Monster in the Box

"Monster in the Box"
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 16
Directed by	Jeffrey G. Hunt
Written by	Douglas Petrie Naren Shankar
Original air date	February 15, 2007
Season 7 episodes
2006–2007 Built to Kill, Part 1 Built to Kill, Part 2 Toe Tags Fannysmackin' Double-Cross Burn Out Post Mortem Happenstance Living Legend Loco Motives Leaving Las Vegas Sweet Jane Redrum Meet Market Law of Gravity Monster in the Box Fallen Idols Empty Eyes Big Shots Lab Rats Ending Happy Leapin' Lizards The Good, the Bad, and the Dominatrix Living Doll
List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

"Monster in the Box" is the sixteenth episode of the seventh season of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It is different, in that the crime is a locked room mystery.

Plot

Gil opens the package on his desk and is horrified to discover yet another miniature model of a crime scene. The scene depicts a woman lying dead on a couch in a living room. Gil and Catherine discover a newspaper in the model and realize that the murder has not yet occurred.

Nick, Warrick, and Sara review the video in which Ernie Dell confessed to the previous three miniature crime scene murders and then killed himself. They wonder why Dell would confess to murders he never committed, and Sara speculates that he was trying to protect someone.

Gil and Catherine examine the model and notice blue mascara on a pillow, as well as petechial hemorrhaging on the doll's eyes, indicating that the victim will be smothered. They find further evidence that her tea will be poisoned in order to subdue her. They find replicas of the doll pictures that were found in each of the three other crime scenes, that when placed under UV light, reveal a message: "YOU WERE WRONG". They also find restaurant delivery menus and use these to determine the area of town where the victim lives.

Nick and Warrick find the apartment of the victim, a Barbara Tallman. When they enter the apartment, Ms. Tallman is very much alive, but appears spacy and disoriented. The CSIs bring her to the police station for her protection. The police then set a trap for the killer in order to catch him: an undercover cop poses as Ms. Tallman and lies on the couch while Sofia watches the room via hidden camera. When a man approaches Ms. Tallman's door, the police intercept him. The man declares himself to be Barbara's brother, Peyton. After several hours at the stakeout, Sofia realizes that the killer is not going to show up. However, when she enters the room to tell the undercover officer, Sofia finds the officer lying dead on the couch. She was killed alone, in a locked, and guarded room. Barbara's cat was also found dead hidden behind some books on the bookcase.

Brass interviews Barbara and Peyton and learns that Barbara is a retired psychotherapist who counseled many at-risk adults. Any of these patients could want her dead.

Gil finds lungs inside the doll in the model. He extracts gas from them and has it analyzed - the lungs were filled with carbon monoxide. Doc Robbins confirms that the cop died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Grissom examines the video footage from the stakeout and notices a flare-up in the fire in the fireplace. Nick processes the fireplace in the apartment and finds a device that was designed to close the flue at a certain time and dump charcoal on the fire, thus filling the room with carbon monoxide.

While investigating Dell the first time, Greg learned that Dell was a widower with no dependants. Sara and Greg reexamine evidence from Dell's home and find home movies, which they watch. One video shows Dell and his wife chaperoning a child's birthday party; they wonder if the child is Dell's son, who would be 24 years old now. After some research, they learn that Dell had one son, a Lionel Dell, who changed his name to Mitchell Douglas; Mitch spent some time in a halfway house not too long before. They interview Mitch and learn that he highly resented his father.

Ms. Tallman returns to her apartment after the scene is released; soon afterwards, Grissom receives a phone call informing him that Ms. Tallman has been found dead on her couch. Catherine and Nick process the scene, and Nick notices liquid in the victim's ear.

Peyton Tallman holds a press conference where he tells the public about the miniature models.

When the CSIs learn that Ms. Tallman volunteered at Mitch's halfway house, Sara and Sofia interview him. There, they learn that the Dells were devoted foster parents, but when Mrs. Dell died, Ernie sent the foster children away and distanced himself from his only biological son. Sara realizes that Dell would not have killed himself for his son, and thinks that one of his foster children must be the killer. However, the Dells had dozens of foster children and very little information on how to track them down - the CSIs find themselves at a dead end.

At the autopsy, Doc Robbins tells Catherine that Ms. Tallman had Parkinson's Disease and that the medications she took to control it severely altered her thinking and behavior. She learns that the liquid in Ms. Tallman's ear is tears, and the DNA leads to Peyton. Peyton killed Barbara in an act of assisted suicide, using the miniature killer as cover.

Related episodes

• Built to Kill, Part 1 : 7-1
• Built to Kill, Part 2 : 7-2
• Post Mortem : 7-7
• Loco Motives : 7-10
• Monster in the Box : 7-16
• Lab Rats : 7-20
• Living Doll : 7-24
• Dead Doll : 8-1

See also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

External links

• "Monster in a Box" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Monster in a Box" at TV.com
• "Monster in a Box" at CSI Guide.com
• "Monster in a Box" at CSI Files