In Atlanta, when a young father is found dead in his home by his girlfriend, detectives track down the killer and find things are not as they appear. In Tulsa, a teenager is fatally shot, sending the Tulsa team on a desperate search for the motive.
In Tulsa, detectives have little to go on when they find the naked body of an unknown homeless woman who was raped, strangled to death, and thrown into a dumpster.
A young woman is found dead behind an abandoned building in Mobile, AL and detectives need her boyfriend to help solve the case; A young father's murder case sends Atlanta detectives to the Pocono Mountains in search of his killers.
The First 48 follows detectives from around the country during these first critical hours as they race against time to find the suspect. Gritty and fast-paced, it takes viewers behind the scenes of real-life investigations with unprecedented access to crime scenes, autopsies, forensic processing, and interrogations.