CSI: Miami

Season 5 - Episode 24 - Born To Kill

Written by Ann Donahue & Sunil Nayar
Directed by Karen Gaviola

Horatio stands over Shelly Seaver’s brutally murdered body, and notices the fishing line used to bind her wrists.  Detective Jake Berkeley explains there was no forced entry into the apartment, telling Horatio that Shelly invited her attacker in. 

 Alexx examines Shelly’s body and discovers a “Y” cut into her chest, and that two different knife blades were used in the murder.  Alexis Dawson, Shelly’s roommate, tells Delko that she left a club with biker Travis Peck about an hour before Shelly was killed.  Tripp and Berkeley view a computer screen listing three female murder victims in Boston, whose deaths mirror Shelly’s -- all bound with fishing line, a “Y” carved in their upper torsos with one knife, and stabbed to death with another.   

 Horatio and Tripp question Travis Peck.  Tripp pulls a military knife out of Peck’s boot and IDs it as the signature knife used to carve the “Y” in Shelly’s chest.  Alexx discovers Shelly’s fatal knife wounds were too long to be a military knife.  Tripp tells Horatio that a fish scale was found on one of the Boston victims.  Horatio questions fisherman, former Boston resident and ex-con Lucas Wade as he guts fish, surrounded by a variety of knives.  Lucas says he was Shelly’s one night stand.  Lindsay Wade, Lucas’ sister, and Calleigh discuss Lucas’ extra “Y” chromosome, AKA the “criminal gene.”  While Lucas is in custody, Delko and Natalia investigate Jennifer Royce’s murder, which bears similarities to Shelly’s.  Natalia identifies the fish scaling knife found in Jennifer’s chest as the one that killed Shelly.  Lucas’ girlfriend Rita Bolton tells Delko that she packed Lucas’ fishing kit, including the knives, explaining away her fingerprint on one of the blades. 

 Berkeley escorts Lucas to jail in a police van, but the van rolls over when a sabotaged wheel comes loose.   The driver is dead, Berkeley is hurt and Lucas is free.  Calleigh and Delko find Travis Peck’s boot print and Lucas’ severed handcuffs near the wreckage.   Peck admits to Horatio that he met Lucas in prison and that they worked together scouting, luring and killing women.   Horatio finds Lucas in a warehouse.  Lindsay Wade admits to exploiting Lucas’ so called “killer gene,” having accidentally killed their baby sister when they were children, and then killing Jennifer Royce.