List of Cold Case characters
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This is a list of characters in the CBS television drama, Cold Case. Information on the characters is current as of the end of the fourth season.
[edit] Main Characters
[edit] Detective Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris)
The lead character and for the first two seasons, the only female detective. She often appears the most empathetic of the detectives to the victims and often "sees" them at the end of the episode when their case is closed. Several episodes have suggested a troubled personal life: her father walked out on her family; her family was on welfare during her childhood; she was attacked as a child; and she is estranged from both her mother Ellen Rush (an alcoholic) and her younger sister Christina Rush (who slept with Lilly's fiancé and later her partner Scotty). At the end of season 4, she was shot during a hostage situation in the squad. She has since returned to work, though her emotional recovery may take longer.
[edit] Detective Scotty Valens (Danny Pino)
Lilly's partner, introduced in the fifth episode, is the son of a Cuban father and Puerto Rican mother. The episode "Volunteers" states he was born some time in the 1970s, likely making him the youngest detective in the squad. Scotty is mentioned as having a number of siblings though only one, his older brother Mike, has appeared on the show. He has been shown to have a short temper at times, but is generally a loyal partner to Lilly. Like Lilly, he also has a difficulty with personal relationships: One girlfriend, Elisa, had some mental problems and eventually died in an apparent suicide. He later briefly embarked on a disastrous and ill-advised relationship with Lilly's sister Christina, which severely strained his friendship with Lilly for its duration. In the Season Four finale, he managed to end a hostage situation in the squad by shooting the gunman. However, he has since come under scrutiny by Internal Affairs, who question whether or not the shooting was "good" (ie. following protocols). In the end, they ordered Scotty to take a month's unpaid leave as punishment, but Lt. John Stillman overruled them, taking the leave for himself in order to ensure Scotty stayed on the force.
[edit] Lieutenant John Stillman (John Finn)
The squad commander and occasionally a mentor and confidant to Lilly. A Vietnam combat veteran with some war-era stress as seen in "Honor" he has shown himself to be stern but caring boss. His daughter was once assaulted, but survived and gave him a grandson. Due to his commitment to the job, his marriage was very strained and finally ended in divorce. His older brother is a Catholic priest. In the fifth season (beginning in September 2007), he took the month's unpaid leave meant for Scotty Valens, in order to keep him on the force. Stillman, having reflected on his place in the police force during his suspension, later decided to retire, though later was inspired to return to duty when Lilly convinced him to help in a case ("Family 8108").
[edit] Detective Nick Vera (Jeremy Ratchford)
A laid-back and occasionally uncouth detective, Vera is nonetheless an effective interrogator. Vera was a married man but was shown to become close to a number of women at times during cases, as he and wife had grown apart. A chance encounter caring for a baby in one episode led to him applying for adoption, possibly as a way to salvage his failing marriage. Ultimately, nothing came of this and he and his wife separated and he is now shown to be dating an African-American nurse with a teenage son off and on. He has also shown himself to be fairly suspicious of newcomers to the squad. The episode "Creatures of the Night" revealed him to be a big fan of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the episode "Mindhunters" revealed that he hunts, though how often he does it is unknown.
[edit] Detective Will Jeffries (Thom Barry)
The second oldest detective in the squad, Jeffries is a lean, strong and wise police veteran, and senior member of the squad (under Stillman). Jeffries' life has had the most significance in the show, showing he has lived through many of the eras from which most of the show's cold cases take place, the most important of which was the death of a young black man murdered in the 1960's, where Jeffries was revealed to have found the body as a child (exposing him to homicide at an early age, setting the stage for him to join the police), and grew up to solve the crime ("Strange Fruit"). Jeffries is also close friends with Stillman, as he served in the Vietnam War ("Honor") just like Stillman. Jeffries was also married, but is now a widower, as his wife, Mary, was run down by a transport truck while changing a tire on the side of a highway in 1994 ("Bad Night"), leading Jeffries to become obsessed with road safety, and eventually consider committing murder when he tracked down the driver (Jeffries, however, decided otherwise). Jeffries has a deep sense of honor and duty, which sometimes overpowers his cool-headedness, causing him to punch ADA William Danner, an arrogant career-obsessed police official who let an innocent man, Andre Tibbs, die on death row ("Death Penalty: Final Appeal"), ignoring evidence to the contrary. This incident led to Jeffries being confined to desk duty, though the DA, eager to mend fences after firing Danner when the truth was exposed, had him reinstated. After Stillman took a suspension meant for Scotty, Jeffries was asked by Stillman to "watch out for things" around the office, becoming de-facto Lieutenant in his place, though gladly gave up his new authority when Stillman returned.
[edit] Detective Kat Miller (Tracie Thoms)
After assisting the squad on a case in the third season, Kat impressed Lt. Stillman enough that he offered her a position in the squad. Kat had previously been shot during an incident in Fishtown, though she claims to have emotionally recovered from that. She is the single mother of a young girl and a heavy smoker, though she claims she's trying to quit. The episode "Spiders" reveals that the father of her child is a former gang-banger out of prison who wants to know their daughter.
[edit] Other Characters
[edit] Detective Chris Lassing (Justin Chambers)
Lassing was Lilly's partner in the few episodes of the first season before being replaced by Scotty Valens. It was revealed that Chris had diabetes and that was one of the reasons why he had to leave. On Scotty's first day, he made a comment about Chris being "weak" which offended Lilly.
[edit] Detective Josie Sutton (Sarah Brown)
Sutton is a second generation cop, her father having been killed in a line of duty when she was a child. She joined the squad at the start of the third season, following a very public incident with a sergeant at another precinct. This incident left her with something of a reputation which led to a less than warm welcome when she arrived. She tended be hard on witnesses and suspects more often than the other detectives. Her time with the squad was no more than a few months, after which she took a personal leave and then apparently transferred out. This may have been caused by Scotty's advances, and her discomfort after the scandal with her former seargeant.
[edit] Christina Rush (Nicki Aycox)
Lilly's troubled younger sister has long had a difficult relationship with Lilly, largely of Christina's own doing: she slept with Lilly's fiancé and later dated her partner Scotty Valens. Lilly still shows concern for her sister but is often frustrated by Christina's destructive behaviour. After Scotty learned she was linked to a credit card scam, Christina abruptly left without saying goodbye to him or Lilly.
[edit] Ellen Rush (Meredith Baxter)
Lilly's alcoholic mother, who raised her children on welfare and often neglected them due to her drinking and promiscuity. She was first seen in Season Three when she asked Lilly to be her Maid of Honor as she was getting married - for the fourth time. One year later, her husband had left her and Lilly was left to bail her out of jail after a particularly bad bender and then take care of her after she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver due to years of alcohol abuse. Despite all this, Lilly and her mom bonded during what little time they had together before Ellen's unexpected death in the Season Four finale.
[edit] Joseph Shaw (Kenny Johnson)
A counselor who worked with troubled youths, an attempt was made on his life just before he was about to testify after he witnessed a murder. After he was presumed dead, Joseph went into hiding until Lilly discovered him alive a year later. The two began a relationship, though it was hindered by Lilly's trust issues (as well as return of her ex Ray into her life). Joseph eventually realized Lilly couldn't love him the way he loved her and ended their relationship
[edit] Ray Williams (Brennan Elliott)
A biker who had been involved with Lilly in the past, even having asked her to marry him at one point. He has re-entered her life twice on the show, once while she was dating Joseph, which led to some friction between the two. When last seen, he told her he was leaving for California.
[edit] Frannie Ching (Susan Chuang)
Frannie is called upon in cases when the squad needs a medical examiner (which is rare, as most victims on the show have been dead for years or even decades).
[edit] Elisa (Marisol Nichols)
Scotty's girlfriend during the first and early second season. She had some emotional problems and eventually died in an apparent suicide. Scotty refused to believed it was a suicide at first, jumping on any alternate explanation, however unlikely, but Elisa's suicide appears to have been just that.
[edit] Mike Valens (Nestor Carbonell)
Scotty's older brother, he was sexually assaulted by a coach as a child. He initially denied the incident had occurred but eventually, after a bout of depression, agreed to testify against the coach when Scotty convinced him to do so.
[edit] ADA Jason Kite (Josh Hopkins)
An Assistant DA who was involved in a short-lived relationship with Lilly in first season. He has not been seen since breaking things off with her.
[edit] ADA Alexandra Thomas (Bonnie Root)
Another assistant DA who worked with the squad throughout the squad. She first came to their attention when she prosecuted a pedophile who's victims had included Scotty's brother. She and Scotty have clashed several times, though there had been hints of sexual tension between the two, finally culminating in the two having an affair during the fifth season.
[edit] Detective Gil Sherman (Kevin McCorkle)
Head of the Fugitive Squad. Formerly worked Homicide with Lt. Stillman. After hiding years of alcoholism through the late 1980s to mid 1990s, left Homicide to enter rehab. Sherman shows up when a fugitive case intersects with a cold case investigation or to provide information on a case he previously worked on.
[edit] Lindsey Dunlay (Bahni Turpin)
A social worker specializing in children and a friend of Lilly's since high school. She has twice asked the squad to help troubled teenagers by investigating the murders of their parents.
[edit] James Hogan (Silas Weir Mitchell)
James first gained the attention of the squad when he began calling Lilly seemingly confessing to the murder of his grandmother. Throughout the investigation, Lilly gains James's trust by sharing with him that she sometimes has dark thoughts, and referring to herself as his girl. A year later, Lilly is the first person James contacts when he hears some information that could also help solve the cold case of his uncles murder.
[edit] George Marks (John Billingsley)
A serial killer of hideous intelligence, George remains the only killer on the show to outwit Lilly and the squad, getting away with several murders over several years. Already troubled even as a child, his deranged mother who suffered from hysterical blindness allowed a rapist to sexually assault him to save herself. Immediately after, George's mother became his first victim using the gun the rapist dropped during the home invasion. As an adult, George would cultivate a twisted obsession with strong women, using his position as a filing clerk with the Philadelphia Police Department to find examples of them in police reports (i.e. women who had been assaulted but had fought back against their attackers). Disguising himself as a cop, George would take these women into the woods, force them to strip down to their underwear, then proceed to literally "hunt" them with a pair of night vision goggles (much in the style of actual serial killer Robert Hansen) before finally finishing them at dawn with an Arisaka Model 38 rifle. He would collect their heads as "trophies", burying their bodies in the woods and burying the heads in the backyard of his childhood home. He would also fit the eye sockets of the skulls with black glass deer eyes, presumably as a gesture to make his victims "see" what was done to him in the house.
Though the squad quickly recognized George as being responsible for the murders, they were unable to get him to confess, or find enough evidence to convict him. Instead, he merely taunted them with personal information he had read from their police files, before walking away unpunished. During the interrogation, however, George developed a fixation with Lilly and, months later, would lure her to his home. It was here that he forced her to relive the assault that she experienced as a child, when her alcoholic mother forced her to go out into the night to buy booze for her whereupon along the way she was attacked and robbed. She then broke him down when she stripped away his god complex to show that in the woods he was still "a little boy whose mother didn't love him". It was then that both realised they were somewhat both cut from the same cloth, with George knowing he had found a worthy executioner as he pulled a gun on her and demanded she shoot him or else he would shoot her. A tense standoff would end with Lilly being fired upon by George, thereby shooting him three times in the chest, killing him instantly. The entire ordeal would still haunt her months later.
At age 18, George failed the police academy entry exam and at age 20 he failed a physical for a shopping mall security guard.
