| Minor Character: Miami | |
 | |
| Name | Heddy Latham |
| Gender | Female |
| Family | Jeff Latham (husband) |
| City | Miami |
| Occupation | Aeronautics engineer Housewife |
| Pathology | Muderer Saboteur Attempted Mass Murderer |
| Modus Operandi | Carbon dioxide sabotage Plane crash |
| No. of Victims | 1 killed 1+ attempted (incidental) |
| Status | Incarcerated |
| Portrayed By | Susan Misner |
| First Appearance | Not Landing |
Heddy Latham is a murderer appearing in Not Landing in CSI: Miami.
Background[]
Heddy was married to rich Jeff Latham and was highly skilled in aeronautics design. They lived in a wealthy cul-de-sac with Decker, his wife Wendy, and local voyeur Tony Macken. Along with having an affair with pilot Adam Decker, who co-owned a chemicals lab with business partner Wes Gallagher, another neighbor, and already had wife Wendy, she worked with the two men on an idea she dreamed of in making a postmodern plane based off her expertise and their craft in the construction of it. She was shocked and heartbroken to find out her dreams were being taken by Decker taking the credit for the plane and use or sell the plans and/or plane, either for the money from selling or for his illegal operations like smuggling drugs between Florida and Mexico. With that offense hitting her hard, she decided to get revenge and save her plans for the plane. After a night of poor performance in sex with her husband, she threw a pillow into one of Macken's cameras she knew was in her home, removing recorded evidence she left the house for the night. Then, breaking onto the Deckers' property and wearing Decker's goggles, she bore a hole through the exhaust manifold and firewall of his own plane, knowing gas would leak into the cockpit and poison Decker to death during his next flight. Since that flight was going to be drug smuggling to Mexico, Gallagher also planted timed fuselage to blow the plane's structure, hoping Decker's aviation expertise would help him survive the crash. Neither Heddy nor Gallagher knew of the other's sabotage.
Not Landing[]
First, Decker passed out from the gas while in the air, then the explosives had gone off. But the two saboteurs made the detrimental mistake of not considering the plane would nosedive toward a populated Miami beach and crash, nearly killing the hundreds of people of there. Thankfully, Decker's the only murder victim, no one else coming out scathed. Horatio Caine is the first one to call murder at the site.
Where an NTSC sees pilot error, Calleigh Duquesne swabs and tests a substance on the plane, revealed as potassium permanganate. Since the material's used in cocaine purification, it reveals Decker's drug smuggling. Gallagher's originally suspected of the crash when explosive material is found on his hands from when he sabotaged the plane, but he's cleared of the murder when the gassing's revealed as cause of death. Gallagher also mentioned when being interrogated the plane they were planning to design.
Wendy points to Jeff, who admits he keyed Decker's plane over a neighborhood dispute, but he never killed Decker. Macken is revealed to have made an emergency call to FAA from hearing on their channels Decker was in mayday crisis. But it's revealed, since he made the call minutes late, Wendy and he were having an affair, which Wendy shamefully started to get back at Adam because she suspected Adam was sleeping around as well but didn't know whom with.
Cameras in the Deckers', Gallaghers', and Lathams' houses lead to Macken. Macken's missing drill bit was lent to Jeff, but focusing on his camera footage, the window of opportunity has the lens obscured from the pillow. But Heddy herself is finally clinched when the Deckers' pillow has a mathematical formula written on it in her mascara. With less evidence, she's not arrested yet, but it's finally revealed Heddy's the one who made the plans for the plan and she killed Decker from being backstabbed.
Her DNA and the plane's residue are found on Decker's goggles when she wore then to drill the hole, so Caine drives over to arrest her. Asking Jeff, he hears and engine and sees she's already fleeing in a plane. Speeding in front of her with his Hummer, he blocks her path, causing her to slow the plan down. Drawing his gun, Caine makes Heddy get out of the plane with her hands up and lay on her stomach. As backup arrives with their sirens blaring in the distance, Caine mumbles "Well, almost, Heddy. Almost." She's immediately arrested and eventually incarcerated for murder.
Known Victims[]
- Adam Decker (bore through his plane's exhaust manifold and firewall, poisoning with leaking carbon dioxide while flying)
- Numerous unnamed beachgoers (incidental; nearly killed by the plane crash; all survived)