Every body tells a story: who they were, how they lived, and most importantly, how they died. Silent Witness follows a team of expert pathologists, including Dr Nikki Alexander and Professor Leo Dalton, as they investigate suspicious deaths. In this series Nikki joins forces with the irrepressible Jack Hodgson, a talented forensic scientist, to prove to a sceptical Detective Inspector Gold that the death of the wealthy owner of a confectionary company is due to murder, not natural causes.
Jack?s work ethic and commitment is a blessing to Leo, who has been warned by the Home Office to rethink the business operation of the Lyell Centre. By employing Jack as head of a new forensics department, he secures the laboratory?s future. Now part of the team, Jack joins Nikki as she investigates the murder of a pub landlady. She?s been stabbed to death and her little finger is missing. Her husband Roly is the prime suspect, but as Nikki and Jack piece together evidence, inconsistencies lead Nikki to believe Roly is innocent.
The case of two young women shot dead in a basement forces Jack to lock horns with an old flame, the ambitious Detective Inspector Reed. As the animosity escalates, Nikki?s probing unearths the potentially career-damaging truth behind it ? Jack accused DI Reed of seducing him to tamper with forensic evidence on a murder case and so protect an informant suspected of the crime.
Elsewhere, when the discovery of a young man?s remains halt an eco-housing development Nikki and Jack are under pressure to piece together what happened. Meanwhile, Leo finds himself trapped in a dangerous siege as a distraught father holds a hospital ward at gunpoint to turn off his terminally ill son?s life support machine.
In the final story, British Army Corporal Scott Lambert requests Leo?s expertise in identifying human remains unearthed in Afghanistan, believed to be those of his brother. Leo, Nikki and Jack head for the war-torn country in search of the truth. When Leo narrowly evades death in a close call with a land mine, Nikki, Jack and Leo question why they ever left the UK.