In Tulsa, Okla., a barrage of gunfire kills a man while he's sitting in his car, with his 2-year-old daughter in the back seat; an elderly Atlanta man is burned alive in a building fire suspected to be arson.
When a popular New Orleans hip-hop promoter is gunned down next to his limousine, the search for the killer leads Detective Clinton Givens to more than he bargained for. In Tulsa, a friendly night of drinking at a senior center apartment complex leaves one man dead and another wounded. Detective Mark Kennedy must find a third man who was there to uncover what happened.
A New Orleans woman is found stabbed to death and stuffed in a trash bin the day before Thanksgiving; an Atlanta man's friend and girlfriend become suspects in the case of his fatal stabbing.
A Tennessee family is attacked by a vicious home intruder; a rookie detective and his veteran partner probe the case of a severed head found in the Florida Everglades.
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.