Crate 'n Burial

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“Crate and Burial”
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 3
Guest stars	Judith Scott (Dr Jenna Williams)
Written by	Ann Donahue
Directed by	Danny Cannon
Original airdate	October 20, 2000
Episode chronology
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"Cool Change"	"Pledging Mr Johnson"

Crate 'n Burial is the third episode from the first series of the popular American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1 Plot Summary
2 See also
3 External Links
4 Episode Soundtrack

[edit] Plot Summary

A woman named Laura Garas has been buried alive and is screaming for help. A ransom message has been recorded with instructions stating, "Bring two million in hundreds to Charleston and Third in three hours or your wife dies. Stop me from taking the money, she still dies." At the Garas' residence, Brass attempts to discourage Laura's husband, Jack, from paying the ransom, while Grissom and Nick dissect the message for evidence. Noticing a gap of silence and a low-frequency buzzing sound, they speculate that Laura is buried in the desert near power lines. Sara does a walk-through at the site of the apparent abduction - the apparent primary crime scene. There are points of disturbance everywhere, all of which point to a struggle. When Grissom joins her, he notices dirt on the bedroom carpet. While checking outside, a sweet scent leads them to a halothane-soaked handkerchief lying on the ground.

An analysis of the dirt from the Garas' home reveals traces of gold and cyanide. Grissom explains that miners use cyanide powder to draw gold to the surface. He and Sara take off in a helicopter for the three nearest sites that would fit this profile. Unable to discourage Jack Garas from paying the ransom, Brass tails him to the drop site, where Garas throws a gym bag into a trash can. When a young man in a baseball hat eventually retrieves it, the police move in.

At the same time, Grissom and Sara comb the desert with an infrared camera. They spot the glowing image of a thrashing body underground. They frantically dig until they unearth Laura.

When Grissom interviews Laura Garas at the hospital, the only thing she can remember is being grabbed from behind in the hallway of her home. The last thing she remembered was something being clamped over her mouth, but she can't remember anything about her assailant. Grissom asks her for a DNA sample to compare to the duct tape used to silence her, and to the truck belonging to the man caught at the ransom drop-off site, Chip Rundle, Jack Garas' personal trainer. Brass tells Rundle that his fingerprints were found on Laura Garas' makeshift coffin. Rundle explains that he helped Jack move crates. Brass releases Rundle but recorded the interrogation to use as a vocal comparison to the ransom message.

The AV lab matches Rundle's voice with the voice on the ransom message. After finding strands of hair in the front passenger seat of Rundle's truck, Sara asks Grissom to help her reconstruct Laura's abduction. She notes that the fibers from the sheepskin seat covers were found on the back of Laura's sleeves, which could only have happened if Laura were sitting in an upright position like a normal passenger. A blood test confirms that Laura never ingested the halothane. Brass comes in saying that Rundle now wants to make a deal, but Grissom stops that idea knowing what Rundle wants to offer, his accomplice... Laura Garas.

Laura persistently denies any relationship with Rundle. Sara claims they staged the kidnapping as part of a plan to run away together with a lump of Jack's fortune. To bring it all home, Nick plays three versions of the ransom recording, the final recording with the most damning thing of all, a previously inaudible sound that was isolated, Laura Garas saying, "Hurry up, Chip!" As Laura is being arrested, her angry husband asks Grissom why she didn't just give Rundle up. "Self-preservation," Grissom explains. "If she rats on him, she rats on herself."

Catherine and Warrick are assigned to the case of the disturbing hit-and-run of a young girl, Renda Harris. The only evidence they find, however, is a common car-paint scrape on the girl's scooter, so they return to the lab. Doctor Williams shows them a partial license plate number made visible on a bruise imprinted on the body of the girl.

A hit on the partial license plate number bring Catherine and Warrick to the home of Charles Moore, a courteous seventy-three-year-old. He claims his car was stolen but a search of the house reveals the car to be in the garage. Moore confesses that he was behind the wheel, that he spotted Renda in the middle of the road but when he went to break accidentally stepped on the accelerator.

Catherine and Warrick examine Moore's car and they notice the driver's seat is pushed too close for his height and that the car stereo has been set to a hip-hop station and is on full blast. They ask Moore if anyone else drives his car, just as his grandson, James, enters. Moore admits that after hitting Renda he'd banged his head and James drove him home; neither Catherine nor Warrick believe his story.

Catherine takes a closer look at Charles Moore's car and finds a small piece of tooth lodged in the steering wheel. When they ask Moore to see his teeth, he removes an entire set of dentures. James is arrested and Charles is released. An understanding and sympathetic Warrick accompanies James and offers advice before he's taken into custody. Warrick also writes his cell number on James' hand and tells him to contact him just in case trouble arises.