Plot

When a girl's body is identified as a missing pageant queen, the investigation focuses on her parents.

The team is particularly disgusted to find the corpse of a 9-year old girl, almost completely decomposed after three months in a huge interstate water supply maze. It's Brianna Swanson, a long missing top contestant in beauty pageants for children, whose mother Jackie Swanson was so obsessed with winning that she not only resorted to adult make-up (the reconstruction looked about age 30) but also excessive diet, teeth bleaching, dangerous doses of growth hormone and even deliberate mutilation by a permanent, ever-tighter corset. There's a tape of the Jackie furious at Brianna's refusal to keep competing half an hour before her disappearance. The father, Jackie's ex Dave Swanson, is a roof worker, fitting the bitumen traces of which were found on the corpse. Zack finds traces of post-mortem abuse. Jackie's alibi and her claim that Brianna loved competing are confirmed, Brianna was mean, insulted and stole from fellow contestants. Angela finally accepts to date Hodgins, but only to get it out of their system, only... Contestant Hailey's 17-year old brother Jeremy Farrell, who dresses 'emo', was seen lurking around and wears metal-tip shoes like Brianna was kicked with, but the wrong metal. The toxic place the body was in for two months until swept away by storms has a pageant medal, fitting a competitor's mother, ex-miss Kristen Mitchell, who might be eliminating rivals, but physically cannot by the abuser. Closer examination of substance traces indicates another line of suspects or an accident...—KGF Vissers

A body of a 9 year old girl is found in a water treatment facility. Bones [Emily Deschanel] identifies her as a child because her "sacrum is still developing". After examining the body- they discover the girl has bleached hair and veneers on her teeth. After searching through the missing persons database, they discover it is missing beauty pagent contestant Brianna Swanson [Emerica Elan Rogers]. They find fragments of steel in the remains of her dress and also polyhydrotetron [sp?] carbons [roofing tar]. This leads them to suspect Brianna's father Dave Swanson [Jason Matthew Smith]. He tells Booth [David Boreanaz] and Brennan that all he wants is his little girl back and not what Jackie [Brianna's mother] did to her. Meanwhile Hodgens [T.J. Thyme] asks Angela [Michaela Conlin] out on a date, and she refuses. Angela asks for Bones and Cams [Tamara Taylor] advice, and they tell her that she should go for it....

[TBC]