CSI: LA Season 3, Episode 15: "Gallery of a Private Murder"

Chapter 2: Crime Scene Investigations

Back in the alley, Jack & Jake begin to investigate the scene:

"Found the car keys on the dumpster." Jake stated. "Dust them for prints and get them to trace; It'll give us a good idea of whether this guy drove here, or whether or not his car was stolen." Jack stated. "License plate is missing so it's either new or stolen." George observed. Jack used his UV light and revealed something incriminating: "Got blood on the fender here, but no sign of a hit and run. Body would have left a dent of some kind but there's none visible, not even with UV light." Jack stated. "The car gate for the trunk is suspiciously empty. If this was a body drop, it looks like they were transported more than just the body." Jake observed. "Could be that crate we found the victim in; Rear hatch is open, meaning someone handled it recently." Jack stated. "We got some sort shards here, they look clay and ceramic; Pottery related you think?" Jake inquired. "More or less." Jack replied. "Hey what's this?" Jake observed as he found a white powder substance inside the crate. "This could be drugs." Jake stated. "Get a sample of it over to trace and see if they can find out what it is." Jack instructed. "Will do." Jake replied.  "So what was this, a drug deal gone bad, a suicide in a secluded area, what?" George asked. "We won't know for sure until we got the autopsy report." Jack stated. "We got a set of tire tracks that lead here, but they don't lead away anywhere." Jake stated. "Could mean our killer had another vehicle or got picked up by someone else." Jack stated. "Yeah." Jake replied. "In the meantime, let's get all this stuff back to the lab." Jack instructed.

Meanwhile back at the art gallery, Melissa, Ann, & Adam begin to investigate the scene:

"No signs of forced entry, so the killer was already here, or our victim knew them and let them in." Adam stated. "High velocity blood spatter on the wall, indicates blunt force trauma judging by the position of the body when we found it." Ann stated. "And the laceration on her forehead shows she was hit from behind." Melissa chimed in. "She never saw it coming." Ann stated. "Any idea what we're looking for?" Adam asked. "Well according to this monogram, it was a hawk sculpture called "The Perched Predator". There's a picture of it here too." Ann stated. "Get a photo of that picture and dust that monogram for prints." Melissa instructed. "Got it." Ann replied.

"Victim's purse didn't have a wallet or I.D., and there wasn't any car out front; I want to have another chat with the co-owner of this gallery; He might know more than what he's telling us." Ann said. "We'll do that after we're finished here. Extend an invitation to the station for him to come down and answer some questions." Melissa instructed. "Got it." Ann replied. "You think the missing sculpture might be the murder weapon?" Adam asked. "I'm not sure. We'll have to wait for the autopsy report." Melissa stated. "We got a pretty lengthy blood pool, it leads to the missing artwork; We also got a shoe print here, and it's got blood on it." Adam stated. "The blood is smeared so it looks like somebody stepped in it after she was dead." Ann stated. "Could also be from our killer too." Adam theorized. "In either case, we need to get all this stuff back to the lab; It's gonna be a busy night for all of us." Melissa stated.

Evidence at both crime scenes has been collected.

Time for respective autopsy reports in the next chapter.