Fun and Games: Episode Ratings: Still Life

Still Life Rating Without substantial evidence, the CSIs begin to wonder if a kidnapping actually took place at all. But when the child turns up unharmed at a local convenience store with a couple claiming to be his parents, Grissom and his team must use what little forensic evidence is available to solve the mystery of what actually happened to the first mother's son.
Warrick: "Karen Matthews faked those photos that she gave Catherine." Gil: "How?" Warrick: "Cut-and-paste. The photos that she got off the Internet." (Warrick hands Gil the photos.) Gil: "The Espositos told Catherine that they were at the park with their son the day Jesse Matthews disappeared. Is that a coincidence?" Warrick: "No. My guess is Karen's been downloading pictures from the family website for a while. The most recent being from Mesa Valley Park." Gil: "Could Karen have recognized the park from the pictures on the website?" Warrick: "Yeah, and she went there hoping to see him there." Gil: "But she reported him missing. That makes no sense." Catherine: "I got the DNA results. The boy is Adam Esposito. Victor and Valerie are his parents." Warrick: "There you go. She's lying. She doesn't have a son." Catherine: "Uh, not quite. She's got 13 alleles in common with the male DNA that we got from the toothbrush exemplar." Gil: "So she does have a son." Catherine: "I was inside the house. Believe me, a kid does live there." Gil: "And we're still looking for Jesse Matthews." (Grissom snaps pictures of some fingerpaintings hanging on the wall. He walks over to the table and picks up a child's plastic bowl and spoon.) Catherine: "I found this in Karen's medicine chest. Olanzapine." Grissom: "That's a heavy-duty antipsychotic." Catherine: "Yeah. But the prescription's over 4 years old. I'll have Brass subpoena her medical records." Grissom: "You know, if she was being treated for psychosis, it could explain all of this (referring to the cluttered table and the paintings), because she didn't overlook a single detail. I think she even did the fingerpaintings." Catherine: "It's hard for anyone to let go of someone they love." Grissom: "Yeah. After my dad died, my mom would still get him a present every Christmas. She'd put it under the tree. Christmas morning the wrapping paper would be all crumpled up and, uh, the tie or the sweater or whatever it was would be hanging in their closet." Catherine: "How old were you when he died?" Grissom: (Takes two pictures.) "Nine." Catherine: "Little guy. I'll get started in Karen's room." (She turns to leave.) Grissom: "He taught botany. He, uh, came home from school one hot, humid day, laid down on the couch. I was watching TV. My mom brought in some cold drinks, but she couldn't wake him up. No one would tell me why." Gil: "The GCMS soil analysis found Cadaverine, Putrescine, and several other organic compounds." Brass: "Yeah. English, please?" Gil: "It means there was a body buried in Karen's backyard." Catherine: "Just too long ago to get any DNA. But Hodges also found traces of Olanzapine." Brass: "Well, that's interesting because a warrant came through on Karen Matthews' medical records, and after her son was born, Karen was treated for postpartum psychosis, which her doctors treated by prescribing Olanzapine." Gil: "Even a small amount of that stuff would be lethal for a two-year-old." Catherine: "Karen is already mentally fragile when her husband is killed. She gets into a very heated argument with the in-laws at his funeral, goes over the deep end, poisons Jesse and buries him in the backyard near the fence." Brass: "But then she digs him up. Why?" Gil: "We have evidence to suggest that the neighbor's dog was digging in Karen's backyard." Catherine: "The neighbor claims that Karen killed his dog. If the dog detected decomp and dug near the grave, Karen may have moved the body to protect him." Brass: "So where's Jesse's body?" Catherine: "Nick found a patch of tissue and hair in the trunk of Karen's car. The DNA matches the toothbrush." Gil: "If Karen doesn't tell us where to look, I doubt we'll ever find the body." Brass: "You know, as long as I do this job, I can never understand how a mother can kill her child." Gil: "Euripides tried to understand it when he wrote 'Medea.' 'I will slay my children without delaying long enough to hand them over to some more savage hand.' Medea, like Karen, was a soldier's wife." Catherine: "His father was a soldier, his grandfather was a soldier. Karen did not want that for Jesse." Brass: "Well, it's still murder."
Impressions, Bits of Insight and the Pics that Don't Fit