| Main Character: Miami | |
 | |
| Name | Tara Price |
| Gender | Female |
| City | Miami |
| Job | Medical Examiner (Formerly) |
| Status | Incarcerated |
| Portrayed By | Megalyn Echikunwoke |
| First Appearance | Won't get Fueled Again |
Tara Price is the Medical Examiner who replaced Alexx Woods in Season seven of CSI: Miami. Eric Delko appeared to have a crush on her. She is portrayed by Megalyn Echikunwoke.
Unfortunately, Price's time as the M.E of the Miami Dade Crime Lab was shortlived as she was fired and arrested after being caught abusing prescription drugs that she had stolen from the personal effects of murder victims.
Biography
Tara first appeared in Won't Get Fueled Again , as the replacement for murdered coroner Shannon Higgins (the original replacement for the departed Alexx Woods. Tara's first job was to examine the body of a burnt man on a beach. Eric later met her in the lab and thought she was cute, which he discussed with Horatio.
She became part of the main opening cast credits in the season 7 episode Bombshell.
In the episode Cheating Death, Eric and Ryan switched out the body of a victim for a fake dummy, and attach it to a wire. When Tara walked in, Eric lift the body up through a remote in the observation deck. Tara, not seeing Eric, thinks the body is moving on its own and freaks out. She yells at Eric when he reveals the prank, and later snaps at Ryan when she takes their crime scene photos to recreate the body's original position to determine the weapon used. Calleigh helps Tara recreate the body position, and reassures her that it's not personal, that they just like to play a prank on the newbie. She informs Tara of when Ryan was new and Calleigh and Eric sent him to his first autopsy, only to find a headless body.
In Divorce Party, Tara joined the team to investigate a homicide where the victim was hung from a gazebo. While working the crime scene, the architecture collapsed, Tara injuring her shoulder. Later that day, Horatio convinced Tara to hire his son, Kyle, as an intern in the morgue to protect him from the erratic behavior of his mother, Julia Winston. A bottle of oxycodone subsequently went missing from a car accident victim. Julia was instantly suspected of stealing them, even by Kyle, after she visited him on his first day, giving her the apparent opportunity to take them. At the end of the episode, Tara was seen putting the pills into her pocket. In a later episode, Kyle witnesses her popping a pill into her mouth while examining a body - he confronts her about it and she defensively replies, "I don't have to explain myself to you, Kyle."
In Collateral Damage when a bomb goes off in autopsy, she frantically tries to pick up the scattered pills which had fallen out of her pocket and onto the floor as a result of the blast. Ryan notices this, and he suspects she's hooked. He tells her to "kick it" because he "won't be able to cover for her next time."
However, she wasn't able to "kick it" and as such, eventually destroyed her own career as an M.E while also getting herself arrested.
In Dissolved, Ryan catches her imbibing pills while working, and again he urges her to come forward and seek help. She refused and Ryan reminds her of his warning about what would happen if he caught her again. After more false assurances by her, she goes back to work while Ryan calls Horatio to inform him that she has a serious problem. Horatio and Ryan get a search warrant for her workplace locker where they discover a bag of pill bottles containing multiple prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, buprenorphine and possibly other opioids stolen from morgue intake. Ryan goes to the morgue and he matches the prescription bottles' names to the corpses' tags. Dr. Price sees him do this and their eyes lock. Before either of them could say anything, Julia Winston, suffering a psychotic break, fires a shot and demands her son come with her. Later, after the shooting is resolved with no casualties, Ryan tells Dr. Price in the autopsy room that they are wanted by Internal Affairs, supposedly to get their depositions after the incident in the morgue involving the dangerously un-medicated Winston. Both know however, that it is in reference to Dr. Price directly although neither of them acknowledge this. As she leaves the morgue, she turns and looks back into the room, knowing she will never be back. Meeting with IAB Sgt. Rick Stetler, she is told what they know, including the framing of Julia Winston which precipitated the chain of events that lead to the shooting by her. Dr. Price is arrested for felony theft, burglary and tampering with evidence. As she gets up and is handcuffed she says to Wolfe "Ryan?", desperate for help.
In both regret and resignation, he says to her "I gave you every opportunity Tara." As the police take her into custody in her blue scrubs, Eric Delko and Wolfe watch her go. As she is lead into the elevator, Tara looks at both of them in both a plea for help and shame, alternately making and avoiding eye contact as the elevator door shuts.
Trivia
- In "Raging Cannibal", it was revealed that Tara was left-handed, a trait she shares with Ryan Wolfe.