Synopsis  

A cold case dovetails with a hot one, when a John Doe is found in the chimney of a canoodling couple. The home owner, Martin Sidley, was a suspect in the missing persons case of sixteen year-old Caroline Fiztgibbons one year previously, but is stunned to learn the body in his chimney is his son. Catherine and Warrick, who worked on Caroline’s case, join Sara and Nick on the Sidley case, with the intent to found evidence in their old case. The blood found (which is Caroline’s), leads them to investigate the chimney further, and Caroline’s body is found. Martin’s son, Tad, is also found alive, having skipped school for a few weeks to party. Before Martin learns of this, he tries to pin the body on Tad, who confronts his father. The John Doe body was, in turn, placed in the chimney by Caroline’s father, Don, who took it from the hospital where he works, knowing that the CSIs would investigate.

Review  

Sara again shows her type-A personality (wanting to do everything herself) when she practically searches the entire home by herself and with her love of power tools. While she strongly dislikes cases where women (or girls) are killed or abused, she remains calm and collected as she has all season. Sara discovers the reason why a body was stuffed in the chimney, and who did it, based on the prints she recovered from the roof. Catherine, rather than Sara (despite the fact that it is Sara’s case), confronts Caroline’s father and discovers that he took a ‘John Doe’ corpse from the hospital morgue.

Notes  

• Sara understands why Catherine and Nick want to be on the case, and quickly agrees to let them in.
• Sara again shows her taste for horror novels when she references The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe.
• Sara has no problem with heights, scampering around on the roof to gather evidence.
• Sara lets Catherine handle parts of the investigation, even though she is the primary.

Quotes  

Catherine: Warrick and I were looking for a missing person about a year ago, and we tried to get a warrant to search this residence. The owner denied us access.
Sara: Now that it’s a crime scene, it’s fair game, if you’re part of the investigation.
Warrick: You’re picking up what we’re putting down.

Sara: She was still bleeding when she was brought here.
Catherine: Which means that her heart was probably still beating.
Sara: This isn’t the ‘Cask of Amontillado.’ She was sealed into a wall and left to die.

Gallery  

Images ©CBS (2006) - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from the episode 'Up in Smoke'.