CSI: Miami

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Slow Burn

Teleplay by Shane Brennan & Michael Ostrowski
Directed by Joe Chappelle

An Everglades wildfire rages nearby as Alexx and Delko arrive at their latest crime scene. Ranger Rick Cuthbert leads them to the body of a dead hunter and leaves them with an assurance that the fire is under control. The hunter, Wade Thomas Hinkle, was clearly killed by a gunshot wound, but no weapon is apparent and Delko comments that he seems to have been dragged to this location. As they go about their usual routine, the CSIs notice a host of wildlife fleeing past their location. Delko and Alexx are able to wrap themselves and the body in a silver fire shelter before they are engulfed in flames.

Horatio awakens Alexx and she finds herself back up on the road. He gives her saline for her eyes and moves off. He finds Delko and Detective Tripp watching as firemen put out the burning shell of the CSI Hummer. Delko swears to Horatio that the fire came out of nowhere and Horatio supposes that it may have been intentionally set.

Later, the CSIs are processing a nearby campsite, where they have found a pickup truck and hundreds of bullet casings. Horatio offers to let Delko go home, but Delko insists on staying. Calleigh joins him to make sure his sore eyes don’t miss anything important. They theorize that Wade was letting the fire drive animals to his campsite and then killing them from a nearby lawn chair. Calleigh discovers what could be a bullet hole in the chair and a gunshot residue test confirms it as such. When Delko moves to examine the pickup, he is frightened by a dog in the cab of the truck.

Meanwhile, Horatio and Detective Tripp are investigating the cause of the latest fire. Hoaratio discovers that the fire was already burning down in the peat moss layer before Alexx and Delko arrived. He follows the burned ground back to the remains of a roadside flare and finds a woman’s shoe in the mud nearby. A quick search turns up the partially burned body of a 25-year- old woman with obvious blunt force trauma to her forehead.

On a nearby access road, Speedle and Detective Tripp find three sets of tire tracks, one of which is easily identifiable as the low impact treads of a park ranger vehicle. Speedle calls Yelina and asks her to look into Ranger Cuthbert’s background.

At the autopsy theater, Alexx tells Horatio that the dead woman’s identity will be hard to discern because her fingerprints are burned off. There is an irregular pattern to the

trauma on her forehead and Horatio recommends peeling back the burnt skin to see if there is a better impression on the skull. Alex tells him that though she wasn’t raped, there are gnashing-type teeth marks on her breasts. Horatio realizes they are looking for a sexual predator.

Yelina has discovered a sexual harassment claim against Ranger Cuthbert, so Horatio and Detective Tripp return to the Everglades to question him. He claims the complaint was from an ex-girlfriend looking to make trouble, but Horatio notices burn marks on his pant cuffs consistent with those produced by a road flare. Cuthbert claims he had to kick one back onto the road the previous evening and that there were witnesses that saw him do it.

Calleigh has hunter Joshua Keating confirm the ID on Wade Hinkle’s body. Keating tells her that they were hunting the previous evening and he got lost looking for Hinkle after he wondered off. Keating has a cut lip that he claimed came from rifle kickback, but Calleigh quickly calls him on it. She asks how a fourteen year member of the NRA lets that happen and he admits that he and Hinkle had a fight. Calleigh notices blood on his vest and he agrees to let her test it. At the DNA lab, she learns that the blood is from a mountain lion, a protected animal. Clearly Keating and Hinkle were poachers.

Meanwhile, Speedle is going over the tire tracks and determines that it wasn’t Ranger Cuthbert that made the U turn. The offending tire is from a Toyota sedan and he suggests that Detective Tripp check if any such vehicles were given speeding tickets in the area.

This leads to Dale Stahl, a young man with multiple speeding tickets at irregular late hours. Horatio recognizes this as the classic driving history of a sexual predator. Dale admits to pulling over on the access road but claims he was just urinating. Horatio and Speedle check out his car and find long blonde hairs similar to those of the dead girl. They also find a VIP card from a local Indian casino in the name of Julie Bryant.

A quick check of the hair proves a DNA match with the victim, and Stahl finally admits that he did pick a blonde girl up at the Indian casino that night. However, Stahl claims he and Julie were confronted on the side of the road by an angry man with a baseball bat. The man ordered Julie out of the car and she took off into the swamp with the man in pursuit.

Horatio has a bad feeling about Stahl, but his story checks out when Julie’s boyfriend is discovered back at the Indian casino, complete with a long history of domestic abuse.

Two violent men crossed paths with Julie Bryant that night, and only Horatio can determine which one is a murderer.