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Minor Character: New York
Clay
Name Clay Dobson
Gender Male
Birth Date December 26, 1978
Family Unnamed father
City New York
Occupation Architect
Pathology Serial Killer
Serial Rapist
Budding Spree Killer
Modus Operandi Varied, preceded by eyelid removal
No. of Victims 3 killed
4 raped
1 attempted
1 assaulted
1 attempted incrimination
Status Deceased
Portrayed By Joey Lawrence
First Appearance Past Imperfect

"You were right. What you said about the eyes. I wanted them to look. Know that my face was the last thing they were ever gonna see."

Clay Dobson was a serial killer, serial rapist and budding spree killer in Season Three of CSI:NY. Clay was portrayed by Joey Lawrence.

Background[]

Prior to killing his first victim, Clay Dobson had priors for trespassing, possession of burglary tools and burglary. He was also charged with grand theft auto and robbery but the charges were dismissed due to the victim being noncooperative and lack of evidence, respectively. He eventually got a job working as an architect at his father's company.

In 2002, Clay began kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing women and uses his father's buildings to hide them. Dobson starts with Lauren Henning, whom he holds captive for three weeks before cutting off her eyelids and killing her. Detective Dean Truby was assigned Lauren's case, interrogated Dobson and got him to confess to her murder. Dobson was arrested and brought to the 35th precinct for processing, which was run by Captain Brigham Sinclair and Lieutenant Stanton Gerrard. During the removal of effects, Truby overlooked Dobson's belt and Dobson tried to use it to commit suicide rather than go to prison. Gerrard managed to find Dobson in time and saved him and Dobson was sent to prison for murder.

About five years after his arrest, Dobson learns Truby has been arrested and convicted for murder and attempting to sell heroin he stole from a raid by Detective Mac Taylor. He uses his father's money to file an appeal on his conviction. Since the confession to Truby was the only thing tying him to the murder, Dobson's conviction is overturned in January 2007, goes back to his old job, and files a ten-million dollar lawsuit against the NYPD for wrongful conviction. He eventually kidnaps, rapes, tortures, and kills another woman named Lily Hartley and dumps the body where no one will find it.

Season Three[]

In April 2007, he kidnaps, rapes, and tortures another woman named Katie Lawrence. He holds her captive for weeks while he rapes and tortures her and decides to find another victim, so he finds Emma Pierce and kidnaps her. He decides to kill Emma after raping her rather than hold her captive and dumps her body.

Detective Taylor arrives at his office in relation to Emma's death and Dobson thanks him for his release. Mac tells him that they will find the evidence they need to put him back in prison and Dobson just brushes him off. When the police find Katie, Mac pursues Dobson to the roof of his firm where Dobson falls onto a squad car to his death with Mac looking down at his body while Det. Flack and the rest of the police look up. The episode ends without revealing what happened to Dobson.

It is later revealed that once Dobson was apprehended on the rooftop and after being handcuffed, Clay intentionally falls off the roof in an attempt to frame Mac for murder. Deputy Inspector Gerrard and Chief of Detectives Sinclair try to take advantage of this but are foiled after Taylor discovers Gerrard's involvement with Dobson's suicide attempt.

Modus Operandi[]

Clay targeted brunette petite Caucasian women. He would abduct them, rape them, and keep them restrained in the basement of The Weddington apartment building. Though his methods of killing varied, Clay would usually cut off the eyelids of his victims with a modeling knife before torturing and killing them. His first and third murder victims also had their heads wrapped with packing tape after being killed.

Known Victims[]

  • June 5-26, 2002: Lauren Henning
  • 2007:
    • January-March: Lily Hartley (her body was never found)
    • April 5-24: Katie Lawrence (abducted, raped, held captive, and attempted to kill; was rescued)
    • April 24: Emma Pierce (raped and strangled)
    • April 25: Mac Taylor (assaulted while trying to escape, then attempted to frame him with murder for his death)

Appearances[]

CSI:NY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 #
Season 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X X X - N/A 3
Total 3
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