Elementary s04e20 Episode Script
Art Imitates Art
1 WATSON: Previously on Elementary: How did you come to hear of me, Ms.
Wen? I knew your brother, Mycroft.
You don't like me very much, do you? I don't have to like you, I just have to help you.
Before my stepfather adopted me, I was Joan Yun.
Why don't you just admit you're my half sister? Running away won't work.
I'm a detective, I'll just find you again.
I've got nothing to say to you.
Okay, Sherlock and I just helped you out with a really big problem; the least you could do is tell me how long you've known I exist.
Two years.
But you never called me, you never came to see me.
Because I never wanted to have this conversation with you.
It wouldn't have been this conversation.
It would have been, âHi, Joan, I'm Lin, I'm your half sister.
â You want to know more about me? Fine.
My mom came to the U.
S.
in 1980.
She met your dad, got knocked up.
For a few years, he held it together, we were a family, and then one day out of the blue, he takes apart our TV, says it's sending messages that could hurt us.
He went off his meds.
Mom didn't understand.
She didn't know anything about schizophrenia.
She hardly spoke English.
A few days before he abandoned us, he told her about his first family, you, your brother, your mom.
That must have been hard for her.
The hard part was having to raise me by herself.
The stuff he said before he left, that could have been more ranting.
That's why she didn't tell me about it until she had a health scare a couple years ago.
I searched your names on the Internet, âJoan,â âOren,â âMary,â then I dug a little deeper, found out you worked for the police with a guy named Sherlock, and he had a brother who had just died.
Why didn't you just come and see me then? Because I realized I already had all the family I needed.
I only came to you for help because I was desperate.
But, hey, now you've got the whole story.
So why don't you do what I always intended to do-- pretend you never heard it, forget all about your crazy-ass dad's other family.
What if that's not what I want? It doesn't matter.
It's what I want.
(workout music plays) (beeping) You're two minutes early.
(car chirps) (car alarm sounds) Elementary 4x20 Art Imitates Art BELL: Time of death is a little before 4:00 a.
m.
Victim is Phoebe Elliot.
She was an assistant at a marketing firm that does a lot of business with Asia, so she would work late, then hit the gym.
She used rideshare apps like Zooss to get around.
So Ms.
Elliot summoned a Zooss car to pick her up around 3:45.
Gym's door camera doesn't cover the street, but it does show her leaving the gym when her driver, Sharif, was about two minutes out.
He arrived and found her body.
She was shot from this direction.
Blood splatter that way.
There's a void to the right.
Where's the missing blood? Probably on the shooter's car.
You saying this was a drive-by? Not so much a drive-by, more like a parked-by.
Car approaches from this way, she mistakes it for her rideshare, approaches the car only to be gunned down.
And the car departs with her blood on the inside of the passenger door.
Does she look familiar to you guys? No.
Why? I don't know.
I could swear I've seen her somewhere before.
Most drive-bys, the perps don't use their own car, they steal one.
What's your point? When we were poking around for next of kin this morning, all that turned up was a brother, Keith.
Just did a two-year stint for grand larceny auto.
MAN: I've been living with Phoebe since I got out.
She was helping me get my life together.
She means She meant everything to me.
Listen, two days ago, one of your neighbors called in a noise complaint.
She wouldn't give her name, just said she could hear you and your sister arguing.
I don't remember fighting two days ago.
But you and your sister did fight.
No.
I mean, yeah.
You know, sometimes.
It was rough.
Moving in with her.
She she had all these rules.
Was one of them, âDon't shoot me whilst pretending to be my rideshareâ? BELL: Her phone is missing.
We're pretty sure it was taken by whoever shot her.
Maybe you sent her some texts you didn't want us to see.
I will do whatever you want to prove I didn't do this.
You want me to take a polygraph? No problem.
Want me to give you a sample of my DNA? I will do whatever it takes.
Just please rule me out so you can find the person that really killed Phoebe.
All right, say we believe you.
Can you think of anyone else who had reason to kill Phoebe? Maybe a stalker? Stalker? She was getting a lot of attention lately.
Something about a selfie she took when she was in college.
That's where I knew her from.
She was in the culture section of the Dispatch.
How does a selfie make her newsworthy? Ephraim Hill is an appropriation artist from Portland.
He pulls images from social media and then recontextualizes them as art.
His show has been touring the country, but this is his first time in New York.
His work has been getting a lot of buzz.
So this guy rips off other people's selfies, blows them up, and then charges a hundred grand apiece? I'm surprised we're not investigating his murder.
The rise of social media has created a generation of narcissists eager to offer up their private images for public consumption.
But like peacocks spreading their tails, such displays, whilst feeding self-esteem, also risk attracting the attention of predators.
You think Keith Elliot was on to something? Someone saw her picture here, got obsessed? It's one possibility, but some of the women whose images have been stolen have been very upset.
Some have threatened to sue.
Maybe Phoebe was one of them.
Ah, it's about time.
What's about time? My assistant called the police yesterday.
I'm Ephraim Hill.
You are here about a break-in, are you not? No.
There was a burglary here? Do you see any art in these empty spaces? One might argue there's no art in the occupied spaces either.
One might.
In fact, I'd welcome it.
See, argument creates awareness, and awareness drives sales, but two nights ago, someone broke in and stole five of my portraits.
Tragic as that must be, we're here about Phoebe Elliot.
We were wondering how she felt about being included in your exhibit.
Well, why? She was murdered just before 4:00 a.
m.
We'd show you the crime scene photographs, but you'd probably just recontextualize them.
Oh, my God.
And, what, you're here because you think that I? A lot of the women were not happy about becoming your muses.
No, but Phoebe wasn't like that.
She was flattered.
She reached out through my agent to say so.
She even did some personal appearances here.
You mind telling us where you were around 4:00 this morning? EPHRAIM: I was on a plane.
Coming home from Paris.
That's where I was when I learned about the burglary.
Do you think there's a connection? The timing is curious, let's just leave it at that.
No, you don't understand.
If the same person committed both crimes, if someone had a problem with me and Phoebe, I think I might know who it is.
You are not an artist.
You are a misogynistic phony.
And all the little fangirls who support you are just as bad.
But when you stole my image, you messed with the wrong woman.
You all deserve what's coming.
So you can understand why we wanted to speak with you.
Can you tell us where you were the past two nights between midnight and 6:00 a.
m.
? I was here, sleeping.
You sounded pretty serious about getting revenge against Ephraim Hill and women like Phoebe.
I did, didn't I? (chuckles) I'm working on a part for this Off-Off-Broadway show.
She's an anarchist, like, really angry.
But it's a character; I would never kill anyone.
I'm a vegan.
HOLMES: So when you threatened revenge, what exactly did you have in mind? Here, I'll show you.
These are portraits from Ephraim's exhibit.
I put on a wig and went into the gallery one day.
I used a hidden camera and took pictures of his pictures of our pictures.
I was gonna sell them outside the showroom for 50 bucks apiece.
Undercut him and give him the finger at the same time.
That video was just a part of my marketing campaign.
When did you take this picture? Couple weeks ago.
This man at the edge of the frame he is not in the portrait at the gallery.
Additionally, that canvas has folds angled away from the corners.
In this version, they're parallel.
So that would mean that this portrait in the gallery is not the same one that was there two weeks ago.
I think someone replaced it with a forgery.
This just arrived from, uh, CSU.
Mr.
Hill confirmed it is a fake.
And he agrees the only time it could have been switched was during the burglary.
So the thief didn't steal five portraits, he stole six.
Why just swap one out with a forgery? I think the burglary was a mere diversion.
Switching Phoebe's portrait was the true goal.
Light's better in the study.
(Holmes grunts) Speaking of distractions, couldn't help but notice a few on your part today.
Anything amiss? (exhales) No, I'm fine.
You're drinking out of the bowl we use for Clyde's baths.
(sighs) I went to see Lin yesterday.
Lin Wen? Her case was resolved, was it not? Yes, but Are you still irked that she and my brother once rode below the crupper? Did you think he was a virgin? She isn't Mycroft's ex-lover.
She isn't his ex-anything.
She's my sister.
While your half-blood sibling might have deceived, exploited and then spurned you, I might suggest that the final outcome is not as tragic as you make it out to be.
She never wants to see me again.
My brother enlisted the NSA to fake his own death two years ago.
You don't see me complaining.
Well, that's different.
I mean, you and Mycroft, you had each other growing up.
I mean, for better or for worse.
But she is a missing piece.
And she's not the only one.
Your father.
I mean, I always thought that he left us because he was sick.
He wasn't capable of being part of a family.
But he was capable.
Just not with us.
It sounds like he got better and then stayed with Lin and her mother for years.
So I guess what I want to know is how could he be a father to someone else-- even for a little while-- but not even try with me and Oren? But I'm not gonna beg.
I left her mother a message.
If Lin won't speak to me, maybe she will.
(phone chimes) Marcus has uncovered a rather interesting piece of information about our erased man.
I'm now quite certain that Phoebe's killer and the burglar are one and the same.
Why? It appears that both crimes were committed to protect the perpetrator of a third crime.
As we know, this man was excised from the forgery left hanging in Ephraim Hill's gallery.
But that wasn't the only alteration.
Phoebe's selfie captures the man exiting this car.
The car would've been too difficult to remove unnoticed, so instead, the forger altered the license plate, changing this â3â to an â8.
â We ran the correct number.
And? The car once belonged to a Louis Bowman, presumably our erased man.
Mr.
Bowman is currently serving a life sentence for murder.
I suspect that the burglary and Phoebe's execution were committed to keep Louis Bowman in prison.
Because this picture, Phoebe's original selfie, may well prove that Louis Bowman is innocent.
Three years ago, Marissa Kagan, a student at North Connecticut University, was shot and killed in her off-campus apartment.
A fellow student, Louis Bowman, was convicted of her murder.
He said he was at the campus library when Marissa was killed, but no one could corroborate his alibi.
Until now.
Our current murder victim, Phoebe Elliot, took this selfie in 2013.
This is the campus library behind her, and based on the clothing he was wearing when he was arrested later that night, this is Louis Bowman getting out of his car.
HOLMES: Phoebe's social media app stamped that selfie with the time and date and that corresponds to the time of Marissa's murder.
Hmm.
Alibi aside, the State's case against Louis seems solid.
It says here he spit on Marissa's corpse.
Louis and Marissa knew one another.
Perhaps, for reasons unknown, he spat on her earlier in the day.
Perhaps the killer gained access to his DNA and framed him.
The fact remains: if Phoebe's selfie is to be believed, Louis Bowman could not have killed Marissa Kagan.
According to this, Phoebe Elliot testified for the prosecution.
She and Marissa were friends.
She testified that Louis stalked and harassed Marissa for months.
If she had a picture that could've exonerated Louis, why did she testify against him? WATSON: At the time of the trial, she probably didn't know what she had.
On a phone or even a computer, Louis and his car are too small to make out.
You can only really see them in Ephraim Hill's enlarged version of the selfie.
You figure Marissa's killer is still out there.
He saw the selfie from the gallery and figured he had to do something? Well, it's more likely that Phoebe recognized Louis when she saw the enlarged version.
Phoebe and Marissa ran in the same social circles.
It's possible that she confided in Marissa's real killer without even realizing it.
BELL: Lucky for him, Phoebe scrubbed her college photos off the Internet sometime after Ephraim Hill snagged her picture.
Her brother said she didn't want anything out there that could mess up her job prospects.
HOLMES: So, by planting the forgery, killing Phoebe and getting rid of her phone, and by getting rid of Ephraim's laptop, the killer hopes to keep Louis Bowman in prison forever.
WATSON: The only thing he wasn't counting on was Skyden preserving Phoebe's original image.
And Louis' alibi along with it.
So who wants to give the good news to Louis Bowman? LOUIS: I told them.
I didn't hurt her.
I-I told them a billion times I did not hurt Marissa, and they they wouldn't listen to me.
Probably because there was so much proof you were stalking her.
When I was in college, I was, um awkward.
You know.
When I liked someone, I would get obsessed.
And with Marissa, I would just send texts nonstop.
And sometimes I would hang around her apartment just to feel close to her.
I couldn't help myself.
But a couple months after I got here, you know, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
So I take medication now.
I-I don't get those feelings.
Well, our colleague is speaking with your public defender and the attorney who prosecuted you right now.
He's just gathering information, but I gotta think this is gonna give both of them second thoughts about you being here.
Yeah.
Well, I'd be a lot more excited if my lawyer weren't a moron.
Three years ago, I told him that I had seen the real killer.
He didn't believe me.
Y You saw the real killer? Yeah.
One night I was, um I was parked outside of Marissa's place.
And I saw this guy leaving.
He was wearing a Baja sweater.
It-it had this white and green pattern on it, and the hood was up, so I couldn't see his face.
But Marissa was really upset.
And she was yelling about being sick of it.
So A couple days later, she was dead.
Why didn't any of this come up at the trial? Well, I told you, my public defender, he's the worst.
You know, he wouldn't let me testify.
He wanted me to take the plea.
He he thought I did it.
Did you tell the police about the man you saw? Of course I told the police, but they were too busy trying to frame me.
Before I met Marissa, I was I was seeing this girl.
Amanda Neal.
It ended badly, so she dropped out and she joined the police academy.
You think she set you up.
They said that my DNA was all over Marissa's body, but that-that's impossible, because I hadn't seen her in weeks.
And Amanda, she-she had it out for me, so so I'm thinking either she or-or one of her cop friends, they they planted evidence.
That-That's the only explanation.
I have to say, I I'm not sure why we're here.
The case against Louis Bowman was hardly circumstantial.
His own attorney didn't want him to take the stand.
Because you believed he was guilty.
The State had a strong case.
I advised Louis to accept a plea bargain so he could get out while he still had some life left to live.
Were either of you surprised he refused to take a deal? Well, I don't prosecute based on the defendant's response to a plea offer.
Louis Bowman was our only suspect.
We had hard physical evidence against him.
I did my job, Shawn did his.
Justice was served.
Phoebe Elliot's photograph suggests otherwise.
The image could be fabricated.
The date and time stamp could be inaccurate.
It's also not clear that the man in this picture is Louis Bowman.
Someone else could've been driving his car.
Or the image could be exactly as it appears and you could have put an innocent man behind bars.
If you discount the physical evidence, sure.
But you can't.
Look, all you have is a fuzzy picture and an even fuzzier theory about the police planting Louis Bowman's spit.
How do you plant spit? The police took cheek swabs from Louis during his arrest.
Which could have been used to create trace evidence, at best.
There was enough saliva on Marissa's shirt to soak all the way through to her bra.
That didn't come from any cheek swab.
But don't take my word for it.
Take a look at our work.
I'm sure you'll agree we got the right guy.
Can't believe he said he was my boyfriend.
Why would you believe him? So you two never dated? I went out with Louis twice.
But when I told him that we should just be friends, he didn't get it.
Kept texting me, hanging around my dorm Is that why you dropped out of school? No.
College just wasn't for me.
Louis was annoying, but back then I thought he was harmless.
Marissa probably did, too, right up until he killed her.
WATSON: Like we said, we are investigating the possibility that he did not kill her.
Then you're both idiots.
He thinks that you planted DNA evidence on her body.
I'm a Connecticut state trooper.
I write speeding tickets.
I don't have access to murder investigations.
We looked into you.
There's a lot of cops in your family.
Your dad's a state trooper, just like you; your uncle's a captain in Waterbury PD.
Your brother and three cousins are all on the job, different jurisdictions, all over the state.
Right.
Now I remember.
I called them all up and told them I needed help putting Louis' saliva on my friend's dead body.
I kept a jar of the stuff after I left school.
You probably think that's weird, too.
Would you excuse me a moment? Hey.
What are you doing here? Who the hell do you think you are? Calling my mother? Come with me.
In case you haven't noticed, we are in a police station.
You need to get yourself under control.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did I break the rules? I figured since you thought it was okay to call my mom, you wouldn't mind me coming by your work.
I told you I had some questions about my father.
Well, since you asked so nicely, here's something else you might find interesting.
Five years after he left, he came back.
My mom, to her credit, told him to get lost, to go back to his first family.
But he said he couldn't.
He said that you and your brother and your mom had replaced him.
You weren't even using his last name.
You were ashamed of it, ashamed of him.
And he hated you for it.
And I mean hated, Joan.
He wished you were all dead.
And now that I've met you, I get it.
Leave me and my mother alone.
(phone ringing) If you're curious to know how my meeting with the attorneys went, it's gonna be a short conversation.
Yeah, well, I'm not calling about Marissa Kagan's murder.
I'm calling about Phoebe Elliot's.
You might want to get back down here.
The car the shooter used the other night turned up in Connecticut.
We've got a suspect in custody.
I told you yesterday.
I love Phoebe.
She was my sister.
I didn't kill her.
The evidence says you did.
What evidence? The night Phoebe died, this car was stolen from behind a restaurant in West Hartford, Connecticut.
It was found a few hours later, abandoned in Bridgeport.
Her blood was all over the rear passenger-side door.
Now, it took the local cops some time to connect it to your sister's murder in New York, but when they did, we sent them the DNA you gave us, and it was a perfect match for DNA found inside the vehicle.
It's not possible Sure, it is.
You were crying earlier.
You stole this car in West Hartford, Connecticut.
No, I wasn't.
The capillaries in your eyes have increased in prominence, and that's not a symptom of the upper-respiratory infection you've been fighting, and tree pollen, to which you have an allergy, is very low.
Did you speak to Lin Wen again? I don't want to talk about it.
KEITH: This is bull.
You steal cars, Keith.
It's what landed you in prison.
I used to steal cars.
I hotwired them.
Old sports cars.
Vettes and Porsches parked on the streets of New York.
But you're saying I stole a 2012 four-door from a valet lot in Connecticut? Any car will do when you're looking to commit a murder, right? And you're forgetting about the DNA.
You planted it, obviously, because I didn't steal this car! And I sure as hell didn't kill my sister! You said Louis Bowman also accused the police of planting DNA, didn't you? Yeah, why? Just odd, isn't it? Two men making such a bold accusation just within hours of each other.
Especially given the fact that we think Louis Bowman may well be innocent.
Yes, it's odd, but Marissa Kagan was killed in Bristol, Connecticut and Phoebe Elliot died in the Bronx.
I mean, do you honestly think two different police departments in two different states, including the one we work in, are just gonna sprinkle DNA around whenever they need to close a case? That's right, Phoebe died in the Bronx.
Marcus said the shooter's car was abandoned in Bridgeport, and that's also odd, isn't it? Someone stealing a car in Connecticut to commit a murder in New York, only to drive it all the way back to Connecticut.
You have a copy of the lab report that places Keith in the car? Yeah, it's right there.
I retract my earlier theory.
I don't think anyone planted evidence in either case.
If I'm right, the killer didn't have to.
She can create any evidence she desires.
I tested the samples personally.
The DNA was a match for Keith Elliot.
Well, you're a supervisor, Ms.
Mercado.
Do you normally run tests like these yourself? I do all the high priority cases.
Rapes, murders-- that kind of thing.
I want to make sure they're done right.
And they were done right with Keith Elliot.
We found multiple sources of DNA in the car.
And one was a definitive match for your suspect.
Were there any alleles missing? It was a complete match.
How many loci? Thirteen.
And was it a match for hair or skin samples? Hair.
Yes, 'cause according to our records, there were nine strands of hair found in the vehicle.
But none of them with the root attached.
That would make it very, very hard to get an exact match, wouldn't it? Sorry, I meant skin.
It was a skin match.
The samples didn't actually match.
Did they, Ms.
Mercado? I'm sorry? WATSON: We've studied your record.
You're very fast.
And you've had an unusually high rate of results that support the State.
I'm good at my job.
But we don't think you actually do your job at all.
We think you rely on âdry-labbingâ.
You write false reports.
Which conform to the wishes of the authorities, instead of actually testing the samples that you're given.
BELL: It's not like this kind of thing hasn't happened before.
They've had the same problem in Massachusetts, North Carolina; even the FBI's lab has made thousands of questionable hair matches over the last 20 years, including 32 in death penalty cases.
HOLMES: Mm-hmm.
Sometimes it's inexperience.
Sometimes it's just incompetence, but you-- you're a supervisor.
I think you know what you're doing.
So perhaps you're just driven by a desire to feel important, to be the hero, to be the key witness putting bad guys away-- am I right? I have an excellent reputation.
Ask anyone-- I am an asset to law enforcement.
Yes, but you're not supposed to be an asset, are you? You're supposed to be a scientist.
You're supposed to be an impartial seeker of truth.
But you're not, you're a charlatan! And you've sent at least one innocent man to prison-- Louis Bowman! I stand by my work.
BELL: Then you won't mind if we retest all the evidence in the Phoebe Elliot case at another facility? Because if we're right about what's going on here, the person who had the best motive to kill her was you.
You're police.
You know how things work.
In most cases, even high profile ones, detectives figure out who did it by talking to the right people, following their gut.
It's finding proof that's tough.
You used to be able to get convictions with witness statements or circumstantial evidence, but these days juries want something physical.
They want DNA.
And you give it to them.
I'm on your side.
You know that DNA can be more subjective than people think.
It can be hard to find an uncontaminated sample.
The results can be inconclusive.
So when the police are sure who did it, but the tests aren't clear, I give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt.
You frame people.
You corrupt the justice process from the inside.
I help get convictions.
Louis Bowman got a life sentence thanks to you.
Only it's looking more and more like he didn't kill Marissa Kagan three years ago.
GREGSON: We think that when Phoebe Elliot realized she had a picture that could exonerate him, she told someone.
Maybe it was you.
Maybe it was the lab to confirm whether the DNA was accurate.
HOLMES: If that was the case, you would've realized how much was at stake.
An audit would uncover the same pattern that we found.
You were in danger of going to jail.
And having every conviction that you'd engineered overturned.
Killing Phoebe would stop that from happening.
I told you I didn't do that.
I never even met the woman.
Phoebe was shot in the Bronx.
But her killer drove a car full of evidence all the way to Bridgeport.
And the only reason to do that was to make sure that that car was processed at the Connecticut forensics lab-- your lab-- where you could implicate whoever you wanted.
Phoebe's brother was the lowest hanging fruit.
HOLMES: You said yourself good police work usually reveals the killer.
In this case, you have means and motive.
And unless you can provide us with an alibi, you also have opportunity.
I was home alone that night.
But I can prove I didn't kill her.
Recheck the DNA evidence from the stolen car in your own lab.
Or a private lab.
Or any lab you want.
You'll see that none of it belongs to me.
What would that prove? You're an expert.
You could've removed your DNA.
Or worn protective gear to make sure it never ended up in that car in the first place.
I could've removed all the DNA from that car, sure.
But to remove only my own, that would be a neat trick.
As far as protective gear goes, why would I risk getting pulled over for driving around in a Hazmat suit? In your version of the story, I knew that I'd be processing the evidence, so I wouldn't have needed to keep my DNA out of the car, because I never would've reported a match to myself.
Right? I didn't kill anyone.
Do the tests.
Do them right.
You'll see I'm innocent.
Every piece of evidence she ever handled, every lab report with her name on it, it's all got to be reexamined, which means hundreds of cases getting reopened in Connecticut.
Of course, in the meantime, we got our own problems.
I'm not convinced that she killed Phoebe Elliot.
Nor am I.
You have to appreciate the irony.
Were someone like Ms.
Mercado to process the evidence they would happily provide the false match needed for a conviction, but an honest test would likely exonerate her.
Still, whoever killed Phoebe had to have known about her, right? Why else would they drive the car all the way to Connecticut? They were counting on her doing what she did.
They knew that no matter what the test revealed, her report would confirm the police's initial suspect.
Her ability to produce evidence on demand can't have gone completely unnoticed by Connecticut's entire criminal justice system.
Which means we're probably looking for someone in law enforcement.
(knocking) Could we talk? (door closes) More detective stuff? A technician's been falsifying evidence at a crime lab.
We think someone knew and took advantage.
I was going through all of her cases and making lists of the people who were in the habit of steering work her way.
No Sherlock? He's talking to a suspect we already know about.
I don't do this very often, so I may suck at it, but I came to apologize.
Obviously, I have a lot of unresolved anger over my father.
Our father.
I lied when I said he hated you.
He never came back to us, and as far as I know, he never even knew your mom remarried.
So I'm sorry.
Well, I had a feeling that you might get angry after you found out that I called your mother, so I'm sorry, too.
I've never really been good at taking no for an answer.
(chuckles) Pretty sure that's a Yun family trait.
Not knowing when to quit.
When in doubt, charge ahead.
You have the right to be curious about Dad.
Like you said, for you, he's a mystery.
But for me I remember him giving me piggyback rides and calling me silly nicknames.
And I remember him getting angry and confused, and then he was gone.
He was someone that I had and I lost, and it hurts to think about that.
Anyway, um, I talked to Mom, and she said it's okay if you want to call her again.
I appreciate that.
Good luck with all this.
I already told you I didn't have anything to do with Marissa's case three years ago.
That's not exactly true, is it? By now, you've heard about the arrest of the crime lab supervisor who processed the evidence in Marissa's murder.
It turns out that you made quite a few calls to her while she was working the case.
So? So your cousin Bailey Neal is in Narcotics.
Over the last few years, he's sent a lot of cases Zoe's way.
Maybe that's just a coincidence, or maybe he knew how she worked.
Maybe he told you about his secret weapon.
Okay.
First, that's BS.
Bailey is a good cop, the best.
Second, the only reason I called Zoe as much as I did was because I felt guilty.
About? Marissa was my friend.
If I didn't drop out, I don't know, maybe Louis wouldn't have stopped obsessing over me and started obsessing over her.
So did I encourage Zoe to make sure he wouldn't get away with it? Yes.
Absolutely.
But I was like that with everyone on the case.
Well, there could be another reason that you wanted to point Zoe at Louis.
You killed Marissa.
What? You say that you and Louis weren't a couple.
He says that you were.
What if he's telling the truth? He grew interested in your friend.
You got jealous.
(chuckles) Something funny? Yeah.
Uh, Marissa and I never would have fought over a guy.
You were that close? No, she was that gay.
Her family is super religious.
She never got around to telling them.
The only people who knew were me and Phoebe and a couple of other friends.
I'll give you their names.
You can talk to them.
They'll tell you.
After she was killed, we decided it wasn't our place to say anything.
Plus we knew it wasn't relevant because we knew Louis was the one who did it.
Let's say we believe you.
Is there any other âirrelevantâ information you've been keeping to yourself? You say Louis is innocent, I say you're wrong, but Marissa was seeing somebody, a married woman.
She never told me who, but she did say she was pushing her to get a divorce.
WATSON: How'd it go with Amanda Neal? I don't believe she's our killer.
How's it going with the case files of Zoe Mercado? Well, from the looks of things, there were at least a few dozen people in Connecticut law enforcement who knew what she was up to.
They'd either specifically request her to process evidence, or they would ask her to repeat a test done by a subordinate to get a better result.
You already know who we're looking for, don't you? As a matter of fact, I believe I do.
That's nice.
I got there 20 minutes ago.
Can I help you? I'm Detective Bell with the NYPD.
This is Detective Gould with the Avon PD.
Does Assistant District Attorney Christa Pullman live here? She's my wife.
Is everything okay? She's fine.
My colleagues and I are here about a college student named Marissa Kagan.
Does that name ring a bell? It was tragic, what happened to her.
Actually, that's what we're here to talk about.
The kids are at school.
Come in.
I don't understand.
Marissa's murder was solved years ago.
It was that stalker, that boy she went to school with.
We now think Louis Bowman was framed and that the person who did it also recently shot and killed a young woman in the Bronx.
That's horrible.
But shouldn't you be talking to Christa about this? She'll be home in a few hours.
WATSON: We will.
We've recently become aware of a suspect that the police never pursued, a married woman with whom Marissa was having an affair.
A witness reports seeing Marissa's lover wearing a very distinctive green-and-white Baja sweater.
Any idea who that might be? Christa has a sweater like that.
Did you know about the affair? I found out.
BELL: Your wife's failure to disclose her relationship to the victim at trial is gonna be enough for Avon PD to get a warrant.
Someone's gonna be here shortly to collect samples of her DNA.
Her toothbrush, her hairbrush should do.
They can take whatever they need.
But first there's something else you should know.
My personal attorney is on her way over.
I'm not going to discuss any of this until she gets here.
That's all right.
We don't really need to ask any questions.
Your wife already confessed to everything.
What? GREGSON: Please.
Sit.
We know that you and Marissa were having an affair and that your wife, Teri, found out.
She confronted Marissa over your infidelity, and that confrontation ended in Marissa's murder.
WATSON: When Teri got home, she told you what she had done.
She was ready to face the consequences and turn herself in, but you told her not to, that you would take care of everything.
GREGSON: And you did, you made sure that Zoe Mercado was the one who tested the saliva on Marissa's body, and, like you expected, she matched it to Louis Bowman.
You thought that was the end of it.
But then, a few weeks ago, Phoebe Elliot contacted you.
She told you what she'd seen in that blown-up selfie in Ephraim Hill's gallery.
She said it seemed to corroborate Bowman's alibi.
HOLMES: You shared this with your wife, and according to her, you once again promised to âhandleâ everything.
You tried to convince Phoebe, as you did me, that the photograph wasn't reliable.
When that failed, Teri says she took matters into her own hands.
First, you replaced Phoebe's selfie with a forgery.
Then, the next night, she went to a restaurant near your home in Avon and stole a car out of the valet lot.
Then she drove to Phoebe's gym in the Bronx, waited for her and shot her.
GREGSON: We've got a signed confession from your wife admitting to the burglary at the gallery and to the murders of Marissa Kagan and Phoebe Elliot.
No.
No, you coerced this.
I can get this thrown out.
Your wife's confession was entirely voluntary.
We've got it in writing and on tape.
There was a time when that would have been the end of the matter, but ex-lab supervisor Zoe Mercado is right about one thing: juries do not like to convict these days without DNA evidence, so we retested the saliva found on Marissa's shirt three years ago just to be certain.
It's a preliminary match for Teri.
GREGSON: There isn't much doubt she killed Marissa, but Phoebe Elliot? That's another story.
BELL: We compared Teri's DNA to skin cells recovered from the car used in Phoebe's murder.
If ex-lab supervisor Zoe Mercado or anyone of her ilk had performed those tests, they would have rightly come back a match.
But in this case, we didn't inform the lab which DNA belonged to our suspect.
We provided several samples from your home, samples from other suspects, like Keith Elliot, Ephraim Hill.
Even threw in a sample from my tortoise just to keep them on their toes.
And imagine our surprise when the lab revealed that the DNA in the car didn't belong to your wife, it belonged to you.
You knew Phoebe's brother had a record.
With his history, it was a matter of time before we zeroed in on him.
And with a little nudge, Zoe would attribute any physical evidence found to him and not you.
WATSON: Teri felt responsible for the whole chain of events.
So to protect you and to leave your children with at least one parent not in prison, she tried to take the blame for both crimes.
Fortunately for them, we understand they have very loving grandparents.
Unfortunately for you, when lab work is done right, without bias, without assumption, it really does tend to convince a jury of a killer's guilt.
LIN: This is gonna sell quickly, so let me know if you're interested.
Looking for a place of your own? Can't beat the location.
Your office said you'd be here.
I called your mother today, and we spoke for a while.
Your Mandarin must be good.
No, she seems nice.
She's the best.
She invited me to tea.
I'm not surprised.
I took a rain check.
Look, I know this has been a lot for you.
It's been a lot for me, too.
And I just thought, âWhy rush it?â I'll have tea with your mother when you're ready to join us.
Why? Because you're my sister.
@elderman
Wen? I knew your brother, Mycroft.
You don't like me very much, do you? I don't have to like you, I just have to help you.
Before my stepfather adopted me, I was Joan Yun.
Why don't you just admit you're my half sister? Running away won't work.
I'm a detective, I'll just find you again.
I've got nothing to say to you.
Okay, Sherlock and I just helped you out with a really big problem; the least you could do is tell me how long you've known I exist.
Two years.
But you never called me, you never came to see me.
Because I never wanted to have this conversation with you.
It wouldn't have been this conversation.
It would have been, âHi, Joan, I'm Lin, I'm your half sister.
â You want to know more about me? Fine.
My mom came to the U.
S.
in 1980.
She met your dad, got knocked up.
For a few years, he held it together, we were a family, and then one day out of the blue, he takes apart our TV, says it's sending messages that could hurt us.
He went off his meds.
Mom didn't understand.
She didn't know anything about schizophrenia.
She hardly spoke English.
A few days before he abandoned us, he told her about his first family, you, your brother, your mom.
That must have been hard for her.
The hard part was having to raise me by herself.
The stuff he said before he left, that could have been more ranting.
That's why she didn't tell me about it until she had a health scare a couple years ago.
I searched your names on the Internet, âJoan,â âOren,â âMary,â then I dug a little deeper, found out you worked for the police with a guy named Sherlock, and he had a brother who had just died.
Why didn't you just come and see me then? Because I realized I already had all the family I needed.
I only came to you for help because I was desperate.
But, hey, now you've got the whole story.
So why don't you do what I always intended to do-- pretend you never heard it, forget all about your crazy-ass dad's other family.
What if that's not what I want? It doesn't matter.
It's what I want.
(workout music plays) (beeping) You're two minutes early.
(car chirps) (car alarm sounds) Elementary 4x20 Art Imitates Art BELL: Time of death is a little before 4:00 a.
m.
Victim is Phoebe Elliot.
She was an assistant at a marketing firm that does a lot of business with Asia, so she would work late, then hit the gym.
She used rideshare apps like Zooss to get around.
So Ms.
Elliot summoned a Zooss car to pick her up around 3:45.
Gym's door camera doesn't cover the street, but it does show her leaving the gym when her driver, Sharif, was about two minutes out.
He arrived and found her body.
She was shot from this direction.
Blood splatter that way.
There's a void to the right.
Where's the missing blood? Probably on the shooter's car.
You saying this was a drive-by? Not so much a drive-by, more like a parked-by.
Car approaches from this way, she mistakes it for her rideshare, approaches the car only to be gunned down.
And the car departs with her blood on the inside of the passenger door.
Does she look familiar to you guys? No.
Why? I don't know.
I could swear I've seen her somewhere before.
Most drive-bys, the perps don't use their own car, they steal one.
What's your point? When we were poking around for next of kin this morning, all that turned up was a brother, Keith.
Just did a two-year stint for grand larceny auto.
MAN: I've been living with Phoebe since I got out.
She was helping me get my life together.
She means She meant everything to me.
Listen, two days ago, one of your neighbors called in a noise complaint.
She wouldn't give her name, just said she could hear you and your sister arguing.
I don't remember fighting two days ago.
But you and your sister did fight.
No.
I mean, yeah.
You know, sometimes.
It was rough.
Moving in with her.
She she had all these rules.
Was one of them, âDon't shoot me whilst pretending to be my rideshareâ? BELL: Her phone is missing.
We're pretty sure it was taken by whoever shot her.
Maybe you sent her some texts you didn't want us to see.
I will do whatever you want to prove I didn't do this.
You want me to take a polygraph? No problem.
Want me to give you a sample of my DNA? I will do whatever it takes.
Just please rule me out so you can find the person that really killed Phoebe.
All right, say we believe you.
Can you think of anyone else who had reason to kill Phoebe? Maybe a stalker? Stalker? She was getting a lot of attention lately.
Something about a selfie she took when she was in college.
That's where I knew her from.
She was in the culture section of the Dispatch.
How does a selfie make her newsworthy? Ephraim Hill is an appropriation artist from Portland.
He pulls images from social media and then recontextualizes them as art.
His show has been touring the country, but this is his first time in New York.
His work has been getting a lot of buzz.
So this guy rips off other people's selfies, blows them up, and then charges a hundred grand apiece? I'm surprised we're not investigating his murder.
The rise of social media has created a generation of narcissists eager to offer up their private images for public consumption.
But like peacocks spreading their tails, such displays, whilst feeding self-esteem, also risk attracting the attention of predators.
You think Keith Elliot was on to something? Someone saw her picture here, got obsessed? It's one possibility, but some of the women whose images have been stolen have been very upset.
Some have threatened to sue.
Maybe Phoebe was one of them.
Ah, it's about time.
What's about time? My assistant called the police yesterday.
I'm Ephraim Hill.
You are here about a break-in, are you not? No.
There was a burglary here? Do you see any art in these empty spaces? One might argue there's no art in the occupied spaces either.
One might.
In fact, I'd welcome it.
See, argument creates awareness, and awareness drives sales, but two nights ago, someone broke in and stole five of my portraits.
Tragic as that must be, we're here about Phoebe Elliot.
We were wondering how she felt about being included in your exhibit.
Well, why? She was murdered just before 4:00 a.
m.
We'd show you the crime scene photographs, but you'd probably just recontextualize them.
Oh, my God.
And, what, you're here because you think that I? A lot of the women were not happy about becoming your muses.
No, but Phoebe wasn't like that.
She was flattered.
She reached out through my agent to say so.
She even did some personal appearances here.
You mind telling us where you were around 4:00 this morning? EPHRAIM: I was on a plane.
Coming home from Paris.
That's where I was when I learned about the burglary.
Do you think there's a connection? The timing is curious, let's just leave it at that.
No, you don't understand.
If the same person committed both crimes, if someone had a problem with me and Phoebe, I think I might know who it is.
You are not an artist.
You are a misogynistic phony.
And all the little fangirls who support you are just as bad.
But when you stole my image, you messed with the wrong woman.
You all deserve what's coming.
So you can understand why we wanted to speak with you.
Can you tell us where you were the past two nights between midnight and 6:00 a.
m.
? I was here, sleeping.
You sounded pretty serious about getting revenge against Ephraim Hill and women like Phoebe.
I did, didn't I? (chuckles) I'm working on a part for this Off-Off-Broadway show.
She's an anarchist, like, really angry.
But it's a character; I would never kill anyone.
I'm a vegan.
HOLMES: So when you threatened revenge, what exactly did you have in mind? Here, I'll show you.
These are portraits from Ephraim's exhibit.
I put on a wig and went into the gallery one day.
I used a hidden camera and took pictures of his pictures of our pictures.
I was gonna sell them outside the showroom for 50 bucks apiece.
Undercut him and give him the finger at the same time.
That video was just a part of my marketing campaign.
When did you take this picture? Couple weeks ago.
This man at the edge of the frame he is not in the portrait at the gallery.
Additionally, that canvas has folds angled away from the corners.
In this version, they're parallel.
So that would mean that this portrait in the gallery is not the same one that was there two weeks ago.
I think someone replaced it with a forgery.
This just arrived from, uh, CSU.
Mr.
Hill confirmed it is a fake.
And he agrees the only time it could have been switched was during the burglary.
So the thief didn't steal five portraits, he stole six.
Why just swap one out with a forgery? I think the burglary was a mere diversion.
Switching Phoebe's portrait was the true goal.
Light's better in the study.
(Holmes grunts) Speaking of distractions, couldn't help but notice a few on your part today.
Anything amiss? (exhales) No, I'm fine.
You're drinking out of the bowl we use for Clyde's baths.
(sighs) I went to see Lin yesterday.
Lin Wen? Her case was resolved, was it not? Yes, but Are you still irked that she and my brother once rode below the crupper? Did you think he was a virgin? She isn't Mycroft's ex-lover.
She isn't his ex-anything.
She's my sister.
While your half-blood sibling might have deceived, exploited and then spurned you, I might suggest that the final outcome is not as tragic as you make it out to be.
She never wants to see me again.
My brother enlisted the NSA to fake his own death two years ago.
You don't see me complaining.
Well, that's different.
I mean, you and Mycroft, you had each other growing up.
I mean, for better or for worse.
But she is a missing piece.
And she's not the only one.
Your father.
I mean, I always thought that he left us because he was sick.
He wasn't capable of being part of a family.
But he was capable.
Just not with us.
It sounds like he got better and then stayed with Lin and her mother for years.
So I guess what I want to know is how could he be a father to someone else-- even for a little while-- but not even try with me and Oren? But I'm not gonna beg.
I left her mother a message.
If Lin won't speak to me, maybe she will.
(phone chimes) Marcus has uncovered a rather interesting piece of information about our erased man.
I'm now quite certain that Phoebe's killer and the burglar are one and the same.
Why? It appears that both crimes were committed to protect the perpetrator of a third crime.
As we know, this man was excised from the forgery left hanging in Ephraim Hill's gallery.
But that wasn't the only alteration.
Phoebe's selfie captures the man exiting this car.
The car would've been too difficult to remove unnoticed, so instead, the forger altered the license plate, changing this â3â to an â8.
â We ran the correct number.
And? The car once belonged to a Louis Bowman, presumably our erased man.
Mr.
Bowman is currently serving a life sentence for murder.
I suspect that the burglary and Phoebe's execution were committed to keep Louis Bowman in prison.
Because this picture, Phoebe's original selfie, may well prove that Louis Bowman is innocent.
Three years ago, Marissa Kagan, a student at North Connecticut University, was shot and killed in her off-campus apartment.
A fellow student, Louis Bowman, was convicted of her murder.
He said he was at the campus library when Marissa was killed, but no one could corroborate his alibi.
Until now.
Our current murder victim, Phoebe Elliot, took this selfie in 2013.
This is the campus library behind her, and based on the clothing he was wearing when he was arrested later that night, this is Louis Bowman getting out of his car.
HOLMES: Phoebe's social media app stamped that selfie with the time and date and that corresponds to the time of Marissa's murder.
Hmm.
Alibi aside, the State's case against Louis seems solid.
It says here he spit on Marissa's corpse.
Louis and Marissa knew one another.
Perhaps, for reasons unknown, he spat on her earlier in the day.
Perhaps the killer gained access to his DNA and framed him.
The fact remains: if Phoebe's selfie is to be believed, Louis Bowman could not have killed Marissa Kagan.
According to this, Phoebe Elliot testified for the prosecution.
She and Marissa were friends.
She testified that Louis stalked and harassed Marissa for months.
If she had a picture that could've exonerated Louis, why did she testify against him? WATSON: At the time of the trial, she probably didn't know what she had.
On a phone or even a computer, Louis and his car are too small to make out.
You can only really see them in Ephraim Hill's enlarged version of the selfie.
You figure Marissa's killer is still out there.
He saw the selfie from the gallery and figured he had to do something? Well, it's more likely that Phoebe recognized Louis when she saw the enlarged version.
Phoebe and Marissa ran in the same social circles.
It's possible that she confided in Marissa's real killer without even realizing it.
BELL: Lucky for him, Phoebe scrubbed her college photos off the Internet sometime after Ephraim Hill snagged her picture.
Her brother said she didn't want anything out there that could mess up her job prospects.
HOLMES: So, by planting the forgery, killing Phoebe and getting rid of her phone, and by getting rid of Ephraim's laptop, the killer hopes to keep Louis Bowman in prison forever.
WATSON: The only thing he wasn't counting on was Skyden preserving Phoebe's original image.
And Louis' alibi along with it.
So who wants to give the good news to Louis Bowman? LOUIS: I told them.
I didn't hurt her.
I-I told them a billion times I did not hurt Marissa, and they they wouldn't listen to me.
Probably because there was so much proof you were stalking her.
When I was in college, I was, um awkward.
You know.
When I liked someone, I would get obsessed.
And with Marissa, I would just send texts nonstop.
And sometimes I would hang around her apartment just to feel close to her.
I couldn't help myself.
But a couple months after I got here, you know, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
So I take medication now.
I-I don't get those feelings.
Well, our colleague is speaking with your public defender and the attorney who prosecuted you right now.
He's just gathering information, but I gotta think this is gonna give both of them second thoughts about you being here.
Yeah.
Well, I'd be a lot more excited if my lawyer weren't a moron.
Three years ago, I told him that I had seen the real killer.
He didn't believe me.
Y You saw the real killer? Yeah.
One night I was, um I was parked outside of Marissa's place.
And I saw this guy leaving.
He was wearing a Baja sweater.
It-it had this white and green pattern on it, and the hood was up, so I couldn't see his face.
But Marissa was really upset.
And she was yelling about being sick of it.
So A couple days later, she was dead.
Why didn't any of this come up at the trial? Well, I told you, my public defender, he's the worst.
You know, he wouldn't let me testify.
He wanted me to take the plea.
He he thought I did it.
Did you tell the police about the man you saw? Of course I told the police, but they were too busy trying to frame me.
Before I met Marissa, I was I was seeing this girl.
Amanda Neal.
It ended badly, so she dropped out and she joined the police academy.
You think she set you up.
They said that my DNA was all over Marissa's body, but that-that's impossible, because I hadn't seen her in weeks.
And Amanda, she-she had it out for me, so so I'm thinking either she or-or one of her cop friends, they they planted evidence.
That-That's the only explanation.
I have to say, I I'm not sure why we're here.
The case against Louis Bowman was hardly circumstantial.
His own attorney didn't want him to take the stand.
Because you believed he was guilty.
The State had a strong case.
I advised Louis to accept a plea bargain so he could get out while he still had some life left to live.
Were either of you surprised he refused to take a deal? Well, I don't prosecute based on the defendant's response to a plea offer.
Louis Bowman was our only suspect.
We had hard physical evidence against him.
I did my job, Shawn did his.
Justice was served.
Phoebe Elliot's photograph suggests otherwise.
The image could be fabricated.
The date and time stamp could be inaccurate.
It's also not clear that the man in this picture is Louis Bowman.
Someone else could've been driving his car.
Or the image could be exactly as it appears and you could have put an innocent man behind bars.
If you discount the physical evidence, sure.
But you can't.
Look, all you have is a fuzzy picture and an even fuzzier theory about the police planting Louis Bowman's spit.
How do you plant spit? The police took cheek swabs from Louis during his arrest.
Which could have been used to create trace evidence, at best.
There was enough saliva on Marissa's shirt to soak all the way through to her bra.
That didn't come from any cheek swab.
But don't take my word for it.
Take a look at our work.
I'm sure you'll agree we got the right guy.
Can't believe he said he was my boyfriend.
Why would you believe him? So you two never dated? I went out with Louis twice.
But when I told him that we should just be friends, he didn't get it.
Kept texting me, hanging around my dorm Is that why you dropped out of school? No.
College just wasn't for me.
Louis was annoying, but back then I thought he was harmless.
Marissa probably did, too, right up until he killed her.
WATSON: Like we said, we are investigating the possibility that he did not kill her.
Then you're both idiots.
He thinks that you planted DNA evidence on her body.
I'm a Connecticut state trooper.
I write speeding tickets.
I don't have access to murder investigations.
We looked into you.
There's a lot of cops in your family.
Your dad's a state trooper, just like you; your uncle's a captain in Waterbury PD.
Your brother and three cousins are all on the job, different jurisdictions, all over the state.
Right.
Now I remember.
I called them all up and told them I needed help putting Louis' saliva on my friend's dead body.
I kept a jar of the stuff after I left school.
You probably think that's weird, too.
Would you excuse me a moment? Hey.
What are you doing here? Who the hell do you think you are? Calling my mother? Come with me.
In case you haven't noticed, we are in a police station.
You need to get yourself under control.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did I break the rules? I figured since you thought it was okay to call my mom, you wouldn't mind me coming by your work.
I told you I had some questions about my father.
Well, since you asked so nicely, here's something else you might find interesting.
Five years after he left, he came back.
My mom, to her credit, told him to get lost, to go back to his first family.
But he said he couldn't.
He said that you and your brother and your mom had replaced him.
You weren't even using his last name.
You were ashamed of it, ashamed of him.
And he hated you for it.
And I mean hated, Joan.
He wished you were all dead.
And now that I've met you, I get it.
Leave me and my mother alone.
(phone ringing) If you're curious to know how my meeting with the attorneys went, it's gonna be a short conversation.
Yeah, well, I'm not calling about Marissa Kagan's murder.
I'm calling about Phoebe Elliot's.
You might want to get back down here.
The car the shooter used the other night turned up in Connecticut.
We've got a suspect in custody.
I told you yesterday.
I love Phoebe.
She was my sister.
I didn't kill her.
The evidence says you did.
What evidence? The night Phoebe died, this car was stolen from behind a restaurant in West Hartford, Connecticut.
It was found a few hours later, abandoned in Bridgeport.
Her blood was all over the rear passenger-side door.
Now, it took the local cops some time to connect it to your sister's murder in New York, but when they did, we sent them the DNA you gave us, and it was a perfect match for DNA found inside the vehicle.
It's not possible Sure, it is.
You were crying earlier.
You stole this car in West Hartford, Connecticut.
No, I wasn't.
The capillaries in your eyes have increased in prominence, and that's not a symptom of the upper-respiratory infection you've been fighting, and tree pollen, to which you have an allergy, is very low.
Did you speak to Lin Wen again? I don't want to talk about it.
KEITH: This is bull.
You steal cars, Keith.
It's what landed you in prison.
I used to steal cars.
I hotwired them.
Old sports cars.
Vettes and Porsches parked on the streets of New York.
But you're saying I stole a 2012 four-door from a valet lot in Connecticut? Any car will do when you're looking to commit a murder, right? And you're forgetting about the DNA.
You planted it, obviously, because I didn't steal this car! And I sure as hell didn't kill my sister! You said Louis Bowman also accused the police of planting DNA, didn't you? Yeah, why? Just odd, isn't it? Two men making such a bold accusation just within hours of each other.
Especially given the fact that we think Louis Bowman may well be innocent.
Yes, it's odd, but Marissa Kagan was killed in Bristol, Connecticut and Phoebe Elliot died in the Bronx.
I mean, do you honestly think two different police departments in two different states, including the one we work in, are just gonna sprinkle DNA around whenever they need to close a case? That's right, Phoebe died in the Bronx.
Marcus said the shooter's car was abandoned in Bridgeport, and that's also odd, isn't it? Someone stealing a car in Connecticut to commit a murder in New York, only to drive it all the way back to Connecticut.
You have a copy of the lab report that places Keith in the car? Yeah, it's right there.
I retract my earlier theory.
I don't think anyone planted evidence in either case.
If I'm right, the killer didn't have to.
She can create any evidence she desires.
I tested the samples personally.
The DNA was a match for Keith Elliot.
Well, you're a supervisor, Ms.
Mercado.
Do you normally run tests like these yourself? I do all the high priority cases.
Rapes, murders-- that kind of thing.
I want to make sure they're done right.
And they were done right with Keith Elliot.
We found multiple sources of DNA in the car.
And one was a definitive match for your suspect.
Were there any alleles missing? It was a complete match.
How many loci? Thirteen.
And was it a match for hair or skin samples? Hair.
Yes, 'cause according to our records, there were nine strands of hair found in the vehicle.
But none of them with the root attached.
That would make it very, very hard to get an exact match, wouldn't it? Sorry, I meant skin.
It was a skin match.
The samples didn't actually match.
Did they, Ms.
Mercado? I'm sorry? WATSON: We've studied your record.
You're very fast.
And you've had an unusually high rate of results that support the State.
I'm good at my job.
But we don't think you actually do your job at all.
We think you rely on âdry-labbingâ.
You write false reports.
Which conform to the wishes of the authorities, instead of actually testing the samples that you're given.
BELL: It's not like this kind of thing hasn't happened before.
They've had the same problem in Massachusetts, North Carolina; even the FBI's lab has made thousands of questionable hair matches over the last 20 years, including 32 in death penalty cases.
HOLMES: Mm-hmm.
Sometimes it's inexperience.
Sometimes it's just incompetence, but you-- you're a supervisor.
I think you know what you're doing.
So perhaps you're just driven by a desire to feel important, to be the hero, to be the key witness putting bad guys away-- am I right? I have an excellent reputation.
Ask anyone-- I am an asset to law enforcement.
Yes, but you're not supposed to be an asset, are you? You're supposed to be a scientist.
You're supposed to be an impartial seeker of truth.
But you're not, you're a charlatan! And you've sent at least one innocent man to prison-- Louis Bowman! I stand by my work.
BELL: Then you won't mind if we retest all the evidence in the Phoebe Elliot case at another facility? Because if we're right about what's going on here, the person who had the best motive to kill her was you.
You're police.
You know how things work.
In most cases, even high profile ones, detectives figure out who did it by talking to the right people, following their gut.
It's finding proof that's tough.
You used to be able to get convictions with witness statements or circumstantial evidence, but these days juries want something physical.
They want DNA.
And you give it to them.
I'm on your side.
You know that DNA can be more subjective than people think.
It can be hard to find an uncontaminated sample.
The results can be inconclusive.
So when the police are sure who did it, but the tests aren't clear, I give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt.
You frame people.
You corrupt the justice process from the inside.
I help get convictions.
Louis Bowman got a life sentence thanks to you.
Only it's looking more and more like he didn't kill Marissa Kagan three years ago.
GREGSON: We think that when Phoebe Elliot realized she had a picture that could exonerate him, she told someone.
Maybe it was you.
Maybe it was the lab to confirm whether the DNA was accurate.
HOLMES: If that was the case, you would've realized how much was at stake.
An audit would uncover the same pattern that we found.
You were in danger of going to jail.
And having every conviction that you'd engineered overturned.
Killing Phoebe would stop that from happening.
I told you I didn't do that.
I never even met the woman.
Phoebe was shot in the Bronx.
But her killer drove a car full of evidence all the way to Bridgeport.
And the only reason to do that was to make sure that that car was processed at the Connecticut forensics lab-- your lab-- where you could implicate whoever you wanted.
Phoebe's brother was the lowest hanging fruit.
HOLMES: You said yourself good police work usually reveals the killer.
In this case, you have means and motive.
And unless you can provide us with an alibi, you also have opportunity.
I was home alone that night.
But I can prove I didn't kill her.
Recheck the DNA evidence from the stolen car in your own lab.
Or a private lab.
Or any lab you want.
You'll see that none of it belongs to me.
What would that prove? You're an expert.
You could've removed your DNA.
Or worn protective gear to make sure it never ended up in that car in the first place.
I could've removed all the DNA from that car, sure.
But to remove only my own, that would be a neat trick.
As far as protective gear goes, why would I risk getting pulled over for driving around in a Hazmat suit? In your version of the story, I knew that I'd be processing the evidence, so I wouldn't have needed to keep my DNA out of the car, because I never would've reported a match to myself.
Right? I didn't kill anyone.
Do the tests.
Do them right.
You'll see I'm innocent.
Every piece of evidence she ever handled, every lab report with her name on it, it's all got to be reexamined, which means hundreds of cases getting reopened in Connecticut.
Of course, in the meantime, we got our own problems.
I'm not convinced that she killed Phoebe Elliot.
Nor am I.
You have to appreciate the irony.
Were someone like Ms.
Mercado to process the evidence they would happily provide the false match needed for a conviction, but an honest test would likely exonerate her.
Still, whoever killed Phoebe had to have known about her, right? Why else would they drive the car all the way to Connecticut? They were counting on her doing what she did.
They knew that no matter what the test revealed, her report would confirm the police's initial suspect.
Her ability to produce evidence on demand can't have gone completely unnoticed by Connecticut's entire criminal justice system.
Which means we're probably looking for someone in law enforcement.
(knocking) Could we talk? (door closes) More detective stuff? A technician's been falsifying evidence at a crime lab.
We think someone knew and took advantage.
I was going through all of her cases and making lists of the people who were in the habit of steering work her way.
No Sherlock? He's talking to a suspect we already know about.
I don't do this very often, so I may suck at it, but I came to apologize.
Obviously, I have a lot of unresolved anger over my father.
Our father.
I lied when I said he hated you.
He never came back to us, and as far as I know, he never even knew your mom remarried.
So I'm sorry.
Well, I had a feeling that you might get angry after you found out that I called your mother, so I'm sorry, too.
I've never really been good at taking no for an answer.
(chuckles) Pretty sure that's a Yun family trait.
Not knowing when to quit.
When in doubt, charge ahead.
You have the right to be curious about Dad.
Like you said, for you, he's a mystery.
But for me I remember him giving me piggyback rides and calling me silly nicknames.
And I remember him getting angry and confused, and then he was gone.
He was someone that I had and I lost, and it hurts to think about that.
Anyway, um, I talked to Mom, and she said it's okay if you want to call her again.
I appreciate that.
Good luck with all this.
I already told you I didn't have anything to do with Marissa's case three years ago.
That's not exactly true, is it? By now, you've heard about the arrest of the crime lab supervisor who processed the evidence in Marissa's murder.
It turns out that you made quite a few calls to her while she was working the case.
So? So your cousin Bailey Neal is in Narcotics.
Over the last few years, he's sent a lot of cases Zoe's way.
Maybe that's just a coincidence, or maybe he knew how she worked.
Maybe he told you about his secret weapon.
Okay.
First, that's BS.
Bailey is a good cop, the best.
Second, the only reason I called Zoe as much as I did was because I felt guilty.
About? Marissa was my friend.
If I didn't drop out, I don't know, maybe Louis wouldn't have stopped obsessing over me and started obsessing over her.
So did I encourage Zoe to make sure he wouldn't get away with it? Yes.
Absolutely.
But I was like that with everyone on the case.
Well, there could be another reason that you wanted to point Zoe at Louis.
You killed Marissa.
What? You say that you and Louis weren't a couple.
He says that you were.
What if he's telling the truth? He grew interested in your friend.
You got jealous.
(chuckles) Something funny? Yeah.
Uh, Marissa and I never would have fought over a guy.
You were that close? No, she was that gay.
Her family is super religious.
She never got around to telling them.
The only people who knew were me and Phoebe and a couple of other friends.
I'll give you their names.
You can talk to them.
They'll tell you.
After she was killed, we decided it wasn't our place to say anything.
Plus we knew it wasn't relevant because we knew Louis was the one who did it.
Let's say we believe you.
Is there any other âirrelevantâ information you've been keeping to yourself? You say Louis is innocent, I say you're wrong, but Marissa was seeing somebody, a married woman.
She never told me who, but she did say she was pushing her to get a divorce.
WATSON: How'd it go with Amanda Neal? I don't believe she's our killer.
How's it going with the case files of Zoe Mercado? Well, from the looks of things, there were at least a few dozen people in Connecticut law enforcement who knew what she was up to.
They'd either specifically request her to process evidence, or they would ask her to repeat a test done by a subordinate to get a better result.
You already know who we're looking for, don't you? As a matter of fact, I believe I do.
That's nice.
I got there 20 minutes ago.
Can I help you? I'm Detective Bell with the NYPD.
This is Detective Gould with the Avon PD.
Does Assistant District Attorney Christa Pullman live here? She's my wife.
Is everything okay? She's fine.
My colleagues and I are here about a college student named Marissa Kagan.
Does that name ring a bell? It was tragic, what happened to her.
Actually, that's what we're here to talk about.
The kids are at school.
Come in.
I don't understand.
Marissa's murder was solved years ago.
It was that stalker, that boy she went to school with.
We now think Louis Bowman was framed and that the person who did it also recently shot and killed a young woman in the Bronx.
That's horrible.
But shouldn't you be talking to Christa about this? She'll be home in a few hours.
WATSON: We will.
We've recently become aware of a suspect that the police never pursued, a married woman with whom Marissa was having an affair.
A witness reports seeing Marissa's lover wearing a very distinctive green-and-white Baja sweater.
Any idea who that might be? Christa has a sweater like that.
Did you know about the affair? I found out.
BELL: Your wife's failure to disclose her relationship to the victim at trial is gonna be enough for Avon PD to get a warrant.
Someone's gonna be here shortly to collect samples of her DNA.
Her toothbrush, her hairbrush should do.
They can take whatever they need.
But first there's something else you should know.
My personal attorney is on her way over.
I'm not going to discuss any of this until she gets here.
That's all right.
We don't really need to ask any questions.
Your wife already confessed to everything.
What? GREGSON: Please.
Sit.
We know that you and Marissa were having an affair and that your wife, Teri, found out.
She confronted Marissa over your infidelity, and that confrontation ended in Marissa's murder.
WATSON: When Teri got home, she told you what she had done.
She was ready to face the consequences and turn herself in, but you told her not to, that you would take care of everything.
GREGSON: And you did, you made sure that Zoe Mercado was the one who tested the saliva on Marissa's body, and, like you expected, she matched it to Louis Bowman.
You thought that was the end of it.
But then, a few weeks ago, Phoebe Elliot contacted you.
She told you what she'd seen in that blown-up selfie in Ephraim Hill's gallery.
She said it seemed to corroborate Bowman's alibi.
HOLMES: You shared this with your wife, and according to her, you once again promised to âhandleâ everything.
You tried to convince Phoebe, as you did me, that the photograph wasn't reliable.
When that failed, Teri says she took matters into her own hands.
First, you replaced Phoebe's selfie with a forgery.
Then, the next night, she went to a restaurant near your home in Avon and stole a car out of the valet lot.
Then she drove to Phoebe's gym in the Bronx, waited for her and shot her.
GREGSON: We've got a signed confession from your wife admitting to the burglary at the gallery and to the murders of Marissa Kagan and Phoebe Elliot.
No.
No, you coerced this.
I can get this thrown out.
Your wife's confession was entirely voluntary.
We've got it in writing and on tape.
There was a time when that would have been the end of the matter, but ex-lab supervisor Zoe Mercado is right about one thing: juries do not like to convict these days without DNA evidence, so we retested the saliva found on Marissa's shirt three years ago just to be certain.
It's a preliminary match for Teri.
GREGSON: There isn't much doubt she killed Marissa, but Phoebe Elliot? That's another story.
BELL: We compared Teri's DNA to skin cells recovered from the car used in Phoebe's murder.
If ex-lab supervisor Zoe Mercado or anyone of her ilk had performed those tests, they would have rightly come back a match.
But in this case, we didn't inform the lab which DNA belonged to our suspect.
We provided several samples from your home, samples from other suspects, like Keith Elliot, Ephraim Hill.
Even threw in a sample from my tortoise just to keep them on their toes.
And imagine our surprise when the lab revealed that the DNA in the car didn't belong to your wife, it belonged to you.
You knew Phoebe's brother had a record.
With his history, it was a matter of time before we zeroed in on him.
And with a little nudge, Zoe would attribute any physical evidence found to him and not you.
WATSON: Teri felt responsible for the whole chain of events.
So to protect you and to leave your children with at least one parent not in prison, she tried to take the blame for both crimes.
Fortunately for them, we understand they have very loving grandparents.
Unfortunately for you, when lab work is done right, without bias, without assumption, it really does tend to convince a jury of a killer's guilt.
LIN: This is gonna sell quickly, so let me know if you're interested.
Looking for a place of your own? Can't beat the location.
Your office said you'd be here.
I called your mother today, and we spoke for a while.
Your Mandarin must be good.
No, she seems nice.
She's the best.
She invited me to tea.
I'm not surprised.
I took a rain check.
Look, I know this has been a lot for you.
It's been a lot for me, too.
And I just thought, âWhy rush it?â I'll have tea with your mother when you're ready to join us.
Why? Because you're my sister.
@elderman