CSI: Miami

Season 3 - Episode 15 - Identity

Teleplay by Ann Donohue & Ildy Modrovich
Directed by Gloria Muzio

At the Tony Dominick Hotel, a security guard walks his beat when a woman screams in the distance. His walkie tells him there’s a robbery in progress by the pool and he tears off in pursuit of the thief. The pool is surrounded by tented cabanas and the guard arrives in time to see the thief, with a magenta handbag under his arm, weaving among the sexy guests lounging and drinking in the balmy atmosphere. The chase is on as the guard gains on the thief, who leaps over a sunbather and lands hard in a trail of slimy goo, bringing him down. The guard moves in for the capture, notices the goo and follows the trail to a cabana where, pulling aside the flap, he finds the slime-covered corpse of a young woman…dead.

Horatio, Alexx and Frank Tripp are first on the scene. Alexx is puzzled by two rows of puncture wounds trailing down the girl’s face and arms, and cannot immediately identify the slime covering her. Tripp IDs her through a friend as 21 year-old Tanya Fhurman from Chicago. Delko and Wolfe arrive to learn from Tripp that with no witnesses thus far, the crime scene itself is the only evidence they have with which to work.

While processing the crime scene, Ryan Wolfe is approached by Karla Gardner, mid-twenties and pretty, who asks about her purse that was stolen earlier. Since the purse has been passed on to CSI, Ryan follows protocol before returning the purse and learns that Karla is wanted for fraud. She explains that there is another girl impersonating her, who has stolen her identity. He doesn’t believe her until she produces an Official Affidavit of Fraud, which clears her. Ryan releases the purse to her.

In Autopsy, Horatio and Alexx conclude from the puncture wounds and Trace report that the victim was crushed, then eaten by a very large boa constrictor or python. At the scene, Delko and Tripp have been alerted and search for the snake. They find it curled up inside a mattress in one of the cabana beds by the Dominick’s pool … dead. Tripp reasons that it might have been warehoused nearby and escaped prior to killing the girl. A badly bent tree branch supports his theory.

In a room booked by Low Dawg Productions, evidence of the snake is found along with a tooth too small to be one of the snake’s. Delko IDs the tooth as that of a Caiman lizard from South America, and learns that the shipment was given a special exemption because of the importer, an important herpetologist named Dr. Rod Merrick, who inspects the animals before they are forwarded to zoos. Merrick is questioned and denies knowledge of anything irregular.

At CSI headquarters, Wolfe is approached by a woman claiming to be Karla Gardner wanting to retrieve her stolen purse, but she is not the same woman to whom he gave the purse this morning. He reacts with surprise and she presents the same paperwork – and then some – that the previous Karla Gardner presented, explaining that this girl has stolen her identity. Ryan calls Calleigh for backup. Together, they learn from this Karla, that her imposter probably got her initial information from her trash, filled out an application for a cheap loan and that was just the beginning. Ryan checks out the first Karla’s address; it’s an office building with a P.O. Box. They conclude that Karla #2 is the real deal.

In Autopsy, Alexx cuts open the snake to discover part of a pill and broken glass, confirming that it was used to bring illegal drugs into the country. The snake died of an overdose when a vial or vials broke during its constriction of the girl. Meanwhile, Horatio discovers who is behind Low Dawg Productions, and sets out to meet him at the Port of Miami.

As a brand-new yellow Lamborghini Diablo backs off a barge, Clavo Cruz is greeted by Horatio Caine, who reminds the young punk that he has not forgotten about Tess Kimball, whose life was so senselessly lost at the hands of the Clavo brothers. Horatio tells him that he knows that Clavo is smuggling drugs and that he will be on his tail.

With a credit card statement Ryan has retrieved from Imposter Karla’s P.O. Box, he and Calleigh determine that the woman has lunch each Monday at a tony restaurant called Zobu where they head to lay their trap. Imposter Karla shows up, and Ryan chats with her, then asks for her nail file, which she gives him, unknowingly supplying him with her DNA as well.

The pill in the snake turns out to be Paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA), or Red Death. Kids who take it usually think it’s ecstasy, but it takes a half-hour longer to kick in, so they take more sooner, and there is greater frequency of overdose, killing half the people who take it. It isn’t long before the pills surface at a rave in the parking structure of the Palm Towers Hotel. The initial body count is one dead, two catatonic.

With both Karlas in separate interrogation rooms, Calleigh and Ryan are determined to solve the mystery. Using medical history of the “real” Karla from a previously underwritten insurance policy, they flush out the fake Karla. But there seems to be a hitch when the Assistant State Attorney says it will be too difficult to prosecute the case and the fake Karla walks free.

Caine and Tripp interview Hillary, the party girl friend of the Red Death victim and determine where they bought their pills. At the designated location, Horatio finds Billy Palmero, a slick dealer. His Dock Worker’s Union card puts Horatio onto the right trail and soon Palmero admits that he works shifts in animal control and was involved in the import scam. He also gives Caine the name of the guy he’s working for … Clavo Cruz.

As Ryan sees Calleigh to thank her for her help, she tells him that the case isn’t over yet; Karla Gardner’s ex-husband has been found murdered – a nail file through the eye – in the driver’s seat of his car. At the scene, Ryan collects hairs from his hand for delivery to DNA. When Karla arrives on the scene, Calleigh learns that her wages were just garnished to pay her ex-husband’s alimony, establishing motive, yet it certainly appears that the fake Karla perpetrated this crime. All the evidence confirms that the fake Karla did it, and Ryan and Calleigh begin to make the arrest. The girl spills her guts about all the fake identities she has stolen, but swears that she didn’t kill this guy, and Ryan has a hunch she may be telling the truth. They decide to investigate further.

Caine meets with General and Mrs. Antonio Cruz at the Baracas Consulate and asks the General to turn his son in for drug trafficking, since the boy has Diplomatic immunity. The General refuses, stating that “blood is everything.” Slipping the handkerchief into his pocket that he had offered the general to dab a bit of blood, Horatio acquiesces and departs, while Clavo Cruz makes rude remarks at him.

Ryan and Calleigh figure out that the hairs in Karla’s ex-husband’s hand did not get there during a struggle; they were placed there after his death. Further investigation leads them to the fake Karla’s car, where they deduce the hairs were gathered with a lint roller. The real Karla, it turns out, set up her identity thief, for her ex-husband’s murder in order to get her life back and free herself of pesky alimony payments.

Later, at the hotel where Clavo’s father is making a speech before the family departs the country, Tripp arrests Clavo on a minor charge in order to detain the thug. Horatio’s hunch turns out to be right on target when the DNA test is returned on the general’s blood. Clavo is not his son, something that Horatio reveals to the general. Upon hearing that he has been betrayed – for years – by his wife, the general immediately rescinds Diplomatic immunity on Clavo, who is taken into custody, while his mother faces her new life … from the back seat of a dusty taxi.