CSI: Vegas – Episode 9.09 “19 Down” Recap

CSI: Vegas Episode 9.09 – 19 Down
Air Date: December 11, 2008

In a dimly lit living room, two men watch a video. On the video, a woman seems to be wimpering, as if she is held captive, perhaps being tortured or sexually assaulted. One man, seated on a sofa, says it brings back old times, and asks the man standing behind him what he thinks it’s worth. At that the other man strangles the seated man, and stuffs his lifeless body into a large trashbag. He drags the body out of the house, and places it into a car. In the dark, he dumps the body off a cliff into a ravine. The camera captures the body’s exposure to the elements and visible decomposition.

Grissom finishes a crossword, and walks out to hand Riley paperwork for a case of suspicious remains at the city dump. She jokingly pretends excitement over the assignment, “Awesome! Trash run for the low man on the totem pole.”

Greg gets a recovered stolen vehicle. To Nick he hands a possible arson at the Burger Giant. He hands Catherine a 419 in Green Valley. Grissom somberly announces his departure from CSI, and tells them that Catherine will take over. They will also get a new Level 1 CSI. He gets a message that there’s another case, that he’ll take. As he walks away, the team looks stunned.

Grissom looks off into the woods as he’s examining the scene of the dumped body. An officer comes over and tells him that two hikers found the trash bag, and said it wasn’t a popular trail. Grissom tells him that the body could have been there just a short time, or for years, but tells him to forewarn the coroner.

Catherine, Nick, and Hodges examine the “soup”. As they inspect the lack of clues in the mess of bones, clothes, and decomposition “juice”, Catherine notes that the generic clothing won’t help them ID or guess the gender of the victim. Nick finds a Star of David pendant. They do find some locks of hair. Catherine tells Hodges to separate it and get it over to Wendy for mitochondrial DNA testing. They don’t know whether the hair is the victim’s or possibly his attacker’s.

Dr. Robbins inspects the skeletal remains, noting to Grissom that it’s most likely a caucasian male about 5 feet 9 inches. Partial fusion of the coronal (cranial) suture indicates an age of at least 25 years. His broken hyoid suggests strangulation as the cause of death. Al asks Grissom if he’s really leaving, and if he’s running to or from something. Grissom takes leave to his office.

Grissom checks missing persons for Jewish males wearing Star of David pendants. A Joel Steiner shows up, missing since 1997, and listed as a possible victim of the “Dick and Jane Killer”. Grissom calls the team together and they discuss the Dick and Jane Killer, Nathan Haskell. He killed several couples, the males of which were found dumped in remote locations, all with post mortem stab wounds. None of the females were ever found, and the killer would never discuss them. He was picked up at a sobriety check point in Reno.

Haskell changed his plea to guilty and received life without parole. The seven males that were found, each had one more stab wound than the previously found victim…the first had two, the second three, the third four, etc. Grissom says that they theorized that the first male victim was never found. Joel Steiner and his fiancée were reported missing earlier than the other DJK victims, and were linked to him because they lived near his home.

Joel Steiner’s parents talk to Brass. Mrs. Steiner says that she had the pendant made especially for Joel. Brass asks them for DNA samples, explaining that the private lab that handled Joel’s sample misplaced it.

Grissom tries to stop Hodges in the hallway to speak with him. Hodges breezes on by, replying, “A little too late for that, huh? Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Have a nice life.” Grissom looks stunned.

Hodges examines the victim’s clothing.

Wendy reports to Grissom that she was able to “put the screws” to a guy at the lab…her uncle…to get the DNA results quickly. The blond hair was a minor DNA match to Nathan Haskell. Hodges rushes up to Wendy and Grissom, and addresses only Wendy. He says the shoes in the soup were only available since two years before. The D&J Killer has been incarcerated for at least the last 10 years.

Catherine shows Grissom the shoe company’s website. It was s custom design, so she has requested the customer records. Grissom begins to discuss his surprising her with his news. She stops him, though, and says she knew even before he knew.

The records come back. The sneakers were designed by Gerald Tolliver, a Hawthorne, Nevada man with a record of theft and drug busts. He was registered as a criminal informant just before he disappeared six months before.

Nick and Greg go to Tolliver’s house in Reno to meet with Ken Martz from the Reno Police. He says he didn’t work the DJK case, but he was the officer who caught Haskell. Tolliver’s house is still in probate, so still accessible by police. Inside, he shows them blood that matched Tolliver, both on the wall and the floor. Greg notes a partial shoe print found in the blood. Martz wondered how Tolliver is connected to DJK, since he was seventeen at the time of the murders, and was never part of the investigation. Nick notices a bizarre collection of taxidermy and other items, and wonders if Tolliver was a murder memorabilia afficionado. He remarks that Tolliver could have gotten a lock of DJK’s hair from Ebay, but wonders about the Star of David, since it was never recovered.

Riley matches items from Tolliver’s house to victim photos from the DJK’s file, including a school letter from one victim’s jacket, a pair of eyeglasses, a pair of Pearl Jam tickets from the arena where Joel Steiner and his fiancée were last seen.

Grissom tells Catherine that Haskell’s attorneys argued that the murders were the work of more than one killer, stating that he alone couldn’t have subdued the males and females at the same time. Grissom wonders if Tolliver was an active participant. Meanwhile, Greg matches the shoe print from Tolliver’s house to one from the recent “S&M double murder” of couple Ian Wallace and Justine Stefani. Ian also had nine post mortem stab wounds. In light of their discoveries related to Tolliver, this links the new murders to the DJK. He thinks it’s a copycat trying to make Ian and Justine the ninth DJK couple. Nick surprises Greg by interpreting his assertion as finding a copycat killer who just happened to kill an accomplice that no one knew existed until after his own death. Greg is bewildered, but Catherine promises to help him catch up. Nick suggests they go to Ely Prison to talk to Haskell. Catherine doesn’t believe that the guy will talk to them, since he seems to want to be the main character in his own story.

Brass tells Grissom that Ely State Prison has sent over all of Haskell’s correspondence and logs of his phone calls. He told detectives to look for any names that will link Tolliver to Haskell. Brass tells Grissom that it’s too bad he’s moving on, seemingly implying that any interaction they have at gatherings might not be as meaningful. A detective tells them that Haskell has had a lot of calls with a professor at WLVU, and has plans to participate in an upcoming seminar on criminology, including a video Q&A with the students. Grissom plans to attend. Brass will talk to the school and have Grissom go in posing as a visiting professor.

In the seminar, professor Raymond Langston (Lawrence Fishburne) makes opening statements on the common attributes of serial killers: male, caucasian, under 30 years old. He also points out exceptions, as well as Jane Goodall’s witnessing a rampage by chimps.

Haskell is evasive, at first. He then agrees to be honest, and tells Langston that he doesn’t like his book. Grissom asks if he’d ever shared his experiences with anyone, but Haskell insists that he worked alone. Haskell tells them that his definition of “fun” is taking something away from someone. He points out a “nice Jewish girl”, and says he’d take her on a vacation of three days of heaven on earth, then just a little “l’chaim.” [Creepy!]

Greg and Nick tell Catherine about the tickets from Ian and Justine, and note Joel’s Pearl Jam tickets. Ian had ordered tickets for three consecutive nights of Paramore concerts. The couple went missing after the first night, but the third night’s tickets were used. Catherine jokes that the murderer “wasted” a couple, but wouldn’t waste a pair of tickets.

Students, and Grissom, ask Haskell about the female victims. He says nobody ever asked, but, when he took them, they stopped being neices, girlfriends, daughters, etc. One student asks if any resisted. He said a couple of them fought a little, but only at first. He answers one student that he subdued them without force. He then changes the subject back to “the Jewish theme.” He explains that the Jews in the Holocaust panicked when they thought they were about to die. He continues that the Nazis comforted them by giving them the hope that they were really going to be given work to do. He says that, when you take a person to near death, then give them hope, even just a little, you can do anything you want to. And, he says, he did. At the end of the seminar, one girl looks upset. A male student offers to buy her a drink, and she accepts.

Archie and Greg examine internet video of the Paramore concert of the night after Ian and Justine went missing. Zooming in on a frame that includes their seats, they notice that the two men sitting there seem to have matching hats: “Reliant Wash and Wax”.

Brass takes officers to the car wash, and question the two men from the video. They claim to have bought the tickets from a scalper. One man still has his ticket in his wallet. Besides Ian Wallace, prints on the ticket match Curtis Keesey.

Police enter Keesey’s home, where they find a body.

Grissom and David Phillips examine insects on the latest victim. As Grissom identifies the insects, Phillips tells him that he’s going to miss this work. Grissom tells him that there are bugs everywhere, but that he is going to miss Phillips. David gets misty-eyed, and has to turn his face away and leave the room.

Back at Keesey’s house, Catherine notes that his tires match those at Justine Stefani’s murder scene. Nick says, though, that his shoes don’t match, so he must just be the driver.

Catherine, Greg, and Grissom examine the physical evidence from the four murders. They wonder if the unidentified killer was also an accomplice to the DJK. They speculate that he killed Tolliver, when he decided to become an informant. Grissom adds that this might have fueled his taste for killing, leading to the other three murders.

In the second day of the serial killer seminar, Professor Langston asks Haskell about his mistakes leading to his capture. One student adds that he must have wanted to get caught, didn’t he? When Haskell protests the idea of wanting that. Grissom responds, though, that this careful killer was captured because a rookie cop noticed a drop of blood in plain sight inside his car. Grissom asks how such an average sized man was able to overpower large, athletic men, while subduing the female victims, without any help. Haskell seems defensive and tries to change the subject. As Langston tries to push him to answer, Joel Steiner’s mother appears in the back of the room, first demanding, then begging, Haskell to tell where her son is. Students calm her down.

Grissom tells Haskell that they know that he had accomplices. He then adds that, if he were to identify them, he might be let out of keepaway. Haskell identifies Grissom to the rest of the class as a member of law enforcement, explaining that “keepaway” is the form of solitary he is in. Angry, Langston kills the video feed.

Langston complains to Brass and Grissom about their “hijacking” his class without his knowledge. He tells them that he would have helped, if he’d been informed of the existence of another DJK. They tell Langston that they’ll keep him informed. He storms out, proclaiming, “I know a kiss off, when I hear one.” Grissom tells Brass that Langston was an M.D. back east. He studied a case of several dying patients, who ended up being the victims of an “angel of death” physician.

Back at the university, Langston receives a call from Haskell. He tells the professor to look out the window, because he’s in the parking lot. It turns out to be a prank, though. He wants to talk about what happened with Mrs. Steiner. Langston conferences Grissom in on the call. He tells them that seeing all those faces made him miss killing. He adds that Mrs. Steiner’s outburst made him want to offer closure. He gives an address out in the desert. He says he’ll find Joel, and, if they’re lucky, they’ll find something else. He warns them, though, that closure often leads to something new. At the scene, they find Joel Steiner. Under the railroad bridge, they find another, fresh body with ten stab wounds. [It looks like one of the students.]

Brass tells Grissom, “I guess you won’t be leaving just yet.”

to be continued…