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| • Big Middle • |
Episode Number: 108#
Original Airdate: February 24, 2005
Written By: Naren Shankar & Judith McCreary
Directed By: Bill Eagles
Synopsis: "Grissom and his team search for a murderer at a convention for plus-sized people. When the evidence suggests the victim died from asphyxia due to a large object on his chest, Grissom and his team track the killer to an APAPSP convention, "Association to Promote Acceptance of Plus-Sized People." Meanwhile, a large sum of cash and betting slips are found near a dead body on the outskirts of Vegas, leading Catherine's team into the world of high-stakes gambling."
Guest Stars:
David Berman as David Phillips
Wallace Langham as David Hodges
Alex Carter as Detective Vartan
Joseph Patrick Kelly as Officer Metcalf
John Furey as Councilman Gabe Miller
Steve Lawrence as Mitch Urbana
Craig Saslow as Scott Varney
Lee Burns as Kelvin Russell
Melora Hardin as Sports Book Manager
Claude Shires as Lou Barnes
Patrick Kilpatrick as Cesar Dabo
Kinna McInroe as Brenda Morgan
Tara Karsian as Jill Paisley
Debra Christofferson as Regina Kern
Lisa Brounstein as Chair Dancer #1
Michael Edwin as Oddsmaker #1
Jon Cellini as Oddsmaker #2
Patricia Heller as ER Surgeon
Notes:
- The search engine "Google" was used in the episode.
| | • Review • |
A common blowfly flies through Rainbow Canyon and lands in a gaping hole that was once a human face. Over time, the body decomposes and dries as blowfly eggs hatch into wriggling larvae. Predatory Hide Beetles eat the larvae and take over the skull. Grissom picks up a beetle and tells David Phillips that the body has been there at least two weeks.
The CSIs find buckshot around the body, but no wallet or ID. The victim is wearing a ring that is engraved with "#12" and "AFFA," "Las Vegas Greenbacks"--a football league that folded twenty years before. The man was shot at close range with a shotgun.
Catherine and Nick locate the plastic packing piece that keeps buckshot in place in the shell as well as evidence that the killer was chasing the victim. They find a beaver dam in a nearby creek. Inside the dam they find $100 bills.
Detective Vartann tells Greg Sanders that Maurice Hudson, 37, was found dead in a hotel suite. They found $14,000.00 in cash and credit cards. They also come across a nametag printed by the Tangiers Hotel. Maurice Hudson lies naked in the bed and Greg notices that livor mortis is settled, indicating he's been in the same position for a while. There is pronounced petechiae on his chest from lack of oxygen and there is purple fiber in his mouth. A nearby table is cracked and there is ejaculate on it as well as the bed.
Greg studies surveillance footage from the main hotel elevator of Maurice getting on and off. Sara Sidle uses the ALS on the bottom bed sheet and sees a large stain. She outlines the stain and within the big stain are smaller ones, which she outlines as well. She cuts samples and sends them to Tox.
Greg informs Sara that Maurice was always alone on the surveillance tapes. Sara tells him that she found an unusually large sweat stain on the bed sheet.
Dr. Robbins points out to Grissom that Maurice has bulbar haemorrhages in his eyes and petechial haemorrhages on his chest. All evidence indicates that something heavy was on top of him and he died from compression asphyxia.
Warrick tells Catherine that he got an ID off of the victim's football ring: Gabe Miller.
Dr. Robbins tells Nick that the shotgun victim was shot in the heart at close range and then shot in the face. Dr. Robbins shows Nick the shot cup he found in the back of the skull. Nick IDs the shot cup as being from a sawed-off shotgun due to the stria on the plastic surface, which came from a burr on the barrel when the weapon was fired. When Nick tells Dr. Robbins that the victim's name is Gabe Miller, Robbins informs him that Gabe Miller is a new Councilman.
Gabe Miller, 40's, identifies the football ring found on the victim as belonging to him. He pawned it when he used to do cocaine and gamble on greyhounds. Now he has his act together because he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior.
Hodges asks Sara to take a look at the purple fiber found in the asphyxia victim's mouth under a PLM. The fiber is "acid washed, dyed, Tasar silk."
Grissom, Greg and Vartann enter the Tangiers Hotel and Casino and find a conference for APAPSP: Association to Promote Acceptance of Plus-Sized People. The CSIs deduce that Maurice Hudson, the asphyxia victim, was a "chubby chaser."
Grissom asks a large woman by the pool where she got the purple garment under her suit and she says that she bought it at the convention. Because he's not interested in her, she thinks he's gay.
Brenda Morgan, mid-30's, looks at the photo of Maurice Hudson and tells Greg that she knows him. She suggests that Greg check the "message wall," where you can leave a note for someone you like.
Nick and Warrick look through the $25,000.00 in cash and find two betting slips that are marked "Duke minus seventeen on a Tuesday, Louisville plus twenty-three on a Friday."
Brass tells them that the football ring was bought by a Kelvin Russell, who worked for Vegas Sports Line. If the victim worked for VSL, he would have been prohibited from sports gambling.
At the Vegas Sports Line office, Mitch Urbana, 60's, is holding court before his younger oddsmaking crew, writing up odds on a whiteboard. Brass tells Mitch that one of his employees, Kelvin Russell, is dead. Brass interviews Scott Varney, an oddsmaker, who tells them that Kelvin was cocky and came into gloat the morning after the Duke-Louisville game, since Mitch picked Duke at minus fifteen. Kelvin wrote a big "22" on the marker board, humiliating Mitch.
At the message board at the Tangiers, Greg is told by Jill Paisley, 40's, that Maurice was a "pig" who picked up big girls, but wouldn't be seen in public with them. A Regina Owens and he exchanged messages.
Grissom asks Regina Owens if her purple lingerie is silk or synthetic. She tells him it's all silk and that she has four pre-orders and fifteen commissions. He asks for her customer receipts.
At the Orleans Casino, Sports Book, the manager identifies a man from a surveillance video still image as the runner who had the tickets that were found on the crime scene. The runner is clearly not Kelvin Russell. The manager tells Warrick that they lost a million dollars on the game.
Catherine comes to the casino and tells Warrick that Brass is going to the runner, Lou Barnes' home address. Warrick explains that the numbers on the game Kelvin got rich on were odd. On Monday morning, the week of the Duke-Louisville game, VSL set the line at Duke minus fifteen, meaning that if one bet on Duke they would have to win by more than fifteen in order for them to win the bet. A lot of money came in on Duke, which then caused the line to move Duke to minus 25. On Friday, more money came in this time on Louisville plus 25. Kelvin laid out 17 points with Duke and took 23 with Louisville. The game landed at 22. He won both bets by creating a big "middle."
In the Interrogation Room, Brass asks Lou Barnes how long he's been living at his mother's house. Suddenly, Lou Barnes falls out of his chair, hitting the floor.
Lou Barnes had a buckshot pellet in his calf and was septic. The CSIs realize that he must have been in Rainbow Canyon with Kelvin Russell. Barnes was the runner for Kelvin.
A group of plus-size women are in the police reception area and Sara Sidle tells them that they are there because they have evidence "consistent with the custom-made lingerie owned by each of you." Sara has DNA evidence that two women had sex with Maurice prior to his death and she wants DNA samples from them. Brenda and Regina refuse to give samples, but Jill steps forward for a swab.
In the Interrogation Room, Brenda tells Sara that Maurice wasn't a nice man, but she had sex with him in anyway. He wouldn't ride the elevator with her after she serviced him.
Grissom talks to Regina in a separate room. She reveals that she went to Kelvin's room at seven o'clock, had sex which cracked the table, and then left.
Brenda tells Sara that she is fat and has tried to lose weight through gyms and diets, but nothing works. Maurice made her feel "special, sexy...wanted." When she went up to Maurice's room, Regina was just leaving, but she had sex with him anyway. Brenda confesses to smothering him with a pillow.
Brass shows Warrick Mitch Urbana's missing car, which was reported stolen over a week before. In the trunk of the car they find metallic dust.
Brass interrogates Mitch Urbana, telling him that the dust found in his car trunk is consistent with a shotgun barrel. Urbana claims that he knows nothing about a shotgun--his car was stolen. Brass thinks that Kelvin Russell made Mitch look bad so he killed him. Urbana tells him to prove it.
Greg and Sara analyze elevator surveillance footage and see that when Brenda got off the elevator at seven thirty, Regina got on it. Dr. Robbins determined that the time of death was somewhere between nine and midnight and Brenda spent the night. She appears drunk in the elevator. Maybe she fell asleep on Maurice?
Catherine and Warrick make a friendly bet in the CSI Break Room over a basketball game on TV. She wins and he has to take her to dinner. She tells him that they have to find a murder weapon because their case against Mitch Urbana will be circumstantial. Warrick gets a call from the sports book manager that a man tried to file a lost ticket claim on the two tickets found in the beaver dam.
In the A/V Lab Warrick and Catherine look onscreen at Cesar Dabo, 40's, an ex-boxer who lost a split decision match against an Archie Archman. The only judge who called it for Dabo was Mitch Urbana.
CSIs and police break down Cesar Dabo's apartment door and find him with a prostitute on each arm and cocaine all over his nose. Cesar tells Brass that no one paid him to kill Kelvin Russell. He did it on his own because Kelvin was making Mitch "look bad." Cesar followed Lou Barnes, the runner carrying a bag of cash, as he met up with Kelvin Russell. He took the men to the woods, shot Kelvin and chased after Lou Barnes, who took a shot in the calf and dropped the bag of money into the creek, where it ended up in the beaver dam.
Cesar left the ring on Kelvin's finger. He thought it was a Super Bowl ring, but instead it was an AFFA ring. Just his luck.
Grissom and Sara weight down a fireman's dummy so that it tips the scales at 240 pounds. They place the dummy onto Greg Sanders chest as he lies on a makeshift bed in the garage. When Sara increases the dummy's weight to 280 pounds, Greg can't breathe. Brenda is just a little under 300 pounds.
In the Interrogation Room, Sara tells Brenda she has Type II diabetes and hypertension. She knows because of the sweat on the sheets. Brenda was taking propranolol and glucophage, which mixed poorly with the alcohol she was drinking. She passed out on top of Maurice and he suffocated.
Brenda admits that she "couldn't bear the jokes. Be some comedian's punchline. Would rather admit to murder and go to jail than be that."
In the CSI Break Room, Grissom tells Greg Sanders, who is looking through a plus-size magazine, that attraction is subjective. Greg asks what Grissom likes and he responds, "someone who doesn't judge me."
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