Koala

Koala is the fourth episode in Season Two of CSI: Vegas.

Koala
Season	2
Number	4
Writer	Anthony E. Zuiker
Director	Claudia Yarmy
Original Airdate	October 20, 2022
Navigation
Previous Episode: Story of a Gun
Next Episode: In Harm's Way

Synopsis

When three masked assailants invade a home and murder an entire family, including a pregnant woman, the CSIs are called to the scene to investigate. Catherine leads the team through the emotional case, which intensifies her own longing to reconnect with her estranged daughter, Lindsey.

Plot

Victims: Four members of the Geice family (all deceased)

On the case: entire team

Three masked gunmen enter the Geice residence and hold the four family members at gunpoint with shotguns. One of the gunmen hands Mr. Geice a note and has him open the safe in the bedroom. We then get an outside view of the house; three shots are heard. Soon after,  the pregnant daughter of the family crashes out of the second-floor window and hits the ground below. She survives, but is clearly hurt. As she tries to limp away, two of the shooters catch up to her. One of the shooters appears hesitant to finish the job, much to the ire of the other one. The second shooter sees the task through, then hits his accomplice for showing a sign of weakness.

The team arrives at the house the following morning. They learn that the pregnant daughter succumbed to her injuries; however, the baby survived and will have to be delivered posthumously via c-section. Catherine orders everyone out of the house, as she wants to perform the walk-through by herself. After she does, she gives every member of the team a responsibility—she’s running point on the investigation since Max is still in the hospital.

Catherine has Penny assist her with the bodies themselves. Penny, who is still relatively inexperienced, is overwhelmed at the sight of the bodies and runs outside to throw up. Upon reentering the house, she’s tasked with vacuuming the stairs for trace evidence. While Catherine photographs the empty safe and diagrams the room, Allie finds a bloody handprint on a wall. Penny sees this and runs outside to throw up again. When she does, she finds two crumpled up pieces of paper in the bushes. Folsom, meanwhile, finds a shotgun shell in the grass outside and sees that the neighbors across the street have a security camera attached to their garage.

Penny excitedly brings the notes to Catherine, the first of which instructed the Geice family to open the safe; failing to do so would result in everyone’s deaths, including the “unborn.” The second note listed the order of execution and included the words “daughter” and “granddaughter.” Penny believes that the wording is odd, which possibly points to the murders being an inside job.

Penny stares at the four bodies in the morgue and throws up again. When Catherine finds her, Penny hands over her badge, saying that she’s not cut out for the job. Catherine asks Penny to hold out her hands, which are shaking. She reveals that hers shake all the time, telling Penny that she should worry when they don’t. Penny takes back her badge and vows to finish her shift.

Allie and Folsom look over the surveillance footage from across the street. At 4:20 AM, a 1988 Oldsmobile pulled up in front of the Geice house; three masked gunmen got out. The license plates are a dead end, as they were stolen. They observe the one gunman shoving his accomplice out of the way and killing the pregnant daughter. Allie notices that the “submissive” gunman lost a tooth when he was hit by his accomplice; Folsom heads back to the scene to try and retrieve it.

As the video continues, Allie sees that the “killer with a conscience” tended to the pregnant daughter’s wounds. It’s revealed that the bloody handprint Allie found earlier contained the daughter’s DNA, which is seemingly impossible since she was killed outside. Therefore, the killer who tended to her wound must have brought it back inside without a glove on. When the print is magnified, Beau can see that it contains blood and sweat; the killer removed their glove to apply pressure to the wound, then brought the blood back into the house. For some reason, the killer left their prints behind. Allie orders the prints to be run through AFIS and the blood to be checked for DNA.

Penny examines the vacuumed trace from the stairs and finds a tiny fabric paw print, possibly from a koala stuffed animal. She excitedly shows it to Catherine, but Catheirne believes that it could be anything. Penny, however, notes that the fabric is micro-crocheted, which is a skill. After initially expressing doubt, Catherine allows Penny to run with the hypothesis.

DNA on the fabric doesn’t get a hit in AFIS; however, the skin cells found in the microthreads match the sweat from the bloody hand. Penny theorizes that either the koala fell out of the killer’s pocket accidentally, or it was placed in the house on purpose. It’s possible that the bloody handprint was left behind to ensure that the koala would be found.

Further examination of the bloody handprint shows that the index finger is bent in an odd direction; either the killer suffers from a birth defect or they have a dislocation of one of the joints. Penny believes that the bloody handprint is a cry for help; the killer getting picked on in the surveillance footage actually wants to get caught.

Allie and Chris take turns firing a replica of the murder weapon; both experience a tremendous amount of kickback. Based on the footage of the killer experiencing the same kickback, Chris believes one of two things: either the killer had never fired the weapon or they didn’t have enough strength to handle it. The thought is that the killers are inexperienced, as they didn’t know how powerful the shotgun was and they forgot to clean up the shell casing in the grass.

When the casing is run through NIBIN, it comes back to Edward Allen, who was arrested a few months ago for discharging his shotgun in his backyard. The firearm in question was never recovered by the police; in interrogation, Edward is informed that it was used to kill four people. Edward’s past work records reveal that he used to be employed by Geice Farms before being fired for selling illicit drugs on property. Catherine theorizes that he got back at the Geice family by hiring thugs to kill them, something Edward denies. He also admits that he sold three shotguns on the street, but never saw who he sold them to. Catherine informs him that whoever he sold the guns to put him on the hook for murder.

Catherine wonders if Edward has any ties to the baby, which is being cared for at Desert Palm Hospital. Max is staying at the same hospital and has ties with Child Protective Services. Catherine hopes that Max can make some headway with the CPS officer, something she was unable to do herself earlier. Max is successful, convincing the officer to let her take a buccal swab from the baby.

DNA results show that Edward isn’t the baby’s father. More surprisingly, however, Juliet Geice (the pregnant daughter) isn’t the baby’s mother. The conclusion is that Juliet was either a surrogate or a gestational carrier. Folsom discovers that the tooth collected at the scene shares an allele in common with the baby in the hospital; therefore, one of the killers is the baby’s biological mother. Det. Chavez interrupts the conversation with some disturbing news—there’s been another murder of a family where the killers used a shotgun.

In the morgue, Catherine and Max see that the M.O.’s are the same—the Einsteen family was zip-tied and executed face-down. When one of the victims is uncovered, a rubber mask is sitting next to the body. The victim is a female, and it’s assumed that she was one of the killers at both scenes. So, who killed the killer?

Unfortunately, neither the tooth nor the bloody handprint get a hit through AFIS. At the most recent crime scene, Penny finds another bloody handprint with the same abnormality. The young CSI immediately believes that another koala must be somewhere in the house, but is disappointed to find no trace of it in the vacuum. Max reminds her to focus on the evidence they have, not the evidence they hope to find.

Penny collects the transport sheets from autopsy and processes them for trace evidence.  Though initially unsuccessful, she eventually finds a piece of a second micro-crocheted koala. Meanwhile, Chris goes through Allie’s digitized mapping of the Geice house. He comes across a family portrait; however, there are five people in the photo. The family didn’t have any other family members in Vegas, so the fifth person seen is a bit of a mystery.

It’s revealed that the man from the Geice family portrait is Justin Einsteen, whose family was the second set of victims. Justin is questioned by Catherine and Det. Chavez. He doesn’t recognize the woman found dead in his parents’ home, saying that he’s never seen her before in his life. However, he reveals that he’s the biological father of Juliet Geice’s baby. Justin recalls that Juliet approached him about having a baby; he agreed to help, as he and Juliet were “like family.” He’s surprised to hear that Juliet had her baby posthumously and is incensed at the thought that he would shoot the mother of his child. Justin says that he was the sperm donor and that someone named Lucia Marshman donated her eggs, as Juliet couldn’t use her own. His fear is that the victim from his parents’ house is one of Lucia’s sisters, explaining that the Marshmans are fraternal triplets. Justin provides Lucia’s address, recalling that he picked her up from there and brought her to the Geice house. Catherine correctly guesses that Juliet couldn’t go to Lucia’s home in fear of blowing her secret with the other sisters.

The police storm Lucia’s house and find her holding her drugged sister at gunpoint with a shotgun. At Catherine’s insistence, all units stand down and leave her alone with Lucia. While Max watches the interaction with an iPad from outside, Catherine tries talking Lucia down. She shows Lucia a picture of her baby. Lucia replies that she just wants her life as she knows it to be over, admitting that she dropped the koalas and left her bloody handprints behind in an effort to get caught. She shows Catherine her disfigured hand, which occurred when one of her sisters ripped her first baby away from her. A flashback shows the sister, Darcy, telling Lucia that if she couldn’t have a baby, nobody in the family could. Lucia goes on to explain that Darcy found out about her and Juliet wanting to start a family. The three sisters went to the Geice house to rob it (a “baby tax”), but Darcy changed the plans and executed the family. Lucia adds that nobody was going to take her second baby away, which is why she shot Darcy at the Einsteen house.

Catherine, who is having problems with her own daughter, Lindsey, attempts to relate to Lucia’s situation. She gets Lucia to admit that she never wanted to hurt anyone. However, Lucia then says that since she couldn’t save Juliet, she’s not worth saving herself. She points her shotgun at her sister’s head. Catherine jumps on her and is able to disarm her. As the SWAT team reenters the house, Catherine yells at them to stand down; she escorts a seemingly grateful Lucia to the police car herself.

Penny finds a third koala on the floor in Lucia’s house and is proud that her hunch was correct. Max gives her encouragement and congratulates her on rallying through a tough case. Meanwhile, Catherine visits the baby in the hospital and tearfully holds it in her arms.

Cast

Main Cast

• Paula Newsome as Maxine Roby
• Matt Lauria as Joshua Folsom
• Mandeep Dhillon as Allie Rajan
• Ariana Guerra as Det. Serena Chavez
• Jay Lee as Chris Park
• Lex Medlin as Beau Finado
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows

Guest Cast

• Katie Stevens as Lindsey Willows
• Melissa Saint-Amand as Lucia Marshman
• Sarah Gilman as Penny Gill
• Michael Trotter as Justin Einsteen
• Jonathan R. Freeman as Edwards Allen
• Shelley Robertson as CPS Officer Mary Philippen
• Kimberlee Kidd as Darcy

Music

• Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy

Notes

• Max is sporting a cast for her broken clavicle, which she sustained during an attack in the previous episode Story of a Gun.

See Also

• Category:Images from Koala