CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s11e14 Episode Script

All That Cremains

I fall to pieces each time I see you again What about that? Mm! So what do we got here? Back away, ma'am.
We go through the boxes before the customers do.
I smell a Gucci bag in one of these.
A wig.
I could use a wig.
Hey.
Hey.
Dead body inside? Yeah, but we're not dealing with a full body.
What do you mean? So far, we have a head and a foot.
You know, I actually shop at this store.
They have some good stuff.
They always sell body parts? No leakage.
Killer was tidy enough to wrap the parts in plastic.
Rest of him is probably in these other boxes.
We're going to have to take them all back to the lab.
Were these boxes drop-offs or pickups? Pickups.
The manager said they just came off the truck.
Where did the truck get them? All over town.
They don't keep track of which box comes from which house, but the store manager gave me a list of the addresses on the driver's route.
You know, I have heard of donating a body to science.
But to a thrift store? I wonder how much the killer thought it was worth? I mean times are tough.
Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? I really wanna know Who are you? Oh-oh-oh Who Come on, tell me who are you, you, you Are you! Excuse me.
Uh, does Ray Langston work here? Yes, ma'am.
I work with Ray.
Oh, good.
I thought he worked at the morgue until they sent me here.
No.
No, he hasn't had that office over there for a while now.
Is there something I can help you out with? I just wanted to say hi to him.
You know, I'm not I'm not always in Las Vegas.
I'm sorry.
I'm Gloria.
Gloria.
You wouldn't happen to be Ray's wife, would you? Yeah.
Yeah, I'm Nick Stokes.
It's nice to meet you.
I'll tell you what.
Follow me and I'll take you to him.
Thank you.
All right, let's go.
Oh! Come on.
Firing six! Reloading! Firing one! Here he is.
Of course, right now, he looks a lot more like Dr.
Dre than Dr.
Ray, but Ray! Firing two! Ray! Somebody here to see you.
Gloria.
Uh Hi.
What a surprise.
You know, I really have a lot of work to do, so I'm gonna run.
It was good to see you.
Hope to see you again, Mrs.
Langston.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
Yeah.
You got yourself a really good man here.
I could really use your help, Hodges.
You know, it took him a little time to warm up, but, uh, now we're family.
- Hodges! - What? Excuse me.
Hi.
Nice to see you.
What part of your job is this exactly? Oh, this car was involved in a drive-by shooting.
The occupants said that they didn't hear any gunshots, so we're comparing the decibel level of the gunfire to the decibel level of the music they were listening to.
Sounds like fun.
You leave the dead bodies out of the equation, it is.
What? What brings you to Vegas? I'm getting married.
Mm.
I, um I-I got engaged a couple of months ago, and I didn't let you know, and I just I didn't want to do the same thing with the wedding.
Congratulations.
We're just gonna, um, do it at, like, a little chapel up the street.
Nothing fancy.
Ray, I know that you won't come, but I'd really like you to meet Phil.
Wow.
I, um still consider you my best friend.
Can I think about it? Yeah, of course.
Where are you staying? Uh, at the Eclipse.
If you If you change your mind, why don't you why don't you meet us for a drink, at the lounge, tomorrow night at 8:00? I will think about it.
You look really good.
Thank you.
There she is.
Look, look, look.
She's beautiful.
Well, she's a little bit different than I expected.
I thought she'd be more bookish.
He's been working here for two years, and it's the first time I've seen her.
Dr.
Robbins hasn't even met her, and they're buddies.
Looks like sand or dirt in his mouth.
But the rest of the head seems pretty clean.
You know, if he had been buried, he'd be covered in dirt.
Maybe the killer was trying to shut him up.
There's someone else in his mouth.
What? Take a look.
Hmm.
Bone fragments.
Ash morphology Cremated human remains.
Cremains.
Guys? Judging by these curved tool marks, some sort of flexible saw was used.
Mm-hmm.
He was four-pointed.
Yeah.
These marks are too narrow to be rope or handcuffs.
Maybe wire? Check out his chest.
These faint contusions.
I'll see what I.
R.
Photography develops.
Hear you had a visitor.
Yes.
I would've liked to have met her.
If I knew she was coming, I would've introduced you to her.
Maybe you and Gloria could come over for dinner one night this week.
Epiglottis is inflamed.
That means he was alive when the cremains were dropped down the hatch.
C.
O.
D.
is asphyxia due to oropharyngeal obstruction.
Which tells us the cremains were the murder weapon.
There is a message in there somewhere.
You found all his pieces.
Yes, we did.
What's in the tox report, Henry? Well, John Doe was double-fisting alcohol and zolpidem.
That's a strong sedative.
At these levels, he would've had to have been comatose when he ingested the cremains.
That explains his lack of injuries to his lips and tongue.
So he was unconscious, the killer tied him up, poured the cremains in his mouth.
His involuntary gag reflex opened up his gullet, allowing the cremains to be sucked into his throat, asphyxiating him to death.
Why would anyone ever choose to end up like this? Money.
Cremation's fast and cheap.
Yeah, well, I'll fork out the extra dollars to go six feet under.
I don't like the idea of being portable.
In a vase, being passed around from relative to relative.
No, I'm gonna get a tombstone.
Something that someone can worship me at.
Hmm.
So, we got pieces of bone.
A surgical screw.
And an intact gold tooth.
Got a good chance of DNA.
This is probably from a hip replacement.
You know, if that crematorium was doing their job right, this shouldn't exist.
2,100 degrees for three hours is what it takes to ensure the disintegration of a corpse.
Anything less than that, plastic hip replacements, silicone implants, large chunks of bone, are all going to be left behind.
How does identifying the cremains help us to identify the vic? I'm thinking the victim and the dearly cremated were probably related.
DNA should confirm.
Excuse me? You, uh, are you Ray? Yes.
And you are? I'm the guy who's marrying your wife.
Phil Baker.
Phil, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
Beer? Wine? Um shot of bourbon.
Excuse me.
Can I get a shot of tequila and a shot of bourbon, please? Thanks.
So, look, hey, thanks for coming.
You know, Gloria raves about you, and, uh Gentlemen.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Great.
Here's to you and Gloria.
Thank you.
Hey, looks like you did the deed before us, huh? You should have brought her.
Well, um I see that Gloria is still fashionably late.
Good to see she didn't save that one just for me.
Some things never change.
Yeah.
Anyway, look, uh You know, Gloria really wants you to come to the wedding.
And I just want you to know I'm-I'm-I'm cool with that.
You know? I'm Thank you.
Hey.
Wow.
Okay.
You actually came! Wow.
Oh, thank you.
Hi.
Hey.
How you doing? Good.
Yeah hey, we were just, we were just talking about the wedding, and, uh What? No.
Babe.
Babe, I told you to not to.
He said he's gonna come.
No, he's not gonna come.
Okay? He barely made it for our wedding.
So Ray, oh my God.
I'm s I'm sorry.
I didn't mean it that way.
I just Yes, you did.
But it's okay.
Because you couldn't be more right.
I barely made our wedding.
So want to assure you that I will be early for your wedding to Phil.
Y Y-You're gonna come? I'm invited? Yes! Yes? I'll be there.
Thanks a lot, man.
Thank you.
- Oh, babe.
- Yeah.
He's gonna come.
I know he's gonna come-- I told you.
Hodges got a CODIS hit off that gold tooth he found in the cremains.
Joe Malton.
Death row inmate.
Killed his girlfriend but he had a heart attack before they could give him the needle.
Hmm.
When did he die? Two years ago.
Crazy thing is, the cremains were a mixture.
Two sets of DNA.
Death Row Joe and an unknown female.
So the killer poured the cremains from two different urns into the victim, or it was two sources mixed into one? But who wants to get mixed in with a psycho killer? Well, it sounds like this crematorium where Joe was incinerated is running a shady business.
Cutting corners.
I'll bet they're burning more than one body at a time.
Hey, boys.
You guys in charge? Gross.
Now why'd you have to go and do that? See, now you made me mad.
I just wanted to talk to you.
You're making this harder than it needs to be, guys.
We'd like to take a look at your records.
The unknown female cremains aren't unknown anymore.
They belong to Sabrina Pose.
Died two years ago in a car accident.
According to the crematorium's records, she was cremated the same day as Death Row Joe.
Shared this house with her husband Ronald Pose.
His DMV photo matches our John Doe.
He live alone? With his daughter Camryn, 13.
No sign of her.
Well, let's hope she's at school or at her friend's house, and not in some box like her old man.
I've got a call into CPS.
This house wasn't on the Thrift Store pick-up list, but the one across the street was.
I'll go check it out.
Thanks.
Yeah, yeah, thanks.
Husband and wife were both lawyers.
Accounts for the swanky pad.
There's a void on the mantle.
Typical place to put the urn, over the fireplace.
Maybe the killer took it with him.
Found his night cap kit.
This looks like ash on the lampshade here.
Ligature marks on the bedposts.
This is home plate.
Let's check the bed.
More cremains.
The directionality of the ash suggests that he was dragged by his feet off the end of the bed.
I got an ash trail.
Trail ends here.
It's easier to sweep the ash up off the tile than to get it out of carpet.
And if you're gonna chop somebody up, this is the best place to do it, then the easiest to clean up.
These are recent cut marks, Sara.
Slaughter tub.
Whew.
There's no blood trail in the house.
I'm thinking that the killer packed up the parts in here.
So where'd he box him up? Garage.
Garage.
The killer kills the vic in his own bed, dismembers him in the tub, cleans up, boxes him up in the garage and then just puts the boxes on the neighbor's curb for the thrift store to pick up.
And somebody else disposes of the body for you.
It's kind of genius.
The house is empty.
Foreclosure.
Belonged to a minister and his wife.
I'm running them down now.
All right.
Why are you at my house? I'm Nick.
This is Frankie.
We're with the police department.
The police? Something's happened, and we need to talk to you about it.
When was the last time you saw your dad? Last night.
Before I went to bed.
Look, if you need to talk to him, he's probably at work.
Was there anyone else in the house with you last night? No.
How'd you get to school this morning? I'm on it.
My dad goes to work really early, so I usually just get myself ready for school.
Can I go now? No.
I'm sorry, Camryn.
You're going to have to go with Child Services, just for now.
I just want to go to my room.
No, no, no, no, no, Camryn.
I can't let you go in there.
I can't.
Why not? 'Cause something really bad's happened to your dad.
I'm sorry, honey.
I'm so sorry.
Hey.
Hey.
Just got done processing some prints that Sara sent over.
Got a hit off a work card that's worth checking out.
Local dancer.
Stripper? No.
She works on the Strip for some of Vegas's biggest shows.
All right.
Besides the photo, what about her is worth looking at? She's the vic's ex-girlfriend.
Ah.
Her prints were all over his bedroom.
It's obviously a live-in, 'cause she has the same address.
Hey, didn't Nick and Sara find some dancer's clothes in a box at the thrift store? Sure did.
Nick found even more women's clothes in the garage.
Doesn't sound like an amicable breakup.
Well, maybe he kicked her out.
Wouldn't let her take her things.
She probably has a key.
Instead of coming back for her stuff, she comes back for revenge.
Well, revenge is one thing, but, uh shoving his dead wife's ashes down his throat and slicing him up that's a monster.
Excuse me, ladies.
We are looking for a Sydney Preston.
Sydney Preston? What's the problem? We'd like to talk about that at the station.
I can't.
I'm rehearsing.
What's up? Do you know Ronald Pose? Yeah.
Why? He's dead.
Do you still want to talk about that here? When last time you were in Ron Pose's house? About two weeks ago when I found out he cheated on me.
And you haven't been back since? No.
Mm-hmm.
According to your work card, you still live there.
I moved in with my mom.
Work has been hectic.
Haven't had a chance to go look for a new place.
Do you recognize these things? Are they yours? So you moved out of Ron Pose's house two weeks ago, but your belongings are still there.
Why? I never got a chance to go back because I didn't want to see him.
After the breakup, that that's the last thing that I wanted, so I left my stuff there.
What does this have to do with anything? This box of dance attire was found along with some other boxes.
In those other boxes, we found Ron's body parts.
Someone cut him up? Why would someone do that? You tell me.
Wait-- you don't think that I did it? Why not? In spite of everything, I still loved Ron.
Do you? I love him more than I've loved any man.
I thought he was the one.
Apparently, I was one of many.
So Ron saw a lot of women? He was a juggler.
He had a stable.
You would think that a widower would be rusty on their skills.
No, uh-uh, not him.
You have any names? Serina.
Tammy.
Julie.
Deanna.
The list goes on.
Mm-hmm.
All I know is that I didn't want to be on that list, so I left.
What's going on with Camryn? Where is she? She's fine.
She's with Child Protective Services.
No.
She-She doesn't belong there.
She can stay with me.
Can I leave? As soon as I get a DNA sample from you, you are free to go.
Whatever it takes to get me out of here.
So how long did you live across from the Poses? Oh.
15 years.
But even the Lord is not safe from this hellish economy.
Church foreclosed, the house went next.
We were forced to move into a smaller place.
And so you donated what you couldn't take to the thrift store.
Unfortunately for us.
Fortunately for someone else.
Hmm.
What is she doing here? So, how well do you know Ms.
Preston? Well, better than I knew Ron, actually.
He wasn't really around that much.
But Sydney-- she used to spent a lot of time with his daughter Camryn.
I mean, even when her mother was alive, she was basically alone, or with babysitters.
Lawyers-- you know, they work day and night.
Camryn-- she raised herself.
But when Ron started dating Sydney, all that changed.
See, Camryn was an only child, like Sydney, and I always felt like they had a spiritual connection, too.
So, what about Sydney's relationship with Ron? Well, it's the first time since his wife died, I even saw a smile on his face.
That is, of course, until they broke up.
Man, he was screaming.
She didn't want to have anything to do with him.
It broke Camryn's heart.
Must've felt like losing another mother.
Sydney came to church the next day.
Did she tell you what the fight was all about? Something about strange videos.
Videos? She say what was on them? Girls.
Sex tapes.
I don't know.
I didn't pry.
That's not my world.
So, as far as you know, did Sydney ever come back to the house after the big fight? No.
That's the last time I saw her until just now.
We've got a lot of evidence.
Yeah, but it adds up to a whole lot of nothing.
Yeah, probably 'cause we're dealing with the cleanest house in Las Vegas.
All the prints are explainable.
Belonging to either the vic, his daughter, the housekeeper or Sydney Preston.
Prints from the moving boxes are also explainable.
They come back to the thrift shop driver, the victim, his daughter or Sydney.
And we found no prints on the wire saw.
Okay.
What about the blood evidence? Blood all came back to the victim.
Killer must've worn gloves.
So the killer cleaned up.
Knew the neighbors were moving.
The garbage bags and boxes were in the victim's garage.
Killer knew the house.
My money's on Sydney.
She had motive.
Their breakup was ugly.
And the minister said there were sex tapes involved.
You know, we haven't released the house yet.
I could go back, look for 'em.
So you just, like, want me to talk about myself? Yeah.
How old you are, where you're from, that kind of thing.
I'm 22, I grew up in Cali, and got into singing and dancing real young.
Any kids? One, and she's just-- Wow, that's great.
Okay, let's see you dance.
Just relax and tell the camera a little bit about yourself.
But you already know me.
The executive producer doesn't.
That's who's casting the part.
Okay.
Um, I'm 22, I go to WLVU-- Where is the sex? Tell me about it.
It's like watching American Idol auditions.
Why would the vic have these locked up? He was a lawyer, not a casting director.
Have you watched them all? All but one.
There's 30 tapes.
They're all numbered, but number 15 is missing.
Well, they come from Trufant Productions.
Maybe they can tell us why they were locked up in a dead man's safe.
Yeah.
I under I understand.
No, that girl is a wax figure.
The last thing she needs is more procedures.
She should be subletting some to her girlfriend.
You know what I'm saying? Hey, that's a big call.
And you're gonna be in big trouble if you don't sit down, Mr.
Trufant.
What exactly do you do? Agent, manager, producer.
Busy man.
What kind of shows do you produce? Reality shows to strip shows and everything in between.
What am I doing here? These your tapes? Not anymore.
I mean, I made them, yeah, but I-I gave them away.
Who'd you give them to? She could book you, you know.
She's a casting director for the LVPD.
I gave 'em to my buddy, Ron.
I was just trying to help him out.
Help him out, how? He's not a club guy.
I've known him since he was a kid, and-and he's a little nerdy.
He's not a go-getter.
Always needed a little help with the ladies.
Especially since his wifey died.
So, you held these auditions to get him laid? Basically.
I mean, we didn't tell the girls that, of course.
Said we were producing a new hip-hop musical.
So Ron watches the tapes, and he picks the girls that he likes? Yeah, and then I set up the dates.
Tell the girls Ron's the executive producer on the project, make him sound important.
What happens when they find out the show is a fake? I just tell the girls the project fell through.
Lost the venue, couldn't get the rights to the story-- whatever, blah, blah-- that's easy.
By that time, the girl is hooked on Ronny.
I mean, once you get past his nerdy side, he's a charming guy with money to blow.
You want to know how many girls he picked off those tapes? We can only imagine.
Seriously, so, what kind of charge am I looking at for something like this? I mean, honestly, I thought it was all legal, you know.
I'm a homicide detective.
You are here because Ron was murdered.
Well, Ron's, Ron's my boy.
I'd never do anything to hurt him.
You got copies of those tapes? Of course.
Yeah, I keep all the originals.
I'd like to take a look at number 15.
Beautiful Sydney, what's up? You know.
Another day, another casting.
What's up with you? Ah, you know, same old thing.
Just putting together another show.
So, Sydney finds Ron's secret stash of tapes.
She realizes she was auditioning to be his girlfriend.
She feels betrayed, kills him, slices him up and takes the tape.
I think the cremains were Sydney's way of telling Ron that he belonged with his wife.
In death.
What's with the guitar? I'm taking lessons.
Let me see it.
Okay.
I thought that I would play you a little something.
Yeah.
That guitar was in one of the boxes from the thrift store.
We have that in evidence.
Those guitar strings are strong and thin enough to make those ligature marks on the body and bedposts.
Hey, guys.
I got the infrared photos from Autopsy.
There's some odd-looking bruises on the victim's chest.
Check it out.
Looks like the killer was pressing down pretty hard on him with something.
Well, the shape of those bruises look an awful lot like Sydney's knee pads.
Guitar's missing four strings.
Just the amount needed to tie up our vic.
This guitar is clean.
I'm not getting a single print.
Maybe DNA-- we'll have more luck.
Wear pattern's a match.
Sydney was wearing these knee pads when she killed him.
See, Cam? We're closer to getting you out of here.
Today? Few days at the most.
And I'll come live with you, right? Where else would you go? What are they doing here? Hey, Camryn.
Ms.
Preston, we need you to come with us.
Why? We can talk about it downtown.
Please don't go.
Don't worry, I'll be back here for you, okay, Cam? No, I'll come with you.
Just let me go.
I don't want to be here alone.
Well, I'll stay here with you.
If you want.
We'll order a pizza up in here.
I don't care.
We can watch a movie or something.
You hungry? Everything's going to be okay, Cam.
Hey, it's going to be all right.
This is bordering on harassment.
I didn't do anything wrong.
You haven't been honest with us.
I told you everything I know.
About Serina and Julie and Tara and Deanna, but not about these other women.
I believe this is the reason you broke up with Ron.
You found these audition tapes, and you snapped.
Maybe I did.
Here's this-this geeky business guy, who wasn't my type at all.
Wasn't out in the club every night, or-or spitting mad game at me.
I fell in love with him anyway.
Till I found out he was the shadiest of them all.
I felt angry, betrayed.
I didn't want anyone to know I fell for something so stupid, including you guys.
All right.
Are these your knee pads? Yeah.
Is this your guitar? Yes.
All right.
The guitar is missing four strings.
We believe those strings were used to tie Ron down.
The knee pads were used to hold him down while he was choking on his wife's remains.
I left these things back there at the house.
And then you went back for them.
Decided to pack up a few boxes of Ron.
You know, you sound real crazy right now.
No, crazy is what we found when we processed the knee pads for DNA.
Inside the knee pads, we found DNA from two contributors.
A major one and a minor one.
You were the minor contributor.
But that's weird.
They're your knee pads.
The major contributor had half of Ron's DNA.
Half of Ron's DNA.
Now, who would have half of Ron's DNA? His daughter Camryn.
I used to let her use my stuff all the time.
If someone besides you and Camryn used the knee pads, we would have found DNA.
We didn't.
That means either you killed Ron, or the two of you killed him together.
I didn't kill anyone, let alone use a child to help me.
I love that little girl.
That means there's only one other possibility, Sydney.
No, there's not.
There's got to be an explanation.
Let me talk to her.
I knew you'd get me out of that place.
I didn't get you out.
The police did.
Look they think we did something bad to your dad.
But we didn't.
I know that.
You know that.
But they don't.
If you know what happened to your Dad, you have to tell me.
Or else we'll never get to see each other again.
Did anyone come see your dad at the house that night? Maybe another girl? I won't get mad, I promise.
You can tell me.
Did you hear anything? Did you see anything? Please tell me.
Who else was there? What happened, Cam? Just tell me.
He got mad, Syd.
Just because I was playing your guitar.
Honey, turn it down.
I'm trying to do some work.
I told you to stop playing with Sydney's stuff, didn't I? Get rid of it! There's no Sydney anymore! Sydney's dead! You get it? My birthday parties were always thrown by my grandparents.
And when they died, they were thrown by my babysitters.
Until you showed up.
I didn't have parents until you showed up.
What are you trying to say? When he said you were dead, I wanted him dead.
CAMRYN So after he took his sleeping pills, I snuck into his room and tied him down.
Fed him my mom's ashes.
Dragged him into the bathroom.
Put him in the boxes.
Got rid of your stuff, like he wanted me to do.
And I left it all on the minister's curb.
I hated my mom and my dad.
They didn't have me to love me.
I just looked good on their Christmas card.
He belonged with her.
I belong with you.
I don't believe you.
Now do you believe me? What are you doing? Where are you going? Are you mad? It's always very difficult to accept the truth about people.
Especially about people that we love.
Denying it doesn't make it go away.
What's going to happen to her? She'll be detained, tried, and, if convicted, she'll be in juvenile detention until she's an adult.
After that, it's pretty much up to the courts.
I love you, Syd.
Where you going, looking so sharp? My wife's getting married.
Hmm? My ex-wife is getting married.
But you still wear the ring.
Yeah.
I don't even know why I do that.
I mean, we got divorced two years ago.
I suppose it just represents the best part of my life.
I thought you were living the best part of your life right now, here with us.
Yeah, you're right.
I am.
I loved her a lot, Nick.
I miss her.
And when she came to visit the other day, I saw this look in her eyes I'd seen many times before, whenever she was really happy.
So So you're happy she's happy.
Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at it.
Well, it's big of you to go.
You're a good guy.
But you might want to do yourself a favor-- take that ring off before you go.

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