CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 5 - Episode 13 - Nesting Dolls

Written by Sarah Goldberg
Directed by Bill Eagles

The day shift is summoned to a construction site where the legs of a woman have been uncovered, but further investigation shows there are two female bodies buried together and encased in a tomb of tar.

Grissom, intrigued by the case, helps Catherine extricate the bodies, one with a fractured jaw and the both with fingers removed, and the team soon discovers that the bodies were buried years apart. One of the dead women is identified as Svetlana Melton.

Suspecting domestic violence as the cause of death, Sara and Catherine interview Andrew Melton (guest star Zeljko Ivanek), now remarried, who reported his first wife Svetlana missing after he had been accused of hitting her.

But it looks like Melton may be telling the truth. Svetlana, it seems, was part of a mail order bride business being run out of a beauty shop. Some photo booth pictures found with her body lead Brass and Nick to her lover Ken Wellstone, who insists Svetlana ran away, leaving him only a note. After a search of his apartment, they find her blood and traces of the tar Svetlana was buried in on his carpet. The boyfriend admits that they tried to set it up to look like her husband was abusing her –which he was not – so Wellstone, in fact, was the one who broke her jaw.

Clues eventually lead the team to believe that Svetlana was actually killed in the beauty parlor, and they discover that the salon assistant there found her already dead, forged the note to Wellstone and buried her…on top of the other victim who had died years before, an unfortunate mail order bride without a visa who wanted to come to America anyway, and did –dead on arrival as a stowaway. The assistant admits he didn’t come forward because he wanted to protect the real killer –one of the best tippers at the salon – Andrew Melton.

Meanwhile, Sara challenges Catherine’s authority during the investigation, and Ecklie suspends her for her insubordination. Grissom goes to see Sara to ask what happened – and why she has been so unhappy – and he gets an answer he never expected.