Episode 8: Point Of Impact

The team arrives at the scene of a car crash involving a woman and her two children. The 14-year-old daughter, Lily, is found alive some distance away, leading the investigators to conclude that she was thrown from the vehicle by the impact. Her older brother, Greg, has been pulled alive from the car by the concerned passerby who made the 911 call, Victor Emparo (played by basketball star Pau Gasol), but the teenagers' mother is dead in the front seat. The family's car appears to have crashed after slamming into a Bentley, which has been abandoned at the scene by its driver. When the CSIs run the number plate of the Bentley, they learn that the vehicle was reported stolen by its owner. The car seat seems to have been set for a very tall driver. The CSIs take one look at 6'4" witness Victor and realise that he was the man in the driving seat. Victor immediately confesses, leaving the CSIs with no choice but to arrest him. Meanwhile, his sister Marta arrives and tells Jesse that she stole the car from her ex-boyfriend the night before, and her kind brother was merely returning it to get her out of trouble. Jesse allows Marta to see Victor in the cells, but before they can get to him, he collapses and dies. Loman examines the dead man and concludes that he died of brain injuries sustained in the crash. The mystery deepens when Ryan finds a new tread pattern on the break pedal, which matches Greg's shoe. Greg was arrested for drag racing in the car two weeks earlier, but he swears that was the last time he drove the vehicle. Greg's innocence seems to be proven when clothing fibres taken from the car confirm that he was in the back seat - but the same test also puts Lily in the driver's seat. To add to the puzzle, Ryan discovers that a hose on the vehicle was cut before the crash. Were the Ballards victims of their own carelessness - or a callous act of sabotage?