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| • Anatomy of a Lye • |
Episode Number: 44#
Original Airdate: May 02, 2002
Written By: Josh Berman & Andrew Lipsitz
Directed By: Kenneth FLink
Synopsis: "Grissom and Sara investigate when a man's body, which has been doused with lye, is found buried in a park; Nick tries to determine how a hiker apparently drowned in a desert."
Guest Stars:
Paul Schackman as Bob Martin
Jeffrey D. Sams as Det. Lockwood
Gabriel Olds as Ben Weston
Anthony Starke as Matt Hudson
Zachary Quinto as Mitchell Sullivan
Eric Stonestreet as Ronnie Litre
Adam Nelson as Bob Martin's Roommate
Notes:
- This episode is loosely based on the Chante Mallard case in which Mallard hit Gregory Glenn Briggs with her vehicle and let him die in her garage.
| | • Review • |
Children play tag in a park, one of them falls and when he gets up he screams in pain, his hands burned by the dirt.
Grissom and Sara arrive at the park; Brass explains that Hazmet is there because of the burning dirt, and in investigating that, they found a body, buried and covered in lye. They discover that the body is Bob Walton, of Nevada, and there's a silver paint fleck on the body. Grissom comments that the park is pretty much open to whoever wants to dump a body. At the morgue, Dr. Robbins tells them that the body's been dead for about 24 hours, then adds that the body was hit by a car, and survived the impact; the car accident happened about 2 days before death, and the victim bled out until he died.
Nick arrives at Diablo Canyon to investigate the death of a woman. He notes that there are no car tire marks around; and pulls a down feather out of her eye, but she's not wearing a jacket. He also pulls a maggot out of her ear.
Brass and Sara tell Bob's roommate of his death; he's most worried about collecting on owed rent. He tells them that the last time he saw Bob was last Monday, and he didn't think much of it. Grissom stands outside; Sara tells him that Bob booked a photo lab on Monday night, they cross the street to catch the bus and are almost hit by a car. Grissom looks at the ground, and finds silver flecks, like the one on the body, and a piece of plastic; they realize that this could be their crime scene. Sara wonders how a guy with two broken legs ends up across town in a park, covered in lye. Grissom says that there's no sign of clean up; Sara comments that somewhere between here and the park, Bob Martin lost eight to ten pints of blood, and wonders where it is.
In the lab, Greg has analyzed the silver flecks, and has found that it comes from an S-Class Mercedes, and the silver paint makes it a '99. Sara has a list of owners of that type of car, with one good possibility: Ben Weston, a lawyer in town. They interview him; his first question is "You found my car?" He tells them that it was stolen on Monday night when he'd stopped for some food, he'd reported it and gives them a copy. Grissom says that they're investigating a hit and run. They asks to see his clothes, which he hands over, wrapped in dry cleaning bags. Sara comments on the shirt, saying that there was lye on the shirt and that's why there are holes in it. She asks him to take off his shirt, but he tells them that they'll need a warrant for that.
David tells Nick that the girl in the desert drowned; Nick says it's impossible, then comments that her boyfriend, Matt Hudson, never filed a missing person report. They go talk to him, and he explains that she wasn't missing because she was training, and he didn't expect her back for two or three more days. Nick looks around and takes a sample of the swimming pool water. He notes a blood mark on the edge of the pool. Mr. Hudson has no idea how the blood got there, and says he'd never hurt Stacy; and the domestic abuse report from a couple of weeks ago was a misunderstanding; it was just them yelling at each other during training. He has an alibi as well, as he was in Montana at a triathlon.
Brass, Sara, and Grissom go to a chop shop and ask about the Mercedes; the guy there says that he doesn't ask any questions when he gets a car like that. Grissom wants all the parts. In the lab, they test the parts for blood, but only find a trace amount. They spray the seats, and find that there's blood all over the passenger seat and dash board, which indicates that the victim was in the car. They decide that after the accident, the driver put the victim in the car, and took him somewhere, before finally taking him to the park to bury him.
Nick tells Warrick that the small amount of blood from the victim's home doesn't prove anything, and the water from the pool doesn't match the water in the girl's throat. There was a rock sample on her body, which Warrick says can only be found at altitudes higher than that at which the victim was found.
Sara and Grissom find blood under the passenger seat; Catherine comes in and admires the car, then comments that if the car were stolen the ignition lock would be punched, but it hasn't been. Grissom and Sara have Ben Weston brought in; he tells them that he left the keys in the car, parked in handicap parking and ran in to get the food. Sara asks him again to take off his shirt; once again, he asks for a warrant, which they have this time. He rolls up his sleeves; Sara points out that the warrant is for the whole shirt. When he takes it off, he has a seat belt bruise on his chest, and claims that it isn't what they think, that he hit something but stopped and figured it was a dog, then went to the restaurant, where his car was stolen. Brass arrests him. Grissom says they need a warrant for Weston's house.
Nick hikes up the cliffs with the detective; they find a down vest caught on the rocks, and it's ripped. It would have been too large for the victim, and has a map in the pocket that belongs to Matt Hudson. Nick suggests that Matt followed her out, they fought and... he's stumped as to how she drowned. He tells the detective that he once solved a case involving a scuba diver in a tree, and he'll figure this one out too. They interview Matt Hudson again; he admits lending the jacket to Stacy so that she'd stay warm, and that the map is his, adding that he wants it back. After he leaves, Nick comments that Matt didn't want him to have the map, and he wants to find out why.
Grissom and Sara arrive at Ben Weston's house, and he's there, with Brass, who comments that Weston made bail. He tells Grissom that he's filing a complaint of harassment against them; Grissom counters by saying that Mr. Weston, as a lawyer, knows that investigating a crime is not harassment, however, for Mr. Weston to make false allegations of harassment could be slander. Grissom adds that he knows the law too, and he's actually been in a court room. They examine his garage, and discover the rental car parked there. But it's wet, and Grissom wonders why Mr. Weston would leave his car outside with the sprinklers on when he has a garage? Once the car is moved, a large mark is visible on the garage floor, which smells like bleach.
Nick has the map tested for any alterations; he asks if Grissom looked at the maggot from his victim, Grissom says that it was stunted by frozen air, even though it was on a body in the desert. Greg comments that Las Vegas isn't all desert; there's a lot of rain in the mountain ranges; more than even Seattle gets.
Grissom and Sara use Ecklie's Mercedes to re-enact what might have happened in the accident. They speculate that the the victim's head went through the windshield, and he bled out on to the floor mat. Dr. Robbins says that this took two days; Grissom says that it's possible that he was there, in the garage for two days while the Mr. Weston was at work. Sara points out that the tow truck driver said that the Mercedes was totalled, while Ben Weston claimed that there was only a little damage. They talk to the chop shop guy again, and discover that he and Ben Weston were in the same class together, and tell him that he's now an accomplice to murder, which means 20 to life. Greg comes in with the test results from the garage floor; the tests were inconclusive. She checks the rental car for blood, but can't find anything there either.
In the desert, Nick and the detective discuss the weather, and there was three inches of rain in 20 minutes the night that Stacy died. They suppose that if she were climbing and hit her head, then got caught in the storm, she could have been washed down and drowned in the flood water as she was carried to the base of the canyon. Nick gets a call that the map has been tampered with. At Matt Hudson's house, Nick tells him that he had a hand in Stacy's death by altering the map; if she'd had a proper map, she could have gotten out of the canyon before nightfall. Matt Hudson admits that they competed against each other, and he simply didn't want Stacy to beat his time. They don't charge him, but he's left with his guilty conscience.
Mr. Weston tells Grissom that the entire case is circumstantial; Grissom shows him the cell phone that they found in the car at the chop shop. There was one call made on the phone at 2:30 a.m., while the car was still in Mr. Weston's possession, and the call was to 9-1-1, made by the deceased, saying that he was in a garage. Sara says it was an accident that he let escalate to first degree murder; adding that there had been a party at his office that night, and he'd been drinking when he hit Bob, and wanted to wait for the alcohol to wear off before he called in the accident. Ben Weston tells them that he sacrificed everything to get to the point that he's at in his life right now. Sara is called from the room, and Bob's roommate gives her a sheet of paper, which she takes back to the interview room and gives to Grissom, who explains to Weston that the accident was no accident; Bob was trying to commit suicide; they now have his suicide note. If Mr. Weston had called it in immediately, he would have been completely off the hook for what happened, however, by letting Bob die, he's now culpable.
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