CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s07e12 Episode Script

A trucker driving by saw the body, called it in.
Easy to miss.
The coroner's tied up on a multiple in Pahrump, but they're en route.
Officer Jensen was first responding.
When he saw the condition of the body, he backed out of the scene, stepping in his own footprints.
Anyway, we've been beating the bush looking for her personal effects, but so far nothing.
Jane Doe it is.
You must be Keppler.
- Willows? - Catherine.
Sorry I'm late.
Got stuck on the Strip.
Welcome to Las Vegas.
Is that how they're doing things in Baltimore these days? Out here, we don't touch the body until the coroner releases it.
Sorry.
Just trying to get a better look at her face.
There's bruising around the neck, relatively fresh.
No other obvious wounds on the body.
This girl's barely out of high school.
Catnip.
Excuse me? The way they attract men at that age; it's like catnip.
That's a terrifying thought.
You have kids? A daughter,15.
You must be a hit on career day.
I try not to bring my work home with me.
How about you? What? Any kids? Patchy discolorations on the skin.
Looks like dehydration.
White fibers.
I'm guessing cotton.
Looks like she's been swabbed down with something that evaporated, maybe alcohol.
Unlike most men, this one knows how to clean up after himself.
So how long is this fellow Keppler supposed to be with us? Well, he was hired to staff the new day shift, but since we're one shy with Grissom away, Ecklie wanted us to break him in for a few weeks.
Got a broken fingernail.
Please tell me she got a piece of her attacker.
If the nail had been torn off, the break would be smooth.
It's jagged; she's a biter.
So flash this photo around the Alphabets.
If she's a pro or a local, somebody will recognize her.
Alphabets? Yeah, it's a neighborhood.
You know, A Street, B Street,D Street.
A through F is pretty bad-- homeless, junkies, scumbags, the hookers we chase off the Strip.
I mean, if you're down and out in Vegas, sooner or later, you're gonna end up here.
Hear you got one of the fastest growing murder rates in the country.
Yeah, we're very competitive.
Is that a Philly accent I hear? Trenton, born and bred.
My condolences.
I'm from Newark.
- How you doing? - How are you? Thought I heard something familiar.
But you got to love Vegas, isn't that right,Catherine? My hometown.
I mean, the pizza's terrible, but everything else is paradise.
So I see you've got the soil and vegetation exemplars.
Three distinct locations.
Not that it's gonna make much difference.
I get the feeling our guy's not the type to track away dirt on his shoes.
Probably not.
Our best bet's the body.
Which we're probably not gonna get much from, either.
So is the pizza really that bad? I like it.
No obvious traces of semen? No visible skin under the fingernails, so she probably didn't fight back.
There were no defensive wounds on her forearms, no ligature marks on her wrists or ankles.
Maybe he didn't want to mark her up.
I mean, look at her.
So young.
Innocent.
He wanted to take his time.
He drugged her.
We should expand tox to include volatiles and sedative hypnotics.
You got something? Highlights and lowlights.
That's a hair process that isn't cheap.
Nominal hair growth is roughly half-a-millimeter a day.
And based on the length of her roots, it's been about two months since she's had it done.
Not the kind of girl who goes missing without a report.
Your vic's name is Veronica Sorensen, age 17.
Last reported in Victorville.
About two months ago? - She's a - Runaway? Yeah.
Parents reported her missing.
P.
D.
's already made the notifications.
So, what's the verdict on this Keppler guy? What? You're usually pretty quick to size people up.
Jury's still out, but he knows what he's doing.
In other news, local Las Vegas police officers are still trying to identify the body of a nude woman found off Highway 51 early yesterday morning.
I'm Detective Curtis.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
That girl on the TV, that is not my Veronica.
They wouldn't call us if they weren't sure.
We were able to match her fingerprints.
Then you've made a mistake.
The prints that we gave to the police, they were from a school safe kit.
She was ten years old.
They could've changed, right? Fingerprints don't change.
There was a tattoo on her right ankle-- an iguana.
We just want to take her home.
Of course.
As soon as we've completed the autopsy.
No, you're not gonna cut her open.
Sir, this is a homicide.
We're not giving our permission.
I'm afraid you don't have a choice.
But I promise you, we'll treat her with the utmost respect.
And what can I do for you? Let me know when you release the body.
It's going to be a while.
I haven't even opened her up yet.
Well, just let me know.
And stop whistling.
C.
O.
D.
was asphyxiation due to strangulation, but it wasn't quick.
The overlapping patterns of fours and ones suggest multiple events.
I imaged subcutaneous bruises under UV from several positions around the throat.
Killer choked and released at least three times.
That's consistent with sexual asphyxiation.
S.
A.
E.
is about what you'd expect.
Vaginal trauma, no semen, but traces of spermicide.
Guy used a condom.
What about tox? Well, blood was positive for MDMA.
Ecstasy.
- That's it? - Yep.
I can't believe that she was compliant.
Thanks, Doc.
You got it.
You ever see a cat playing with a mouse? Point isn't to kill the mouse, just keep the game going.
I'm guessing you've got cats.
No.
I just like the metaphor.
Same game every time.
Cat goes home, leaves its kill on the doorstep.
Our guy's done this before.
I'm with you there.
What got our cat's attention this time? Around puberty, most guys fixate on a particular body type that turns them on.
Tall, skinny, short, red hair.
Whatever floats your boat.
It's imprinted.
Hard to let go of.
So we know what his type is and we know what he likes to do with them.
Okay, we've got three that fit the type.
The cases were years apart.
and 1975.
Let's bring up their photographs.
Look at the similarity in the body positions.
They look posed, almost as if they were waving goodbye.
Jane Doe '99 was discovered naked in a stretch of dirt off Paradise behind the old Hotel Continental.
Based on the photos, her hair was matted with dirt, which suggests that it was wet when she was dumped.
It's likely that her body was washed.
That's consistent with the latest victim.
Any traces of alcohol or cotton swabs? There's nothing indicated, but there's almost nothing in this file.
Based on T.
O.
D.
, the body was found less than four hours after death.
Yet other than a general canvass, not a single person was interviewed.
The homicide detective's summary is less than a page.
Sounds like shoddy police work.
Sounds like no police work.
After the autopsy, C.
O.
D.
confirmed asphyxiation by strangulation.
There was absolutely no follow-up whatsoever.
Well, there was a follow-up in spades on Jane Doe '89.
She was found in a vacant lot off 28th Street near Bould Highway.
Uh, stripped of her clothing.
Like the others, several peri-mortem bruises, but check out this hair.
Yeah, it's crimped.
I remember those days.
There's no way that style survives a shower.
Killer didn't wash that one down.
Methods evolve.
Practice makes perfect.
Again, the cops didn't come up with a single suspect.
There were detailed sketches of the crime scene, microscopy on errant hairs and fibers, even ran the vic's prints through WIN.
'89 that database was barely on the Internet.
The guy that worked on this case was very thorough.
He just didn't close it.
Okay, Jane Doe '75.
Well she was found in an alley off of Bridger near Fremont Street.
Based on the level of decomp, she'd been lying there about two days before they found her.
Only thing about this one is, she had her clothes on.
Might have been his first.
Or maybe the first one found.
Isolated contusions on her neck, arms and shoulders.
C.
O.
D.
listed as heroin overdose.
Junkies do bruise easily.
And the "waving good-bye" hand position is a natural way to fall.
It's possible that this one is a coincidence.
It's not.
How do you know? Because I do.
This guy pays attention to the details.
Knows what he likes, he doesn't mix it up.
Thing that gets me is the discipline, though.
He's got a habit, but he seems to be able to control it.
Only needs to kill once every ten years or so, and when he does, he's got a type.
Pretty but not pricey.
And not likely to be missed.
You're a CSI, not a profiler.
- What's the difference? - Evidence.
I want leads and IDs.
Follow up on what you've got.
When I left this place, it was all grey walls and cinder blocks.
Very fancy.
What made you transfer to Henderson? Cost of living, better commute.
I socked away a few bucks, bought a nice place in Green Valley.
Ah, I take it you're a shortcuts kind of guy.
I guess you could say that.
I like to get to the heart of things right away.
Any reason that you didn't get to the heart of this? October 17,1999.
You remember the date? Why is that? Hey, I'm not sure I like your tone.
Answer the question, Detective.
It's my son's birthday.
Day I caught the case, my wife went into labor.
It was rough.
There were complications.
Anyway, I was out for weeks taking care of her.
Used up all my vacation time.
When I got back, there were a half dozen cases on my desk.
My captain told me to let it go.
Look.
We canvassed the neighborhood.
No name.
She was homeless, hooking for drug money.
You do not know that.
You didn't even ask for tox.
We didn't need to do a test.
We found her at Paradise and Flamingo.
What else would she be doing there? Okay, here we are.
Autopsy samples for Doe, Jane.
Uh, most recent vic had traces of E in her system.
If this one does, too, there might be a connection.
To a drug dealer from ten years ago? That's kind of weak.
Weak is the best that we have right now.
Hodges ran the formalin-fixed tissue sample from Jane Doe '99 through GCMS.
There's no traces of Ecstasy, but he did find chloral hydrate.
Chloral hydrate is a hypnotic sedative.
There were no traces of anything like that found in Veronica Sorensen.
Which means if our guy still sedates his victims before sexually asphyxiating them, whatever he's using now isn't leaving a trace.
- Warrick Brown.
- Mike Keppler.
I know You trying to do a geographic profile of your serial? Yeah, most of these guys tend to operate out of one place.
In theory, as the killer gets more and more comfortable with each act, the locations of the bodies should spiral outward from one central point.
I tell you one thing that your dump sites do have in common.
What's that? When the bodies were found, the location that they were found in at the time had the highest crime rate in the city.
Smart.
The crime center sure seems to move around pretty quickly here, huh? Well, in Vegas, new is old in five years, old is history in ten, and nothing ever seems to leave a mark.
Sounds refreshing.
'89 Jane Doe, this was your case.
One of the first homicides I ever worked.
Damn, I had good handwriting.
Excuse me.
Come on, come on, I know you got company.
Yeah, that's it.
Oh, man.
You processed a mountain of evidence but didn't turn up a single suspect.
It's not my fault, man.
I had the scumbag dead to rights.
What are you talking about? There's nothing here to indicate that you This is it.
That's the killer's hair.
You did note morphology consistent with the vic.
Yeah, but the position- location was all wrong.
I pulled that out of her navel, just that one hair.
It was a sexual assault, It had to be from the killer.
But I couldn't prove it, so I didn't write it down.
This hair had a tag.
Did you run DNA? In '89? Man, we were just reading about DNA.
The only lab in the country that was doing that stuff was the FBI, and my supervisor-- he wouldn't have called them in on a case like this.
I used to bust my ass to keep a crime scene pristine, and then some uniform would wobble over, stuffing his face, drop a hamburger wrapper right at my feet.
Who the hell needs that? Man, if I had the tools you guys do today I finally would have been a real hero.
There's your money shot.
Damn it.
Did you preserve the hair? Permount on a microscope slide with a cover slip.
It should still be in Central Property.
Are your sure it's really here? As I said when you called, we have no record.
Sir,I spent half the day at Central Property going through their records.
Now, according to the case logs, it was transferred to this court in late 1989 and never returned.
So, it's got to be here somewhere, okay? Okay.
So it is.
Excuse me, bro.
You rang? Yeah, I think I need a hand here, Hodges.
What is this? It's from an '89 Jane Doe.
I'm looking for anything that will help us out.
Those look like rat droppings.
That's because they are rat droppings, man.
Are you familiar with the hantavirus? Carried by rodents, transmitted to humans when they inhale vapors from contaminated urine, saliva or feces.
That crap will kill you.
glove up.
If I start leaking blood from my eyeballs, I'm blaming you.
Keppler? Didn't they give you an office? I, uh I like the noise.
It helps me to concentrate.
I prefer things quiet myself.
Of course, I am a pathologist.
I reviewed that Jane Doe autopsy from '75.
That was fast.
Well, I'm sure the original examination was, too.
M.
E.
was a hack named Sam Barnard.
He, uh, retired a little while after I started.
Once saw him do a Y with a scalpel in one hand and a hot dog in the other.
I take it he wasn't known for his, uh, rigorous analysis? He was known for liking hot dogs.
Well, that's just great.
You know, if you really want to figure out what killed your Jane Doe, there's pretty much only one thing we can do.
See the sutured cut across the top of her head and the Y-incision? - No.
- It's because they're not there.
So the original M.
E.
didn't even do an autopsy? What can I say? He was a lazy bastard.
That's criminal malfeasance.
Well, if you want to tell him, I can dig him up, too.
Ah, right.
So what do you got? Check out the hyoid bone.
It's fractured.
Yeah, it doesn't take much force to do it.
It's possible there were no external marks.
So the girl was strangled.
So she is one of ours.
Gum line filling.
Silver amalgam.
On the outside of the tooth? That's a cheap way to do it.
Old school.
Nowadays, most dentists use epoxy and other components to make it match the enamel.
I worked a mass fatality fire in Philly.
Learned a lot about teeth.
Well,Veronica Sorensen had a similar filling in her mouth.
Jane Doe '99 had traces of chloral hydrate in her system.
I read that dentists used to use it to sedate pediatric patients.
Looks like our guy might be a dentist.
Her name is Veronica Sorensen, and we believe that she might have been a patient here.
Oh, yes that poor girl.
I saw her on the news.
It's terrible.
These girls, do you recognize any of them? Are those girls dead? We need you to look carefully at those, ma'am.
I'm sorry.
I don't recognize them.
Well, we're going to have to see your patient files from 1975 to '99.
Oh, well, I'm sorry.
Inactive files aren't kept past seven years.
We just don't have the space.
Can you tell us who worked on Veronica Sorensen? I'll have to check.
We have several dentists on staff.
Even a few dental students who volunteer.
There we are.
She saw Dr.
Dave.
That's Dr.
David Lowry.
Everyone around here calls him Dr.
Dave.
How long has Dr.
Dave been working here? Oh, as long as I have.
And I'm going on my 32nd year.
Could you ask him to step out, please? We'd like to speak with him.
It's 1:15.
He's at the Quality Cafe, around the corner on Fremont.
Second booth on the left facing the counter.
The man is nothing if not predictable.
Dr.
David Lowry? Everybody calls me Dr.
Dave.
I'm Catherine Willows.
This is Michael Keppler.
We're from the Crime Lab.
- Please, join me.
- Thank you.
Dr.
Lowry, we'd like to ask you about one of your patients Veronica Sorensen.
Is this your work? That was a very sad business.
She was a lovely, young girl.
She had a gum-line cavity.
Now, normally, I would have used enamel resin to match the teeth, but this was on the inside of her mouth, so I used amalgam to fill it because it was less expensive, and she was worried about the cost, and her bill was never paid.
Are these your work as well? I have no idea-- I was I was seeing a lot of patients over the years.
Do you know their names? I mean, that might ring a bell.
No, we don't know who they are.
Do you ever use chloral hydrate? No one uses chloral hydrate anymore.
It's too dangerous.
I just feel so awful.
Why is that? I brightened her smile.
Perhaps that's what attracted her predator.
Oh, well you'll forgive, but if you don't have any more questions, I really should get back to my office.
Whoever did your mouth he does lovely work.
See you tomorrow, Dr.
Dave.
I don't know, kind of reminds me of my Uncle Ralph.
Except for the serial killer part,I hope.
I haven't seen him in a while, who knows? In the original photograph, it would've looked like a severe bruise.
But there's a lot of information in the negative.
You know, back in the day, they didn't have the capability to see this stuff.
Pretty distinct impressions of the six upper teeth.
And here, there's a small gap between the two front teeth.
Did Dr.
Dave have a space between his teeth? I don't remember.
But you can't go in there, because he's with a patient.
Dr.
Lowry, would you please come with us? Euginia has been seeing me for, um, how many years, my dear? I think it's much longer than that.
I'd like to finish Euginia up before the Novocain wears off.
We've got a court order to collect a bite impression from you.
Is this about these young girls? I think you know what this is about,Dr.
Lowry.
You need to come down to the crime lab with us.
Bite impression.
Couldn't we just do that here? It'll save us all a lot of time and trouble, unless of course, embarrassing me in front of my patient is your real intent.
Fine.
Okay.
Euginia? I'm going to have you wait in Exam Four, and I'll be in there in just a short while.
No, come on, let's go.
Let's see, just And you know the upper right teeth we worked on? Well, they're looking fine.
There's too much water.
It will never set.
We've got time.
Young lady, please, please, please, let me do this.
I have much more practice.
Be my guest.
You know I don't believe courts accept bite mark evidence much anymore.
No, they'd much rather have DNA from saliva around wound.
I've gotten convictions from bite marks.
Not many, I suspect.
Do you know that our teeth continuously migrate through our entire life? Yes.
Dental forensics is definitely an inexact science.
We could probably match four out of six.
That's not enough for a conviction.
Has to be.
It's all we've got.
The killer's left front incisor is misaligned.
Dr.
Dave's smile is perfect.
Would you go to a dentist with bad teeth? So we're all on the same page, right? About giving the man to these girls.
Yes.
So, Mike, the Viewing Room is down the end of the hall.
Wait, why don't you go in and I'll watch.
What makes you think he's gonna talk to me? Because I have a pretty good feeling he's not gonna talk to me.
All right.
Dr.
Lowry, I'd like to show you a bite impression that we're using as evidence in the Sorensen case.
There are similarities.
But I don't think it's conclusive.
Yes.
The left front incisor doesn't match, and there's a sizable gap between the two front teeth.
But then we found these.
We subpoenaed your personal records.
You go to a good dentist.
In late 1989, you had a cosmetic surgery to repair a sizable gap between your two front teeth.
Diastema.
It's called diastema.
We used the X-rays taken before the procedure to modify your dental model so that it matched the configuration of your teeth in 1989.
This is the new overlay.
Very impressive.
You make a good case.
Wasn't easy, Dr.
Lowry.
You cover your tracks well.
Dr.
Dave, please, call me Dr.
Dave.
Jane Doe in 1975, Jane Doe in 1989, and Jane Doe,1999.
Three girls without identities.
You were the last person to see them alive.
You know their names.
Tell us.
You have two daughters, don't you, Dr.
Lowry? This is the most cryptic conversation I've had since dental school.
All right, let me clear it up for you.
The last time you moved as a free man was when you walked into this room.
When you leave here, you're gonna be charged with murder.
So do yourself a favor, give us the identity of these three girls, and you might spare yourself the death penalty.
At my age, I'll die before that happens.
So what do you have to lose? I don't want to degrade the sweetness of my memories.
My memories are all I have left.
I can't imagine that you didn't feel something for these girls at some point.
We're just asking you to help us return them to their families.
What benefit would I get from doing this? You might sleep better at night.
I sleep fine, thank you very much.
I've always considered that a key to my good health.
So none of this bothers you? My life has been blessed.
I was married to a kind woman.
Just lost her a few years ago.
We raised two children.
One of them is an oral surgeon, the other one is a homemaker.
And you don't care how this might affect them? They'll be horrified, of course.
They're not monsters.
Well, I'm sure the judge will take that into consideration.
You're not listening.
I don't feel bad about what I've done.
I feel disappointed that I've been caught, but I tend to take the long view of things.
I've had a wonderful life, and I know that all things human eventually must end.
You have seven new messages.