Friday 4th May 2007 21.0022.00Continuing this evening is the third season of the hit drama series following a team of special agents who investigate Navy and Marine Corps-related crimes. In tonights instalment, Gibbs and the team are called to investigate the case of a marine apparently eaten by a bear in a national park. A group of teens on a nature hike discover a set of dog tags in a national park, prompting the local rangers to call out the NCIS team. The dog tags belong to Benjamin Riley, a petty officer found chewed up by a bear. The park rangers tell the agents that the marine camped in an area prone to bear attacks. On the scene, Gibbs finds evidence that Riley was camping with a woman who is now missing, and the rangers organise a search. The locals in the nearby store claim they did not see a woman with Riley when he called in. Among them are the store boss, Wes Rowan, and his surly employee, Jason Edom, who makes anti-Semiticcomments about Ziva. Back in the lab, Ducky has established the cause of death: Our petty officer was killed with a flat blade, he says. Benjamin Riley was murdered before the bear started eating him. Gibbs and the rangers spend all night searching for the missing woman but there are no tracks leading from the campsite. Gibbs describes the trail as that of a ghost: someone with military training who knows how to step without leaving a trace. He suspects the woman was carried away. The team pull the records of deaths in the park in the last few years. McGee discovers that three women who died in supposedly accidental circumstances all had the same characteristics: petite brunettes in their twenties. The three womens photos from their driving licences are strikingly similar. Something tells me their deaths werent accidental, Tony says. Were dealing with a killer whos using park accidents to cover up murders, Gibbs concludes. Meanwhile, Abby runs a test on a birth control patch found at the campsite and discovers that it is part of a trial involving 3,000 women. Narrowing down the criteria she identifies one woman who fits the profile and is missing: Jessica Fagan, who told a colleague that she was going camping. McGee then identifies a third set of fingerprints at the campsite, belonging to Jason Edom. Edom is hauled in for questioning where he insists that he is innocent: I may be a lot of things, he says, but Im not some psycho. His prints were found on items that were bought at the store where he works and could have been handled by him when he put them in Rileys bags.
Moreover, Edom has an alibi he was at his daughters dance recital. However, Gibbs believes that Edom still knows who killed Riley and kidnapped Jessica Fagan, so he sends Ziva in to question him. Under pressure, Edom identifies his boss, Wes Rowan. The team discover that Jessica Fagan was a childhood sweetheart of Rowans who eventually took a restraining order out on him and changed her name.
Ziva theorises that this gave Rowan motive to kill: He took his anger out on people who looked like her. The agents head to the park where Rowan was last seen helping with the search. As an experienced hunter, Gibbs knows Rowan will be hard to find. However, once again it is Abby who provides vital clues, telling Gibbs that she thinks Fagan is leaving a trail from the jewelled studs on her jacket for them to find. Gibbs, Tony and McGee head into the park to track Rowan, but it is Ziva ordered to remain behind who discovers anotherjewel in the trail, and in the most unlikely place
Executive Producers Mark Horowitz, John C Kelley Writer Richard C Arthur Director Thomas J Wright A Belisarius Production in association with Paramount Network Television
Tagged in NCIS