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Bodies in Motion
CSIS06E01
Season 6
Number 1
Writer Carol Mendelsohn,
Naren Shankar
Director Richard J. Lewis
Original Airdate September 22, 2005
Navigation
Previous Episode: Grave Danger, Part 2
Next Episode: Room Service

Bodies In Motion is the first episode in Season Six of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Synopsis[]

The team investigate three separate cases. Grissom, Nick and Sara investigate a trailer that exploded with two dead bodies inside. Catherine and Warrick are called away to investigate a dead woman found in a parking lot wearing a plastic bag and rubber boots. Also, the dynamics of the team change as Warrick reveals he has recently married and Sofia Curtis becomes a detective instead of a criminalist.

Plot[]

Victims: Selena March and Robert Durgee (both deceased)

On the case: Gil Grissom, Nick Stokes, Sara Sidle, Jim Brass

The entire team, now reunited as one unit under Grissom's supervision, is called to a house fire in a trailer park. Brass tells them that two victims perished in the blast—Selena March, the owner, and an unidentified male. Nick examines a piece of fiberglass and particle board from the roof, and he and Grissom note that places like this weren't built to last, they were built to burn.

Brass questions the neighbors; nobody claims to have heard or seen anything despite the houses in the trailer park being very close to one another. One neighbor, Randy Swansinger, comes forward and says he heard something, but didn't come out immediately because he was watching television. The woman next to Randy curiously asks if a man was found in Selena's trailer. Brass asks why the woman would ask such a question and wonders aloud if Selena was a hooker. The woman says she doesn't know, but says that the car outside the trailer doesn't belong to Selena.

The team looks over the damage, with Sara noticing some blue paint on the gas main. Grissom calls Catherine and informs her of another crime scene. She takes Warrick with her and departs.

Nick tells Grissom that there are no drug supplies inside the trailer, but there are plenty of ignition sources, including a hot plate, fondue pot, and gas stove. He believes that one leaky pipe would set off an explosion, but he hasn't found one yet. Grissom points out that the pipe wouldn't explain the ruptured gas main outside. Sara interjects and shows them a gas meter she found over by the gas main. Her thought it is that the explosion propelled the gas meter into the gas main, causing a second explosion. This still doesn't answer the question as to where the first explosion started.

In the lab, Greg tells Grissom that the male victim has been identified as Robert Durgee, a mortgage broker from Henderson. His wife's name was on the insurance card, and Brass is currently trying to track her down.

In autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Nick that Selena's lungs were filled with soot and that her cause of death was smoke inhalation. Nick guesses that the explosion knocked her out before the fire even started. Robert, meanwhile, suffered crushing injuries to his abdomen. Grissom enters and points out that the items on top of Robert weren't heavy enough to do this much damage. After they photo enhance the bruises, they find evidence of a tire tread. Their gas explosion may be a hit-and-run.

Nick runs the tire tread through the database and finds that it matches four different vehicle models. Further investigating leads to the discovery that Robert's wife, Amber, owns one of the models on the list.

Amber is brought in for questioning, and she tells Brass that her husband told her he was working late. She claims she went to midnight bingo with a friend, but is hesitant to mention the friend's name. When pressed, she reveals that her "friend" is a married man. Brass tells her that Robert was found dead in a trailer with another woman; Amber is unaware he was having an affair. When he tells her that they're going to need to look at her truck, Amber says that it's out of state with her brother and she doesn't have a way to reach him. Brass gives his theory—Amber followed her husband to the trailer, found out he was having an affair, and ran him over with her truck. Selena pulled the body back into the trailer, but before she could call the police, Amber set the trailer on fire. Amber denies this theory, calling it "crazy."

Brass tells Grissom that Amber eventually lawyered up and that they have a broadcast out on her truck. The conversation is stopped when Grissom notices Sofia, who is now a detective. He was under the impression that she had taken a job elsewhere, but she informs him that a spot opened up in Vegas and she took it. Sofia reveals that she had just qualified for her shield when she was "volunteered" to be a CSI.

Nick and Sara continue to process the scene of the explosion. She finds it odd that that there's no debris on the insides of the walls, as that would be more consistent with someone setting the trailer on fire. Nick holds up a piece of the exterior wall that was facing the road and finds tire treads on this, as well. Sara remembers the blue paint transfer on the gas main and wonders if Amber caught her husband cheating and drove the truck straight into the trailer. In the process, she ran over the bed and its occupants, causing the trailer to collapse and a fire to break out. The fire, in turn, destroyed all evidence of a collision. They still don't have Amber's truck, but Nick thinks that if the truck has a factory paint job, he can match the paint transfer to the vehicle. After Sara leaves to get lunch, Nick notices a cockroach crawling up his arm and has a brief flashback to being buried alive.

Hodges informs Grissom and Nick that the tire tracks recovered are consistent with the vehicle they're looking for; however, the blue paint transfer on the gas main is from a GMC truck. Since Amber drives a Ford Ranger, her truck is eliminated as the culprit. They have the right tires, but the wrong vehicle.

Back at the scene of the explosion, Grissom notices that there are no tire tracks between the gas main and the trailer, which means the trailer wasn't rammed. As he walks around, he finds two large holes in the ground with a piece of a headlight nearby. Nick walks up and says he found blue paint transfer on a nearby chain-link fence. Grissom relays his findings and presents an odd theory: they're looking at the vehicular equivalent of a through-and-through. He wonders if the car came down the road, scraped up against the fence, and used the gas main as a ramp. The car went airborne, crashing through the trailer and coming out the other side, causing the gas main and the trailer to explode.

Nick finds out that the partial part number on the headlight belongs to a 1997 Pontiac Sunfire. Later, a blue Pontiac is found in a parking lot off the Strip. Based on the parking tickets on the car's windshield, it's been in the same spot for six days, way before the trailer explosion. The car has decomp oozing from the trunk; when the trunk is opened, there are two badly decomposed bodies inside. Grissom guesses that they're looking at a male and a female, and the female victim appears to have an entry wound in her skull. Sofia believes that the car should stay at the scene, as they could be looking for shell casings. However, due to the heat, Sara believes that the car should be brought into the lab to reduce evidence contamination. Grissom comes up with the idea of wrapping the trunk in plastic and bringing the car in for processing.

Brass pulled a list of all registered owners of 1997 blue Sunfires in Nevada and found a familiar name—Randy Swansinger, who earlier admitted that he was watching television when the explosion occurred. At Randy's trailer, Brass calls for Randy to step outside. Nick removes a tarp and finds a damaged blue Sunfire with part of a headlight missing. Randy, who has a few DWIs on his record and also appears to be currently inebriated, admits to coming home from work and falling asleep at the wheel. He remembers hearing the explosions, but tells them that the car still worked, so he drove it back home. Realizing he's done for, Randy runs down the road barefoot, runs into a fence, trips and falls to the ground. Grissom, Nick and Brass remain motionless as they watch this unfold.

Victims: Clara James and Joey Zack (both deceased)

On the case: Greg Sanders, Sara Sidle, Sofia Curtis

The blue Pontiac Sunfire found in the desert parking lot is brought into the CSI garage. Greg pulls the drain plug in the trunk and drains the decomp goo into buckets, eventually finding a bullet amongst all of the mess. Meanwhile, Sara processes the inside of the car and finds 34 prints along with a box of mostly eaten cinnamon buns. She also lifts a sticky red substance from the floor and finds a cheeseburger wrapper.

Bobby Dawson tells Greg that the bullet recovered from the trunk is a .44 caliber and that it matches a round recovered from a drug-related shootout in Mesquite five days ago. Meanwhile, Sofia tells Sara that the last registered owner of the vehicle was a tow yard. She figures that the vehicle was likely impounded and sold under the table to someone who faked the tags. Sara says that the prints recovered came back to 13 different people, with some coming from work cards and others coming from various felonies. Because the victims likely didn't put themselves in the trunk and weren't shot at the scene, someone drove the bodies to their final resting point.

In autopsy, based on the bones, Doc Robbins tells Greg and Sara they're looking at an approximately 25-year-old Caucasian male and a teenaged black female. Sara wonders if the crime is racially motivated, while Greg thinks someone could be copying the Son of Sam murders. Doc Robbins adds that the female was shot in the back of the head with the exit wound taking off most of her face. The male victim was shot between the upper and lower teeth in his mouth and the bullet never left the skull.

Greg and Sara go through the missing persons database. While they're unable to find any matches for the male, they find two matches for missing females: 13-year-old Danielle Waters and 16-year-old Clara James. Greg thinks 13 is too young for the person they're looking for, but Sara points out that it could be a kidnapping.

Clara's father comes down to the station and provides Sofia with his daughter's hair samples and files from her doctor and dentist. He's unaware whether Clara was seeing an older man but says that it wouldn't surprise him, as Clara opened up to anyone who would talk to her. Mr. James says that Clara had a job at Gooeybunz, which confirms why there were cinnamon buns in the car. However, he says that Clara couldn't stand the buns and would come home ready to throw up from the smell.

Greg and Sara lay out the cinnamon buns from the car hoping to find bite marks that could lead to a positive ID of the killer. Since Clara didn't eat the buns, Sara figures they belong to either the killer or the male victim. As they sift through the bun fragments, they conclude that none of them were eaten; despite them being in pieces, they can be put together again to form a whole bun. Sara examines the one intact cinnamon bun she found in the front passenger's seat. In the middle of the bun, she finds a small plastic bag of drugs.

The drugs in the bag are identified as cocaine and Sara mentions that one of the prints recovered from the car belonged to a Joey Zack, who has a felony conviction for cocaine trafficking. She figures that Joey, who was a frequent Gooeybunz customer, used the buns to move the drugs. He also chatted up Clara and was able to score a date. Hodges enters and says that the red trace Sara lifted from the car came back as gummy candy. Greg comes to a realization and leaves the room, coming back soon after with a radio. He tells Sara that Joey's print was found on the car radio and that it was tuned to 107.1 FM. When all of the evidence is put together, he says that there's only one place in town where you can get gummy candy, a generic cheeseburger, and where 107.1 FM isn't static—a drive-in theater.

Greg and Sofia head to the drive-in and speak to the manager, who tells them that one of his employees, Darryl Blakeny, recently quit and moved in with his parents in Mesquite. Back in the lab, Sara mentions that Darryl's prints were found on the car's steering wheel. Sofia says that they figure Darryl was one of Joey's customers and when he spotted Joey's car at the drive-in, he snapped and killed him and Clara. A flashback shows Darryl breaking into Joey's car and holding Joey and Clara at gunpoint while asking for the drugs. They figure Darryl shot them, threw the bodies in the trunk and parked it a block from his last known residence. He then used the same gun two days later in a drug-related crime in Mesquite.

Despite these findings, Darryl is still in the wind. His name is in the system, but Sofia says that this won't be enough to satisfy Clara's father.

Victim: Brooke Harris (deceased)

On the case: Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown, Louis Vartann

Catherine and Warrick meet Det. Vartann in front of a strip club, where an unidentified woman is lying dead in the parking lot with a bloody gash to her forehead. A murder weapon has yet to be located. The woman is wearing a shopping bag, underwear and rubber boots; she also has no ID. Because the area is overrun with homeless people, Catherine wonders if the victim is a homeless stripper. As Warrick crouches down to get a better look at the scene, Catherine notices that he's wearing a wedding ring. He reveals that he and his girlfriend Tina got married yesterday. Vartann congratulates him, but Catherine seems a little unsettled by this development. David Phillips arrives and puts the time of death at four hours ago. Since lividity is fixed, it's unlikely that the body was moved. Warrick and Vartann go to check out the nearby strip clubs for evidence.

In autopsy, Catherine removes something from the cut on the victim's head and puts it in a container. As she examines the rest of the body, she finds the letters "S&S" stamped on the side of the boots, along with the initials "E.V." written on the back. She searches the Vegas website and navigates to the Streets and Sanitation Maintenance page. There are three employees with the initials E.V.; the only one on duty last night was an Eddie Vonner. Meanwhile, Warrick tells her that he and Vartann got nothing from the nearby strip clubs, as nobody recognized the victim's picture. After sharing another awkward moment regarding Warrick's recent surprise wedding, Catherine hands him the autopsy report. The victim's cause of death is labeled as blunt force trauma, and she had a blood alcohol content of .16.

Catherine and Vartann talk to Eddie, who admits to giving the victim his boots because she was running around barefoot. He also says that he gave the victim a ride because it seemed that she didn't belong in that neighborhood. Eddie got no other information from the victim and ended up dropping her off a few blocks from where she was eventually found dead.

Warrick and Vartann head back to the crime scene and look around. They notice a few payphones by the street and note that the victim didn't have a cell phone or money. Thinking she might be scared and in the wrong part of town, they figure she called 911 from a payphone. Warrick tells Vartann that he'll dust the phones for prints, while Vartann will get the phones' call logs and check the footage from the nearby traffic cameras.

Using the surveillance video and syncing up audio, Archie is able to find when the victim used the payphone and shows the video to Warrick. The victim hysterically called 911, but got interrupted by a prostitute who claimed that the phone was hers. The prostitute chased the victim away, causing her to lose her shoes. Warrick has Archie rewind the tape, and they find that the victim got off of a bus with a logo on its side. When magnified, they see that the logo is from Exclusive Sedan Service. Warrick tells Archie that it's basically a strip club on wheels.

Catherine, Warrick and Vartann head to the sedan service. While Catherine and Vartann talk to the driver, Warrick searches the inside of the limo and finds the victim's cell phone and driver's license, which identifies her as Brooke Harris. The cell phone contains four incoming calls from someone named Giselle. The driver admits that he dropped Brooke off because the guy paying the tab wanted her out. A flashback shows a guy getting handsy with Brooke; when she told him to back off, he had her kicked out of the limo.

Vartann tells Catherine that Brooke was getting calls from a gym and that Brooke's husband was out of town on business. They visit the "gym," which turns out to be a pole dancing class taught by Giselle. When asked how a housewife ended up dancing in a limo, Giselle says that Brooke wanted to and that she loved the attention. Catherine guesses that Giselle let Brooke get herself into a bad situation to teach her a lesson and kept calling her in order to hear how bad her night was going. Giselle says that she was just calling in order to check up on Brooke. She then wonders if she needs a lawyer.

Hodges tells Catherine and Warrick that the rust-colored material recovered from Brooke's head wound was...rust. After Hodges leaves, they look over a map of the city. Knowing that Brooke didn't plan on dying that night, they figure she had to have parked her car somewhere. There's a secured parking lot near where Eddie the sanitation driver dropped her off, but her body was found several blocks away. Warrick then offers to speak to Catherine about his marriage, telling her that after what happened to Nick, he realized life is too short. Catherine says that she's happy for him, but Warrick sees right through this. She soon admits indirectly that she had fantasized about her and Warrick and that she has now lost that possibility.

Catherine and Warrick find the parking lot where Brooke parked her car. A flashback shows her leaving the parking lot dressed to impress but arriving later wearing a shopping bag. Because she didn't have her wallet, she couldn't pay the $10 to get her car back. Warrick notices rust and some blood on a bar holding the crime scene tape up and an officer shows him where he got the bar from. Catherine and Warrick walk over to a homeless man and show him Brooke's photo. The man recognizes Brooke and calls her a thief, saying that she stole money from his hat. A flashback shows her sneaking up and stealing the money. When the man caught her, he hit her in the face and killed her.


In a side story, Grissom gets flagged down by Judy Tremont, the receptionist. The police have brought in a package from the Flora Nevada nursery. It contains a cassette tape, which led the police to think it might have something to do with Nick's kidnapping.

Archie later plays the tape for Grissom. As they play it, they hear Walter ask the question "okay?" with another voice replying "perfect." This leads Grissom to believe that Walter had an accomplice; however, Archie can't tell whether the accomplice is male or female.

Archie mentions that Nick recorded something on the other side of the tape and asks if they should listen to it. Grissom cuts him off and tells him no. He adds that everything they've heard and talked about regarding the tape stays between them.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Major Events[]

  • Warrick reveals that he is now married.
  • Sofia Curtis returns to the LVPD as a detective instead of a CSI.

Quotes[]

Catherine: (to Warrick): Why's there a ring on your ring finger?
Warrick: (pause): Because I'm married.
Catherine: (looks disappointed): What?
Vartann: Congratulations. How much did you pay her? (Warrick laughs) No, seriously good luck with that man. I didn't even know you had a girlfriend.
Warrick: Oh, yeah it's a girl I've been dating a couple months, Tina.
Catherine: How long you been married?
Warrick: Since yesterday. We did this drive thru wedding at Circus-Circus where you know. Fun, yeah, we, uh...fun time.

Music[]

  • I Like it a Lot by Princess Superstar
  • My Humps by Black Eyed Peas

Goofs[]

  • When Grissom and Archie are listening to the tape from Nick's kidnapping, the screen shows the audio being played. While the audio obviously changes, the lines that sketch what the sound would "look" like don't.
  • When Catherine takes the boots off of the body in the morgue, you clearly see the "dead" body swallow in the background.
  • In the lab, Warrick examines items from the burned out trailer home. One of the items he looks at is what appears to be a registration card for a vehicle. The half-burnt paper clearly shows the vehicle make to be Acura, however the VIN listed is that of a Nissan pick-up truck.

Notes[]

Notes[]

  • Jamie McShane, who played sanitation worker Eddie Vonner, would return to the CSI franchise 16 years later, playing lawyer Anson Wix in season one of the reboot CSI:Vegas.

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 6
Bodies in MotionRoom ServiceBite MeShooting StarsGum DropsSecrets and FliesA Bullet Runs Through It, Part 1A Bullet Runs Through It, Part 2Dog Eat DogStill LifeWerewolvesDaddy's Little GirlKiss-Kiss, Bye-ByeKillerPirates of the Third ReichUp in SmokeI Like to WatchThe Unusual SuspectSpellboundPoppin' TagsRashomamaTime of your DeathBang-BangWay to Go
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