Innocence Lost

Innocence Lost refers to episode 5 of the Season 4 of the television series Forensic Files which was broadcast for the first time on November 3, 1999.

Plot summary
In 1989, five-year-old Melissa Brannen went missing from a Christmas party in Lorton, Virginia. The fibers on her clothes were the only means for police to determine her abductor. Police grew suspicious of Cal Hughes who was washing his clothes at 1 a.m. when they went to his home.

They searched his car and found several fibers similar to the clothes that Melissa had worn to the party. However, there was no way to test the fibers until an investigator's wife remembered seeing Melissa's outfit in a catalog. An identical outfit was located and tested. The fibers matched, and Cal Hughes was convicted of abduction with intent to defile and given a 50-year sentence.