Greg Sanders and Sara Sidle were driving a coroner's van in the lower levels of Mt. Charleston. An unusual week of off and on rain caused mudslides all over the area and lots of overtime for each shift at the Las Vegas Crime Lab. CSI received a call from a driver who claimed to have seen a dead body on Kyle Canyon Road. He said the body had washed down onto the roadway from a higher elevation during a mudslide. Sara and Greg had been asked to help out by Conrad Ecklie, he asked them to verify if there was actually was a body on the road. If a body was found, he needed them to determine if the death was just another storm victim or if foul play was involved.
On arriving, a small but steady stream of muddy water flowed down the cliff face onto the roadway. That stream pushed a body slowly across the roadway in front of them. A fast scan confirmed at the roadway's edge, the body would drop at least 100 feet to a ravine below. Sara viewed the stream of water and the body and knew that time was very short.
"Oh Crap! We d better grab that DB quick or we ll have to chase it down into the ravine. All this water has already washed away any forensic evidence there might have been on it. Come on, let s do this and fast!"
Greg looked up at all the mud sliding down the cliff side warily. "Don t we have to wait for David? Is it safe for us to even be here?"
"We can t wait for the coroner. The faster we do this, the quicker we can get the hell out of here. Now get a body bag." Sara grabbed her camera and ran to the body as the light mist slowly turned into a drizzle.
She took several quick shots of the upper cliff where the body came from and where it was. Carefully she turned the body over. Very little of the woman s face was left. Clumps of mud soaked hair only highlighted the clumps that were missing. Most of the rest of the body was covered with mud, blood and bruises. Sara took a few more photos and then she helped Greg put the body into the coroner s bag. The drizzle slowly had changed into a light rain again.
The stream of water down the cliff face beside them was rapidly becoming a waterfall. Trying to hurry while carrying a dead weight was hard but they finally reached the van. Greg climbed in as Sara lifted her end of the bag inside. She stored the camera and placed the film in a watertight container beside it. She was about to climb into the van when a roaring sound was heard from high above them on the cliff. An entire section of the rocks let go and started to slide towards Sara, Greg and the van.
"Quick, give me your hand, Sara."
"No time. Go! I ll meet you further down the road, MOVE IT, GREG!"
She was already running back down the road they came on and nearly out of sight. Greg ran to the driver's seat and gunned the engine. Mud and water already puddled around the van tires would not allow any traction. The wheels spun uselessly. The van was moving but moving sideways. The muddy water pushed the van slowly sideways towards the side of the roadway and to the long drop into the ravine below. The mud sliding against the van's side was getting deeper and deeper. Greg could no longer open the driver side door to escape. He opened the passenger side door and realized the van was now only a foot or so from the roadway s edge. If he jumped, it would be suicide.
"Where's my surf board when I really need it?"
Out of options he opened the van's back door and pushed the body bag onto the mud.
"Grissom is going to kill me. Sorry about this, Miss Doe!"
Jumping out of the van he landed on the body bag like a surfboard. Looking back over his shoulder, he saw the coroner's van tip over the edge. It rolled over and over down the lower cliffs to land wheels up at the base of the ravine. It was almost instantly covered by waves and waves of mud, rocks and tree limbs that flowed down the entire cliff.
The mud around and under the body bag pushed Greg and the Jane Doe in the coroner's bag faster and faster down the hillside, until the bag hit a large boulder and they both became airborne. Greg tumbled out of control straight down into the ravine, as the body bag and its contents went flying off to his left. The body bag was the last thing he saw, a rock hit him and the rest of the fall faded into black.
A phone rang in a darkened room across town. A hand reached out from under a blanket to search for the receiver. "Grissom!"
"Sorry to wake you, Gil but there has been an accident. We lost a van in the rains. Sara and Greg are missing. Ecklie won't do anything. He said to call the rescue squad, it s their job."
"I'm on my way, Catherine."
Later that day, the rain had finally stopped and a weak watery sunshine had broken through the clouds. The light was welcome by the forty plus people that searched the thick mud in splattered coveralls. The searchers were fanned out in a ninety degree grid from the point where the van left the roadway and plummeted to the ravine below. All except for one man, who searched the upper cliff face and roadway. They continued to search through the night and into the next day. Just after nine the next morning, a car arrived in the base camp near the bottom of the ravine.
"Here comes trouble!" Warrick warned Nick, as Ecklie and the Sheriff arrived in suits. They stepped carefully to avoid the large mud puddles.
"Where is Grissom?"
Warrick pointed to the lone person still high on the upper cliff face and roadway.
"You can't go up there, it 's too unstable. Those are Grissom's orders."
Ecklie started up the hillside but the Sheriff pulled him back and shouted loudly. "Grissom!"
Sliding down the hillside, dressed like the other searchers in coveralls splattered with mud, Grissom walked over to the Sheriff.
"Sheriff, can you send me more people? Most of these guys have been here for eight or ten hours, they need a break and I need some fresh help."
"How much longer are you going to keep looking, Grissom? Ecklie asked as he wiped a splash of mud from his shoe. It s been 24 hours. Face it, Greg and Sara are dead and it's a tragedy but life goes on. Do you know how much time and money you are wasting?"
"Ecklie, they are my friends but screw that! They are your employees and our colleagues. I am going to keep looking as long as there is any hope of finding them alive. I wouldn't give up this soon even if it was only you under all this mud."
Ecklie was furious and wanted to lash out at Grissom but he turned on Warrick and Nick.
"And you two are off the clock. You want to play hero, I m not paying for it."
"I'm not on the clock, neither is Nick. You want to know where you can stick your clock?"
The Sheriff quickly stepped between Ecklie and an angry Grissom, Nick and Warrick.
"It doesn't look good, Gil. I can send one more team, then I think you re going to have to accept the bodies may never be found."
"i'm not looking for bodies. Why is everyone assuming Sara and Greg are dead? This is a rescue operation, not a body recovery scene."
"Then let the rescue squad handle it.' Ecklie stepped forward again. "I want my CSI staff back. Half of them called in sick today but I see most of them here and I have calls starting to stack up."
"Conrad, get a shovel and help or get the hell out of here!"
Grissom turned his back on Ecklie in dismissal. Even the Sheriff was startled by the Lab Administrator s callous attitude.
"Conrad, I ll meet you back at the lab. I need some time to reason with Grissom." Ecklie left grumbling.
"Everyone has a right to be a pain in the ass sometimes but Conrad abuses that privilege, Sheriff. I don t know how much longer I can deal with him. I know that Ecklie is better at the all the administrative cra......details but everything equates to dollars and cents for him. Screw getting the cases right, as long as they get done quickly! He does whatever is fastest and cheapest. I have caught some major errors on his cases. Cases closed that shouldn't have been and the wrong people arrested and even jailed. I've kept my mouth shut."
"I know that and I appreciate it, Gil. I need him for now. You can go overboard on cases sometimes. You watch him, he watches the expenses. It s not pretty but it is working."
"Yes, I know, Sheriff. When can I get fresh help here?"
"I'll call right now. Why don t you take a break, you've been here since yesterday."
"I can't! I have the daylight now to finish searching the upper cliffs, lots of ground to cover and I can't use any lights up there. The ground is too unstable. Thank you!"
Within the hour a bus arrived with 50 police cadets in clean coveralls. As they slowly took over the search grid, the tired and grimy original rescue team filed onto the same bus.
By late afternoon, Grissom had almost reached the bottom of the upper cliff. Suddenly a rock he was balanced on dislodged and he fell with mud and debris to the roadway or what was left of it, six feet below.
"Grissom, you OK? Get him some water." Nick called down to Warrick and then helped him to the base camp.
"Griss, you been here like 30 hours now. It's getting dark. Why don't you go home?"
"No, I m OK. I just need a few minutes and something to eat. I forgot to eat, that s all."
Nick brought him a sandwich and a sports drink. They all ate in strained silence.
"They weren't on the upper cliff face or roadway. No fibers, no hairs, nothing! There is no trace of them on the lower cliffs, so they must have been in the van. We need to fan out from the van in the ravine. The mud must have carried them far away from the van. They could be hurt or unconscious."
The word dead was not said but more and more all the searchers understood they were looking for bodies now, not Greg and Sara.
Just after the somber meal, a whistle was heard from far off to the right of the van.
"They found something!"
Grissom, Warrick and Nick ran to the location. Greg's upper torso poked through a pile of rocks, mud and water. The searchers quickly parted as Grissom reached the body.
"He s got a pulse and he is breathing. No! No shovels. Quick get me a hose. We need to clear the mud gently. He may have broken bones or internal injuries."
It took a half an hour to free him. Greg was badly bruised from head to toe. His clothes were ripped and caked with blood and mud. One shoe was missing.
"Careful, his left leg is broken, maybe the hip too. We need to wrap him in blankets to get him warm. He s in shock, watch his head! Call Brass, we need a medical chopper here quickly."
Once Grissom was satisfied that Greg was taken care of, his attention returned to locating Sara.
"The mud must have been flowing more like a river for him to have come this far from the original site. The rest of you fan out ninety degrees from here. Sara should be nearby. Warrick, Nick, knock off! Go with Greg. You've been here over 24 hours."
"No way! You guys never gave up on me when I was missing. I'm not giving up on Sara."
"Nick s right. I go when you go."
"OK! We found, Greg, we ll find Sara. Let s go."