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| • Jackpot • |
Episode Number: 75#
Original Airdate: November 06, 2003
Written By: Naren Shankar & Carol Mendelsohn
Directed By: Danny Cannon
Synopsis: "Grissom visits a small Nevada town to investigate the death of a man whose severed head was found by a dog in some nearby woods; and Catherine receives an unexpected and unwelcome gift from her dad, which prompts her to visit him."
Guest Stars:
Scott Wilson as Sam Braun
Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Dale Sterling
Victoria Reingar
Henry Czerny
Cameron Dye
Michael Bowen
Brandon Beemer
Wallace Langham as David Hodges
Romy Rosemont as Jacqui Franco
David Berman as David Phillips
Nathan Wetherington
Alyson Reed
Christina Carlisi
Roger Hewlett
Notes:
- Location scenes were filmed in September in the Big Bear Valley town of Fawnskin.
- George Eads and Jorja Fox do not appear in this episode.
| | • Review • |
In the lab, Dr. Robbins opens a package, and cuts the seal on the bucket inside; it's a head in formaldehyde; Grissom knows about it already, and they note some leaves and what looks like animal activity. Dr. Robbins says that the head wasn't cut off; Grissom notes a cut on the jaw line which took human skill.
Dr. Robbins washes the head; Hodges takes the leaves for testing. Catherine comes in and asks when Grissom will be back; he's in Jackpot, Nevada, where the head came from. Grissom arrives and goes into the local diner; he starts to introduce himself to the waitress and she immediately calls over to the Sheriff, "Hey Alan, guy's here about the head." Lieutenant Alan Brooks introduces his brother Leland; they tell Grissom that the body isn't anyone from town, and suggest that he might have been a hiker who took a fall. Grissom tells them about the cut on the jaw and says that there's not only a body out there, there's also a killer.
Hodges tells Catherine that the leaves are spruce, aspen and there's no manzanida leaves so it was on a north facing hillside, above a certain elevation. Catherine calls Grissom with the information. Alan asks if the call was from Grissom's wife, and he says yes. Grissom talks to the local woman whose dog found the head; she tells him that the dog was a little sick after chewing on the head, but he's okay now; she's worried that he'll find other body parts. Grissom tells her that studies show that when domestic animals find body parts, it means that the body is within a half-mile radius. Grissom looks at a nearby slope and wants to look it over, the Sheriff tells Grissom about the town's problems, and why he and his deputies don't have time to be looking for the body. One of the deputies shouts that they've found something. At the scene, the deputies are being sick; the body is buried up to the shoulders, and the head is missing. Grissom estimates that the body has been there four to seven days; he notes that it would take a fair amount of dedication to dig a hole deep enough to bury the body, and the killer may have had a helper. Grissom determines that the boy was alive when buried, and the cut on the jaw was done to draw predators, so it wasn't just murder, it was torture.
Grissom, the Sheriff, and the deputies stand around the body, waiting. Alan wants to know what they're waiting for; Grissom says that they can't do anything until the scene has been released. The local coroner arrives, Dr. Dale Sterling, who is a vet. He looks at the body and says that he's dead, and they're authorized to dig it up. Grissom gives the deputies instructions on how to dig it up so that the evidence is preserved; Alan wants to get to work on it before night falls.
At Dr. Sterling's office, the vet tells Grissom that he can autopsy the body, but Grissom says that he can't, they can only examine the body for evidence, and then it will have to be sent to Vegas for the autopsy, and that will have to be done tonight. There's no wallet on the body, but Grissom finds some paper in one pocket, but doesn't know what it is. He notes that there are no ligature marks on the body, which means that the boy wasn't tied up and wonders how the killer kept him there while he dug the hole. The vet suggests that maybe the hole was dug first, which Grissom says would indicate premeditation. Grissom suggests that maybe he was drugged, since the dog that found the head was sick. He asks Dr. Sterling if he took blood from the head; he did, and sent it for testing, but the results haven't come back yet. Grissom tells him to call and have tox screens done on the blood, and also decides to test the dog as well. He takes pictures of the body in the sealed body bag, and a picture of the deputy who'll be driving it to Vegas, and tells Alan Brooks that they're souvenirs. Dr. Sterling offers Grissom a place to stay; Grissom wants a place to work.
At the vet's, Grissom works on unfolding the paper that he took from the body. He faxes a copy of it to Catherine; it's a LVU bookstore receipt for freshman texts, with one course at the sophomore level, which narrows down the search for them.
Brass and Catherine ask Eric about his roommate, Ross Jenson. Eric says he hasn't seen him in a few days, but this isn't unusual, since he's an art student and often goes away for days at a time. He gives them permission to look around the room; Catherine notices shoes in the closet with leaves on them, and notes that they're aspen leaves. Eric tells them that Ross likes Northern Nevada for the scenery. Brass tells him that they'll be taking the computer and a few other things back to the lab with them.
At Dr. Sterling's office, Grissom gets a fax; the student identification for Ross Jenson. He shows it to the diner waitress, who remembers him; one of the locals mentions that Ross was driving a little black or blue car. Grissom asks Alan Brooks where the car is; he says that it's probably long gone by now. Grissom tells him that if the killer is local, then the car has probably been stashed nearby. Using a placemat map, he determines the road that Ross would have been using to leave town, and that the killer would have had to intercepted him on that road. Alan tells him to knock himself out looking for it, but offers no help. Grissom drives out of town on the road, and finds some tire tracks going off the road; he follows them past the site where the body was buried and finds an old barn. He investigates, and sees the car inside; he determines that the killer broke into the barn and hid the car inside. As he's looking into the barn, he hears his car alarm going off in the distance; he goes back to his car and discovers that the window has been broken and his kit stolen.
Grissom goes back to Dr. Sterling's office and wants to borrow some medical supplies, as well as the left-over tinting film that was used on the windows. Outside, he sees Alan and reports the theft of his kit, then heads off to the department store to buy some supplies. Alan suggests that Grissom come to the Sheriff's office and fill in a report on his missing kit; Grissom asks if that would help at all, then tells Alan that he called the State Troopers to come and secure the barn; Alan notes that it will take them a couple of hours to arrive, and Grissom tells him that it's just enough time for him to burn the barn down. Grissom uses the supplies that he bought to replace his kit; he lifts a shoe print from the floor inside the barn, and finds a travel coffee mug and a gym bag in the car. There's a hair on the gym bag; he also lifts finger prints from the steering wheel of the car. Alan arrives and tells Grissom that the search is illegal since he doesn't have a warrant; Grissom says that it's a crime scene, so no warrant is necessary. He asks who owns the barn; Alan tells him that nobody owns it, as the owner died a few years ago, but Marty Cooperman, the gas station attendant, has responsibility for the land. Grissom asks if this is who Alan is protecting?
At the gas station, Marty says he hasn't been out to the barn in ages, and he can fix the window on Grissom's car, then Grissom should leave. Grissom points out that Marty must have seen the victim even though he said he didn't, because Ross's car was full of gas, and Marty's station is the only one in town. Grissom gets a call from Catherine, who tells him that based on IMs found on the computer, Ross was having a relationship with someone in town. As she ends the call, Catherine is handed a letter from the Rampart Hotel; it's a check for $250,000.
Dr. Sterling tells Grissom that the dog had GHB in his system, and comments that that's a party drug. Grissom adds that it's also a powerful sedative. The vet also tells Grissom that the hair found in the car is from a cat, a tri-colored Abyssinian; he has one "patient" that fits that description, owned by Leland Brooks.
Grissom goes to talk to Alan and tells him that Ross was having a romantic relationship with someone in town; tat cat hair that matches Leland's cat was found in his car, and wants to know if Leland is gay? Alan tells Grissom that it's none of his business, then adds that Leland was married, and has a kid. Grissom tells Alan that Leland is a suspect. They go out to Leland's house, and Alan wants the opportunity to speak to him first, alone. As they talk inside, Grissom looks around outside, and sees some tire tracks in the dirt from a motorcycle. He sees the cat, and as he approaches the house to look at the cat, he hears raised voices, then a gun shot comes through the window, just missing Grissom. He looks in and sees Alan wrestling the shotgun away from Leland, who was trying to kill himself with it.
Grissom wants Alan to keep Leland in jail, which he says he will until Leland is ready to go home. He tells Grissom that Leland and Marty used to get into it all the time in high school, and one time, the two of them were fighting and Alan jumped in to help; he and Leland broke Marty's leg in three places. Grissom asks if he's supposed to be grateful that they showed restraint with him?
Catherine talks to Sam and says that she's there to return the money, adding that he's a murderer, and what will it look like the next time that he gets indicted? He tells her that he doesn't need her help, and that she should cash the check, or rip it up, he doesn't care; he has one son in jail, and another is dead, and he was just trying to do right by her because he never did before. Back at the lab, Catherine starts to rip up the check, but then stops. Greg comes in and tells her that they've got a possible inconsistency in the evidence.
At Dr. Sterling's office, Sterling tells Grissom that he's got a call from his wife; Catherine tells Grissom that Ross used Mapquest to get the directions to Jackpot; Grissom says that this fits with his theory that Ross had never been there before, it was his first and only visit. Catherine asks where the leaves on the shoes in the dorm room came from? Grissom asks her about the roommate, and when she says his name, Grissom repeats it: Eric Brooks. The vet comments that Eric is Leland's son.
They question Eric and ask if he was pissed off that Ross was in love with his dad? He explains his fingerprints in the car, saying that Ross let him borrow the car all the time. Catherine checks the bottom of his shoe against the print that Grissom lifted from the barn, and it matches. In Jackpot, Grissom asks Leland how he intended to keep his relationship from his son; Leland says that he's been hiding his relationships his whole life; he comments that Alan knew, and Alan admits that he saw Leland taking a walk with Ross. They tell him that Eric killed Ross; Leland doesn't believe them, but says that Eric could never deal with the fact that his mother left. Back at the station, Brass tells Eric how he committed the crime, by putting the GHB in Ross's coffee. Eric tells them that Ross used Leland's lonliness to ruin him, and make him a laughingstock in town. Brass asks if that is why Eric buried Ross and cut him; Catherine asks why Eric didn't go the distance, why he didn't kill him; was it because Eric was in love with Eric's father, or was it because Ross wasn't in love with him?
At the gas station in Jackpot, Alan talks to Grissom and tells him that he knew that the boy had been with Leland, so he assumed Leland had done it. Grissom says that not asking questions is what got everyone in trouble in the first place, and Alan asks if Grissom doesn't keep secrets? Grissom admits that he used to, but says that he's trying to change. He gets into his car, his kit is sitting on the seat beside him. He drives off.
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