A ‘New York’ Athlete Winds Up Dead In ‘Clean Sweep’

A cage fighter is found dead, and the team must determine whether his murder is the work of a stalker in the tenth episode of CSI: New York’s eighth season. (Major spoilers after the jump!)

According to CSI Files sources, “Clean Sweep” opens on a cage fighting match. The stands are filled with eager fans cheering for the fighters. Inside the cage, Anthony and Darren launch themselves at each other. It’s a brutal fight, and there’s blood everywhere. Anthony eventually lands an uppercut that knocks Darren out, and Anthony raises his arms triumphantly as the crowd goes wild.

After the fight, Darren finds Anthony to confront him. Anthony tells him the fight could have gone either way, and he wishes Darren better luck next time. Darren isn’t having any of it, and he insists that Anthony must have cheated to beat him. He tries to start a fight, but Anthony doesn’t rise to the bait. He tells Darren he’s a great fighter, and he’ll probably win next time—for now, Anthony just wants to get home to his wife.

The next day, a body is found beneath an underpass. The man is burned beyond recognition, but the ID found next to the body offers them an identity for their victim: it’s Anthony. He was hit over the head, and Sid finds evidence of a bullet in the back of his head that was melted by the fire. Someone hit him, shot him and burned his body.

Jo speaks to Anthony’s wife Rachel, who is three months pregnant. She’s shocked to learn about her husband’s death. Jo asks if Rachel remembers anyone from the match the night before who might have stood out in the crowd, but Rachel reveals that she doesn’t attend her husband’s fights anymore. It’s too hard to watch him get hit, so she stays home and waits for him to call. He told her he won the fight, and he was supposed to pick up some dinner to bring home—but he never showed up.

Rachel reveals that Anthony had some aggressive fans, but none of them ever seemed dangerous. Then she realizes who must have done this. Tony was stalked for two years when they lived in Colorado, and he and Rachel lived in fear. The police tried to identify the man, but he was too careful to get caught. There was nothing more the police could do for them, and they thought moving to New York might help. For a while, it did—it has been almost a year since the stalker tried to contact them. Rachel actually thought the nightmare might be over.

The team gets a different lead when a man named Marty walks into the precinct. He’s holding a long coat closed over himself, and Flack can tell that something is going on. Marty smells like gasoline, and Flack quickly subdues him when he starts to open the coat. The front of his clothes are covered with blood, and he confesses that he might have murdered someone the night before. He got wasted at the bar while celebrating his 21st birthday, and he woke up in his dorm covered with blood and gasoline. He came straight to the precinct. There’s only one unsolved murder from the night before, so if he did kill someone, Anthony is the victim.

Please note that the above plot details have not been confirmed by CBS, Alliance Atlantis or Bruckheimer Films, and until such time you should treat this information as you would any other rumour. The above information comes from early script drafts and the details of the episodes are liable to change before the episodes are shown.

“Clean Sweep” is expected to air in January on CBS.