CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 6 - Episode 18 - The Unsual Suspect

Written by Allen MacDonald
Directed by Alec Smight

When the beloved Stacy Vollmer is found dead a high school is turned upside down. Her lifeless body was wrapped in a blood-drenched shower curtain and then dumped in a flower bed. Her cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage; meaning she fell down and hit her head. The CSIs gather at the courtroom where they meet suspect #1: Marlon West.

A search of the defendant’s home yields a laundry hamper containing bleached clothes he wore the night of the murder. Human hairs from Marlon’s sink were found to be consistent with the victim’s hair.

However, when his sister Hannah is questioned she flashes her bloody shirt to the courtroom and admits to the murder, naturally making her suspect #2. But, when Marlon is called in to the interrogation room he tells Sofia that he killed Stacy.

Nick sets off to examine the evidence.

 After a tennis match, Stacy enters the school locker room to take a shower. Each stall, except for one, has an “out of order” sign posted on it. When she turns on the one available shower, the showerhead explodes. Conclusive evidence shows that someone packed the showerhead with elemental sodium.

Back at the lab, Catherine notices cuts on the victim’s back from the explosion. Nick hypothesizes that the victim was injured, disoriented and grabbed the nearest thing she could to cover up, which happened to be the shower curtain. The body was moved from the locker room to the football field, and hastily buried. The CSIs wonder how a sixty –five pound twelve-year-old girl could possibly move a body across the entire campus.

The CSIs also examine the fact that the victim’s car was found parked outside of her boyfriend’s house. However, when they realize that he was out of town for a basketball game on the night of the murder they quickly rule him out of the equation. Obviously, the killer was trying to frame him by parking her car at his home immediately after the murder.

Meanwhile, Hodges examines the soil found on Hannah’s shirt and concludes that it matches up with the soil found at the scene.

Hannah says she killed Stacy as an act of revenge. Stacy had played a prank on her, and publicly embarrassed her in front of the entire school. While, Marlon says he had always hated Stacy and wanted to kill her.

In the intervening time, Catherine confirms that the blood found on Hannah’s shirt was, in fact, Hannah’s blood. She had cut herself and played it off as though it were Stacy’s blood to appear guilty.

 Back at the West’s residence, Nick finds sodium hydroxide in the sink that the siblings share. Sara enters Hannah’s room to finds a pair of lab gloves and a science experiment that involves sodium hydroxide. However, it seems the project was staged as Nick doesn’t recall the evidence from his initial search of Hannah’s bedroom.

 With a grand case of sibling rivalry in action, and two siblings that swear they did it and not the other - the CSIs wonder if they will ever crack the case.