Loco Motives | |
Season | 7 |
Number | 10 |
Writer | Evan Dunsky |
Director | Kenneth Fink |
Original Airdate | 7 December, 2006 |
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Previous Episode: Living Legend | |
Next Episode: Leaving Las Vegas |
Loco Motives is the tenth episode in Season Seven of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Synopsis[]
A man found alive and up to his waist in solid concrete with a dead woman next to him proves extremely difficult to identify. Elsewhere, the third victim of the Miniature Killer is found at a chicken processing plant and a possible link to the first victim is discovered.
Plot[]
Victim: Paula Sullivan (deceased)
On the case: Catherine Willows, Jim Brass
AND
Victim: Alyona Ivanovna (deceased)
On the case: Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, Sofia Curtis
In the middle of the night, a man lugs a dead body over his shoulders and brings it to a construction site. He throws the body into some wet cement, but is surprised to see that the body rolls on top of it and doesn't sink. The next morning, the man is found alive buried waist deep in the cement; his pockets have been picked clean by someone who had walked by. Catherine arrives on the scene and begins to laugh uncontrollably at what she sees. The man refuses to say who the dead woman is nearby and tells Catherine to figure it out the circumstances leading to the his predicament.
Elsewhere, Nick and Warrick are called to an apartment complex where residents smelled a gas leak and called the gas company. When the gas company arrived to evacuate everyone, they found the body of Alyona Ivanovna in her apartment, her head shoved into her oven. She also has a bleeding wound on her head. Warrick looks around the tidy apartment and notes that the broken dish in the dish rack seems out of place. There's no sign of forced entry, and Warrick finds a busted phone on the wall embedded with gray hairs that match the victim.
At the construction site, David Phillips finds a single stab wound on the victim just below the sternum. Catherine once again asks the man for his name or the name of the victim, but she gets no reply. She informs him that it will take the construction crew several hours to chisel him out of his hole.
David Phillips tells Nick and Warrick that Alyona suffered blunt force trauma on the forehead and to the base of the skull; he puts the time of death at 12 hours ago. Dents on the inside of the oven indicate that the victim was slammed into it. Nick finds a substance behind the victim's ear that looks like hair gel, something the victim wouldn't use. He then reaches into the victim's mouth and removes her dentures, noting that they were put in upside down.
In autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Catherine that the victim from the construction site appears to be in her 40s and her cause of death is exsanguination due to a laceration of the heart. The stab wound was made at an upward angle with something that has a double-edged blade. Meanwhile, cement man is brought to the station and fingerprinted; he knows everyone's name he's dealing with, but nobody knows his. Brass bets the man $10 that he'll figure out his name by 9:00 PM and the man takes the bet.
Hodges calls Nick and tells him that the substance found behind Alyona's ear was lime Jell-O. Outside of her apartment, Nick and Warrick find a glob of green Jell-O covered in ants. They follow the trail of ants and Jell-O to another apartment across the complex. Police enter the apartment and find it empty. In the kitchen, there's evidence that the floor was cleaned in a hurry; some spots of green Jell-O remain. Sofia tells the CSIs that the apartment is a sublet and that the manager doesn't know who currently lives there. A swab of the smear on the floor tests positive for blood. Warrick looks out the kitchen window and finds that it has a direct view of Alyona's apartment. He theorizes that Alyona's killer saw that he was being watched and tied up loose ends. Nick questions why the killer would get rid of this body, but leave Alyona's in plain sight.
Sofia tells Warrick that the tenant in the sublet apartment has been identified as Paula Sullivan. Paula had been babysitting Suzy, one of the little girls in the complex. When Suzy went back home dirty, her mother came over to give Paula a piece of her mind; however, neither Paula nor her husband, Max, were home. Suzy tells Warrick that when she went over to Paula's, there was a big red and green mess in the kitchen. Max then came in and cleaned up the mess while Suzy watched television.
Catherine calls Brass and tells him that they've still been unable to identify the cement man, as there have been no hits in AFIS or CODIS. The man also has no work card, and his keys weren't a match to any vehicle within a three block radius of the construction site. The man is brought in for questioning again and is delighted at the fact that Brass still doesn't know his name. Brass hands him $10 for their earlier bet and has the man taken back to his cell. On his way back to the cell, Max basks in his newfound wealth; unfortunately, the good feelings are short-lived. Suzy walks by with her mother and recognizes the man, calling him Max. Brass gleefully takes back his $10.
Under interrogation, Max admits to Brass that he killed his wife accidentally. A flashback shows the accident-prone Max spill coffee on himself. Upon trying to get more milk from the refrigerator, he knocked over a bowl of Jell-O, breaking the bowl and getting Jell-O all over the floor. As Max went to pick up the glass, he slipped on the Jell-O and stabbed his wife in the heart. When asked why he didn't call the police if it was an accident, Max says that he accidentally killed his grandmother when he was little by sitting in a rocking chair that covered her oxygen tubing. However, for that accident, the hospital had been blamed, not him. He's certain that this would've eventually come to light and had it held against him, which is why he refrained from calling the police.
As Max held the bloody, broken glass in his hand, he noticed that Alyona had seen what happened from across the courtyard. He went over to talk to her under the guise of borrowing sugar; afterwards, he noticed that he had a giant bloodstain on his shirt. The suspicious Alyona went into her kitchen to call the police and Max followed her in. He then accidentally bumped into her, causing her to hit her head against the phone and fall to the ground, which led to her dentures falling out of her mouth. Thinking quickly, he put Alyona's head in the oven to make things look like a suicide.
He then rolled up his wife's body in a carpet and stuck it in the trunk of his car. On his way to the construction site, he ran into car trouble, as the body in the trunk weighed the car down and caused the muffler to drag on the ground. Having to improvise, he bought his wife's body to the construction site in a shopping cart. There, he dropped the carpet accidentally, causing the body to roll out. As he went into the cement to retrieve the body, he got stuck. Someone would come along later and steal his wallet before the police would find him.
Max explains to Brass that he's been this way his whole life, saying that he's the guy who buys his daughter a puppy for her eighth birthday and backs over her in the driveway the next day, making her permanently lame. Catherine, watching from behind the glass, laughs hysterically at poor Max's misfortunes. She fills Grissom in on the amusing tale, but he sees things differently—a guy leading a meager, unnoticed life killed two people before breakfast he had no intention of killing. Max's life will now change for the worse and the real suffering is about to begin.
Victim: Raymundo Suarez (deceased)
On the case: Gil Grissom, Greg Sanders, Sara Sidle, Jim Brass
Grissom and Greg are called to a chicken processing plant owned by Mannleigh Chicken. Raymundo Suarez, a night-shift employee responsible for cleaning the equipment, is found dead lying face down in a stun bath. The plant foreman tells them that the electrical current was off when the body was found and that it stays off all night. Greg wonders if Raymundo got high and accidentally fell into the bath. He adds that it's tough to drown in three inches of water, but Grissom says that if Raymundo hit the water when the current was on, his muscles could've contracted and made it impossible for him to get out. However, since the machine was off during the night and when the body was found, someone was there to turn the electrical current on and kill Raymundo.
Brass speaks to the employees, starting with Ernie Dell, a maintenance man. He tells Brass that when he last saw Raymundo, he was alive. Ernie says that the police's main suspect should be a company owner Ike Mannleigh, as Raymundo was having an affair with Ike's wife. Back in the warehouse, Greg finds a used condom on the floor, seemingly corroborating Ernie's story. As Grissom looks around, he finds something tucked in the corner of the room. He takes off the lid and finds another miniature crime scene, complete with dead body.
The model is taken back to the lab and placed alongside the other two. A quick recap is shown of the deaths of Penny Garden and Izzy Delancey, along with tiny pictures of bloody dolls being found in each model. Grissom goes through the newest model and finds another picture of the bloody doll, this one taken from a different angle. Sara enters to get a look at the new development. They go over the three victims, but find that they all don't have something in common like race, sex, fame, or wealth. Grissom says that the only lead they have is the blurry photo of the delivery man leaving a package on Penny's doorstep. Sara offers to look at Raymundo's phone records to see if any calls he made match the numbers Penny and Izzy had in common. When asked about the number recovered from the disposable cell phone (the number appeared in both Izzy and Penny's phone records), Sara says that she tracked down the store where the phone was bought; however, the buyer paid in cash. She then looks down at Raymundo's file, sees the name Mannleigh Chicken, and curiously takes the file with her as she leaves the room.
Sara uncovers a PSA that Izzy did three years ago slamming Mannleigh Chicken for their unethical treatment of the animals. The company's sales dropped 60% after the PSA, and Ike launched an expensive public relations campaign that the company never recovered from. This would give Ike motive for murder. He's brought in for questioning and tells Brass that he was aware that Raymundo was having an affair with his wife and that he was okay with it. Brass shows Ike photos of Penny and Izzy from their crime scenes; he obviously recognizes Izzy. Not liking where the questioning is going, Ike asks for his attorney.
Using new photo enhancing software, Grissom enhances the still of the delivery person in front of Penny's house. When enhanced, he finds that the emblem on the back of the delivery man's shirt is a train. An enthusiastic Hodges tells him that it's the logo for Locomotiveville, a company that specializes in model trains and accessories. Greg visits the company's website and scrolls through its members, stopping on a photo of Ernie Dell.
Greg, Brass and some uniformed officers head to Ernie's house. Ernie is nowhere to be found, but the inside of the house is covered in a very large and detailed model train layout. Some of the detail is disturbing, as it includes a model of a bloody, headless person, as well as a group of people beating another person to a bloody pulp. The model even includes a cemetery. Ernie's workshop is found in the basement. There, they find numerous molds on the table along with miniature people of various sizes.
In the lab, Grissom takes one of the pots from the Izzy Delancey model and finds the mold that it fits. When he creates a new pot with some mold mixture, he finds that it's markings match the pot from the model.
Ernie is brought in for questioning. He obviously worked with Raymundo and knew Izzy because of the PSA. Ernie denies knowing Penny, but Grissom and Brass show him the blown up photo of him in front of Penny's house delivering the model. He explains this away by saying that a lot of people have shirts from Locomotiveville. When asked how his models ended up at three different crime scenes, Ernie says that he builds and sells scale models, and that anyone that bought one of the models could be the killer they're looking for. Brass doesn't have enough to charge Ernie with anything, so he lets him go.
Sara excitedly tells Grissom that additional minutes were purchased for the disposable cell phone on Ernie's credit card. As Brass and some officers storm Ernie's house, Grissom gets an e-mail in his office. The e-mail is from Ernie, confessing to the murders of Izzy Delancey, Penny Garden and Raymundo Suarez. Grissom clicks the hyperlink in the e-mail and is connected to a live feed of Ernie's basement. On screen, Ernie gives a little speech in which he introduces himself and says that his job is to service the machinery of death. He muses about the many faults of humankind, including treachery, hypocrisy, and lying. "A man could kill from sunup to sunset and still his work would never be done," he says. Ernie then raises a gun to his chin and pulls the trigger, killing himself onscreen. Grissom stares back at the screen in disbelief.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- 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
- Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
- Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
- Louise Lombard as Sofia Curtis
- Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass
Guest Cast[]
- Wallace Langham as David Hodges
- Danny Bonaduce as Izzy Delancey
- David Berman as David Phillips
- Michael Rispoli as Ike Mannleigh
- Dayton Callie as Ernie Dell
- Matt Malloy as Max Sullivan
- Becky Wahlstrom as Suzy's Mom
- Alexandra Gold Jourden as Suzy
- Kendall Carly Browne as Max's Grandmother
- Lilyan Chauvin as Mrs. Aloyna Ivanovna
- Parker Goris as Young Max
- Joleen Lutz as Paula Sullivan
- Carla Orlandi as Bubbles Manleigh
- Nelson Pena as Raymundo Suarez
- Juliana Bellinger as Penny Garden (uncredited)
Quotes[]
- Catherine (to Max while he's stuck in cement): Are you ready to give me a name? You know, you are in a very deep hole, in every sense of the word, my friend. Think about that while we chisel you out. It's going to take a few hours. Assuming we're careful. See you!
See Also[]
- List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
- CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 7
- Category:Images from Loco Motives
CSI:Las Vegas Season 7 | ||
Built to Kill, Part 1 • Built to Kill, Part 2 • Toe Tags • Fannysmackin' • Double Cross • Burn Out • Post Mortem • Happenstance • Living Legend • Loco Motives • Leaving Las Vegas • Sweet Jane • Redrum • Meet Market • Law of Gravity • Monster in the Box • Fallen Idols • Empty Eyes • Big Shots • Lab Rats • Ending Happy • Leapin' Lizards • The Good, The Bad, And The Dominatrix • Living Doll |