CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

The CSIs converge on a Lexus 430 in an off-strip casino parking lot. Captain Brass tells Grissom and Sofia Curtis that there is a BOLO (Be on the Look Out) for the car. A Lori Kyman went out on the town with her girlfriend and her husband said she never came home.

The doors are locked, and there is no sign of struggle or foul play. Sofia points out the flat rear passenger tire. They pop the trunk and find nothing. Brass tells them that Lori called her husband at 9:30pm, informing him she would be home at 11:00pm. Sofia posits that a "good samaritan" offered her a lift. Grissom thinks that Lori was taken somewhere she didn't want to go.

Brass and Sara Sidle interview Mark Kyman, early 30's, handsome jock-type, in his nouveau riche home. Next to Mark is Amy Maynard, 23, who holds his ten-month-old son, Joey. Mark tells the CSIs that Lori and Amy, her best friend since high school, went for a girl's night out to a club called The Top Floor.

Mark informs Brass that he got home from work at around nine and his mother-in-law was watching Joey. Mark fell asleep on the couch waiting for Lori to come home. In a separate room, Amy tells Sara that Lori loves her baby and that Mark loves Lori. Amy mentions that at the club the night before a good-looking guy in his 20's named Brad approached Lori and asked if he was her type. She told him that she was married.

Amy continues her story, telling Sara that Brad came up to Lori's Lexus and told her that it was her "last chance." He seemed "horny, but harmless."

Mark woke up at around 2:00am and called Lori's cell phone, but there was no answer. Then he called Amy and then the police. Lori's mother, Diane Hoyt, enters and hugs Mark, asking him if there is any news. He tells her that they found Lori's car. Diane confirms that she was at the house the previous night with Joey when Mark came home.

In the black mountains of Lake Mead, a ranger leads Warrick and Nick through a forest at night towards David Phillips, who hovers over a dead body. Phillips tells them that there is no ID on the victim and he's been dead less than 24 hours. There is a rifle around the decedent's arm and a horrendous gash in his neck that appears to be from a claw.

The ranger then takes the CSIs to the body of a dead Kodiak bear, non-native to the continental U.S. The bear has been shot twice in the head and its stomach has been cut open. Nick notices broken branches with directionality facing away from the bear and a shred of khaki fabric clinging to a broken branch. Someone else was there, running for their life.

Catherine enters the Autopsy Room because she wants to see the bear. Dr. Robbins tells her she's actually seeing a necropsy. The hunter lies nearby and his cause of death was pretty obvious: "He was killed by an angry bear." The bear was shot with two bullets.

The first bullet was non-fatal as it ricocheted off the bear's sloped skull, leaving behind a copper jacket. The second, fatal bullet entered through the ear and lodged in the animal's brain. The second bullet was lead with no copper jacket and is from a handgun, not the rifle the hunter was carrying.

Dr. Robbins points out that the bear's gallbladder was removed post-mortem. He has no idea why.

Warrick examines the hunter's clothing in the Layout Room. Nick enters and informs him that he didn't get a hit off of the victim's prints. The CSIs notice the expensive Rolex watch and Nick points out that hunting is a rich man's sport. Catherine tells them that the Kodiak bear must have been smuggled into Nevada and whoever did it could be charged with homicide--the bear could be considered a lethal weapon.

Back in the CSI Garage, Greg Sanders examines the flat tire from Lori Kyman's Lexus and determines that the tire valve was unscrewed two full turns in order to induce a slow leak. Sofia tells him to powder for prints around the fender. They find a perfect handprint.

Brad Himmel, 25, the player from the Top Floor nightclub, is interrogated by Brass. He admits that he hit on Lori, but that she said she was married. When Greg points out that his prints were found on her fender, he confesses that he walked her out to her car. Eventually, Brad admits that he was hoping she would get a flat on her way home, he'd come along, fix it for her and then she would sleep with him. He was drunk at the time and it seemed like a good idea.

Evidently the tire didn't go flat and after twenty minutes of following her he stopped. As Greg asks for a DNA sample, Officer Metcalf enters and tells Brass that a dead female matching Lori Kyman's description was found in Sutor.

In Sutor, Nevada, the CSIs find a very dead Lori, face down. A white birch tree is overhead. She is bruised around the neck. Leaves and debris are littered over her body and a burn mark is on her leg.

David Phillips points out that her liver temperature is 56 degrees, indicating that her time of death was 36 hours prior. The bruises around her neck suggest strangulation. In the Coroner's Office, Sofia combs tiny twigs, brown leaves, and small white birch pods from Lori's hair. Grissom finds red and blue fibers on her clothing. Sofia notices white powder on both of Lori's palms. Grissom spots a small brown hair with a follicular tag. Grissom and Sofia wax philosophical over human DNA and Sofia points out that "what we are never changes. Who we are never stops changing."

Dr. Robbins tells Catherine that he FLUOROSCOPED the bear and noticed a microchip between his shoulder blades. The microchip tracks the animal to the Clark County Zoo.

Sam Tracy, an intellectual type with glasses in his late 30's, is told by the CSIs that the microchip was registered with him. Sam identifies the picture of the bear as "Tippy." Sam claims to have sold the bear to an animal broker a few weeks ago who was sending him to the Columbus Zoo. The broker's name was Ken Bovitz.

In the CSI Garage, Sara has Lori's Lexus on a chassis dynamometer and the flat tire has been re-inflated. The tire has been going round and round for three hours and nine minutes and has not gone flat. This means that Lori died before the tire deflated.

Warrick tells Catherine he thinks he knows why the bear's gallbladder was gone. It contains a chemical called ursodeo-oxycholic acid, which in the Southeast Asian community is believed to enhance virility.

Catherine tells him that the zoo in Columbus never heard of Tippy and the Department of Agriculture never issued a license for a Ken Bovitz. The documents were fake.

Nick may have located an ID for the hunter. A Mercedes was found nearby registered to a Rod Hollis, who had a permit to hunt for wild goats, deer, and big horn sheep.

Faith Hollis, a woman in her 30's, tells Nick that she hasn't seen her husband, Rod Hollis, in over a year. When Rod retired at 32, after making money in venture capital, they started having problems. She had issues with his hunting and none of their friends owned guns.

Dr. Robbins tells Grissom that Lori Kyman's cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation, petechiae in the mouth and eyes, and extensive bruising in the neck. However, there is no evidence of sexual assault. Grissom notices a burn on her upper thigh. Robbins points out that it is post-mortem. If she were alive at the time she was burned, there would be a red edge to the wound. Something hotter than 150 degrees burned her.

In the Trace Lab, Hodges tells Sofia that the powder on Lori Kyman's hands is talcum powder. If she was at the nightclub drinking, then she must have had to use the restroom at some point. She most likely would have washed her hands so the powder shouldn't have been there. Hodges also tells her that the blue fibers found on Lori's clothing are most likely synthetic Berber. The red fiber is Wilton wool, from a Bentley Continental GT.

The CSIs check with the valet of the Top Floor nightclub and he checks his records to find that a Bentley arrived at 8:32pm and parked in a spot up front.

Amy Maynard, Lori's best friend, tells Sara that she drove the Bentley to the club. The car was a birthday gift from her father. Amy thinks Sara should investigate Mark, Lori's husband, because "sometimes he can get rough." She knows this because she had an affair with Mark and ended their relationship because of his roughness.

Sara and Greg examine Amy's black Bentley and notice that the carpet in the trunk is black, which doesn't match the red fibers on Lori. On a side note, Greg offers to listen to Sara should she ever want to talk about things. Sara admits to having been unprofessional when she blew up on Supervisor Ecklie, but now she has moved on.

Sofia and Grissom follow Mark Kyman into baby Joey's room. Sofia takes a sample of baby powder and Grissom notices that the carpet is Berber.

Sara sees Grissom and Sofia working together in the Break Room. She pushes aside a twinge of jealousy before talking to them. The hair from Lori's shirt matches her husband's DNA. Grissom reads a report that the baby powder on Lori's palms is consistent with powder collected from the Kyman's residence.

They talk about scenarios aloud. Sofia offers: Maybe Lori came home, Mark killed her, drove her body out to Sutor, and dumped her. Sara puts forth: Lori came home, had a fight with Mark because he was sleeping around, she took off, the tire goes flat and a stranger in a Bentley abducts and kills her.

In the Ballistics Lab, Bobby Dawson reconstructs the bullet that bounced off the bear's forehead and looks up the make in IBIS. He finds a match. The copper jacket came from a 30 caliber Model 70 Winchester. The other bullet came from a .357 Magnum revolver, which was used in a '98 robbery. The gun belongs to an Aaron Colite, who was released on insufficient evidence.

Warrick and Nick question Colite, 30's, in his blue-collar bachelor pad. He gives them the gun in question. He admits to killing the Kodiak bear because he heard someone crying for help. He didn't report the incident because the guy was dead and he had been "through the ringer" with the police before.

Nick finds the bear's gallbladder in the freezer. Aaron claims it's not illegal to cut up a dead animal. They ask him to roll up his pant legs to see if he cut himself on the leg as there is evidence that someone tore his pants escaping the scene. He has no cuts.

Back at CSI HQ, Catherine tells Nick that the bear's blood had elevated levels of ketamine. Nick shows her a video of a rhino being shot to death, an example of a "canned hunt," where the animals are drugged, guaranteeing a kill.

Sara tells Grissom that she ran a DMV search and found only five Bentleys with red interiors in Clark County. One of them is owned by a boutique rental car agency who rented the car to Diane Hoyt, Lori's mother, for two weeks. It was returned the day after Lori disappeared.

In the CSI Garage, Greg, Sara and Sofia process the Bentley with the red carpet. It has been recently vacuumed, but they use a sirchie vacuum to pull up everything out of the carpet. Sara finds a pod under the windshield and notices that it is the same size, color, and shape as the pods from Lori's hair. Greg points out he can sample plant DNA and if they can prove the pod came from the dumpsite, then Lori's mother is a "viable suspect."

Greg puts the pod into a beaker of liquid nitrogen and then chops it up with a mortar and pestle. He adds the pieces to a test tube and adds phenol, chloroform, and isoamyl alcohol. He mixes it all in a vortex mixer.

In the Interrogation Room, Diane Hoyt, Lori's mother, sits next to her lawyer, Carol Allred. Diane tells the CSIs she backed into a telephone pole and had to rent a car. Ever since Amy Maynard got her Bentley, she has wanted one so she indulged herself. Sofia points out that they found plant material in the car that matches the plant material found in Lori's hair. All came from the same tree in Sutor.

Sofia points out that they found Mark, Lori and Joey's hair in the car, but not Diane's. None of the other hairs were relational. Brass points out that she's not Lori's biological mother. Diane says she's her stepmother. They take a DNA swab from the inside of her mouth.

Brass and Sofia think that the husband, Mark, may be a suspect. Perhaps he was having an affair with Diane.

Sofia examines the back seat of the Bentley and finds ten stains. She swabs each stain with an integriswab. Sofia notices something clinging to the exhaust pipe and bindles it.

Ronnie Litra finds that the animal broker document was forged by taking an official license, scraping away the top layer, and then photocopied with bogus information. Litra points out that some photocopier machines began to embed serial numbers into the paper that are only visible under blue LED light. There is a series of numbers.

At the zoo, Catherine tells Sam Tracy that the broker's documentation was forged on his copier. She also points out that Aaron Colite used to work at the zoo in maintenance, but he fired him. The CSIs suspect that Aaron figured out how to make some money and enlisted Sam's help. Sam created the fake document and met up with Rod Hollis and Aaron near Lake Mead. The drugged bear was there.

Rod shot the bear and, thinking he killed it, approached the animal. The bear swipes Rod and he goes down. Aaron raised his gun and killed the bear. The CSIs ask Sam to lift his pant leg and find the scrape he received from running away from the scene.

Warrick tells Sam that according to Aaron's bank records, Rod Hollis sent a check for $16,000.00 and then Aaron sent Sam a check for $8,000.00. Catherine tells Sam she will be recommending a second-degree murder charge for the death of Rod Hollis.

In the Interrogation Room, Sara tells Margaret Finn, Brad Himmel's lawyer, that they found his "semen mixed with vaginal contribution from Diane Hoyt in the back seat of the rental car." Sara points out that on the night Lori was murdered, Brad called Diane on her cell phone at 11:23pm.

In a second Interrogation Room, Sofia grills Diane Hoyt, who claims not to recognize a photo of Brad Himmel. Sofia asks if she remembers the men she has sex with.

The CSIs reconstruct the crime. Lori left the nightclub at 11:00pm and Brad followed her for 20 minutes. When the tire didn't go flat, he called Diane. It was a setup. Brad was going to talk Lori up at the club and abduct her on her way home. When Lori arrived home, Mark was asleep. As Lori put baby powder on baby Joey's behind, Diane came up behind her and strangled her. Since Lori's body was too heavy to carry by herself, she called Brad, who helped her put the body into the back of the rented Bentley.

Sofia informs Diane and her lawyer that they found Lori's skin on the exhaust pipe of the Bentley. She backed up over Lori's body and the pipe touched her thigh.

Sara asks Brad why Diane Hoyt wanted Lori to die. He claims not to know, only that he was paid two thousand dollars to do the job and was promised two thousand more for helping to drop off the body.

Later, Greg tells Sofia and Sara that the reason Diane killed Lori was that Lori's father's estate is worth 50 million dollars. It was left to baby Joey and, as a trustee, Lori received 2.5 million dollars a year. If she were to die, then Diane would take her place.

Sofia talks to Grissom in his office and indicates that she will be leaving because she was unfairly demoted from supervisor. Grissom quotes her, "What we are never changes. Who we are never stops changing." Grissom asks her to have dinner with him.

Hawkes finds that the second female died of asphyxiation due to strangulation. Her neck was broken postmortem. She died at around the same time as Goodman.