Synopsis  

Karen Matthews, a widow to a soldier who died in Afghanistan, reports her son, 6 year-old Jesse, has gone missing from a playground. Other parents at the park report they saw a boy looking like Jesse being watched by a white male with a 51’s baseball cap, as does a necropheliac who saw the boy in the restroom.

When Jesse is found in the company of the man and his wife, his DNA matches theirs and he refers to them as his parents. Jesse is actually Adam Esposito. Karen had taken photos from the Esposito family website and photoshopped Adam into pictures with her, essentially stalking the family. However, DNA taken from Karen’s house shows that there is a Jesse, and he is missing. Karen herself is more than a little crazy, claiming that Catherine saw Jesse at Karen’s house.

The CSIs determine no one has actually seen Jesse in four years, not since the funeral of Karen’s husband, Dwight. Now working a 4 year-old cold case, the CSIs assume the worst: that Jesse is dead. Investigating Karen’s house, they find heavy duty anti-psychotics with a four year-old prescription. Opposing Karen’s claim that Jesse was home schooled, Grissom determines it was Karen who did the finger-painting and other messes caused by ‘Jesse.’

The CSIs find traces of a body, but not the body itself, in the backyard, and conclude that Karen must have moved the body. Based on testimony from her neighbor, they suspect that the neighbor’s dog smelled the body and tried to dig it up, for which Karen killed it (or so claimed the dog’s owner). Then she moved Jesse’s body to protect it. On the basis of the drugs found in the soil where Jesse had been buried, they infer that Karen gave Jesse her drugs after the funeral, killing him.

Regardless of this, Karen is undeniably insane. While she is guilty of filicide, it is unlikely Karen will face trial. As the episode ends, Karen imagines she sees her son, running to her.

Review  

Very subdued in this episode, Sara plays more of a support role.

Notes  

• Sara understands the dichotomy of filicide

Quotes  

Sara: On the one hand, you really want to find the body. Give it respect. Give her closure. On the other hand …