Trama

The team tries to figure out how and why a 14-year-old boy broke into the evidence facility and tampered with the evidence in an old murder trial, which led to his accidental death.

Crucial evidence in the Will Sutter case has been stolen from the secured LVPD storage facility, where a boy's corpse is found. The 14-year-old broke in, but why and who helped him? The team must work out the entanglement involving the facility's caretaker, Kenneth Ward, and his son Mason, who knows the victim from school.—KGF Vissers

When an anonymous 911 call informs that the body of a boy was dumped in a desert area, the CSI investigators assume the case. Soon the corpse is identified as the fourteen-year-old Will Sutter and Catherine talks to his mother Rebecca and she gives the names of Will's best friends. Nick and Sara interview his friends Mason Ward and Steve Reppling that say that they were no longer best friends. Soon the CSI learn that Will broke into the evidence facility to steal the evidence that incriminated his friends that have accidentally burnt a house. However, he has stumbled upon a wrong cold case mistakenly provided by Mason. Now the CSI investigators have to solve other mysteries about the case.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

"CSI" - "Neverland" - March 11, 2010

We open on a home video of a boy receiving a grade A telescope as a gift and proclaiming his mom to be the best. We cut to the boy peering into the telescope and in the reflection of his eye we see a burst of light.

We cut to that boy lying dead on the ground from, according to Robbins, blunt force trauma. There was an anonymous pay phone tip from someone who couldn't have possibly seen the boy from the road so they think they'll check the phone for prints. In the boy's pocket Nick finds all the makings for adventure: compass, Swiss army knife, flashlight and candy bar style rations. He has blood under his fingernails. Robbins remarks the boy is small for his size. Nick says he was too. Robbins asks Nick what he wanted to be at 14. He says probably what this boy wanted to be: 15.

The boy is Will Sutter and his distraught mom tells Katherine she has no idea why he would've been out and about alone. She mentions his two good friends Mason and Steve and says his dad is not in the picture.

Nick looks over the body back at the lab while Ray and Greg photograph and check out Will's room, full of nerdy boyish stuff: action figures, posters, encyclopedias. On Will's computer Greg finds an article on tribal coming of age rituals, about finding acceptance with members of his tribe.

In separate interviews the boys - one of whom's dad is a cop- tell the CSI's that they weren't really friendly with Will anymore. He was too geeky and childish -wanting to ride bikes and find lizards- and they had moved on to girls and partying. To prove that point Steve has a serious hangover that Sara can actually smell, the smell likely gets worse when he throws up on her floor. She notes he is a tequila man.

Hodges presents trace from the body which includes a fiber that could only come from an ancient brand of Cadillac. He and Catherine muse on how the world has become a scarier place.

(Archie finds that also on Will's computer is email correspondence from an older gentleman named Lifford. They went back and forth about visiting historic mining sites. The older man, a librarian, invited Will to a site. This turns out to be a red herring.)

Mandy tells Nick some shocking news about the blood under Will's nails. It belongs to one Simon Rose. This would seem impossible since Rose has been serving time for the past few years for murdering his wife, partially thanks to Sara.

Rose's lawyer Lynn Stecker holds a press conference to remind people he was wrongfully convicted and she says this morning's development proves she's right, that some new child murderer has his DNA profile, and Rose should be let go.

Sara tells the original story: a history of domestic violence in the Rose marriage, his blood on hers because she finally fought back while he was choking her. Problems with the trial because Lynn Stecker's associated allegedly brought booze to a couple of jurors. They wonder if Rose planned this to help get himself off with Stecker's help. The team wonders about ways to get to Rose's blood: evidence vault or fresh sample gotten out of the prison by bribed guard.

Stecker thinks it's pretty rich that Brass is now hypothesizing that Rose or a third party somehow got his blood out and put it under this boy's nails when they scoffed at a similar theory during his trial when she said he was framed by someone who killed his wife and then planted his blood on her. They have a charged exchange and then she basically offers him a job working for her. He says he knows some old cops working for her make great money in PR but her ethics aren't so hot.

Ray visits Simon Rose, a convict on the way in tells him Nate Haskell says hello. When he gets to Rose he notices a cut on his neck and takes pictures and samples. A cocky Rose taunts him about this baffling new development in the case.

Sara visits the evidence vault and can't find any proof of anyone taking it out and all comings are going are recorded. She takes the dress. On her way out of the old cop, George, who oversees the place wonders about the case. She says they don't have much. He asks about the anonymous phone tip and fingerprinting the phone. She smiles that this old timer has still got the taste for detective work but she stops short when she notices an old Caddy that fits the description. She asks whose it is. His, he says. She makes him open the trunk and finds the ripped off corner of the candy bar package. He pretends to wonder what it is. She arrests him.

He tells Brass that he saw the kid rifling through the Rose evidence box. When he startled him Will fell off a ladder hitting his head and dying. He freaked out that someone got inside the vault- not because of his job but because if people found out about the intrusion it could compromise convictions. So he took the body and dumped it and put the Rose evidence back in the box.

Nick goes to the vault and prints the box. Ray finds the spot on the floor where Will bled out. They wonder what the kid was doing in there. Nick finds a torn off piece of notebook paper. On one side is the number of the Rose evidence box. The other side has algebra homework on the back. They wonder how he got the number. Nick says anyone in law enforcement can get the number and maybe Rose's associates sent him. Why a kid? Smart, resourceful and 14, thus not charged as an adult. Ray wonders what the connection is between Rose and Will.

They discover that Rose used to frequent a club where Will's mom worked. And she recently got an infusion of $10,000. A phone tip that they got. Catherine asks her about it playing tape of it. She says she got the money from her scumbag ex who when he sobered up was probably mad he gave it to her. She did not sell her son's services she says and even if she did, she points out it was hardly a good deal.

Archie and Nick check out the video from the evidence vault. The only thing that enters are the evidence custodians and evidence. They notice a sofa being brought in. Nick remembers a fiber found on Will that matched upholstered furniture. The night Will broke in the sofa, covered in blood, was discovered by a passer by. Evidence custodians were sent to retrieve it. Will hid in the sofa to get in.

Brass brings in a cop to ask why he recently looked up the Rose murder case on his computer. He says he didn't. He then remembers his son Mason was hanging around his office and he might have left him alone for a few minutes. Brass goes to Mason's house with his dad. They find him in his room his head a bloody mess.

Nick and Greg process the room and discover the torn piece of algebra homework, a bloody baseball bat with a print, and Lynn Stecker's card on his nightstand.

At the hospital Steckert claims the kid approached him saying he had info on why Simon Rose's blood was under his friend's fingernails and if she wanted it she would have to pay $5,000. She claims he said that Will snuck into the evidence vault on a dare. She gave him a couple hundred bucks for cab fare and told him to give her a call in a few years.

Mandy matched the blood from the bat to another case. A fire at a nearby house to the boys, on the corner of Rose and Harris streets. A search of the charred house turns up a bong and a tequila bottle. They realize the boys were partying there and probably started the fire. They then freaked and wanted to retrieve the evidence of them being there.

Ray figures that when Mason typed Rose into his dad's office computer he thought he was getting info about the house but he got the Rose murder case number instead. The boys went to Will to convince him to do it, and in order to get back in their good graces he did it.

They try and go to talk to Steve but no one is home. Sara notices a nearby house fire. At the burning house Sara and Ray grab Steve from the flames. On the way out Ray grabs a burning hundred dollar bill.

In interrogation Steve explains Mason had it coming. He explains that after he and Mason started the fire they went to Will for help. He helped them and died in the process and Steve couldn't believe his Mason wanted to profit off this. He recounts that he went to his house and Mason offered him $50 of the $200 he got from Stecker. He got really mad and whacked him with the bat and took off and started the new fire because he needed to see he blood money burn. He's broken up that they let Will down.

Will's mom comes to see his body at the lab.

Nick puts the Will Sutter evidence into box. As he does he pulls out the iPod and looks at the video from the top of the show. It includes video of the three boys in happier, bike-riding times.