'd memorized the boy's fingerprints, helped pay for his gravestone, and obsessed over both solving the murder and identifying the victim until he died; after his death, Millie picked up the torch and started looking for answers for him. For perspective, when they realize the connection between the cases, it's the first break in the case -- ''forty years'' after the murder.
* Patrick Jane, the main character in ''Series/TheMentalist'' deals with the "Red John" case. In his case, the reason ItsPersonal predates his police work (in fact, he started working with the police to get in on that case); in his former life as a fake TV psychic, he insulted Red John, and Red John [[DisproportionateRetribution retaliated by killing his wife and daughter]].

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has a couple of these:
** Agent Ryan, though not a regular, is obsessed with a serial killer case he never solved.
** Agent Rossi, who ''is'' a regular, has been haunted most of his career by the brutal murder of a couple in a house while their children were sleeping, then cleaned the murder weapon and any forensic evidence and left without waking them. [[spoiler:It turned out that the killer was a circus clown with a child's mind, who followed the children home to play with them and killed the parents because they frightened him after they found him in the house with a weapon the father was holding; the scene had been cleaned by the father of the clown to avoid sending his handicapped son to jail. They were caught because the clown had been sending childish presents like teddy bears every year to apologize]].
** Hotch has The Boston Reaper. [[spoiler:He's closed That One Case now, albeit at great personal cost.]]
** Reid had a weird example: the murder of Riley Jenkins. It actually occurred when he was 4 years old and he'd consciously forgotten about it. However, he had a [[PastExperienceNightmare recurring nightmare]] about investigating the murder of a child, and it turned out to be Riley Jenkins in the dream. When he realized this, he consciously agonized over the case until he solved it.
* In season one of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', Martin continues to pore over the Weeping Lotus Case--the murder of a young prostitute--even after he retires; toward the end of the season, he gets even more obsessed with the case because the victim's mother is dying and he wants to solve the crime before she goes. Frasier, Niles, and Daphne try to help by looking over the evidence when Martin is out, with Frasier coming to a bizarre yet plausible theory--that the prostitute's ex-boyfriend had his trained chimpanzee kill her. The trio wants Martin to have the satisfaction of solving the case himself, though, so they rearrange the crime scene photos in the hopes that he'll come to the right conclusion. Surprisingly, this works, but not how they intended: they inadvertently move the photos in such a way that makes Martin realize that the real killer was the cop who supposedly discovered the body.
* In ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', Bayliss had the Adena Watson case.
** TruthInTelevision, unfortunately. The real Baltimore child-murder which inspired the Adena Watson storyline was never closed. Getting word out about That One Case is one of the reasons why the real-life Baltimore Homicide Division was supportive of the true-crime book about their work.
* ''Series/InspectorMorse'' has a subverted example: the short story "Morse's Greatest Mystery" is about the "one case he never solved", which is something as minor as someone stealing £20 from a Christmas charity box. Morse claims to have got the culprit, but it turns out he just replaced it with his own money. It turns out the "mystery" of the title refers to the cynical, materialist Morse beginning to understand altruism.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}''; Det. Beckett's mother was murdered, providing her FreudianExcuse, but she decided to stop looking at her mother's case because it was driving her crazy, and forbids anyone else from looking at it. Still unsolved as of this point. [[spoiler:Although Castle did make some headway, he lost Beckett's friendship because of it. StatusQuoIsGod, however, and getting back together is the emotional subplot of [=S2E1=]]].
** As of [=S2E13=], [[spoiler:Beckett found the killer, a professional assassin, but was forced to shoot him to save Castle...before he could tell her who had hired him. Castle tries to quit after this incident, but Beckett tells him that she wants him around when they find the employer. Of course, if he tells anyone she said that there will be another shooting...]]
** In [=S6E9=], it's revealed that [[spoiler:the serial killer known as 3XK]] is this for Castle.
* The ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "Earthling" deals with Broyles's That One Case from years ago that he obsessed over so much it destroyed his marriage. The team eventually solves it, though it turns out to involve a government conspiracy and a LivingShadow [[spoiler:radiation-eating alien]].
* The fourth season of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' revolves around ex-Agent Lundy trying to track down the "Trinity Killer" who has murdered three people a year for the last fifteen years ([[spoiler:later revealed to be four people a year for the past ''thirty'' years]]), who he was never able to convince his colleagues actually existed. [[spoiler:After he is killed for getting too close, Debra resolves to solve the case in his honor]].
* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Lt. Jane Doe" has Ducky cancelling a trip to a conference in Britain to stay and investigate when a murder victim turns out to have a trident mark on her neck (and be a civilian dressed in naval uniform), just like the victim of a 10-year-old unsolved case he worked on which still troubles him as he never managed to identify the original victim and still has her ashes with no family to go to. [[spoiler:It turns out that new murder was a crime of passion by the daughter of the original case's lead investigator, and she planted the evidence to link to the older case. The original killer (but not the original victim) is finally identified as a result of the new investigation, having passed away 5 weeks prior. Ducky puts the original Jane Doe's ashes to rest.]]
* Cary of ''Unforgettable'' is forever haunted by the one case she couldn't solve from her detective work from her home city--the murder of her older sister Rachel. What makes it harder on her is that she ''saw'' the killer, but, due to TraumaInducedAmnesia, that crime scene is the one moment that a woman with otherwise perfect memory cannot remember.
* ''Series/TheCloser'', has Philip Stroh, who Brenda becomes obsessed with. Stroh is a ''very'' AmoralAttorney who is also a serial rapist (and as it later turns out, a SerialKiller) who happens to specialize in defending sexual offenders, though this is clearly shown he does this so put all the blame of his crimes on them. Brenda is absolutely certain that he's guilty, but can't prove it and so she starts to follow him around and harass him, and even installs a GPS tracker in his car. Even to the audience, Stroh is incredibly creepy, mostly because as Brenda becomes increasingly desperate to get to him, he never loses his cool and actually seems to enjoy knowing that she's knows what he's done but can't do anything about it. [[spoiler:Right up until the end of the series, when he finally does something rash.]]
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' has Pelant, who seems to keep getting away every time he shows up. [[spoiler:And when he went down, he left her with ''another'' case threatening to be unending]].
* In the premiere of ''Series/GoldenBoy'' we are introduced to the case that has been haunting Det Owen for the last eleven years. On the morning of September 11, 2001 a man was murdered and the police investigation quickly found some very promising leads. Then the planes flew into the Twin Towers and in the ensuing chaos the trail went cold. Owen regularly rereads the case file and keeps in touch with the victim's widow.
** Det Mackenzie is haunted by the unsolved murder of her brother, a police officer killed in the line of duty. While she has been able to partially move on, her retired cop father has been obsessed with the case and is desperate to find his son's killer. The case becomes hot again after the same gun is used in another shooting and this time the killer left evidence the cops can follow. [[spoiler:The killer was a mob enforcer and a serial rapist who shot the brother when he interrupted a rape attempt. The victim of the rape was so scared that she fled the city. When she returned a year later, the killer hired a mook to kill her and gave him the same gun. The mook screwed up and killed the witness's sister instead]].
* In ''Series/TrueDetective'', Cohle is convinced that the 1995 murder case he worked and apparently solved is still unfinished. He continues working it long past its closure, believing that there are additional perpetrators to be found and that the crimes are still ongoing. He's right.

* C.D. Parker of ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' is met with the reopening of a cold case that retired him in the fourth SeasonFinale episode "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS4E26HallOfFame Hall of Fame]]"-- women in general. CD never caught the Hangman because he got checked into a clinic to try and mend his personality, but that failed and he went right back to killings. CD has a proper showdown this time.
* Harvey Bullock of ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' has the Goat murders. He caught the guy ten years prior to the start of the series, but his partner got put in a wheelchair in the process. When a killer with the same MO and signature crops up in the present day, the normally-lazy and cynical Bullock suddenly starts taking his job ''very'' seriously.
** In the same series, Jim Gordon, rookie detective, has the Wayne murders. Officially, the killer was Mario Pepper, in whose home was found Martha Wayne's necklace and who was shot by Bullock when he tried to kill Jim, who wanted to interrogate him about it. In fact, Pepper, while a criminal, was framed (with the necklace being a copy), and when Jim learned about it he swore to find the real killer.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The detective in [[Recap/SupernaturalS01E05BloodyMary "Bloody Mary" (S01, E05)]] has the Mary Worthingtin murder. Dean references the trope in [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E09Croatoan "Croatoan" (S02, E09)]], saying that he "feel[s] like this is the one that got away".
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': In the aptly-titled "Unfinished Business", Murdoch plays a recording of a man's deathbed murder confession for Dr. Ogden. He's puzzled because the corpse he and his colleagues found by following the man's directions doesn't match other vivid details in the man's statement. Dr. Ogden recognizes the details of the corpse match an early case she worked on; she finds the case file in her old office and expresses regret that she couldn't solve the woman's murder.
* In the Series/AgentCarter episode [[Recap/AgentCarterS2E1TheLadyInTheLake "The Lady in the Lake"]], LAPD Detective Andrew Henry has the "Lady in the Lake Killer", a SerialKiller who killed young women and dumped their bodies into a lake. The killings randomly stopped two years ago and the killer was never brought to justice, so it still eats at Henry so much so that when [[spoiler: he's [[DirtyCop hired to dump the body of a young woman]], he copies the killer's MO, as his superiors are trying to get him to drop the case and he needs the public attention to keep the case open.]]
* Joe West of ''Series/TheFlash2014'' has the Nora Allen murder case, supposedly committed by her husband Henry Allen. The Allens were good friends with the Wests, and since then Joe has adopted the young Barry Allen as a favor to Henry. Years later, when Barry is now a CSI and finally convinces Joe that someone else has committed the crime, the latter did not hesitate to reopen the case.
* In the ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'' episode "Boston Strangler Redux" Rizzoli goes looking for a retired cop who worked on the Boston Strangler case. And, as so often happens with retired cops, he has a big brown folder full of files and evidence that he has been keeping all these years just in case someone comes to ask.
* ''Series/WithoutATrace'''s Jack Malone has this in the case of a 2-year old boy who vanished six years prior and whose father has hounded him ever since while simultaneously investigating on his own. Vivian Johnson-—who herself has an example of this, as seen in another episode—-explains the circumstances to newcomer Martin Fitzgerald, "We all have our Chet Collinses. You will too."
* ''Series/HomicideHunter'' Joe Kenda mentions having several of these that still haunt him, 20-something years after he retired. And it's not because he doesn't know who the killer is, it's because he ''does'' and doesn't have enough evidence to prove it in court.
* In the Japanese cop show ''Series/GMen75'', Chief Superintendent Tetsuya Kuroki once was involved in an investigation into the brutal killing of a French prostitute that ended with an arrest. When another murder takes place in an all-too-similar manner, he deduces that the real killer got away and is striking again. He takes it upon himself to reopen the case and bring the murderer to justice. [[spoiler: Turns out that the initial culprit's son was the real killer, and his father took the fall.]]
* While both of Russell Murphy's appearances in ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' revolved around cases he dealt with during his own time as a cop, "Corporate Raiders" was the only one to fit this trope, dealing with a former OCP employee named Tess Stark, who fled years earlier, only to return and go up against the retired Russell and Russell's now cyborg son.
* One American PoliceProcedural with a focus on medical examiners had a dead detective that became increasingly obsessed with one of his unsolved cases. However the case was only a couple of years old and it was considered wildly out of character for him. Autopsy revealed that he had undiagnosed Huntington's Disease and the behavior came from the cognitive decline from its progression.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', the Hierophant social link (and, to a lesser degree, the Justice social link, where it is mentioned in passing) reveal that Ryotaro Dojima's that one case is [[spoiler:the hit-and-run that killed his wife]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', there is Sergeant Mitchell's Kirsten case. Although the murderer has been apprehended on site and convicted, Mitchell later discovered that exactly the same ritualistic murders have been going on for years and nobody batted an eyelash. Needless to say, the murder that Lucas committed and that Carla investigates follows the same pattern. Reeks of an AncientConspiracy? [[spoiler:There is one]].

** After you befriend Nick enough, he tells you about the last case that he can remember from before he was made a synth. There was a mobster who had killed his [[LoveInterest girl]] but managed to get away with it. You are able to help him bring closure to this case by tracking down the evidence that has survived and locating [[spoiler: the now ghoulified mobster]].
** If you go through the files in Nick's office one of them talks about the MysteriousStranger who Nick assumes is some immortal serial killer. While you cannot talk to Nick about this, should you have the perk and the MysteriousStranger appears Nick will recognize him and attempt to apprehend him.

* In ''VideoGame/LANoire'', Phelps actually solves a real life ThatOneCase, the infamous [[spoiler:Black Dahlia murder]]. But you are informed that due to the killer's family connections, he can never reveal the truth.
* [[InspectorJavert Inspector Juste Volerti]] of ''VideoGame/AviaryAttorney'' has a fixation on finding the Viridian Killer, who in the revolutions eighteen years ago sniped many people and cost Volerti an eye, two legs, and an arm.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', resolving a former cop party member's One Case is an optional sidequest. He actually knows all the relevant information (a MadDoctor was paying poor people to let him clone organs inside them, [[BodyHorror leaving the organs if they didn't grow right]], and selling the ones that did come out right on the black market), but didn't get to kill the guy during their first encounter.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': Nearly all the games have a major unresolved case that the protagonists ends up dealing with, mostly due to a current murder being related to aforementioned old case.
** The [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney first game]] has the DL-6 Incident: the murder of a defense attorney who'd been trapped in a courtroom elevator after an earthquake. Most major characters in the series are somehow affected by this one crime; [[spoiler: The victim was Gregory Edgeworth, Miles Edgeworth's father, and the culprit was his mentor Manfred von Karma (who was trying to corrupt Miles into the sort of AmoralAttorney Gregory hated as revenge for Gregory getting him a penalty during a case). Phoenix became a lawyer himself to investigate how his friend Miles had grown up to be a "demon prosecutor", which happened because of his father's death. The culprit of the 4th case, Yanni Yogi, was a suspect in the DL-6 incident who got off via InsanityDefense, ruining his life, and sought to kill his lawyer as revenge (he really was innocent, but his lawyer was sleazy and wouldn't believe him). Misty Fey, the leader of the Fey Clan and mother to Phoenix's mentor Mia and assistant Maya, was called in to use her spirit medium powers to aid in the investigation, but when this failed and the results were leaked to the press, her clan's reputation was dragged through the mud and Misty herself disappeared. Mia also spent most of her career trying to expose Redd White, the guy who'd leaked the information about the channeling, leading to Redd himself killing her]]. Behind that spoiler tag is a ''long'' list of people whose lives were affected (and usually ruined) by this one mystery, [[spoiler: which Phoenix has to put to rest in case 1-4 after Edgeworth is proven innocent of the crime he was originally accused of (the aforementioned Yanni Yogi killing his lawyer), but confesses to DL-6 and Phoenix now has to prove him innocent of his father's murder.]]
** "Rise from the Ashes" has the SL-9 Incident, which was officially closed 2 years ago, but several detectives who were on that case think something's up. [[spoiler: It was known to the public as the Joe Darke Killings, where a SerialKiller who had left no conclusive evidence for his crimes was captured after killing prosecutor Neil Marshall, which provided the evidence needed to get him the death penalty. However, police officer Damon Gant manipulated his partner Lana into framing Joe Darke for Neil's murder (which he actually committed himself, but made it look like Lana's little sister Ema had done). Neil Marshall's brother Jake always thought that something was wrong, and eventually convinced Bruce Goodman (the lead detective on SL-9) to take another look at the evidence, which unfortunately led to Gant killing him to prevent his crime from being uncovered, and Lana forced to take the fall for it. Phoenix gets involved when Ema, convinced her sister was innocent, hires him to defend Lana.]]
** [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations Case 3-4]] is That One Case for Phoenix's mentor Mia. It's the first case Mia took, and ended in a mistrial. The case traumatized her to the point where she didn't take another for a year. [[spoiler: Mia had ''almost'' pinned Dahlia Hawthorne for the murder of her half-sister Valerie, but Dahlia was able to get away by manipulating the defendant Terry Fawles into killing himself before he could give crucial testimony that would implicate her. Mia only got back in the game when another case allowed her the opportunity to [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty finally bring Dahlia to justice]]. In the next case of the game, it's revealed that Edgeworth, who was prosecuting for the first time ever during that case, looks back on it with similar distaste.]]

*** The IS-7 incident, where a pastry chef was found dead on the set of a dessert cooking show. Its investigation is the subject of the third chapter, where Edgeworth has to find a way to both solve the cold case and get around the statute of limitations to catch the murderer, but its shadow hangs over the entire series. [[spoiler: Gregory Edgeworth defended the main suspect, Jeffery Masters, and Manfred von Karma was the prosecutor. While Gregory Edgeworth lost the case, he ''was'' able to prove that von Karma had extracted illegal testimony from the defendant, which got von Karma his one and only penalty- which directly led to DL-6. The real culprit was also the father of the BigBad, and the incident was a major contributory factor to said villain's StartOfDarkness.]]

* Played with in ''Series/{{Castle}}''; Det. Beckett's mother was murdered, providing her FreudianExcuse, but she decided to stop looking at her mother's case because it was driving her crazy, and forbids anyone else from looking at it. Still unsolved as of this point. [[spoiler:Although Castle did make some headway, he lost Beckett's friendship because of it. StatusQuoIsGod, however, and getting back together is the emotional subplot of [=S2E1=]]].

** ''Gyakuten Kenji 2'':
*** The IS-7 incident, where a pastry chef was found dead on the set of a dessert cooking show. Its investigation is the subject of the third chapter, where Edgeworth has to find a way to both solve the cold case and get around the statute of limitations to catch the murderer, but its shadow hangs over the entire series. [[spoiler: Gregory Edgeworth defended the main suspect, Jeffery Masters, and Manfred von Karma was the prosecutor. While Gregory Edgeworth lost the case, he ''was'' able to prove that von Karma had extracted illegal testimony from the defendant, which got von Karma his one and only penalty- which directly led to DL-6. The culprit was also the father of the BigBad, and the incident was a major contributory factor to said villain's StartOfDarkness.]]

** [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations Case 3-4]] is ThatOneCase for Phoenix's mentor Mia. It's the first case Mia took, and ended in a mistrial. The case traumatized her to the point where she didn't take another for a year. [[spoiler: Mia had ''almost'' pinned Dahlia Hawthorne for the murder of her half-sister Valerie, but Dahlia was able to get away by manipulating the defendant Terry Fawles into killing himself before he could give crucial testimony that would implicate her. Mia only got back in the game when another case allowed her the opportunity to [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty finally bring Dahlia to justice]].]]

** [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations Case 3-4]] is ThatOneCase for Phoenix's mentor Mia. It's the first case Mia took, and ended in a mistrial. The case traumatized her to the point where she didn't take another for a year. [[spoiler: Mia had ''almost'' pinned Dahlia Hawthorne for the murder of her half-sister Valerie, but Dahlia was able to get away by manipulating the defendant Terry Fawles into killing himself before he could give crucial testimony that would implicate her. Mia only got back in the game when another case allowed her the opportunity to [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty finally bring Dahlia to justice]].]]

*** The IS-7 incident, [[spoiler:which was the final case Gregory Edgeworth worked on and brought about Manfred von Karma's only penalty in court, leading to the DL-6 incident. Miles Edgeworth would discover the truth behind the incident 18 years later, when the adopted daughter of Gregory's final client sought to bait the real killer out of hiding and into a poison gas trap. Edgeworth would have to find a way to extend the StatuteOfLimitations in order to get the real killer arrested. Later on, it would be revealed that BigBad and his friend were the missing sons of the real killer and the victim respectively, but the BigBad thought he was the victim's son, and so he plotted to have his friend killed]].
*** The SS-5 Incident; [[spoiler:the case where Shi-Long Lang's family name fell into disgrace. It was an assassination of the president of Zheng Fa disguised as a kidnapping, the whole thing plotted by the president's BodyDouble, who wanted the position of president for himself. Shi-Long Lang's father, Dai-Long Lang, was the president's bodyguard and a member of the Zheng Fa police, so he investigated the crime. But he was stymied by prosecutor Bansai Ichiyanagi, who happened to be in on the assassination and thus manipulated evidence that would have convicted his co-conspirators. However, the conspirators were not in the clear, as the BigBad happened to be a witness, and their attempts to hunt him down and silence him is what led to his revenge plot against them, and thus the events of the game]].

* The ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Lt. Jane Doe" has Ducky cancelling a trip to a conference in Britain to stay and investigate when a murder victim turns out to have a trident mark on her neck (and be a civilian dressed in naval uniform), just like the victim of a 10-year-old unsolved case he worked on. [[spoiler:It turns out that new murder was a crime of passion by the daughter of the original case's lead investigator, and she planted the evidence to link to the older case. The original killer (but not the original victim) is finally identified as a result of the new investigation]].

* C.D. Parker of ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' is met with the reopening of a cold case that retired him in the episode "Hall of Fame"--women in general. CD never caught the Hangman because he got checked into a clinic to try and mend his personality, but that failed and he went right back to killings. CD has a proper showdown this time.

* One American PoliceProcedural with a focus on Medical Examiners had a dead detective that became increasingly obsessed with one of his unsolved case. However the case was only a couple of years old and it was considered widly out of charcter for him. Autopsy revealed that he had undiagnosed Huntington's Disease and the behavior came from the cognitive decline from it's progression.