Synopsis  

Abby Fisher, the sole survivor of a mass murder when her father, Barry. killed the family on a camping trip, is involved in a robbery gone bad with her bad-boy-boyfriend, Slade. While Sara, who worked the case a decade ago, is upset (she hates Slade), she’s stunned to learn that Abby now remembers details about the case. Abby remembers that someone picked her up and put her in the sleeping bag, not knowing she was still alive, but the man had a beard and a smell that was not her father’s.

An autopsy and blood test of the exhumed body of the father shows he’d been drugged with a knockout drug. It’s enough to reopen the case, and fingerprints belonging to registered sex offender Garth Fogel are found in the tent. Fogel’s also the biological father of Hannah, Abby’s older sister. Cathy, the mom, had told everyone that Hannah’s father died in a car accident.

Fogel claims innocence. He found in about Hannah while in prison and looked them up. He saw them packing to go camping and he talked to Cathy about letting him see Hannah, but she told him to go to hell. He touched the sleeping bags then, but did not hurt anyone.

Abby IDs a hunter, Donald Wraith, as the man who shot her parents, but when the CSIs go to arrest him, Donald is dead. Shot in the head the same way the Fishers had been. Randy Pruitt, president of Wraith’s hunting club, had killed him, and his prints match the unknowns found in the Fishers’ tent. Randy and Donald wanted to rape the wife, so they drugged the husband, but she fought back and Donald killed her. He and Randy had done this before.

Review  

Sara does not initially believe Abby, but after looking at the evidence, starts digging into the case. This ruffles a lot of feather, including Doc Robbins and Ecklie.

Notes  

• Sara has kept in touch with Abby, enough to know she’s still in foster care and who Slade is.
• Sara empathizes with Abby, sharing the pain of a family member murdering another.
• Sara talks about her past with Greg, the first time she’s told anyone besides Grissom.
• Sara was not allowed to attend her father’s funeral.
• Sara admits to missing her father.

Quotes  

Greg: We’ve worked a lot of cases where kids lost their parents.
Sara: Yeah. But one parent killing another, getting shipped off to foster care. Something I know a little bit about.
Greg: In all the years we’ve been friends, you’ve never really talked about what happened with your dad. And I don’t mean to pry, but–
Sara: You know what happened. They had a … volatile relationship. And… (Sara’s phone rings, ending the conversation)

Pruit We hunt animals. Not human beings.
Sara: Yeah? Well … Some people can’t tell the difference.

Sara: Oh. 1D’s playing at the Hard Rock tomorrow night.
Abby Fisher One Direction? Are you kidding?
Sara: Nah, it’s Lourde. I’ll pick you up at seven.

Greg: You look like your dad.
Sara: He used to read to me when I was a kid. Charlotte’s Web, my favorite. Must have read it a hundred times.
Greg: It’s a nice memory.
Sara: I have a lot of nice memories of him. My mom too. They were toxic when they were together, though.
Greg: Your mom said your dad was abusive? Kill him in self defense?
Sara: That’s what she said.
Greg: You don’t believe her?
Sara: Look, I know my dad wasn’t a saint, but my mom was an alcoholic who suffered from mental illness. I’m just not sure that things were as black and white as she made them out to be.
Greg: You did say they had a volatile relationship.
Sara: Yeah. The fact is, I’ll never know what happened that night. This is gonna sound horrible, but I’m kinda jealous of Abby. She gets to rewrite her whole family history. Nothing will ever change what my mother did.
Greg: Well… You can’t change the past. But you always have the future. Your mom’s still alive. It’s not too late for you to start over.
Sara: I don’t know if I could.

Gallery  

Images ©CBS (2014) - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from the episode 'Dead Woods'.