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Bloodlines
Bloodlines
Season 4
Number 23
Writer Sarah Goldfinger,
Eli Talbert
Director Kenneth Fink
Original Airdate May 20, 2004
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Previous Episode: No More Bets
Next Episode: Viva Las Vegas

Bloodlines is the twenty-third episode in the Season Four finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

The CSIs investigate when a casino employee is beaten and raped on her way home from work. The victim identifies her attacker, but the DNA evidence suggests that he isn't the person responsible. Later, Grissom has to help out Sara, who ends up on the other side of the law when found but not charged for a DUI.

Plot[]

Victim: Linley Parker (alive)

On the case: Entire team

A female pit boss at the Palms casino leaves for the night and gets into her car. As she drives away, another engine is heard starting; it appears she's being followed. The woman is next seen bloody and partially clothed running through a wooded area. She makes her way to a backyard and bangs on a sliding glass door while yelling for help. A dog frightens her and she runs into the street before collapsing. Some time later, she's been prepped by paramedics for transport to Desert Palms Hospital. While Grissom documents her injuries, Brass provides an update on neighborhood interviews. Grissom follows a blood trail and traces the victim's path through the neighborhood and wooded area to an abandoned car on the side of a road. The victim's wallet and ID are in the car along with money.

Nick joins Grissom at the car's location and notices that there are no skid marks and no signs of another vehicle. Since the engine is still running and there are no flat tires, Grissom wonders why the victim stopped. Meanwhile, the victim, Linley Parker, is processed at the hospital. A disturbed Sara offers to take the sexual assault kit to the lab in lieu of interviewing Linley. Catherine takes Linley's statement, which is very detailed. She recalls leaving work and being tailgated by a black SUV with 4-4-6 as a partial license plate number. The tailgating led to a minor fender bender; when Linley pulled over and exited her car to assess the damage, her attacker punched her in the face and proceeded to rape her. While she's giving the statement, Grissom and Nick find all of the evidence on the side of the road to corroborate her story. At the police station, Linley is able to provide an accurate physical description of her attacker to a facial composite artist. While she watches the interaction, Sara is encouraged by Grissom to take some vacation time. She refuses, indicating she finds his recommendation hypocritical.

Catherine enters the partial plate number (4-4-6) that Linley remembers and finds that there are 5,018 registered license plates in Nevada with that combination. She's able to narrow the field down to 312 plates when she factors in Linley's recollection of a black SUV. Elsewhere, Greg stops Grissom and wants to know if he'll be able to work in the field permanently at some point; Grissom tells him that he can after he trains a replacement. Greg hands Grissom test results; the DNA collected off of Linley matches a rape-murder case from a year ago.

Warrick and Grissom go over the previous case—the rape and murder victim was 32-year-old Emma Dobbins, who was found not far from where Linley was assaulted. Emma and Linley are both white and of similar ages; however, they share nothing else physically and have nothing in common (job, marital status, etc.). A size nine shoe print was found at both scenes, and the immediate guess is that they were raped by the same person.

The sketch artist finishes her sketch with Linley's help. Using the facial composite and license plate information, Dr. Todd Coombs is identified as a suspect and brought in by Brass for questioning. Catherine notices a scratch on the front of Todd's car, which lines up with Linley's story that her car was hit from behind. At the station, Linley picks Todd out of a police lineup and Grissom collects a DNA sample from him. Nick compares the shoe print to Todd's shoes, but finds no match. Greg then informs the team that Todd isn't their guy; he only shares seven of 13 alleles in common with the rapist, indicating that they're looking for a brother. Todd is released from custody and Catherine informs Linley, who remains sure of her lineup identification and insists that the lab made a mistake. She also repeats that her rapist made her look him in the eyes and now fears retribution from Todd. Before leaving, Catherine leaves her business card, urging Linley to call in case something else happens to her.

Sara works up a family tree for Todd and discovers that Todd has four brothers—Larry, Roger, Bailey and Kevin. Larry and Roger own a car restoration company; while they provide their DNA, Warrick notices that one of the cars they're working on is missing a grill plate. A flashback shows a grill smashing into Linley's bumper; someone then removed the grill and replaced it. Sara collects DNA from Bailey, who works security in an area far away from where Linley was attacked. Meanwhile, Nick strikes out, as he's unable to find Roger at his listed address.

While at the lab, Catherine receives an urgent call from Linley that ends abruptly with sounds of a struggle and screams. Her car is found abandoned on Fremont Street with the window smashed; a piece of the broken window has some blood on it, which is likely from the attacker. Grissom notes that Catherine was on the phone with Linley when Linley was attacked; however, there's no sign of a cell phone in the car. Luckily, Linley's phone was equipped with GPS, and Nick traces it's signal to the nearest crossroads; when provided the location, Catherine says that it's in "the middle of nowhere." Nick then tells Catherine that the signal is moving.

The whereabouts of three Coombs brothers are confirmed, but Todd's wife tells Brass that Todd used her car to drive to the house company. On his way to the location, Brass happens to drive by Todd as he's vacuuming his car at a car wash. Brass speaks to him briefly, but can't search his vehicle without a warrant. After Todd leaves, Brass radios the lab, as he needs a CSI to retrieve everything that Todd vacuumed up. Meanwhile, the signal on Linley's phone is tracked to an empty lot on the edge of town. Her phone is found in her jacket, which has been dragged along the ground by a feral dog. The CSIs are soon alerted that Linley's body has been found nearby in the same lot.

In autopsy, Catherine takes photos of Linley's body and tape lifts the body for evidence; she finds something that looks like a hair. Sara and Det. Vartann walk the property where Linley's body was discovered; Sara notes that the property belongs to the Coombs family. They find the fifth brother, Kevin Coombs, at his trailer home. He answers the door with a shotgun and is taken into custody. Back in autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Grissom that Linley's cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation. She appears to have been strangled with pantyhose, much like the first victim, Emma Dobbins, was. The doc also says that Linley was raped again; she does have defensive wounds on her, indicating that she fought back. Meanwhile, at Kevin's, Sara finds a rusted Pontiac amongst old cars and car parts and remembers that Emma owned the same type of car. She photographs the VIN number.

Det. Vartann interrogates Kevin, who is largely uncooperative. However, he does provide the knowledge that the government can watch you whenever and wherever they want after they have a sample of your DNA. Grissom finds Todd sitting outside of the interrogation room, and Todd tells him that he's the only one in the family that understands Kevin. He maintains that Kevin is harmless and that he chooses to live off the grid and turn car wrecks taken from this brothers' garage into art. Grissom informs Todd that the VIN number from the Pontiac found in Kevin's yard belongs to a victim that was raped and killed by the same person who did the same to Linley. Additionally, Linley's body was found on Kevin's property. Todd simply replies that the CSIs have been wrong before.

Nick goes through the contents of the vacuum from the car wash and finds a label from a potted plant purchased at the house company, confirming Todd's alibi. Warrick walks in to assist and finds a lapel pin from the Palms casino amongst the contents. Nick says that a lot of people work at the Palms and that this doesn't necessarily connect Todd to the crime.

Catherine and Grissom look over Linley's crime scene photos and Grissom tells her that the blood recovered from Linley's smashed car window is a match to the semen both rapes. This means that the DNA doesn't match Todd or any of his brothers. Catherine brings up Linley's defiant accusation of Todd, but Grissom tells her that the evidence never lies. Greg interrupts and tells them that the hair Catherine lifted from Linley's body is a match to Todd. This puts Todd with the body, but Grissom notes that it doesn't prove rape. However, Catherine is all set to radio Brass and have him bring Todd back to the station.

Todd is brought back in for processing. Grissom has him strip down to his underwear so he can take photos and document any injuries. Todd explains that bruises on his wrists are from moving boxes. Grissom then notices a scar on Todd's lower back; Todd says that he was a bone marrow donor when his brother had leukemia. When Grissom takes a photo of the scar, a flash reveals a pattern on Todd's back. He takes another photo and sees the same thing. Grissom has an officer turn off the lights and retrieves his ALS; he sees that Todd has V-shaped patterns up and down his back.

Grissom does some research and discovers that Todd has a condition called Tetragametic chimerism, in which the embryos of fraternal twins collapse into one. As he goes through various photos of Todd's home office, he finds one that contains a chimera statuette. In the holding cell, Grissom collects a blood sample from Todd's arm. After Grissom reveals that he knows Todd's bone marrow donation to his brother failed, Todd acknowledges that he's aware of his condition: he has two completely different sets of DNA in his body. In the interrogation room, Todd admits his guilt to Brass while being video recorded. He claims that there are more than two victims, but this is never expounded on. As they watch the interrogation, Grissom tells Catherine that because of Todd's condition, his buccal swab matched his hair, but not his semen. The DNA in Todd's semen was evidently from his dead twin brother.

At the end of shift, Nick, Sara and Warrick are seen walking down the Strip. Warrick invites them to a meal, but they turn him down. Sara congratulates Nick on his almost-promotion, telling him he deserves it. Nick asks her if it was hard for her to say, and she agrees that it was. Later, Grissom receives a call in his office. An officer discloses that Sara has been pulled over for a DUI. While her blood alcohol content is technically over the legal limit, the limit had been lowered recently and the officer cuts her a break by not booking her. Grissom arrives, holds a despondent Sara's hands, and tells her that he'll take her home.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

  • Alex Carter as Detective Louis Vartann
  • Joseph Patrick Kelly as Officer Metcalf
  • Ty Upshaw as Officer T. Brantley
  • Nina Siemaszko as Linley Parker
  • George Newbern as Dr. Todd Coombs
  • Lisa Sheridan as Crystal Coombs
  • Mark Kiely as Roger Coombs
  • Michael Reilly Burke as Bailey Coombs
  • Drew Pillsbury as Larry Coombs
  • Rachel Winfree as Psychic Patient Janet
  • Edmund Wyson as Officer Devine

Major Events[]

  • Sara is pulled over for a DUI. In a previous episode (Early Rollout), she was seen trying to cover for the fact that she had two beers with breakfast thinking that she was going to be off-duty.

Trivia[]

  • Dr. Todd Coombs has a condition called Tetragametic chimerism, which can cause a person to have two distinct sets of DNA in their body. For example, the seminal DNA in a person with this condition could be different from the DNA in their saliva.
  • George Newbern played Dr. Todd Coombs. He also played the groom, Bryan MacKenzie, in the film Father of the Bride and Charlie on ABC's Scandal
  • This is the first episode where there's no punchline said by a major character before the transition to the opening intro.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 4
Assume NothingAll For Our CountryHomebodiesFeeling the HeatFur and LoathingJackpotInvisible EvidenceAfter the ShowGrissom Versus the VolcanoComing of RageEleven Angry JurorsButterfliedSuckersPaper or PlasticEarly RolloutGetting OffXXBad To The BoneBad WordsDead RingerTurn of the ScrewsNo More BetsBloodlines
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