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| • COMING SOON • |
COMING SOON
Episode Number: 21#
Original Airdate: Justice Is Served
Written By: Jerry Stahl
Directed By: Thomas J. Wright
Synopsis: "Grissom, Nick, and Warrick take the case of a jogger who was killed by a wild animal in the park. It gets complicated when they discover that the jogger had his liver removed after he was killed. Catherine and Sara investigate the death of a six year old girl at shady carnival."
Guest Stars:
Alicia Coppola as Dr. Susan Hillridge
Brad Johnson as Paul Newsome
Steffani Brass as Sandy Dantini
Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
Kelly Connell as Randy Gesek
W. Earl Brown as Thomas Pickens
Kellie Waymire as Carla Dantini
Robert David Hall
Skip O'Brien as Det. O'Riley
Lee Arenberg as Joey
Albie Selznick as Hugh Young
Wayne Wilderson as Edwin
Notes:
- Jorja Fox and Alicia Coppola, who played Dr. Susan Hillridge, were in Velocity Trap together (sci-fi movie from 1997).
| | • Review • |
The episode begins with a man jogging through a park. He slows down and looks around for something when he is attacked from behind by an animal. It's nighttime when Grissom, Warrick and Nick arrive at the crime scene. Grissom notes that the victim was dragged or slid down a hill. Nick comments that it was a bad time to be out jogging-when the animals are out hunting. The victims body is torn by what Warrick thinks a mountain lion caused. Grissom tells him that some of the wounds are from a scalpel.
Grissom arrives at the CSI department and finds Catherine leaving his office. She tells him she's taking the carnival case where a six year old died on a ride. She doesn't want them to leave before she can investigate. He tells her to take Sara with her.
At the autopsy, Doctor Robbins, informs Grissom, Warrick and Nick, the victim wasn't attacked by a feline. Cats always scratch and the vic has no scratch marks. Based on the bite marks, Doc Robbins tells them it was a canine. He says he'll make a mold of the wound and try to determine the breed. He tells them someone removed his organs. Grissom says it must be someone with a medical degree.
When Sara and Catherine arrive at the carnival the Coroner's Assistant is about to place the girl in a body bag when Catherine stops him. She wants her to have a new bag-she deserves it. Catherine states that she looks scared. She tells Sara to get the mom's statement while she processes the crime scene. The mom doesn't know how it happened. One minute she was happy, the next she'd fallen out of her buggy into the water. She jumped into the water after her daughter but couldn't find her. By the time she found the ride operator it was too late.
Nick and Warrick return to the park to look for dog scat. Warrick finds something that Nick believes is ice. Warrick wants to take it as evidence but Nick doesn't think it's relevant.
Back at the carnival, the ride operator tells Catherine they've never had a problem with the ride before. As soon as the mom started screaming he turned off the ride. Catherine notes the seat belt in the buggy is loose and wants to know why. He tells her it's the tunnel of love ride and couples like to be close to each other. She tells him a six year old could easily slide through. She goes inside the ride and begins taking pictures. She sees a break in the tracks and takes a picture of it. She notices a hammer in the water and storms over to the ride operator and confronts him about it. She thinks he tampered with the ride to try and cover up the little girl's death. She tricks him into a drug test because he is clearly high.
Grissom is in his office studying the teeth mold when Greg enters. He tells Grissom the dog is large and is missing a tooth. Grissom already knew that. He informs Greg the dog is a Great Dane/Mastiff mix and there are 40 registered in Vegas.
Nick and Warrick are inspecting the scat for human flesh when Grissom tells them about the dog. Detective O'Riley tells them they found the dog and he has record. The dog attacked a meter man, biting off a piece of theigh and a testicle.
Grissom and O'Riley arrive at a woman's house. She is Doctor Susan Hillridge. Dr. Hillridge doesn't know why they think Simba, her dog, was involved in the jogger's death. She says he’s not violent. When they ask about the meter man, she tells them that was her old dog, which she had put down. Grissom tells her about the tooth and that they’ll be taking the dog. Grissom asks her what her specialty is; she’s a nutritionist. Her patients are pro athletes. She’s never heard of Terry Manning, the jogger.
Greg tells Catherine, the ride operator’s drug tox was clean. It shows he was on the pill though. He swiped his urine with a woman’s sample he had. Sara informs Catherine that the carnival has violations in eight states according to OSHA. Half the employees have a record and Pickens’, the boss, real name is Roger Peet who’s a sex offender.
In the interview room, Peet states that he was walking through the streets when he heard the mom and turned off the ride. When he went in she was in the water. He didn’t touch her. Catherine tells him no matter what he tries, if he harmed Sandy Dantini, she’ll get him for it. Outside the interview room Sara asks Catherine if she’s taking the case personally because she’s a mom. Catherine wants to know why he was hanging around the only ride with kids in the dark.. She thinks he pulled her out of the ride and Sara asks if she can prove that.
Grissom shows Nick that Simba’s mold is a perfect match to the jogger. Grissom says before they can have Simba put down, they need to find bits of the jogger in his scat. Nick tells him there was Great Dane size scat containing premium dog food-sirloin and rice-nothing fake. They leave to find out what Dr. Hillridge feeds her dog. On their way out, Warrick shows them the container which held the ice. It didn’t melt, but evaporated. It was dry ice which is used by surgeons for organ transplants.
At Dr. Hillridge’s house Nick collects more scat from Simba. Grissom finds Dr. Hillridge in her kitchen and aks if he can look in her freezer. She tells him she doesn’t care but she has a client coming and needs to get ready for him. She appears to be making a smoothie. Her freezer is full of containers, carefully labeled, containing various foods. She tells Grissom, she’s not upset about her dog, she doesn’t get attached to things. He notices her precision in her chopping and asks where she went to school. She tells him the CIA-Culinary Institute of America.. Warrick shows Grissom a box of surgical supplies from 1875. He wants to know why she keeps them by the door. He hopes it links them to the crime scene.
Doc Robbins tells Catherine and Sara the little girl died from drowning. She was taller than the water level so she should have been able to get out. X-rays shows her forearm was broken. The break shows someone twisted her arm till it broke. Catherine believes Peet yanked her from the car and tried to leave but the exists didn’t work. He panicked and held her under water. Catherine is even more determined to prove he did it. Outside the autopsy Mrs. Dantini approaches Catherine about her daughter. She wants to know when her daughter will be released. Catherine doesn’t know but wants to ask her a few questions. Catherine asks if it was possible someone pulled her daughter out of if there might have been someone else in the tunnel. Mrs. Dantini’s not sure; she was too focused trying to find her daughter.
Grissom talks with a funeral director about organ theft. He tells him organs are sold for a lot overseas. He says he knows this from a convention. He says locally corneas go for five thousand, a kidney 20 thousand, a liver 40 thousand, bowels 30 and pancreas 18. Back at the CSI lab, Nick tells Warrick the scat from the park and backyard are a match. The backyard scat is full of human tissue cells and is a match to the joggers DNA. Warrick conducts a test on the surgical instruments and finds evidence of blood.
Catherine and Sara inform Pickens the carnival is to stay put. He tries to threaten them by Catherine threatens to throw him in jail. Brass arrives with a court order to keep the rides there and for Pickens to go to the police station.
Grissom tells Nick and Warrick that if the doctor cut up the jogger she didn’t use the scalpel from the antique surgical tool kit. Greg performed a test and found the blood to be between 50 to 200 years old. Dr. Hillridge arrives at CSI to see Grissom. She wants to know when she’ll get her tools back. She’s also upset that a warrant seized everything from her kitchen and office. Grissom tells her he knows about her three previous complaints in three different states for owning a vicious dog. He asks how much organs go for. He hints that she sold Manning’s organs and may have done so before.
Nick and Warrick test several items for blood. There is evidence of it in the blender Dr. Hillridge used to make a protein shake. Grissom tells Warrick to send it to DNA to see if it’s the jogger’s blood. There’s also blood in a glass. It appears she didn’t sell the organs but drank them.
At the carnival Catherine conducts an experiment to find out when the girl was pulled. She sits in a cart with a dummy that weighs the same as Sandy. During the ride several technicians try to pull her out but no one can. The belt wasn’t loose enough. Sara notes the only person who could have pulled her out was her mother. Catherine tells her the mom’s eyes were in the wrong direction. When a person remembers something they look to the right. When they look left they’re creating or fabricating what happened. Catherine tells Sara to call Brass and have him meet them at Mrs. Dantini’s house.
Dr. Hillridge has been brought in for questioning. Grissom tells her they found blood in her blender and matched it to the jogger. She tells him bugs will die if they don’t have bodies to feed off of and she will too. Porphyria, the madness of King George, or the legend of the vampire is what she suffers from. It caused her lips and gums to recede. She tried different drug regiments but nothing helped. Her spleen absorbed her blood so it was removed. After lesions formed on her face she bought her first dog. If she used a gun or poisoned her victims their blood would have been tainted. She tells him humans are the best source of heme. That’s when he understands why she took the liver, spleen, and heart. She tells him she’ll die in prison. Grissom says the people she would feed off of will still be alive. She is placed under arrest for the murder of Terry Manning. As she’s being escorted out she tells him she would dry the organs and grind them up. Then she’d put it in her protein shake.
Brass, Catherine and Sara arrive at Mrs. Dantini’s house with a warrant to search her clothes from the night her daughter died. While looking at her clothes Catherine notes her watch is water logged. Mrs. Dantini says it’s because she went in the water after her daughter. Catherine notes her shoes are dry and that there’s a blue lining inside. If her shoes were wet they would have left an indigo dye on her white socks. They are still white. Catherine says she held her daughter under water until she drowned. She wants to know if she did it so she could blame the carnival and marry her boyfriend and live like newlyweds without a kid. Mrs. Dantini says she needs a lawyer. Catherine tells Jim to arrest her. While bagging the evidence, Sara asks Catherine if she wants to get something to eat. Catherine turns her down; she wants to go home.
Catherine goes to Paul Newsome’s house. He answers his door in his robe. He is pleased to see she got his message. She goes inside and kisses him as he closes the door.
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