History Series / HomicideHunter

* NotHisBlood: One episode has Joe recount coming home from a case and inadvertently scaring his wife Kathy because he was covered in blood from a victim who turned out to still be alive. Once the shock wears off, she says that it's interesting being married to him sometimes.

* HurtingHero: Kenda is very open about his feelings when cases really bother him, and the fact that he has PTSD. In many episodes you can tell some of the cases still really bother him and a few times he nearly breaks down on camera and has to take a moment to compose himself. He also admits that he doesn't sleep well because of what he does and that he decided to retire because he couldn't take the pressure of the job anymore. On Chris Hardwick's podcast, he tells a story of how he went to a therapist to help with his PTSD. By the time the session was over, the therapist was in tears and Kenda had to comfort ''him''.

* PresentDayPast: The cases cover the period of 1977 to 1996, but the fashions and such in the re-creations are normally contemporary to the time the show is filmed (from 2011 on). They do make the effort on obvious things (such as no personal computers early on and having to manually go through documents instead of having a computer record, and no cell phones except for the latest cases in his career), but the police cars are contemporary with LED lightbars and a cheap hotel in the late 1980s isn't going to have a large flatscreen television in the lobby (as is seen in the background of one episode). Arguably, this is an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]] given that the show is mostly set in interview format and is relatively low-budget.

* AlwaysGetsHisMan: Kenda's solve rate may not be 100% (it's 356/387 or 92% according to Wiki/ThatOtherWiki), but it is well above the national average.

* BastardBoyfriend: Kenda once noted, "Crazy boyfriend? I LIKE crazy boyfriends." He also likes the GenderFlip version.

** In one segment, Kenda mentions feeling sick to his stomach when given the address of a crime scene. It's a bar that he and his wife frequently visit and with that, he knows that it's highly likely that he knows the victim. Indeed, it's the owner. Kenda promptly kneels at the woman's body and takes her hand--a ''major'' violation of police protocol--and whispers an apology, while giving a DeathGlare to the officer who chastises him. In the present, Kenda tears up while recalling the case, indicating that it still affects him.
** He freely admits to being pleased at seeing that her killer [[spoiler:AteHisGun and also states that he might have taken matters into his own hands had he had the chance]].

---> "This kid's [[spoiler: lost enough today]]. [[RuleOfEmpathy He's NOT going to lose his dog too."]]

* EvilDetectingDog[=/=]HeroicDog: A little girl manages to escape from her house, where her father is holding her and her mother hostage, by claiming that she needs to take the dog for a walk. When she walks out of the house and encounters Kenda and his fellow officers, Kenda mentions being afraid that the dog would bark and alert the gunman to their presence, but instead, he kept quiet, as if sensing that this was a very dangerous situation. He then pulled his mistress along towards the police, and out of danger.

%%* KnifeNut

* AdultFear:
** Kenda hates working on cases with children as the victims. In more than one episode, he describes the feeling of witnessing dead children, and how it makes his blood boil. Kenda has said that after working on a case involving children, when coming home, he always hugs his kids. This is how his wife knows that Kenda has been working on such a case, so no conversation is necessary.
** Additionally, in one episode, a young boy's father [[spoiler: murders his mother, and ends up being sent to prison for it]]. The boy is about to be separated from his dog by authorities, which is the only emotional support he had at the time. Kenda puts a stop to this right away.
---> "This kid's [[spoiler: lost enough today]]. [[RuleOfEmpathy He's NOT going to lose his dog too."]]

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In a real life example straight out of ''Series/LawAndOrder'' [[spoiler: the episode 'The Master Key' ends with the suspect acquitted of stabbing a pregnant woman and her 2 children to death, then, less than a year later, is found shoved out a 10th story window.]]