CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Homebodies

Written by Naren Shankar & Sarah Goldfinger
Directed by Ken Fink

The mummified body of robbery victim Madeline Foster is found locked and barricaded in a closet a month later, and Grissom and Warrick soon guess that whoever boarded her up probably didn’t intend to kill her. The only thing wrong with that theory was that there was no one to find the woman – she lived alone, and died alone. There are clear signs that the woman fought bitterly to escape from the closet which would eventually be her tomb, but she didn’t have a chance. Dr. Robbins states the case succinctly by citing the rule of Threes: three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food, pointing to a grisly death for the unfortunate Mrs. Foster.

The CSIs seem to have an immediate suspect – the victim’s slacker nephew, who had stolen from his aunt before. When the nephew shows up and insists on seeing his aunt’s body, Brass and Grissom take a dental impression, hoping it will match the bite marks in a piece of half-eaten cake found at his aunt’s house. But they soon discover that while the deadbeat nephew may have been neglectful, he is not their killer.

Meanwhile, Nick and Sara respond to a neighbor reporting a break-in at a nearby home, but when they investigate, the Kirkwoods insist that the mayhem was the result of their teenage daughter Susanna hosting an unsupervised party. The CSIs are about to leave the scene when Sara discovers Susanna cowering in the back seat of her vehicle, asking to be taken to the hospital. It soon becomes clear that the teenager has been raped, so Sara and Nick return to the Kirkwood residence, which the parents reluctantly allow them to search. As they begin to process the scene, Nick discovers evidence that someone was barricaded in the closet – and the dented door, scuff marks, and streaks of blood he finds there matches exactly the crime scene where the mummified Mrs. Foster was discovered.

How do the CSIs know they are dealing with the same suspect, aside from the matching modus operandi? And if the suspect was simply attempting to rob, why do it when someone’s home? Replies Grissom: “The difference between burglary and home invasion: inflicting terror.”

 Responding to another call, Catherine follows up on the report of a five year old who discovers a gun used in a murder. The complication: the murder of a dedicated bounty hunter didn’t take place anywhere near where the weapon was tossed. The cops figure any one of the lowlifes the bounty hunter was tracking could have killed him, and that the murderer probably dumped the weapon, but Catherine is not so sure, not when the area surrounding the scene could have provided plenty of places to hide the gun. It may look like a textbook murder, but Catherine is sure that in this case, looks are deceiving. “We’re always looking for a weapon,” she says, “You think it would be easier when the weapon finds us.”