CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s08e04 Episode Script

Guy in a boat spotted him this morning.
Noness.
How did he get up there? I think maybe somebody ga a lift.
Okay, Super, I'm ready to cut.
Lacerations to his chest.
Stabbed and then hanged.
I guess he wasn't dead enough.
Rope burns on both palms.
He probably tried to pull himself up.
Lift his shirt up, will you, David? Whoa! I thought this guy was a guy.
Check the plumping.
Full male genitalia.
Mutilated tranny strung up in a tree.
Go! Go! Go! Go! Bet I know how he got up there.
Hate? "I NEED IT TONIGHT.
" -"CAN YOU GIVE ME MORE MONEY THIS TIME" -"OKAY" Lacerations aren't deep enough to have killed him.
Ligature furrows canted upward.
Scratches consistent with struggling to get free.
Preliminary C.
O.
D.
's suffocation from hanging.
Brian Towne.
Lived in Verdant Glen.
Hmm.
20 years ago, my wife wanted to buy out there, but there was no 215 freeway back then.
The commute would've killed me.
No physical signs of Klinefelter syndrome.
So he's not an XXY.
No, he's all skin and muscle.
These can't be fatty deposits This is glandular tissue.
His mammaries are swollen.
Gynecomastia.
Pre-op transsexuals take a lot of estrogen.
I'll run an expanded tox panel, send out for a hormone screen.
It wasn't easy being a Copa girl.
When the curtain came down, we had to stay and decorate the Sands Casino into the wee hours.
Ugly guys do gamble more when there's pretty girls to look at.
They weren't all ugly.
And your father, in that tuxedo giving me the eye, ying not to grin, 'cause he thought floor managers had to be tough.
So, Mom, who made the first move? Sam.
Stuck this five-dollar chip in my hand and said, "Take it, you can't miss.
" I shot craps all night with Peter Lawford and cleaned up.
I was right here the day Sam opened the Rampart, his first casino.
And we were going to be right here again when he opened the Eclipse.
I know you wanted to be buried with this, but I just couldn't let go.
I can now.
They're going to build your dream on it, honey.
Take it.
You can't miss.
I don't care if it's Jimmy Louise Hoffa.
I want you to grab that jackhammer and bust up this concrete.
Supervisor Willowsfrom Cri What's going on here? Worker found a body.
I'm just following protocol.
You find a body, call you guys.
Yeah.
How do you know this is one of the Marquis Chimps? 'Cause they played the Frontier in Ronald Reagan's act.
And only humans have a saddle joint.
In fact, that's how we were able to swing out of trees and end up here.
Opposable thumbs.
Well, these casinos weren't built by saints, you know.
Oh, I know.
My dad built this one.
Las Vegas Crime Lab.
Yeah, this is CSI Willows.
I need to hand a case off to Swing.
Conflict of interest.
I want to know who did this.
Well, that's what we're trying to find out.
Mrs.
Towne, it would be of help if you could tell me a little bit more about your son Brian.
He was kind and sweet and didn't have an enemy in the world.
What about friends? Not really.
He was always so busy putting in overtime down at the water treatment plant.
He loved to take long runs.
Exercise is a natural cure for depression.
Was he depressed? I mean, there's a lot of medications here.
Are these Brian's? No.
These are all mine.
I had a mastectomy eight years ago.
Cancer came back three months ago.
Oh.
I'm I'm sorry to hear that.
I never thought I'd outlive my son.
Is there anything else? Did you know a person with the last name Cyden? C-Y-D-E-N? Paul Cyden.
He's a family friend; he lives a couple blocks over.
So Brian knew him, too? Oh, he was like a father to Brian after my husband died.
Why are you asking about Paul? Ma'am, your son had a good deal of cash stashed away in his bedroom.
Was he saving up for something? I don't know.
What's going on here? Mrs.
Towne, we think Brian was saving up for a sex change operation.
Were you aware of this? My son was not a freak.
No, I didn't say that.
Ma'am, we're not trying to upset you in any way.
I volunteered to let you in my house! And now I want you to leave.
I want you to leave right now! In college, I wanted to be an archeologist, until I did a summer on a dig in Tunisia.
Hot.
But that got me into Forensics.
What made you pick Vegas? Well, it, uh, it kind of picked me.
Hey, check this out.
Turquoise and silver beads.
I got the matching necklace at the Indian market in Santa Fe.
Everybody stop! Stop what you're doing! What is the problem now? We have just found evidence that this might be a Native American burial site.
We have to notify the Inter-Tribal Council.
Until they say so, nobody touches anything.
Hey, Grissom.
About your hanging victim.
The one with the "chesticals.
" The man boobs Uh, the gynecomastia, sorry.
Quant hormone report.
Androgen's low.
Estradiol's high.
It's 250 picograms per milliliter.
Arogesterone, too.
Estrogen level is five times the normal amount for an adult male.
It's consistent with a pre-op transsexual.
Yeah, but there's no other pre-op drugs in his system.
No spironolactone, no flutamide, progesterone.
e 's"do-it-yourselfer.
" Okay.
Hello? Paul Cyden? This is he.
Paul Cyden.
I'm Detective Jim Brass, this is Catherine Willows, from the Crime Lab.
I'd like to ask you a couple questions about Brian Towne.
What a great kid.
I can't believe he's gone.
When was the last time you talked with him? Oh, uh, honestly, I don't remember.
Oh, you don't remember yesterday? Calling him? Texting him? Brian occasionally does odd jobs for me.
How odd? I, uh, study water.
I'm a hydrologist, retired, but I still do consulting.
Brian was helping me with a project.
Well, it seems to me, according to your messages, Brian was the project.
You're way off base.
Then you won't mind giving us your fingerprints and DNA? Not if you have a court order.
Look, you can do this the hard way or the easy way.
But trust me, we're going to get this done.
Yeah, what's up, Doc? Yeah, Brian Towne's mother is here.
She wants to see the body.
Okay.
If anythof interest pops up, why don't you text me? All right.
He needed a haircut.
Are you lurking around here for results? No.
No, no.
I wouldn't do that.
I was just, uh I was getting a cup of coffee.
Actually.
You can come in.
Why, do you got something? I do.
I got a two-fer.
I got epithelials from the rope from multiple contributors, and one of them drank from the bloody beer bottle.
Larry Ludwig.
Convicted of aggravated assault and DUI.
- Bring up his parole record.
- Okay.
There you go.
He works at the same water treatment plant as my victim.
Thought you were getting coffee.
Right.
You sure you fellas don't want masks? The smell in here makes some people puke.
Mr.
Ludwig, can we see your palms, please? What, you gonna tell me my future or something? Depends on what I see.
I don't think so.
Gentlemen? Hey, I was just getting back to work, Mr.
Quinn.
Jonah Quinn.
General Manager.
I'm Warrick Brown.
And I'm Nick Stokes, we're with the Vegas Crime Lab.
We're here investigating the death of one of your employees, Brian Towne.
I told them I had nothing to say, sir.
You have my permission to question and search any of my employees.
They don't have warrant, Mr.
Quinn.
They're just they're just fishing around, sirun Anybody who doesn't want to cooperate with the police in trying to find out who killed Brian can clean out their lockers and search for another job! Weren't they asking you a question? Go ahead and take off your gloves.
Show us your palms.
Well, now, they look like rope burns.
Did you know that there's a Paiute reservation in the heart of Las Vegas? It's only an acre, but it's right up on North Main.
Do you think that we found the bones of one of their ancestors? Well, the fusing of the plates and shape of the skull indicate a 30-year-old of the Mongoloid race.
Which does include Native Americans.
And Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders.
But take a look at the teeth.
I don't see any dental work.
But there are caries.
Cavities.
Right.
??? ???? but no cavities.
You look disappointed.
I was hoping, just once, Vegas would have to honor its past.
These tire treads were under a tree where Brian's body was found.
They're from a Chevy Colorado.
Isn't that what you drive? Yeah.
You're putting a nice polish on that wedding band.
Hey, this is between us, right? Yeah, absolutely.
Oh, yeah.
All right I did see Brian last night.
Me and my buddy, we started out at a bar, threw a few back, you know, met some ladies.
And the hot one, she said, "Let's go swimming.
" Brian.
What's shaking? Not much.
Anybody want one? Yes, please.
So the girls, they wanted to play Tarzan, so I pull my pickup truck underneath the tree, I grabbed a rope out of my utility box, and we all started stripping down and everything Whoo! Come on, it's fun! Oh, my God.
What? I mean, the guy had boobs, man.
I mean, you could see 'em right through the T-shirt.
I mean, we were all kind of cracking up about it, but um uh it kind of broke the party up a little bit.
No, you kind of broke up the party, man, when you cut him up with a beer bottle and you hanged him in a tree.
Hey, man, I mean he ran off and we left.
All right, I-I-I don't know what else I can tell you.
I mean, you can ask Tony-- he works with me, too.
Where did you go? I went to the I went to a motel with one of, one of the girls.
These girls have names? Yeah, mine was, uh She was named after some city in Texas.
I don't know, like, uh Dallas or Houston or something like that.
The other one, she really wasn't that hot, so I don't know what her name was.
You better hope we find these girls.
We better not find any of Brian's blood in your flatbed.
Wow! The original plans for the Rampart.
Opening day, New Year's Eve, 1964.
Half of the hotel tower was still under construction, but Sam decided to have the party anyway.
He's got the Midas touch, and help from the boys in Kansas City.
This is the ultimate.
Don't you have work to do? Deal me in.
Well the workers found the bones here which corresponds to this area.
Bottom of the construction shaft.
Wonder if it's Gus "the Beauty" Finkel.
Snitch, disappeared in '64.
The skull shape is Mongoloid.
Maybe it's Eddie Chang, the Peking Pimp.
Caught Dean at the Sands, went out for eggs, never came back.
Did the Peking Pimp ever wear anything like this on his arm? Nope.
Just French cuffs and platinum blondes.
Careful with those.
They're like the Dead Sea Scrolls of Las Vegas.
I have to go back to the scene.
I'm off the clock.
You, uh, need a hand? Not the Peking Pimp.
He was only five-two.
It looks like every bone in his body is broken.
Check out the third vertebrosternal rib, left side.
Isn't that a bullet hole? Exit wound.
Good call.
Document it.
Nothing says "Mob hit" like shot in the chest, thrown down a construction shaft, and tucked in under a concrete blanket.
For real? My first Mob hit.
Cool.
You know, only the bones at the point of impact should be broken.
Then the implosion must have busted up the rest of him.
Hey, Ronnie? Will you take a picture of this for me, please? Yeah.
It looks like treated hide.
Buckskin.
Maybe your M.
E.
was wrong.
Well, only if the ancient tribes used sewing machines.
The stitches are uniform.
You know, the showroom had this Wild West Revue with cowboys, and horses, and rifles, a real stagecoach.
And Indians who shot flaming arrows that ripped off the dance hall girls' clothes.
It ran from the day the Rampart opened until 1976.
An Indian playing an Indian? When I was growing up, there weren't any lakes in Vegas, just hotel swimming pools.
I think Mr.
Cyden might be dodging us.
Call in a 419.
So you think that's a message or his dinner? Well, that's carp.
Nobody really eats those.
Body's in full rigor.
Been dead at least ten hours.
Appears to be one, two, three gunshot wounds to the torso.
Probably rules out suicide.
No exit wounds.
I don't see a gun or cartridge casings anywhere.
He has some fairly dense gunshot residue patterns.
Shooter was only a couple of feet away, practically face-to-face.
No signs of forced entry, no signs of struggle.
I bet he knew his killer.
Maybe the same person who killed the tranny killed the boyfriend.
Offer to buy his house dated yesterday.
Who tears up an offer in this tough market? "Purchaser: Jonah Quinn.
" That's Brian's boss.
I met him.
This notebook charts hormone levels.
No names, just numbers.
There's over 40 test subjects here.
If this guy was running some kind of underground clinic here, then where are the drugs? These could be hormones.
Warrick found vials like that in Brian's bedroom.
Check that freezer.
Carpe diem.
Lots of them.
?? Shoot me a number.
"R-41" "June 20, 2007.
" ??? Hodges? Here's the problem You know, that's just what Mom says when all I ask is to come home for Thanksgiving.
My John Doe is from 1964.
Well, to quote Sherlock Sanders, "This town was built on dead bodies.
" The National Missing Persons Database only lists four persons in '64, none of which are a match.
It might help if we knew where he was from.
Do I look like the Ghost Whisperer? Every geographic area has specific levels of oxygen isotopes due to rainfall, climate and vegetation.
And you can identify those isotopes in bones.
You do know that those isotopes will only tell you where he spent the last three years or so of his life.
I'll take it.
It's more then we have now.
If this works, I write the paper for the Forensics Journal, sole credit.
Deal.
Me and my big mouth.
Sara told me to document the detritus, but I see you beat me to it.
Oh, sorry, yeah, I kind of got carried away, but look at this-- it's the vic's right hand.
He was holding on to something and when they poured the concrete on top of him, it made kind of a fossil.
Whatever it was, we must have collected it, right? It's definitely not a gun.
No, you didn't find one of those.
Cigarette lighter? No.
Hey.
It's film.
Uh, 35 millimeters used to come in a screw-top metal can like this.
Whatever's on it must be important enough for Mr.
Bones to hang on to it while taking a header.
Later.
Black and white Tri-X stock.
It's pretty grainy.
Photographers like it 'cause you can shoot fast.
It's like finding pictures of Lincoln at Ford's Theatre.
The party was on the rooftop.
Bring up that last shot on the roll.
Hmm.
Let's see if we can take a better look at that.
Looks like the casino take on opening day.
Everybody got a cut-- thds, the state-- and something called Fergus.
I love it when you dress up.
Well, you know, whatever it takes to get some time with you.
How's the study going? Any sign of Colony Collapse Disorder? Nope, so far it's healthy.
Nothing too healthy about smoking.
Well, the scent confuses the guard bees.
They won't emit the pheromone that tells the colony there's an intruder.
Don't rry, he's harmless.
Who's who? These are the workers-- infertile females.
They don't sting? No, not unless you swat one, ?? Go ahead, take off your glove.
Eh all right, I trust you.
See? It's cool.
The worker bees defend the hive, procure the pollen, makehe honey, nurture the larvae and pupae in each of these brood cells.
You know, maybe we should get married.
Ouch! Oh, oh Ow.
No, no, don't, don't, don't pick it out.
Makes it worse, releases the venom into the bloodstream.
It's better to scrape it.
So, uh what do you think, you know, about Yes.
Let's do it.
Yeah? Hi, Sara.
You look like you're having a good day.
Thanks.
Got your isotope results.
My John Doe lived in Southeast Asia? Yeah, uh, more specifically, southern Vietnam.
Like I said, this test only dates back to the last three years of his life.
In '64 soldier? Consultant, refugee? Thanks.
Hm.
Let me know if you get an I.
D.
It'd be a great touch for the article.
Hey, what are you up to? Nothing.
Why? What's in the cooler? Carp.
Paul Cyden died holding one.
He had a freezer full of them, some kind of an experiment.
Huh.
I can process those fish if you like.
Do I know how to turn you on or what? Hey.
Heard you were looking for me.
Yeah, our friend Larry Ludwig-- he's sharp as a marble, but his alibi checked out.
We found the motel and the girl.
Really? What's her name? Tucson.
Ah, yes.
Tucson, the capital of Texas.
Well, Paul Cyden's DNA and fingerprints finally arrived.
Well, I'll run it, but I don't think it'll matter.
I think Brian killed himself.
You think he just climbed that big ol' tree all by himself? eah.
Okay, yeah.
What about the mutilation? Self-inflicted.
It took a while, but Mandy was able to recover some prints from the beer bottle, but it came back to Brian.
So thiwas a hate crime.
Yeah.
??? Yes? Oh, sorry, just a bad habit from when we worked the Miniature case together.
That was fun, wasn't it? I thought so.
What do you see? Well, those are eggs-- it's a girl.
And those white organs would be gonads.
Male and female parts.
Simultaneous herma?? Stop me if you already know this, t some fish do change sex naturally.
Not carp.
I heard of a study when I was attending a forensics consortium in D.
C.
Feminized male bass were found in the wastewater effluent of the Potomac River.
It's the water.
Yeah, it was full of excreted pharmaceuticals and what they called "personal care products," all of which supposedly altered the endocrine system of the fish and their young.
Good, Hodges.
Well, now that we're working together again take at least two organ samples along with blood.
Send them with these water samples to our clinical lab for hormone quants.
You got it, partner.
Melvin Fergus.
He was a gaming commissioner.
"Honest Melvin.
" Well, it looks like Honest Melvin was on the take.
Bribing a public official could cost you your gaming license.
Maybe our dead guy found out about it and somebody found out about him finding out about it.
Who was this dead guy? Some wisenheimer with extortion on the brain.
Maybe a reporter.
Hi, Lily.
Hi.
Uh, Wendy ran that tooth.
Pre-CODIS, but DNA confirms that our John Doe was Native American, so it was one Indian's burial ground.
There was a reporter and I'm pretty sure he was an Indian.
Lee George.
He'd just come back from Vietnam for Life magazine and he was doing a piece on Vegas.
Do you remember if he was at the party? Yeah, in this little Indian costume-- bracelets on his biceps, and boy, did he have biceps.
Trust me.
If anybody hurt him, it was Benny Dunbar, Sam's bodyguard.
That lump in his jacket ain't a heart full of love.
I'll take that camera, kemosabe.
Either Benny tossed him or he jumped.
We'll never know.
This is great stuff for my book.
Your what? Oh, this little piece on Vegas history-- stories that didn't make the papers.
Honey, if you need to know anything, just ask me.
I was there.
Well, how about if I take you to dinner tonight? A bottle and a bird.
We'll talk about the Peking Pimp.
Eddie Chang.
They shipped him home in pieces.
was far enough outside Vegas to get the right to use well water for drinking.
They also got approval to remove waste water at a private plant.
There, it was cleaned, creating "grey water," which was used for secondary purposes-- watering lawns, washing cars, everything but drinking.
The treatment plant then stored excess grey water in the reservoir.
Where they let the kids fish and swim.
It passed every water quality test.
S: And the carp from Paul Cyden's freezer had high levels of estrogen plus other prescription drugs.
Brian's level and tox panel correlate to the carp.
Cyden was collecting water samples from the reservoir, the tap, and the treatment plant.
Thanks to Brian.
According to Cyden's research, the hormone levels in the tap water are nearly equal to the water in the reservoir.
I thought they drink ground water.
They do.
Cyden was convinced that the ground water was contaminated.
How? He discovered that the reservoir was improperly lined, allowing the grey water to leech into the ground water.
STOKES; Well, if that's the case, why didn't the other boys develop breasts? There's a good chance that others have been affected, especially children who were born to women who were living there while they were pregnant.
Because the womb is the only place a human lives in fluid like a fish.
That reservoir is supposed to be lined to prevent contamination Obviously, it's not.
Or the lining's defects Which is the decision I think Cyden had come to right before he was shot.
You don't know where he got tho ges.
Cyden could have pulled them from raw sewage for alI ow.
And just for the record, that reservoir was built to code.
You show me one complaint, one documented illness from tt water.
What about Brian Towne? Listen it's a tragedy but his mother has breast cancer.
You don't think it's that gene pool that might be polluted? Let me ask you something.
Why did you offer to pay such a big price for Paul Cyden's house? He's a nut.
He was trying to sink me.
His research was wrong, but perception is reality these days.
I admit it.
I was trying to buy him off.
Would have been money well spent.
But he turned you down.
Is that whyou shot him? I mean, with Brian gone, you're in the clear.
Look, I don't need a gun; I've got lawyers.
??to speak to them now.
Here's t@U bullets pulled from Paul Cyden.
Thks.
Mm-hmm.
Well, all three are jacketed hollow points with a center post.
Only one company makes them-- deral.
You know what? in Brian Towne's bedroom.
Five bullets missing.
Got five lands and grooves, right-hand twist.
Could've been fired from a Smand Wesson, Ruger, or a Taurus.
Brian bought a Ruger SP 101 revolver two weeks ago.
Damn.
The mother had access to that gun and motive.
I was too busy taking care of me to see what was wrong with him.
The signs were there.
Mrs.
Towne, don't blame yourself.
You had a teenager who was depressed and not communicating and you push too hard and they pull away I should have pushed.
If I had gone through his room before he died maybe then Is that when you found his gun? I was trying to understand why.
I went through his e-mails.
Paul was taking him to L.
A.
I trusted him, all those years that he pretended to be our friend He killed my son.
Mrs.
Towne he was trying to save your son, not hurt him.
We found this letter on Paul's computer.
You need to read it.
"I have decided to alert you "to this grave matter prior to contacting the EPA.
"It is my professional conclusion "that the water in this community "contains unsafe levels of pharmaceutical contaminants, "which have caused irreparable harm "to wildlife and humans.
"One specific example is the case of Brian Towne.
"His endocrine system and physical body "have been 'feminized' due to chronic ingestion of the water at Verdant Glen.
" He was going to blow the whistle.
I think that's what Paul was trying to explain to you when you went over to confront him.
I worked two jobs to keep us in our house because because Brian loved it so much.
And being there is what killed him.
The feds have already swooped in to investigate the water problem.
Do they plan to prosecute Jonah Quinn? They'll try, but Quinn isn't the only one involved.
Verdant Glen is now owned by a conglomerate-- the Altimera World Group.
They'll bring in experts to contradict the research, discredit witnesses.
They'll say that there are chemicals in everything that we eat, touch, breathe.
It'll be in litigation for years.
What about Brian's mother? Are you going to prosecute her? Did you recover the murder weapon, find her prints in blood at Cyden's house, or get a signed confession? Her son's gun plus motive-- that's not enough? She's a widow with breast cancer who lost her only kid.
No way I'd get her in front of a jury and ask them to convict.
Nice work though.
Lynn Towne goes free.
It's all out of our hands now.
That's not enough for me.
If their lawyers can hog-tie the EPA for years, someone's got to go around them.
They've got to take Brian's story and the research to the press.
I mean, if if it's happened here, You'll get fired.
As a mother, maybe I don't care.