Synopsis  

A group of ghost hunters explore the lair of deceased serial killer, Walter Simms, trying to contact his spirit and film it to put on the Internet. Instead, one of them is brutally murdered, strung up on a meat hook just like the boys Simms killed twenty years ago. Jim Brass worked on the original case. The ghost hunters claim it’s proof of the ‘other side’ contacting the living. The property manager, who assures Brass that the ghost hunters signed ‘a million’ liability waivers, mentions that he always found the place creepy and disturbing, and plans to tear it down. Doc Robbins, who was also familiar with the original case, points out to Russell that because the original victims were juveniles, the details of the murders were never released. Thus the fact that the murder was exactly like the originals is highly disturbing.

Morgan and Greg find a shrine for the original victims, while Sara and Finn follow luminol-lit trails of blood to find the murder weapon. The weapon has the fingerprints of Owen Webber, the leader of the ghost hunters, who also has 98 seconds of missing video on his camera, but is determined to be innocent when voice recordings prove he was in another room.

One of the trial groupies from the original case, Monica Downs, is spotted in old photographs, wearing an earring that matches one found at the shrine. While the CSIs look for her, a second of the ghost hunters is bludgeoned to death by a metal baseball bat in the shrine room. When the groupie is found, the blood of the latest victim is on the soles of her shoes. But while Monica is crazy, it’s not her DNA found on the toys in the shrine, nor the baseball bat. The DNA matches an unknown sample, found in Simms’ car during the original case, indicating an accomplice.

Thomas Pope was 11 when Simms kidnapped him, but ran away when Simms was caught. In the twenty years since, he became the property manager for the slaughterhouse. As they determined that, Pope was letting a curious Greg into the property to look around before it was demolished. Greg gets the drop on him, arresting Pope before he can kill Greg. Pope was really foster child, Jonathan Harris, and built himself a new life and identity. He was afraid that the ghost hunters would find out who he was by talking to the dead boys.

Review  

Sara and Finn tease David Phillips a little at the crime scene, but once he leaves, both admit to being creeped out by the location (a slaughterhouse). While working the scene, Sara gets a call from SFPD and says she’ll call them back later.

After the case, Sara asks DB for a leave to return to San Francisco and work on the Lyle Brinks case. Brinks is up for parole, and Sara and the cop who arrested him worry he may actually get it. DB gives it to her, without hesitation, provided she actually takes a couple days off for herself as well.

Notes  

• Sara claims a slaughterhouse is why she stopped eating meat (this contradicts when she said that it was Grissom’s pig experiment )
• The Lyle Brinks case Sara worked on in San Francisco was well known.

Quotes  

Finn It’s for you. Want it? SFPD?
Sara: I’ll call ’em back.

Sara: Hmm. Twenty years has done nothing to cure the crazy.