CSI
Register
Advertisement


CSIblack
Cross Jurisdictions
Cross
Season 2
Number 22
Writer Carol Mendelsohn,
Ann Donahue,
Anthony E. Zuiker
Director Danny Cannon
Original Airdate May 9, 2002
Navigation
Previous Episode: Anatomy of a Lye
Next Episode: The Hunger Artist

Cross Jurisdictions is the twenty-second episode in Season Two of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and also the backdoor pilot for the spin-off series, CSI: Miami.

Synopsis[]

The former police chief of Las Vegas is found murdered and his seven-year-old daughter is found alive in Miami. Catherine and Warrick travel to Florida, where they assist the Miami CSIs in hunting down the killer.

Plot[]

Victims: Duke Rittle (deceased), Mina Rittle and Sasha Rittle (both missing)

On the case: entire LVPD team; Calleigh Duquesne, Eric Delko, Horatio Caine, Tim Speedle (MDPD)

A swingers party is in full swing at the home of former LVPD Chief of Detectives Duke Rittle. As the party goes on downstairs and spills onto the front lawn, Chief Rittle's seven-year-old daughter, Sasha, watches from her second-floor bedroom. Back downstairs, the chief is in the company of two women, but soon gets distracted by an unknown guest lurking in the shadows.

Sasha goes to bed and tries to block out the noise from the party; however, three hours later, she's awakened by the sound of gunshots. As she gets up to see what happened, her bedroom door opens and the same shadowy figure waits on the other side.

Two days after the party, Catherine and Grissom are called to the Rittle residence, where they find Chief Rittle lying dead on the dining room table; he's been stripped down to his underwear, handcuffed, and an apple has been stuffed in his mouth. "There's only one interpretation for this," Grissom remarks, "kill the pig." The chief's wife, Mina, is missing, and the assumption is that Sasha was staying at her grandmother's for the weekend. Catherine is surprised by the assumption and quickly goes to search Sasha's room. The quick conclusion is that the girl is missing.

Grissom informs the rest of the team that Mina and Sasha are missing, as well as the chief's silver Cadillac DTS. They're to look for any signs of forced entry into the house or any signs of ransack not associated with the party. Doc Robbins concludes that Chief Rittle was shot execution-style in the back of the head, and bruising around the handcuffs indicates a struggle. Catherine finds a 9mm shell casing on the floor, which is the same caliber the department uses. A search of the chief's gun safe reveals that his prized 9mm is missing; he had received the gun for his 25 years of service and likely never took it out of the case.

Catherine theorizes that Mina is involved in the murder/kidnapping, but Grissom questions why she wouldn't plan better. Sasha's clothes weren't packed, and according to the nanny, Mina only took one shirt that was too big for her daughter. The security guard recalls seeing the entire family leave at 5:14 AM. Chief Rittle was driving with his family in the backseat. However, the guard only saw someone wearing a hat and sunglasses driving the car, but he didn't see the chief's face.

The missing Cadillac is found in a parking garage having been idle for two days. A dead body is found in the trunk along with Chief Rittle's baseball cap. Brass gets a call and informs Catherine and Grissom that a girl matching Sasha's description was found walking along an access road in Florida—more specifically, Miami-Dade County. Knowing that Sasha has evidence on her from two homicides, Grissom sends Catherine and Warrick to Miami, much to Catherine's surprise.

In Miami, dozens of officers fan out to search the location where Sasha was seen last. Detective Horatio Caine, head of the CSI team in Miami, sets off on his own. He comes across a plastic hair clip in the dirt and soon finds Sasha hiding in the nearby woods. Horatio makes a connection with the scared little girl and sits with her until they can be found together.

Catherine and Warrick arrive on the scene and are briefed by Horatio. He points Catherine towards Sasha, who is sitting in the back of an ambulance. Sasha tells Catherine that the kidnapper hit her mother, but she wasn't touched in any way; in fact, the kidnapper acted like she wasn't even there. When Catherine goes to collect trace from under Sasha's fingernails, the girl pulls her hand back. With Horatio's coaxing, Sasha opens her hand and reveals that she's holding a shell casing. The girl recalls running from the kidnapper's car while the kidnapper fired at her.

Ballistics expert Calleigh Duquesne examines the shell casing and determines that its characteristics don't match Chief Rittle's gun. Warrick notes that the kidnapper was a lousy shot, firing five shots in total without a hit. Calleigh guesses that the casing belongs to a cheap Beretta knockoff popular with criminals in Florida. This leads Horatio to conclude that the kidnapper wasn't fleeing Vegas, he was coming home to Miami.

Dental records identify the body found in the trunk of the Cadillac as a Jason Doyle. In Vegas autopsy, Doc Robbins determines that Jason had been dead for three days. A lack of gunshot residue on the body rules him out as the shooter. Jason was shot twice in the head, with one of the bullets actually making its way through the body and lodging itself in the lower back. The bullets appear to be from a 9mm, consistent with what was found in Chief Rittle.

Nick and Sara fingerprint items from the party and get a hit on a champagne bottle. The prints belong to Tiffany Langer, a showgirl at the Orpheus Hotel. When questioned by Grissom and Nick, Tiffany refuses to open up, claiming that it took her a long time to get into Vegas' inner circle. She does say that her date for the party wasn't in the "circle," and that he stayed behind at the party after sending Tiffany home. The only thing she specifically remembers about her date is that he smelled "sickly sweet," possibly from cheap cologne. When told that the case is about a missing seven-year-old girl, Tiffany finally reveals the name of her date: Adam Van Der Welk.

Back in Miami, Warrick finds a diazepam pill in the dirt, which explains why Mina didn't escape with her daughter—she was incapacitated. Tire treads on the shoulder of the access road indicate that the car came to a slow stop, and Horatio concludes that the kidnapper pulled over to relieve himself. Figuring that the kidnapper needed to shield himself but not be too far from the car, Horatio finds the tree in question. Dried urine on the ground might be enough to get a DNA profile.

Grissom relays to Catherine that Adam smelled "sickly sweet," which doesn't appear to be much help for Catherine. The Vegas and Miami CSIs meet up with the FBI at The Shore Club, where they're told that the Vegas case fits the profile of a serial killer the FBI has been tracking. The perpetrator targets wealthy couples at their vacation spots, then kills the husband. Forty-eight hours later, they kill the wife after having their "fun" with her. The link to every murder is that all of the victims stayed at the Shore Club in the last year, including the Rittles.

Coast Guard helicopters on patrol find a disturbance near a canal and tire tracks leading into the water. CSI Eric Delko finds the kidnapper's car submerged in the canal. The body of Mina Rittle is found in the backseat; she's been stripped naked, duct taped, and wrapped in plastic wrap. Miami coroner Alexx Woods determines that the plastic wrap wasn't used for transport; it was covering her intimates, suggesting something sexual. Mina was shot twice in the left temple, and water in the lungs indicates that she was still alive when she was dumped into the canal. There's also a sticky, yellow substance around the eyes and in every other orifice on the body. Meanwhile, Eric recovers a waterlogged gun from the canal and gives it to fellow CSI Tim Speedle as evidence.

Horatio informs Catherine that the sticky substance found on Mina is ordinary honey; however, when combined with plastic wrap, it means something different. They go to the trendy Miami Club Hives, where high-end honey is sold alongside alcohol. Honey is also drizzled over scantily-clad women and enjoyed by the other clubgoers. Horatio takes a sample of honey from one of the women and brings it back to the lab.

While the Miami side of the investigation is pulling cars out of canals and visiting trendy nightclubs, Grissom and Doc Robbins are studying medical textbooks trying to pinpoint what disease could give off a "sickly sweet" smell. The doc suggests diabetic ketoacidosis, where the body converts excess glucose into ketone. The odor gets expelled through the pores and has a fruity odor. Upon the doc's suggestion of getting a piece of the assailant's clothing, Grissom realizes he's overlooked some evidence.

The honey is identified as tupelo honey, the purest of all honeys that stays in liquid form for life. It's a match to the honey found on Mina Rittle. Catherine, Warrick, Horatio and Calleigh head back to Hives to track down purchasers of the high-end honey. While Calleigh finds a receipt from two nights ago, a security guard tells Catherine and Horatio that a limo driver named Gordon purchased some honey that same night—and he had a high roller in the back of his limo from Vegas.

Gordon Daimler's limo is spotted and he gets pulled over on his way to the airport. He tells Catherine and Horatio that he's on his way to pick up the Corwins, two major customers coming in on their own private jet. Gordon confirms that he purchased honey from the club, but he doesn't know his customer's name and never saw a credit card. When asked about the sweet smell, he guesses his customer had bad breath from drinking in the back of the limo. However, Horatio turns up the air conditioning and finds that the smell is coming from the vents.

In Vegas, Grissom collects the baseball cap found in the trunk of the Cadillac earlier. He has Tiffany smell it, and she identifies the smell as "Adam's" smell. She recalls that in the brief time she knew Adam, he only drank champagne, nothing sweet. Grissom calls Catherine and relays his findings, including that their perpetrator is suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis. He informs her that a doctor would prescribe novolin insulin, a synthetic insulin.

Blood is found in the urine recovered earlier, and the absence of c-peptide in the blood also confirms that the insulin is synthetic. A search of the medical database reveals that Gordon was prescribed novolin insulin recently, and it's assumed that the reason he didn't smell earlier is because he had just taken his insulin. The home address he's listed actually belongs to Dylan and Sissy Corwin. Catherine remembers that the Corwins were the couple Gordon was supposed to pick up from the airport. She and Horatio figure that Gordon finds his victims by driving a limo and moves into their houses when the owners are on vacation. They realize that Gordon will be waiting for the Corwins when they come home.

The two CSI teams find the Corwin house empty; however, Catherine finds a piece of plastic wrap in the bed and Horatio finds honey on the shower walls. They surmise that Sissy Corwin was held at gunpoint in the shower while Gordon dripped honey on her. He then wrapped her in plastic wrap and raped her. Meanwhile, Warrick and Calleigh find a blood trail that leads to the garage. Blood evidence suggests that the body was dragged into the garage and put in a car. There are also two 9mm bullet holes in the wall, one of which contains scalp hair.

Tim alerts Catherine and Horatio that people buy these upscale houses for a place to put their million dollar boats; however, there's no boat in sight by the dock. The quick conclusion is that Gordon stole the boat; that's where he's killing the Corwins. Hours later, the boat is found adrift. Heat signatures confirm that there are two people on the boat—one dead and one alive. It's impossible to tell who's on the boat, but the FBI believes that Gordon is one of the players. However, the body language doesn't look like an attack, and Horatio is able to get the FBI sniper to stand down. He recalls that the Corwins have a private jet and figures that Gordon is on it now, not on the boat. The operation is aborted, and Catherine and Horatio find a bloodied Dylan Corwin tending to his wife. Unfortunately, Sissy hasn't survived the attack.

Gordon is found on the Corwin's jet preparing to fly to Monaco. He insists that the Corwins lent him the jet on word from Dylan himself. Much to Gordon's surprise, he's told that Dylan survived the attack—there's a witness who can put him away for a long time. Gordon replies that rich men don't go to jail, but Horatio informs him that he isn't rich.

Horatio finds Sasha Rittle playing on the beach. She correctly guesses that both of her parents are dead, but Horatio tells her that they both fought like heroes to protect her, something she should never forget.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Major Events[]

  • Detectives Horatio Caine, Calleigh Duquesne, Eric Delko, Tim Speedle and Medical Examiner Alexx Woods, members of the CSI: Miami team are all introduced for the first time.
  • Doc Robbins goes out into the field for the first time in the series.

Music[]

  • Outside by Staind
  • Painkiller by Depeche Mode

Goofs[]

  • When Catherine is running through the house at the beginning of the episode, she runs past a mirror (or a door w/ a reflective surface). The camera and crew are clearly visible (even if only for a split second via frame-step) in the reflection.
  • When Doc Robbins is explaining to Grissom how "Trunk Man"/Jason Doyle was killed, in the close-up of him pointing to the entry wound in the neck, you can see a vein in the neck pulsating.
  • When they pull the red car out of the canal and open the door, you can see the woman who is supposed to be dead breathing when they cut back to her after Catherine says, "Yeah, that's Mina Rittle."

Notes[]

  • David Caruso, Emily Procter, Adam Rodríguez, Rory Cochrane and Khandi Alexander are credited as Special Guest Stars.
  • Eric Szmanda (Greg) is credited but does not appear in this episode.

Trivia[]

  • This episode served as the backdoor pilot for the spin-off show CSI: Miami.
  • Gil Grissom doesn't share any lines or scenes with any of the Miami CSI team. This is because William Petersen was against CSI spin-offs and asked the producers of CSI not to put him in any scenes with the CSI: Miami cast.
  • This episode is featured on both the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Complete Second Season and the CSI: Miami Complete First Season DVDs.
  • The Miami-Dade Police Department's crime lab really is called Crime Scene Investigations, unlike Las Vegas which where they are called Crime Scene Technicians, and New York where they are called C.S.U (which stands for Crime Scene Unit).

See Also[]

CSI:Las Vegas Season 2
BurkedChaos TheoryOverloadBully for YouScuba Doobie-DooAlter BoysCagedSlaves of Las VegasAnd Then There Were NoneEllieOrgan GrinderYou've Got MaleIdentity CrisisThe FingerBurden of ProofPrimum Non NocereFelonious MonkChasing The BusStalkerCats in the CradleAnatomy of a LyeCross JurisdictionsThe Hunger Artist
Advertisement