CSI: NY s07e08 Episode Script

* Said I need somebody, baby * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Won't you be the one to become stone, babe? * * Won't you be the one to become stone, darling? * * Right now * * I said need somebody, babe * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone, yeah * * Become a stone * * Sometimes I try to become a stone * * Sometimes I want to become a stone * * Sometimes I wish I could become a stone * * Sometimes I try to become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone, become a stone * * Become a stone, yeah * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Become a stone * * Yeah, yeah, yeah * Bark.
Workers found her under a tree in Central Park.
When I first got to the scene, I thought she might still be alive.
It's the gaze in her eyes.
No ID, no coat.
She looked frozen stiff.
Well, not frozen.
This is the most shocking position I've ever seen in rigor.
Unofficially, it looks like our Jane Doe was scared to death.
* Out here in the fields * * I fight for my meals * * I get my back into my living * * Yeah, yeah, yeah * Our Jane Doe broke a heel, which is consistent with the layout photos and Sid's initial findings in autopsy.
These sporadic movement patterns suggest she was either lost or confused.
Hey, I tracked down the shoe prints of the park workers who found our vic and the EMTs who were on the scene.
Great.
Why don't we fan out and start eliminating shoe prints.
See if we can ID our victim's attacker.
Sounds good.
No other prints to suggest she was being followed.
No.
If this was a chase or a blitz attack, there'd be signs of a struggle somewhere here.
- I don't see it.
- Nope.
So what or who was she running from? Ghosts? Dr.
Sheldon Hawkes, did I just hear you say ghosts? You did.
Want to know why? 'Cause that's what he said.
Ghosts.
A lot of New Yorkers believe this part of the park is haunted.
The lake just over there? For years rumor has it, two women have been seen skating figure eights at night.
Rosetta and Janet, sisters, died in the 1800s.
Apparently they just glide above the ice.
If you get too close, they disappear.
- Shut up.
- Yeah.
And then there was that real estate guy that got gutted by the river just east of here.
Oh, and Belvedere Castle.
Tons of people have heard disembodied voices.
Dispatch gets calls all the time.
It's teenagers, doing the nasty.
Go ahead, poke fun.
But this area where we are right now, some of the volunteers in the Emergency Medical Unit won't even ride in here.
They send me.
I got to be honest.
There have been times when I felt something.
A presence? - I don't know.
- Doc, come on.
You can't tell me that, in your well-educated, scientific mind, you don't have an explanation for paranormal activity? Okay, one night I heard a woman screaming.
I get off my bike, I run towards the sound.
The screams get louder and louder, but when I get to where she should have been, nothing.
Nobody.
- What do you think it was? - I don't know.
I have no rational explanation for what happened that night.
Now, could have been my mind playing tricks on me or maybe it was the sound bouncing off the trees, but I felt something weird here.
And judging by the looks of these shoe prints, maybe our Jane Doe felt something, too.
Petechial hemorrhaging consistent with suffocation.
But I haven't figured out the exact COD as of yet.
The external examination revealed nothing remarkable.
There's no ligature or strangulation marks.
Even more strange, X-rays showed her hyoid bone, windpipe, and larynx to be perfectly intact.
Mild cyanosis.
On her hands as well.
It would also imply suffocation.
I found no fibers in her nose or mouth.
No contusions on her lips, so no evidence of smothering.
I suspect this abrasion could be pre-mortem.
It's more a rash than a bruise.
It's consistent with friction against a solid surface.
Mm-hmm.
Other than that, there are no other injuries that can point to foul play or cause of death.
There was one thing that was particularly odd.
She wore black undergarments with a white dress that looked about two sizes too big.
Also her shoes were white.
Well, the whole outfit was just odd.
It was as if someone else had dressed her.
Adam wasn't able to tell me what the stain is.
He's still waiting on the SEM results.
But the shape of it intrigued me, so I decided to play out a theory.
The pattern on the dress was caused by this action.
An attacker grabbed her from behind.
No! No! No! A real person, not a ghost.
But I can't determine if it happened in the park where she died.
There's nothing to indicate that it didn't.
The evidence could still be out there.
We've got to expand our search and get to it before the rain does.
Start at the perimeter and walk out from there.
Aw, that better not be poison Ivy.
I'd laugh my ass off.
Do you believe this? In the middle of Manhattan, we got to deal with coyotes? What is that all about? They've been attacking people in broad daylight, too.
Between them and the spiders.
- Are you afraid of spiders? - Hey, bud, Northern black widow spider, the female's poison? Lay you out in two minutes.
You scaredy-cat.
Yeah.
That could be the cause of her death.
You're a science guy now.
Black widow bite would cause vomiting, chest pain, maybe some bad muscle cramps, but it's rarely fatal.
Besides, our girl died of suffocation.
Not a little itty-bitty scary spider.
Just bag the evidence.
We got broken branches over here.
I've got women's footprints here.
Looks like the same pattern of our Jane Doe before she broke her heel.
You know, I saw a ghost once.
I was visiting a friend in the hospital, and I was reading to her and I looked up and there he was.
I didn't say that I believed in ghosts.
I said I could not prove that they don't exist.
I'm being totally serious.
He was wearing a white coat, and he wasn't scary.
He had this energy that was really kind of soothing.
And I watched him put his hand on her arm.
And then he just vanished.
And later she told me that her dad had died a few years before and he was a doctor.
And she described the man that I saw.
So you think there are other forces at play here? Hell, no.
Only the living and breathing actually commit murder.
She definitely came through here.
- Everything all right? - Yeah, I'm good.
Get it together.
Someone's out there.
I didn't hear you.
Mac? Mac? Freeze! I'd say our suspect is about five-nine.
You weren't able to see his face? No, it was too dark.
He was wearing a sweatshirt with a hood over his head.
All I got is male, medium build.
We're checking surveillance cameras from buildings around the perimeter.
Maybe they'll come up with footage of our guy running out of the park.
Mounted unis came through here about an hour and half ago and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
So what are we thinking? Is this Vic connected to our Jane Doe case? The murders are in the same general area.
That's where the connection ends because these women are are just too different.
One's brunette, the other's blonde, one's buried, one's not, one's in her 30s, the other, 20s.
They are both women.
This victim looks like she's been dead for at least two weeks.
That's a long time to wait to bury a corpse.
I don't think that's what he was doing here, Jo.
I think he was digging her up.
You look like you have as much as I do.
Nothing.
The body weight reported to be lost at the moment of death.
The weight of the human soul.
That study was dismissed for lack of scientific proof.
And however much a soul weighs, I'm more concerned about how it plays out in the living.
Where it goes after that is strictly personal.
Oh, yeah? How many times you looked for those two sisters in the lake in Central Park? Every time I go there.
I don't know about you, but I need a promotion because I work way too hard and I'm brilliant.
Mmm! Just give us the facts, Adam.
Sulfur.
Sulfur.
The mystery yellow substance on our Jane Doe's dress.
But that sulfur was over the soil and leaf trace that I can connect to the park.
Where in the park can you run into sulfur? I know a few places.
Volunteering nights in the Parks Medical Unit, you get to know where the crazies hang out.
Wow.
I knew it.
The safety helmet, the medical bag.
I would've never pegged you for a cop.
Have a seat.
Meet Sully, the Ken Burns of the supernatural world.
I'm a legitimate filmmaker.
I document the appearance of apparitions in the park.
We spoke to park gardeners, maintenance workers, anybody who could have worked with the stuff.
You bring us a ghostbuster? What stuff? Why am I here? You use sulfur, right, Sully? To form a protective circle in an area of high activity, yes.
And you disturbed it when you dragged me in here, which means a spirit could follow any one of us home! You could put some sea salt around the perimeter-- perimeter of your home, but it's not a guaranteed deterrent.
Okay.
A female body was found in the park two nights ago.
How interesting would it be if the sulfur we found on her dress was a match to your protective fairy dust? Am I under arrest? Sheldon, what's going on here? Your latest film about the spirits on North Brother Island didn't fill too many seats, did it, Sully? But if someone was mysteriously killed in a haunted part of Central Park by an unknown perpetrator like a ghost, then this next one-- Are you suggesting that I killed someone to promote my film? Not "someone.
" A young woman in her 20s.
Listen, I'm smart.
I'm really smart, but even if I wasn't, I have enough science backing me up.
It's not gonna be that hard to prove that the sulfur handprint on the back of her dress came from you.
Are you talking about that girl in the white dress? - The one you grabbed.
- No, I was trying to help her.
At first I thought she was a park spirit, you know? Then boom, she bangs right into me.
She slammed into you? That's how I knew she was a human form.
I could see she was in trouble.
I tried to help her, but she was in a panic and ran away.
And we should believe you why? I was filming all night.
I captured every second of it.
We're going to need a sneak preview of your movie.
This is your victim buried in the park.
Given her organs' state of decay, I'd posit her date of death to be 1995.
What? 15 years ago? Is that how long she's been in the ground? I believe so.
Exterior decay was somehow delayed.
Salt That white crystalline material you found at the scene was salt.
The park places these salt domes near walkways and high-traffic areas during the winter months.
It could've leeched into the soil in high enough concentrations.
Salt's an excellent preservative.
That would explain 15 years of death looking like two weeks.
So someone came back to dig her up after all that time? Who would do that? Someone crazy enough to kill her in the first place? Perpetrators return to the scene after a day, a month, maybe a few years, but 15? Whatever his reason, you think the same guy killed our Jane Doe? Your second victim suffered massive blunt force trauma to the back of the skull.
And that's cause of death? Or it could have been the stabbing.
It's consistent with her clothing we examined at the scene.
Our first Vic died of suffocation, though, right? Right, no visible injuries.
Unlike your second victim, who was clearly stabbed and bludgeoned.
Up close and personal.
Indeed.
So the only thing our two vics have in common is they were both found in the park.
Two separate cases, totally unconnected.
And both killers still out there.
"Paranormal" simply means "beyond normal.
" But there is no finite manifestation for "normal.
" So fear is an irrelevancy, a kind of egocentric contrivance.
A paranormal entity is no less natural than a tree or a rock.
All right, folks.
We're here to meet others.
Okay? I hesitate to even use the word "ghost," because-- Whoa, hey! You're real! She's real! - Wait! Hold on! - Freeze it here.
This is the direction Jane was coming from.
Can we see more details of that part of the park? Just one second.
All right, it looks like she came through the 72nd Street entrance.
Keep rolling the footage.
Wait, hold on! - Can I talk to you? - No! No! No! All right, so this guy just kept taping all night long, no pauses, no cuts? The footage came directly from the camera's flash drive.
The video file is clean, no change in his location, clock was continuous.
All right, so our paranormal auteur's telling the truth.
Who killed our Jane Doe? I don't know who, but I can tell you how.
Nitrous oxide poisoning.
Laughing gas? Well, its effects were exacerbated by antidepressants in her system.
The N2O ultimately suffocated her.
In the meantime, she could have suffered traumatic hallucinations, thinking she was being chased by something much scarier than we can imagine.
Would explain the look of terror in her eyes.
Well, given the presence of nitrous, I thought it prudent to look for recent dental work.
But when I took the body out of cold storage, I found something I think I should show you.
The fridge temperatures brought out the bruises.
They weren't able to develop when she was alive, which means they happened close to the time of death.
They're in the distinct shape of a hand, as though her body was lifted.
The extent of the bruising suggests she was dead weight in this person's hands, no pun intended.
Someone moved her when she was unconscious.
And since she was conscious while running through the park She'd been somewhere else, receiving the gas at the mercy of our perpetrator.
She wasn't sexually assaulted, but we know he undressed her, took her shoes off, so maybe he left some prints behind.
I say we find out.
Superglue adheres to amino acids in fingerprints, but what is it reacting to in her hair and scalp? Jane Doe's fingerprints came back.
She was a fifth-grade teacher, her name-- Isabel Wilde.
I ran a dozen blood stains from her dress.
Two samples detected a partial unknown profile, - which gave me a hit in CODIS.
- Got a name? Dwight Parsons-- an ex-con with a history of arrests for robbery and assault.
Sounds like a prime suspect to me.
Yeah, except for one thing.
He was shot and killed five years ago.
That would make him a ghost.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
Who's your daddy? Come on, give it to me That's right, you just-- you give it to me.
You just give it-- Oh, I just hit the lottery.
You're not on one of those kinky Web sites Um I was isolating the perp's fingerprint from Isabel's skin pattern.
- Oh, Adam, you are so brilliant.
- Yeah? I-I - Run it through AFIS.
- Okay.
If it's a hit to dead ex-con Dwight Parsons, we're in trouble.
Hey.
The mystery amino acid in Isabel Wilde's scalp and hair? It's non-thermogenic mortician's makeup.
Cover-up for a corpse? That's it.
That's the connection to Dwight Parsons.
He's dead.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait-- - Didn't you say he died five years ago? The abrasion on the back of Isabel's neck could have come from a head support of a mortician's table.
So maybe Dwight and Isabel passed through the same funeral home.
- Right.
- Wait, hold on a second, back up.
She wasn't dead five years ago.
Unfortunately, you don't have to be dead to be in a funeral home.
We need to find out where Dwight Parsons was embalmed.
Hey.
We have a potential lead in the Isabel Wilde case.
Adam and Lindsay are chasing it down now.
- Good job.
- Good job? That's what I say to Ellie when she eats all of her carrots.
You don't quite seem okay.
What's going on? Sid discovered something.
The victim in the park shows evidence of a surgery.
The organs are too decomposed for analysis, but I did recover the sutures.
I tested the sutures that came out of our second victim.
They were too common to get a match? No.
Polypropylene, nonabsorbable multifiber.
I was able to contact the manufacturer, find out which hospitals they distributed to, which doctors performed gastric surgeries around '95 - All that work and still no ID? - I got an ID.
Only one female patient fitting our Vic's age and description had peptic ulcer surgery that got so dicey they had to use four sutures instead of one.
Roni Parker.
Her married name.
She kept it after her divorce.
Her maiden name is Carver.
She's Chief Ted Carver's sister.
Roni.
I'm sorry.
- This is all very strange.
- I understand.
We don't have to do this now, Ted.
No.
I'm fine.
Makes it all real.
Started to forget what she looked like.
You never worried that something had happened to her? You never reported her missing.
I never thought she was missing.
My sister had a habit of disappearing.
The truth is, Roni and I were two very different people.
I mean, I loved her.
Don't get me wrong, but she was kind of a mess even as a kid.
Can you tell me what you remember in the last few months you saw her? I-I don't know.
We lost touch as we got older.
And then one day, Jay called me and said she'd left.
- Jay? - My nephew.
Told me that Roni had gone, and left him, his brother, and his sister alone.
- I took the kids in.
- And you never looked for her.
At first, I was really angry.
Then I was embarrassed.
Finally I just had to let her go.
Move on.
Doesn't quite sound like I'm a good brother or cop, huh? I'd like to talk to the kids.
Yes, I'll set it up so you can talk to them.
Of course, they're all grown up, now.
Well, still, they might remember details that can head us in the right direction.
We're going to do everything we can to find her killer.
Damn right you are.
Hey, Mac, um I would be grateful if maybe we could keep this between us? I mean, for now.
Thanks.
- Flack.
- We got to go visit the dead.
Work-related, I hope.
Sprouse Funeral Home, 77th Street.
Looks like Isabel might have been there before she ran into the park.
On my way.
This place is so creepy.
But I guess, funeral home What else would it be? How the hell does a funeral home go out of business? The owners died four years ago.
They left the family business to their only son, Gordon.
He closed up shop, apparently, but I understand he still lives here.
No prints in the dust, no movement in the air.
Definitely doesn't look lived-in.
Or died in.
Son of a bitch.
Looks like you just found our primary crime scene.
Hawkes.
We got something here.
What the hell are we dealing with? This doesn't make any sense.
This kid closed down the funeral home, but stayed in the embalming business? Kept it open for personal use.
No signs of struggle.
So Isabel was probably unconscious when he laid her out here.
So what did he do from there? He dressed her.
Vintage.
This looks like it's from the '50's.
Hey, if we come across a little old lady skeleton in a wig in a rocking chair down here, it's every man for himself.
So Gordon put the dress on and shoes and then applied her makeup.
All the while, she's passed out.
It's the ultimate in total control.
Highly egocentric.
His fantasies are so much a part of his inner world that he can't handle the victim interacting at all.
So he needs them helpless.
The way he saw other women get made up his entire life.
So this guy can only relate to dead bodies.
That's really sad.
That is not the adjective I would use.
But he tried to wash all the makeup off Isabel.
It's not uncommon for predators of this type to actually feel shame after the act.
So he probably wanted to wash away the image.
Or the evidence.
Remind me to thank him for leaving some trace on her, or we might never have found this place.
Whoa.
I've got personal belongings.
It's Isabel.
Did you guys hear something? - Don't shoot! - Keep your hands where I can see 'em! - Okay, don't shoot.
- Get up! Hands! Do you know Isabel Wilde? I'm going to introduce you to Miranda.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law.
You have the right to speak to an attorney.
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you Jo.
So I found something very strange in the Roni Parker case.
I started running records of her credit cards to see if I could pinpoint a more exact time of her disappearance and well, she hasn't stopped using them.
Debit and credit cards, car registration, social security number.
Since her gastro surgery in '94, there's been activity on one or all of them every day.
And not a single missed payment.
It looks like somebody stole her identity.
They stole more than that.
This could be our killer.
How do you figure? Most thieves steal an identity for days, maybe weeks, but years? You'd have to know your victim couldn't report you.
They took over Roni Parker's life because they knew she was dead.
- You have an address? - Yeah.
Chief Carver.
This is a long way across town for a routine interview.
You can't say you weren't expecting me.
All due respect, my update was a courtesy call.
Right, but if my sister's killer is in there, I need to be here.
But, hey, I really do appreciate the respect.
DVD's still playing.
Bedroom's clear.
Bunch of drawers open.
Look like they were emptied.
Pile of hangers on the bed.
Chief? This is who stole my sister's identity.
Looks like she knew we were coming.
Mr.
Sprouse, why did you kill that young woman? Gordon, did you sexually assault her? In breaking news Police have arrested Gordon Sprouse, who allegedly murdered a young woman near Central Park in a bizarre series of events.
Mr.
Sprouse will be arraigned on charges of first degree murder.
The date of trial is pending the judge's announcement.
You killed Isabel Wilde.
No.
I would never kill anyone.
Confess.
Okay? That's the best thing for you.
See, we already know what happened.
You got her drunk, you fed her antidepressants and gas and then you fooled around until she suffocated.
Murder is wrong.
Death and ecstasy can be closely linked.
Some people think they're the same experience.
Living in a funeral home all your life, maybe things got mixed up, huh? So what was it? Did you get your first little tingle down there when you saw your dad working on a dead girl, is that it? - My mother.
- Excuse me? My mother was the mortician, Detective.
So what's the fantasy? Virgin bride? Mommy in a white nightgown? Go to hell! You are disgusting! - I'm disgusting? - Yes! You're right.
I like my girls conscious when they get dressed and put on makeup.
- Totally gross.
- You don't understand any of this, do you? Not even close.
No? Okay, let me try and explain.
White is the color of snow and milk.
It is so pure, it's not even a color.
So you wanted her to be at peace, hmm? That's why you painted her up like a corpse? No, not like a corpse, Doctor.
Like the perfect version of herself.
I only wish she could see herself the way I see her.
What I do is good.
What the hell are you talking about? You drugged that woman out of consciousness, placed her on a cold metal slab, and then toyed with her so you could get off! - What's good about that? - No.
- You don't know.
- I know.
You don't know I know.
I know a freak when I see one.
I don't do what's in my head.
The only difference between you and the other sick bastards is that you put your victim on the slab before you kill her.
If I did what was in my head, they would be sliced up and gushing and washed down the drain! And you would never find them! But I don't! I don't do that! I just play with them! I met Isabel in a bar.
She came home with me.
She wanted to try the gas.
She thought it might be fun.
I did not know she was on antidepressants.
Otherwise I would have altered the dose.
How thoughtful.
Then what happened? Isabel was fine.
And then she woke up screaming.
She was hallucinating or something.
She jumped off the table and ran out.
Alive.
You just let her get up and run out in the middle of the night in that condition? I don't chase 'em.
I only play with them.
And when they start to wake up, I let them go.
And because of the gas, they don't even remember what happened.
They? How many others are there, Gordon? We found these in a mortuary.
Yes these are my clothes.
Here you go.
Tea always helps.
I can't remember.
One minute I was dancing, and the next I was at home wearing this old white dress.
And it wasn't mine.
I felt sick.
All that time in between is just blank.
Do you know what happened to me that night? Not exactly, but I can tell you what we've learned so far.
Do I want to know? You win.
I always thought I was the workaholic.
Is that from Roni Parker's grave? Okay, you've got that same look as before preoccupied.
Only now you're getting me worried.
What's up? Cases involving a colleague are always tough, but this one Chief Carver being so on top of it.
Well, his sister was killed and buried in the park, and somebody's digging her up after all these years.
I think I'd be all over it, too.
I don't know.
Maybe all these ghost stories are just starting to get my sixth sense working overtime.
Why don't we call it a night.
The parking garage is kind of spooky right now.
You want to walk me out? I'm right behind you.