CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Snuff

Written by Ann Donahue & Bob Harris
Directed by Ken Fink

A film processor notifies the police when she develops what appears to be a real snuff film, and the CSIs must determine what happened. Catherine, Warrick and Sara work backwards from the scenes captured on film to determine the identity of the adult film actress who has been slain and the co-star who killed her, where the film was shot, and who shot it. Their first clue – they can see the Stratosphere through a slit in the drawn curtains in the room where she played out the final scene of her life.

Meanwhile, Grissom and Nick are called to the scene when a toolbox swarming with a colony of fire ants is discovered – with a skeleton inside. Grissom is able to ID the victim with the help of forensic artist Terri Miller, and he is able to find out where the murdered young man worked with the help of the fire ants and one other distinctive insect. When Grissom realizes the deceased had Down Syndrome, he suspects that the young man may have been the victim of abuse – or the victim of a hate crime.