Nick Townsend is the ex-husband of CSI Natalia Boa Vista.
Upon his release from prison, Nick re-entered Natalia's life as an employee of a crime-scene cleaning company who often worked crime scenes his ex-wife was assigned to process. Nick's treatment of Natalia following his parole consisted primarily of unwanted flirtation, which pushed Natalia into shoving him at a crime scene, an action Nick used as basis for a restraining order against her.
Under the order, Natalia was forced to leave any crime scene Nick was sent to clean, which threatened her job. Nick subsequently agreed to drop the restraining order, provided Natalia treated him civilly from then on. Nick became a less-than-desirable presence on the job for both Natalia and Eric Delko, for whom Nick also took delight in causing discomfort due to Eric's prior romantic relationship with Natalia. Nick was murdered following a date with Maxine Valera, who'd shoved him to the floor in response to his unwanted advances and fled, thinking him dead.
Though both Maxine and Natalia were suspected for the crime, Nick was in fact killed by a man whose wife had committed a murder Nick had worked that day. The man's name was Jeff Murdock and Lauren Sloan was his wife. Nick had taken Lauren's earring from the crime scene and was bludgeoned to death when he taunted Jeff and refused to return it.
He was portrayed by Rob Estes.