While investigating the murder of a famous archaeologist, Mac and the team unravel a murder mystery over 70 years in the making.
For a more complete review please read here:
Forensic points of interest this episode:
Rat blood detected on the oven mitt.
A zip-gun made from a ballpoint pen.
One of the clues the team discovers is an oven mitt with a mixture of human and rat blood. I’m no DNA expert, but most forensic labs I’m familiar with can identify human blood, but not usually tell you what type of animal blood came from that was non-human. Chalk that one up to that amazing NYPD DNA database.
The plastic fragments recovered from the crime scene were re-assembled to identify the murder weapon as being a zip-gun created from a ballpoint pen.
The actual assembly of the plastic fragments to make a physical match is great, as long as all/enough of the fragments are recovered.
The forensic examination of the projectile was a major clue in confirming the identify of the murder weapon. The first being very shallow projectile penetration depth. This would occur if there either isn’t enough barrel length, or if there isn’t a tight enough fit between bullet and barrel.
The second clue would be the lack of impressed rifling marks on the projectile. This is common on improvised firearms.
The best part of this episode wasn’t actually the forensic analysis performed, but rather the fact it took the great Mac and team more than one day to unravel the crime, identify the killer, and discover the motive. Other CSI franchises would have had this case wrapped up before lunch.
