"Broken" (2002): The team investigates the murder of a 5-year-old girl at a restaurant/playland.
The show was about the abduction and murder of a 5-year-old girl by a predator from a place sort of like Chuck E. Cheese's pizza playland, except that the guy didn't actually make it out of the restaurant with the little girl. Her body was discovered in a bathroom near the back exit.
Elements unique to the show were that the killer attempted to hide his identity by three methods:
- Wearing the wrong size shoes -- in this case, shoes that were several sizes too large for his feet.
- Studying the video surveillance system and making sure that the route he took through the restaurant was not visible to the cameras.
- Slicing off, cutting up, and grafting on his own fingerprints so that they would not match the ones he had on file as a convicted child molester.
Additionally, he used a few means to gain access to the child in a very secure environment:
- Stole an employee uniform to wear to go unnoticed in employee areas of the restaurant, as well as gain the child's trust.
- Stole the security code from the manager's office so that he could enter and exit through a secure door.
- Lured the child away from the mother's view with cotton candy.
- Drugged the child with a barbiturate in the cotton candy so that he could quietly sneak her out after cutting her hair and dressing her to look like a boy in the bathroom where she was later found dead.
The child actually died from anaphylactic shock caused by an interaction between the barbiturate he used to sedate her and an antihistamine already in her system to treat her cold. He broke a few of her ribs trying to resuscitate her but gave up and ran when the alarm went off, just escaping unseen under the automatic overhead door. Of course, he would have killed her anyway after he'd gotten through with her if he'd managed to get her out of the restaurant.
Needless to say, the good guys figured it all out and captured him in the end, at which time he claimed that the little girl flirted with him and he didn't even get to play with her.
Anyway, the lone detail that stands out is the killer's wearing of the wrong size shoes to throw investigators off his trail. Even so, it's hard to say if Jason's interest in that episode had anything to do with the murder. If you assume that it does, are there any other aspects of the show that relate to the murder? I'm going to assume that it isn't the pedophilia because we've heard nothing of such a thing playing any part in Michelle's murder, and there's been no indication that anyone close to Michelle has any such interest.
There have been questions as to who tended to Cassidy and kept her out of Michelle's blood after the killer left, which has led some to suggest there must have been an accomplice. IMO, the accomplice theory doesn't work because the person tending to Cassidy would need to make sure that they were out of the house when Meredith arrived to retrieve the documents for Jason. Jason couldn't have warned the person that Meredith was on her way because he never spoke to Meredith but left her a voicemail. Therefore, he'd have no way of knowing when she would arrive. The only way the accomplice theory works is if Meredith was involved in the murder. IMO, that theory has no merit.
The newspaper delivery person saw a vehicle near the house between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. One can deduce from that that the killer was still there then. Cassidy's bloody footprints in the hall bathroom, with no trail of her footprints between the master bedroom and the hall bathroom, indicate that the killer discovered her standing in her mother's blood and carried her to the bathroom, temporarily leaving her there before returning to clean her up and get her back to sleep. If the murder occurred around 3 a.m., Cassidy may have been awake for a couple of hours during the night. This might cause her to sleep a little later than usual, however, I suppose it's also possible that she was drugged to ensure that she would sleep until Meredith arrived.
If Jason studied the surveillance system at the Hampton Inn, he didn't do an effective job of it. From what we know so far, he made no attempt to avoid being seen by the hotel's video cameras.
Beyond those, I can't see any other parallels between the CSI episode and Michelle's murder.
At the time, I didn't think much of the drugging episode in the CSI episode having any connection to the possible drugging of Cassidy. With the informaion presented in the Novo Nordisk warrant regarding the presence of Pancof-PD and Extra Strength Tylenol cold medicine in Cassidy's room, I'm rethinking the implications of not one but two similarities between the CSI episode and Michelle's murder.
- CSI: Miami: The killer wore shoes too large for his feet in an attempt to throw investigators off his trail.
Young Investigation: A shoeprint found at the crime scene was made by a size 10 Franklin athletic shoe. Jason Young wears a size 12. A podiatrist was consulted regarding blister-like irritations seen on Jason's feet approximately five days after the murder and declared that the irritations were consistent with having been made by wearing shoes too small for his feet. - CSI: Miami: The 5-year-old female victim died from anaphylactic shock caused by a combination of the barbiturate the predator used to drug her and the antihistamine in the cold medication her mother had previously given her.
Young Investigation: Investigators found two medications on a shelf in Cassidy's room which raised concerns:- Pancof-PD — This is a prescription cough medicine with the narcotic ingredient, dihydrocodeine, and the antihistamine, chlorpheniramine. Jason Young repped this medication during his employment with Pan American Laboratories and was issued samples of it at that time.
- Extra Strength Tylenol cold medicine — This is an adult cold medication, the nighttime version of which contains the antihistamine ingredient chlorpheniramine.
Neither of these two medications should have been stored in a toddler's room. According to the warrant, Cassidy's medical records show that she has never been prescribed Pancof-PD. The following questions are worth considering:
- Was Cassidy drugged?
- Is there any truth to the allegation that this CSI: Miami episode is Jason's favorite?
- If the answers to questions #1 and #2 are yes, does the CSI episode have any connection to the murder and the drugging of Cassidy?
- If so, what are the implications? Was the purpose of the drug only to cause Cassidy to sleep, or did the killer intend for Cassidy to die from the drug combination as did the child in the CSI: Miami episode?
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