CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Formalities

Written by Dustin Lee Abraham & Naren Shankar
Directed by Bill Eagles

A local high school’s homecoming is marred by a murder and an abduction, but none of the partygoers are telling first responders Grissom and Sofia Curtis (Lombard) the truth about what really happened. The dead girl, party crasher Nicole Jenson, was the unpopular daughter of a mobster-turned-limo driver (Banks). At first blush, it appears that Nikki may have been tied up and raped, and her death might be drug related. Another reveler, Janelle Macklin, whose father (Tenney) owns the casino, has disappeared, but none of her classmates are talking.

The rest of the team joins in the investigation, and video surveillance shows Macklin apparently being abducted by two men and brought to the suite, where they proceed to tie everyone up, including Nikki. Finally, the classmates reveal that when Nikki started to freak out, she was asphyxiated by one of the boys trying to quiet her.

But there is no tape on any elevator or staircase showing Janelle being taken away, and surprisingly, Janelle’s own father doesn’t buy the kidnapping story, even when a request for ransom comes in. The CSIs discover that it was Macklin who asked Janelle’s friends to cover up the “abduction,” so convinced is he that his spoiled daughter has perpetrated a hoax.

Then Warrick and Catherine discover that the surveillance footage has been rigged. A casino worker, at Janelle’s request, fed west elevator footage to east monitor, successfully time-shifting the feed. Janelle explains that she wanted to sneak some young men that her father wouldn’t like up to her suite, but the worker insists he doesn’t know where Janelle really is; it seems that Charlie Macklin may have been right about his daughter and her motives. If he is right, the CSIs still want to find Janelle and hold her responsible for Nikki’s death.

But that’s not going to happen; Janelle is found dead in the trunk of her car. They pick up Jenson, who is angry that police seemed more concerned with Janelle’s disappearance than his daughter’s death. Janelle was last seen getting into the type of town car that Jenson drives at the hotel, but he insists that she ran away, and he denies having murdered her, which a DNA report confirms. All the evidence in the trunk points to one person – Janelle Macklin – which leads Catherine to wonder how far Janelle would go to get her father’s attention.

Meanwhile, Grissom asks the newly promoted Ecklie (Marc Vann) to consider Catherine over Sofia for his recently vacated position of day shift supervisor.