I-15 Murders

CSI EPISODE
I-15 Murders
Season	1
Number	11
Writer	Carol Mendelsohn
Director	Oz Scott
Original Airdate	January 12, 2001

I-15 Murders is the eleventh episode in season one of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Summary

When a woman is abducted from a supermarket, Grissom finds a text on a bathroom door that leads him to believe that five women have been murdered. Meanwhile Warrick and Sara have to put personal differences aside to investigate the apparent murder and robbery of a man who has been found by his brother. Nick has to come to the rescue of his friend, Kristy Hopkins, again when she gets into a scuffle with a hotel security guard.

Plot

Margaret Shorey is kidnapped from a grocery store, and Grissom and Brass arrive to investigate. Grissom notices a smear of mustard on the bottom of the shopping cart and realizes that Margaret must have dropped a bottle of mustard and gone to the restroom to clean up. He notices a freshly cleaned toilet stall door, and using a black light reads the message, "I've killed five women. Catch me if you can." A graphologist analyzes the handwriting and learns that the writer was a poorly educated, left-handed female.

Catherine discovers four other crime scenes at grocery stores in three different states; at each scene, a bathroom stall door bore a message declaring that the killer had murdered one to four women. Grissom realizes that these stores are all on Interstate 15.

Grissom, Catherine, and Brass are called to Moapa, where they find the body of Joan Sims, who was last seen at one of the grocery store crime scenes. Autopsy shows that she died of strangulation and that she was refrigerated until very recently. Grissom realizes that the women are being kept in a refrigerated truck that is traveling I-15. They search for refrigerated trucks that delivered to the store where Margaret was kidnapped, and they narrow the field to one truck.

Brass arrives at the truck stop with police backup and takes the driver and his girlfriend into custody. Grissom and Catherine then inspect the trailer. Inside, they find the refrigerated bodies of three women; none of them is Margaret. They interrogate the trucker and his girlfriend, and realize that the girl lured out the victims and wrote the notes on the stall doors. Grissom and Catherine tear apart the truck cab and find Margaret in a locked compartment underneath the bed.

Nick is called to a casino and is surprised to find Kristy Hopkins there. She accuses a security guard of spitting on her, and Nick takes her shirt as evidence. Greg finds amylase on the shirt in a quantity that indicates that someone intentionally spit on her. Nick convinces the guard to write a formal statement against Kristy and seal it in an envelope; he uses the DNA from the saliva to prove that the guard did spit on Kristy. Kristy thanks Nick enthusiastically and declares that she owes him.

Sara arrives at a house where Jeff Berlin lies dead in the living room. His brother Kenny says that he arrived at the house just after it had been burglarized and found Jeff dead in the living room. Sara notices the cash and the electronics still in the house and realizes that something is not right.

Sara finds glass in the cuff of Kenny’s pants and matches it to glass from a broken window at the house. She and Warrick also discover that the window was broken from the inside, discrediting Kenny’s claim that the house was broken into. They become increasingly suspicious of Kenny but cannot find a motive for his killing his brother; they check his computer for clues. However, it does not boot up, and when they inspect the computer, they find a gun hidden in it. A shard of glass in the gun matches the broken window, and soon Sara and Warrick learn that Kenny killed his brother in order to control a trust fund Jeff was managing.

Grissom asks Warrick why he missed his court date and confronts him with the surveillance footage from the casino that Sara gave him. Later, Warrick tells Sara that he went to the casino to collect a debt in order to pay a friend’s bail, and says that the next time she has questions, she should ask him instead of going behind his back.

Main Cast

(Credit order)

• William Petersen as Gil Grissom
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
• Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown
• George Eads as Nick Stokes
• Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle
• Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass

Recurring Roles

• Krista Allen as Kristy Hopkins
• Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
• Judith Scott as Dr. Jenna Williams
• David Berman as David Phillips
• Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins (uncredited)
• William Wantland as Extra (uncredited)

Guest Stars

• Travis Fine as Kenny Berlin
• Tony Amendola as Hand Writing Expert
• Julie Ariola as Brenda Shorey
• Amanda Carlin as Margaret Shorey
• Ray Proscia as John Himmel
• Kirk Trutner as Steve Smith
• Paul Terrell Clayton as Homicide Detective Kane
• Julius Ritter as Jason
• Mike Muscat as Security Guard Taylor
• Jamie McShane as Jeff Berlin
• Sandy Martin as Female Trucker
• Stacy Solodkin as Girlfriend
• Zylan Brooks as Dispatcher
• David Paladino as Officer Pratt
• George Miklos as Detective (uncredited)

Episode Title

I-15 Murders makes refer to the kidnapping and murders of some womens, from the several grocery stores, located on Interstate 15.

Note

• According to the DVD'S this was supposed to be the 3rd episode to air in this season.
• This episode marks the final appearance of Dr. Jenna Williams, after this episode it is uknown what happened to her.

Goofs

• When Nick comes in to Grissom's office, setting off Grissom's "Big Mouth Billy Bass", the fish on the wall alternates positions in between shots and can be singing when no song is heard and can be still when he's singing and there is music.
• When Nick and Kristy are in the parking lot, Kristy is leaning against the door to her car as Nick explains DNA. As Nick leaves the scene after Kristy kisses his cheek, the sound of a car door opening is heard but the door was already open as Kristy was leaning on it while she was outside with Nick. She did not have time to close it in between the shot of her leaning on the door and kissing Nick's cheek as she thanked him.

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
• CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 1
• Category:Images from I-15 Murders