CSI: Miami

Season 4 - Episode 17 - Collision

Written by Dean Widenmann
Directed by Sam Hill

A car barrels down a two lane stretch of highway, the driver frantically looking behind her as if trying to escape someone or something; the car slams into a cement barrier, then settles in a grove of palm trees.  The driver has smashed her head on the windshield during impact, she attempts to speak, then all hope is gone.

 Horatio peers through the wreckage at the body of the dead woman.  A trail of blood leads to the trunk and the dead body of a Hispanic male in his 20’s.  Delko sees a collapsed rear bumper on the car which indicates the car was hit before the crash.   Alexx notes that the male victim was strangled and had red dye on both of his hands.  Calleigh finds white fibers resembling sheepskin covers on the victim.  Delko runs a trace on paint transfer found on the crash victim’s bumper and it turns out to be a rented Porsche Boxster with sheepskin covers.

 The Porsche was rented to Russell Miller who initially lies about how he met the dead man, a parking valet named Luis Reyes.  Miller later admits that Reyes and he had sex, and Reyes was blackmailing the married Miller, who strangled him in a rage. The woman found dead at the wheel drove by at the time Miller was strangling Reyes, so Miller chased her, ran her off the road and transferred Reyes body into her trunk.  Meanwhile, Alexx discovers that it was a very nasty blow to the back of the head that killed the woman driver, setting into motion a completely new investigation … for murder.   When Calleigh finds a perfectly cut diamond mixed in the shards of broken glass on the floor of the crashed car, the team realizes there is more to the case than meets the eye.

 The dead woman is identified as Barbara Sommers, a jewelry store employee who had stolen, it turns out, the 4 million dollar Afsana necklace, putting her store manager, Chris Kaiser, in an embarrassing situation.  At Sommers’ house, Horatio discovers her eight year-old son Danny, who he senses is the victim of abuse.  At the lab, Natalia is particularly upset by this case.  Delko gets a print off the windshield belonging to Howard Benchley, who says he was in Miami on vacation.  Benchley turns out to be Barbara Sommers ex-husband, who had abused her for years.  Horatio is aware of  Natalia’s history of spousal abuse, and calls on her to assist on the case.  When the necklace and a gun recovered from the crashed car are pawned, the CSIs step in and tie the gun to Benchley, who ultimately confesses he tried to get Barbara back and when she refused, he became enraged, following her.  Upon discovering her car crash, he took the opportunity to hit her on the head with the butt of his gun, hoping the crash would appear to be the cause of death.   Delko apologizes to Natalia for earlier remarks he made, and she tells him her estranged husband is in jail; for the time being she’s safe.  Horatio assures little Danny that his mother was a good mommy and he’ll check in on him from time to time to make sure he’s okay.