CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 6 - Episode 16 - Up in Smoke

Written by Josh Berman
Directed by Duane Clark

Things heat up for the CSIs when they arrive at the scene of a crime to find a corpse, charbroiled somewhere else, and lodged in a chimney. Homeowner Martin Sidley and his girlfriend Angie are enjoying a quiet evening by the fire, when the living room fills up with smoke. The two escape from the smoke-filled house and call the police. After examining the perimeter, Sara takes traces from a ladder found leading up to the roof, while Warrick tells Catherine that there were portraits found in Sidley’s house of a woman who went missing a year before. When questioned, Sidley states that he and the woman in his photos were mere acquaintances. She was an aspiring photographer, and he had purchased several of her self portraits. With an insufficient amount of evidence to search Sidley’s house a year before, Warrick and Catherine return to the site now that it is a crime scene; hoping to find clues related to Caroline Fitzgibbon’s mysterious disappearance.

Back at the lab, David pulls bits of melted pieces of polyester from the crevices in the body; he also discovers a melted rectangle of scorched plastic in the shape of a credit card. Nick confirms that it is a gym membership card. Martin looks at the restored picture and says that it belongs to his son, Tad.

Meanwhile, Catherine and Warrick meet up with Sara at the Sidley residence. Sara takes prints from the chimney, and Catherine and Warrick realize that a large amount of cleaning agent has been used on the wood floor to clean up a stain; possibly blood. Warrick pries open the wood plank and finds a crimson spot on the floor, which is then taken to the lab for DNA testing. Warrick contacts Catherine’s father for a DNA comparison.

Mandy matches the chimney prints to ex-criminal and chimney sweeper Jonathan Wax. Warrick tracks down Tad’s dorm address so he can question the roommate, and Catherine asks Caroline’s father to bring her his daughter’s toiletries for DNA analysis.

At the college dorm, Warrick and Catherine find out from Tad’s roommate Tim that Tad had been missing for a couple of weeks, which he said was nothing new as Tad was quite the party boy. Warrick also finds a phone number for Caroline’s father Don on Tad’s cork board. Tim tells the CSIs that he did not murder Tad, even if it would get him an automatic 4.0 for the remainder of the school year.

Catherine picks up Caroline’s DNA sample from Don, and Don tells Catherine that he appealed to Tad and gave him his phone number in case Tad wanted to give him information about Martin’s relationship with his daughter.

Wendy confirms that the drop of blood found at the Sidley residence is consistent with Caroline’s sample. Meanwhile, someone uses Tad’s gas card at a Gas and Go. When Nick and Grissom arrive at the scene, the cashier tells them he will remember the young man who used it. The cashier plays the security video, and points to the guilty customer. It’s Tad Sidley.

Utterly surprised, Nick and Grissom realize that someone planted a corpse in the chimney and made it look as though it was Tad Sidley. With a promising line-up of suspects, the CSIs fire up the case so they can extinguish doubt and get to the bottom of the crime.