CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 6 - Episode 4 - Shooting Stars

Written by Danny Cannon
Directed by Danny Cannon

Mr. and Mrs. Copeland awake suddenly to suspicious sounds coming from within their home. Mr. Copeland grabs his gun and creeps downstairs, finding a dirty and ragged-looking young man ransacking his kitchen, food bulging from his pockets. The husband chases the surprised culprit out to his backyard where he finds himself face-to-face with a dozen more scraggly prowlers. He raises his gun and they scatter into the night, leaving behind one beaten and bloody dead body.

A mass of shoe prints and drag marks help Nick, Grissom and Catherine determine that the male vice had been dragged by the group across the expanse of neighboring desert and dumped in the backyard. Catherine and David Phillips continue to examine the body as Grissom stands at the far end of the property, admiring the rare Orionid Meteor shower overhead, until he and Catherine enter into the desert, following the trail left by footprints and candy wrappers.

Several miles away they discover a burnt-out car, still smoldering from a Molotov cocktail jammed in the fuel tank. It seems suspiciously misplaced in an empty desert until they notice an old military observation post hidden in the sand. With no cell reception to call for back-up, the two descend into the dark underground post alone. Guns drawn, Grissom and Catherine cautiously move through the halls, noticing that the bunker walls are covered with murals of souls leaving bodies and rising to the stars. Entering a bedroom, they discover a mass grave– bodies lying in their beds, vomit trickling from their mouths, empty plastic bottles beside them. All signs of a mass cult suicide. But when the CSI team finds two of the beds empty and that this “religion” was only a ruse to launder money from local college students – and not meant to be fatal – they answer the question: If the cult leader didn’t intend to kill them, who did?

During the investigation, Nick confronts personal demons from his experience being buried alive. Warrick is wary of someone close getting in-between him and his new wife.