In New York City's war on crime,
the worst criminal offenders are pursued
by the detectives of the Major Case Squad.
These are their stories.
Come on, Linda. Let 'em out to play.
But I'm in the kitchen, Ray.
What if somebody sees me?
Honey, it's just you, me and the FCC.
Okay, I did it. I took it off.
You happy now, Ray?
Well, sweetie, that depends. Are they berries, mangos or melons?
Linda? Hey... Where'd she go? She hang up on me?
Ray, I'm sorry, I dumped her.
I cut to commercial. We're off the air?
Lenny made me promise, you start talking breasts...
Lenny!
You told Pete to cut me off?
We went over this.
Linda, if you're still listening, I didn't cut you off, baby.
That was my producer, Lenny.
He used to have brass ones,
but now he lets the FCC keep them in a box in Washington.
We should've let him walk when we had the chance.
Well, you wanted to be more controversial.
Not at the cost of our license.
You found him, Lenny. You lose him.
Bye. Listen...
Later. ... I put Danny's math review
on top of his bag.
Ruben told me what happened at the station, Ray.
Are you trying to get yourself fired?
Can we not talk about this now?
You have obligations, Ray. Stop playing games.
I will.
$9,500.
Let's make it $9,300.
He's home. I have to go.
Is it here?
I can't get it, Mr. Ray. I'm sorry.
I put your dinner in the microwave.
It's okay, Lusa. I'm not hungry.
Ray.
I've got something for you, Lenny, pal.
Lusa called and said the station was looking for him.
Ray has never missed a show.
He was late just once this year, when he had the flu.
You and your husband are separated?
We're getting a divorce.
We checked the apartment. Nothing looks out of place.
There's no sign of a struggle. Bed hadn't been slept in.
Just... Can I? Yeah.
Is there anywhere else that he might have slept?
I don't think so.
Yesterday, he come home and go into his little studio down the hall.
He didn't even want me to heat up his dinner.
He always say he's not hungry.
Paroxetine.
Ms. Garnett, do you know how long your husband was taking anti-depressants?
A few months. He got a prescription to quit smoking.
So, your husband is missing less than 24 hours.
Is there a particular reason why you're worried?
Ray has never just disappeared.
His show is very controversial, he's made a lot of enemies.
I was on the ferry reading, when I looked up and there he was.
He pulled out this letter of resignation.
He was about to sign it,
when the letter accidentally blew out of his hand and into the water.
Ray is a funny guy. His wife said he made enemies.
With his show?
Anti-indecency groups, mostly.
The FCC came down hard on him. He had been fined.
Him and the station?
Right, yeah. We took steps to comply with the regulations.
We set up call screenings last month and tape delays.
You signed him to a new deal five months ago.
Now, "pay or play," that means that
he could get fired, but you'd still have to pay him the full 10 mil?
Unless we fire him for cause.
Cause? Like him not showing up for work today?
It's funny how that works out for you guys.
Yeah, sure. I pushed him off the ferry.
He was drinking last night, probably tied one on.
It's the same reason he was late six months ago.
His wife told us he had the flu.
Right. Try hangover.
His eyes were red, he smelled like vomit.
I know what hangovers look like.
Okay, the show that he did six months ago,
we need a tape of it.
Sure.
Before we take another call, I guess we have to do weather?
Sorry, the smog is lousy this morning.
So how's traffic?
Oh, crap, I just did traffic, didn't I?
He has the flu, you can hear it.
He's congested, he's hoarse.
He's disoriented, his thinking is fragmented.
We talked to his pharmacy.
He got his first prescription for anti-depressants a week after this show.
Because he was depressed.
Suicidal.
No.
Raw throat, red eyes, the vomiting.
It could be carbon monoxide poisoning.
We were at the beach house. He went into the garage and started the car.
He told me he stopped because he didn't want the kids
finding Daddy dead in the family car.
We needed to know that this morning.
Ray made me promise not to tell anyone because he was in negotiations.
Anyway, that was six months ago. He's on medication.
He spent the long weekend since the suicide attempt at a clinic upstate.
Since then, has his condition improved?
He's still in his own world. He still doesn't listen.
That didn't change.
Last time, he left a suicide note?
He made a tape. He had it with him in the car.
Ray loves the sound of his own voice.
Maid said that he went into his home studio last night.
If he made a suicide tape and he had it with him,
he wouldn't have jumped off the ferry.
The salt water would have destroyed the tape.
He'd go with what he knows.
Carbon monoxide. He's still on the boat.
Once the ferry gets underway,
this whole area fills up with carbon monoxide.
Kelly, it's not your fault.
Or the kids'.
Whatever I do, I end up hurting you.
I'm tired of hurting the people I love.
There anything else in the tox report?
No. Low level of alcohol, maybe a beer within an hour of death.
And paroxetine at levels consistent with a daily dosage of 40 milligrams.
It's what you'd expect for someone being treated for major depression.
But his voice was flat, he lost his appetite.
It doesn't sound like his medication was working.
Well, I'm no shrink, but 40 milligrams of paroxetine a day
is enough to make a hound dog smile.
If he was taking it every day.
You test hair to check for long-term use.
You could narrow it down to months.
Weeks.
Garnett's hair told the story.
There was no trace of paroxetine in the last four weeks of hair growth.
He went off his meds? Why didn't he suicide back then?
Well, when they first put you on paroxetine, they give you 10 milligrams a day.
A week later, 20, then 30, up to 40.
And then when it's time to stop, it's the same in reverse,
40 down to nothing over a period of a few weeks.
But if you stop cold turkey, the drug takes time to clear your system.
You cruise for a while,
and then you crash into a suicidal spiral.
Did anyone notice he stopped taking his pills?
Actually, people saw him taking yellow pills.
Had to be placebos.
Someone switched the medication?
What about the drug the ME found in his blood?
It was just a daily dose.
After being off it for a month, one dose wouldn't do him any good.
The pills we found in the kitchen were the real deal.
Somebody switched his medication back, but too late.
Last time he tried to kill himself, his kids stopped him.
This time, he was fighting chemistry.
Chemistry won.
Murder by suicide.
Kept his prescription in here.
Whoever switched these pills, they might have touched these bottles.
Besides the kids, last few weeks, anyone else been in here?
Just Mrs. Garnett.
When the boys stay here, she come to take them to school.
We have to take your elimination prints to separate your prints
from others that we find.
If you say.
Police don't need reason to do what they want.
Mr. Garnett's little studio, down the hall here?
I'm the easy target, my friend.
But after those creeps shut me up, you're next.
Trying to make yourself deaf?
Garnett had his earphones turned up.
His wife said he loved the sound of his own voice.
I found cash withdrawals, around $9,000 once a month for a year,
leading up to his first suicide attempt.
Then nothing, until three days ago.
A withdrawal slip for $9,300.
It's odd amounts.
All just under the $10,000 federal reporting limits.
He might have been doing something illegal with the money.
Gambling or drugs...
His wife said he was in his own world.
His earphones...
Might have had a hearing loss caused by an addiction to painkillers.
The clinic he was at six months ago, they'd know.
He did individual and group therapy in the three days he was here,
and I gave him the anti-depressant paroxetine.
Helped him stay away from painkillers.
But if he stopped getting paroxetine,
he might go back to painkillers, isn't that right?
Now, did he say where he was getting them from?
He told us he bought the OxyContin from an unnamed friend who had a prescription.
Nelda did the intake on Mr. Garnett.
Nelda, this is Detective Eames and...
Detective Goren.
Now, Mr. Garnett, did he tell you, how much OxyContin he was taking?
80 milligrams a day.
His unnamed friend, what condition would they be taking it for?
80 milligrams or more would be for severe spinal injury,
bone cancer, post-amputation pain... I could make you a list.
Well, we'd appreciate it.
I printed out Ray's address book and appointment calendar.
I also got his phone log.
We can crosscheck with the dates of the withdrawals.
Maybe he called his suppliers the same day he took out the money.
What are you trying to do?
There was one of the pictures...
Kids behind a steering wheel. How do you get it back?
You can't. It's a wallpaper program. It plays a random selection of images.
This one.
The knob on the steering wheel, it's a hand control for a car.
Phantom pain from an amputated limb.
That's one of the chronic pain conditions that was on the nurse's list.
It's a hand control for someone with an amputated leg.
There's gotta be a better shot.
And Bingo was his name-o.
Mr. Gregorian? I'm Detective Eames, this is Detective Goren.
What do you want?
It's about your car, the sedan.
You have a hand control on the steering wheel?
Yes, I have artificial leg.
But I don't drive this car so much anymore, my wife does.
Your wife, Lusa, Mr. Garnett's maid.
Do you mind if we wait till she gets home?
Lusa's home.
We rang the doorbell, nobody answered.
Lusa? Lus? I don't know, maybe she go shopping.
And left her car?
Wash day today?
Lusa!
Gregorian's employer confirms he was at work all day.
Looks like she was interrupted folding the laundry.
There was a struggle.
There's one bruise the size of a fist on each breast.
It's probably a woman.
A guy would just hit her in the face or on the shoulder to knock her down.
Mr. Gregorian, do you know of anyone who would want to hurt your wife?
No. She just work. She work very hard.
You still have pain where your leg used to be.
I hear that it can be unbearable.
It's not so bad anymore.
What do you take for it?
OxyContin?
Did you sell Ray Garnett the extra pills you didn't use?
Okay. Mr. Ray, he push Lusa to sell my pills.
I was happy when he stopped taking them.
It was too much to worry about.
Last week, Mr. Garnett took out more money for pills.
She don't sell to him anymore.
We're in too much trouble already.
What kind of trouble?
With the drug police.
Lusa say they visit her in Mr. Ray house last month.
They know he was taking the pills.
Lusa was scared.
Because police don't need a reason to do what they want.
We checked with Narco, with the Feds,
nobody was investigating Garnett or his maid.
Sounds like someone intimidated the maid to gain access to Garnett's apartment.
Gained access to manipulate
Mr. Garnett's anti-depressants.
And this same person killed the maid?
That's what we're going with for now.
I mean, the only people that knew about Garnett's addiction
was the staff at the clinic and the patients in his group therapy.
I'm supposed to convince a judge to order the clinic
to give us the names of those patients?
That would be nice.
Maybe if we had an idea who you were looking for.
A woman, 20 to 40.
Knows about anti-depressants,
either because she's in the medical field or because she takes them herself.
Doesn't that describe the majority of the women at the clinic?
Garnett's murder took planning by someone focused,
intelligent, but with an explosive temper.
And what might have set them off to kill Mr. Garnett?
Garnett's meds were switched four or five weeks ago.
FCC cracked down and his station
started screening his calls from listeners.
Which might have made some of his regulars unhappy.
This one, when I blocked her, she kept calling, like, 10, 12 times an hour,
screaming at me to put her through.
She finally stopped a few weeks ago.
I guess you want me to get comfortable?
And I want you to tell me about this college class you're taking.
I don't know why I keep calling you, Ray. It always ends up the same.
Face it, Susan, if it didn't, I wouldn't take your calls. Is he gone?
He left for work five minutes ago.
Ray, I know you think you hurt the people around you.
You disappoint them, but you never disappoint me.
Did I say that? I must be losing my mind.
The suicide tape, "Whatever I do, I end up hurting you. "
He ever say anything like that on the air?
Ray, talk about an actual feeling? No.
There's one other place Susan might've heard it.
Ray, I know you think you hurt the people around you.
You disappoint them, but you never disappoint me.
Voice is so low. Doesn't sound familiar.
How many women were in his group?
Two. At this point, I have to bow out.
I have a group to conduct.
But Nelda has been fully briefed by our lawyer.
Susan presented herself as a housewife,
but she talked about a class she was taking in college.
One of the women is a graduate student in the city.
Very sweet and soft-spoken.
Why was she here?
A suicide attempt.
She was being sexually harassed by a professor.
She tried to jump off the balcony of her student dorm.
She was on ziprasidone, an anti-psychotic.
She was schizophrenic?
No. Ziprasidone can be combined with standard SSRI to treat depression.
You're not an MD, are you?
I'm certified as a prescribing nurse.
Excuse me.
How did you know about ziprasidone?
Well, my mother takes it, for schizophrenia.
You know, but it makes her very restless.
There's other drugs available without that side effect.
I could look them up.
Well, I'm sure you're very busy,
and, you know, between your job and home.
You have kids? Your wedding ring.
Oh. You're very vigilant.
No, no kids. Just my husband.
She seems very nice, your partner.
She is. She's a great partner.
Really? You don't feel you carry more than your fair share of the work?
No. We have complementary skills.
It's kind of you to say that.
Sorry. That was Carver.
I needed to talk to him. Can I borrow your... Thanks.
He should be careful. And so should you.
He told me about his mother.
When there's a pre-disposition to schizophrenia,
it can manifest itself under stress.
You should watch him.
Hey, we need to get back into the city.
Thank you so much. You've been really a great help.
I'm supposed to keep an eye on you.
And I'm supposed to think you're not carrying your weight.
Splitting. It's how she forms alliances.
It's splitting people against each other.
The grad student's been in Colorado the last three months.
Just for drill, get her on the phone, make a tape for voice comparison.
The nurse is a better candidate.
A married career woman?
Hard to see how she found time to stalk Garnett.
I have to... I'll call you later.
She's not married.
I got those.
Detective? What are you...
I didn't mean to ambush you.
You know, but this morning you had talked about
new treatments for schizophrenia.
I'm seeing my mother's doctor tomorrow.
Right. I found a new regimen using risperidone.
It's less likely to produce restlessness.
How old were you when she developed symptoms?
Seven.
She's been slipping away from me my whole life.
I just can't seem to let go of her, you know what I mean?
Look, thanks.
Maybe I can get the name of that drug from you.
I already wrote it down. I was gonna send it to you.
Thanks.
You think we could get together sometime for a cup of coffee or something?
Detective, I'm a married woman.
No, you're not, Nelda.
You've been divorced for six years.
You still wear your wedding ring.
You haven't stopped loving him.
You have a big heart, I like that.
Maybe when we see each other next time, you can call me Robert?
Hello?
Just wanted to make sure that you got up to your apartment okay.
Yes, I did. Thank you. Good night, Robert.
Voice tests on the grad student
and Nelda Carlson were inconclusive.
It doesn't seem Mr. Garnett was at the clinic long enough
for these ladies to fixate on him.
Well, it wouldn't take much.
Simple act of kindness, even a compliment is enough to provoke a passionate response.
Turn them into your instant best friends.
Borderline personality behavior.
Between these two baskets, where do you want to put the eggs?
The nurse?
Well, we don't know what her capacity for violence is
or even if she's prone to intense attachments.
Ask her ex-husband.
If she has a hard time letting go, he'll know.
I'll talk to him.
The tape of the nurse, what do you think?
Of her?
Of him. Little personal?
He was just playing her.
That a souvenir badge?
It's for Nelda Carlson.
You pinning her?
Well, she's very, you know, empathetic.
You gave her a lot to be empathetic about.
Is Nelly suspected of something?
The D.A. Might need her to testify in a homicide case,
so we need to do a background check.
I'd rather not talk to you till I, you know, discuss it with her first.
We're still friendly, you see. No problem.
We can do it another time.
Geez, I'm sorry you had to drive all the way up to Connecticut.
Next time, do what I do, take the train.
I'll keep that in mind.
Oh, damn.
Do you have tissue and water? My nephew spit up on me this morning.
Thank you. It's terrific, how you and Nelly have stayed friends.
Does she get along with your girlfriend?
Girlfriend?
Well, the considerate person that made that lunch for you.
Oh, yeah.
Nelly thought I was putting on weight, so she worked out a diet for me.
She comes over in the morning after I leave and makes me up a bunch of food.
You've got it pretty good.
She takes care of the laundry, the groceries.
All that TLC, I'm surprised you ever left.
I kicked her out. I had to.
Nelly can go from zero to intense in about two seconds flat.
I couldn't take it.
Well, you didn't kick her very far.
What'd she do, cut a deal with you to stick around?
W - VYS, that's Ray Garnett's station.
Oh, yeah. Nelly got that for me. Garnett was a patient at her clinic.
I was a big fan.
You listen every morning? All those women calling in?
Yeah, I know he wasn't PC, but I'd get on one of those
cell phone-free train cars,
put my earphones on, and laugh like an idiot.
Why cell phone-free?
All that TLC from Nelly comes at a price.
She calls every hour.
My commute's the only time I can get away from her.
Oh.
Like right now, she's about a half an hour overdue.
Is it...
Yeah, it's my badge number.
Well, it's not gonna get you out of any,
you know, traffic tickets, but...
So thoughtful.
Well, I wanted to show you my appreciation
for, you know, the research you did for my mother.
Well, I hope it helped. I made a list for you.
Web sites, about the drug I mentioned,
and an article on family-to-family support groups.
It's important for you to know you're not alone, Robert.
Wow. No one's ever...
That's really nice of you to do.
You didn't have to do that. Thank you.
You know, I found his body. Ray Garnett.
He asphyxiated himself with carbon monoxide.
That must have been awful.
It was.
A lot of the details were, you know, left out of the media reports.
So thoughtful.
Oh, you have a meeting at 1:00?
Yes.
Let me help you with that.
Thanks.
Your academy photo. These things are almost impossible to get.
It ran in the PBA newsletter 12 years ago.
She found a copy.
This woman's got it bad for you.
Yeah, but I'm not sure how fixated she is on Ray Garnett.
She had no interest in the details of his death.
You said that her ex-husband was a fan?
A devoted listener.
With a devoted ex-wife who just can't seem to let go of him.
I'll pull his LUDs.
She started calling Garnett's show from her ex-husband's place
one week after Garnett was at her clinic.
Each call coincided with the on-air calls from the woman who called herself Susan.
She indulged in sexual fantasies while her husband listened
from his commuter train.
First prove Ms. Carlson switched Mr. Garnett's medication.
There's no evidence she was even in his home.
If she was in Garnett's house, she wouldn't be able to resist
taking a trophy to give to her ex-husband as proof of her devotion to him.
Then let's ask Mr. Carlson.
Well, he might not know.
She hid this in my breast pocket.
Now, I might not have noticed it until I had my suit cleaned.
But for her, simply knowing that it was in my possession was satisfaction enough.
If we ask Carlson and he doesn't know, we could blow our chance.
Then may I suggest a search warrant?
Well, whatever the trophy is, it's not gonna have his name on it.
We're gonna have to get her to point it out.
You know, the phone calls from his house,
they implicate him as much as they implicate her.
Can I come in?
Yes, of course, Robert.
How did you know where to find me?
Your ex-husband told my partner that you're here in the mornings.
Why was she talking to him?
My partner convinced our boss that Barry was obsessed with Garnett
and that he's responsible for his death.
He was a fan, but...
My partner traced calls
from Barry's phone to Garnett's radio station.
Oh, my God.
She's got a warrant. She's on her way here.
They can't do this to my Barry. He's innocent.
I know that Barry is important to you and I want to help you protect him.
Is there anything here that can tie Barry to Garnett?
No, I'm sure there's nothing.
They'll tear this place apart. Now, you gotta think.
'Cause if there's something here that belongs to Garnett...
If he did, I would have seen it.
This is the police. We have a warrant to search the premises.
Ms. Carlson, is your ex-husband home?
He left for work 15 minutes ago.
This is a copy of a warrant for...
Yeah, I explained to her why you're here.
Good. Then later you can explain to me why you're here.
Nelly? I got a call from my office the police were here?
I left word for them to notify you.
What the hell is going on?
It's all in here.
Barry, you should go back to work and I'll keep an eye on them.
This is about Ray Garnett? This is nuts. I'm staying put.
If he stays, he'll get upset that people are touching his things.
All right, we don't want any trouble, Mr. Carlson,
so maybe you should just wait outside...
Mr. Carlson, since you're on the premises,
I'm gonna ask you to empty your pockets and open your briefcase.
What? Yeah, why don't you just
come over here, Mr. Carlson?
This is ridiculous.
You know, you should hold on to your keys, 'cause we don't want to lose those.
You know, my partner says that you were a huge fan of Ray Garnett.
I listened to him. In the mornings, right?
In one of those cell phone-free train cars?
How did he put it?
The only time he can get away from Nelda.
Well, that's not a very nice thing to say.
I mean, she makes your lunch, cleans your house.
Nelly's just being nice.
Just being nice? I wish that I could call her Nelly
and evoke the feelings that she has when she hears you say it.
I mean, it's like a sweet glue that holds her together, you know?
You know, knowing that you eat the food that she prepares and you sleep
in the sheets that she irons for you.
You know, without that connection, she disintegrates.
Nelly knows we're just friends.
You sure about that?
Why do you think we're here?
These calls were made from your phone to Ray Garnett's radio show.
Hundreds of calls over five months.
I didn't make these calls. I was on a train.
Nelly? Why were you calling him?
That only time when you can get away from her,
she found another way to be with you.
The young men, they pretend that they're taking notes,
but I caught them looking at me.
All they think about is sex.
Well, that's all I think about, Susan.
I might as well be naked in that class.
Would you like to be naked?
With all those guys around? And those hot college chicks?
Be naked with them?
I think... I think I would.
Oh, my God. That girl Susan, that was you on the phone?
Live from your bed, probably.
Barry, don't... Please, don't.
Come on, don't look so disgusted, Barry.
You didn't enjoy her fantasies?
You know, her demonstrations, her unchained devotion to you?
Well, it made the long hours without you more bearable.
And then Garnett's station started screening his calls,
and Nelda couldn't get on the air anymore.
Garnett cut you off.
And he got in between you and Barry.
You could hardly catch your breath.
You started to fall apart.
And you got enraged.
And you had to punish him. And you knew exactly how,
because you're a prescribing nurse
and you have access to all kinds of drugs and placebos...
Robert, stop this.
You bullied the maid,
got into the home, you switched the pills.
You can't think I'm capable of that.
You're as capable as your obsession is profound.
You waited for the maid to tell you
that he was starting to try and buy painkillers again.
And that's when you knew that his spiral was almost complete,
his suicide was imminent.
You went to his place, switched back his pills,
so the autopsy would show he'd been taking his anti-depressants.
She's lying.
Is she?
The embroidery on the key chain.
You know, I have something like that.
Nelda made this for me. She make that for you?
Yeah, she gave it to me last month.
You ever look at it closely?
You see, entwined into the weave, that black, shiny thread?
Well, actually, it's not thread. It's hair.
Long, human hair.
I'll bet a DNA test will show they belong to Ray Garnett.
What?
She made a special memento for you.
A keepsake, to commemorate her visit to your idol's home.
Yes, I did it. But I got the hairs from the clinic when he stayed there.
I knew how much you enjoyed his show.
I wanted you to have something of his, something that no one else had.
So you got the hair from the clinic when Garnett was there,
detoxing from his addiction to painkillers?
Yes.
So if we test the hair, it should show traces of the painkiller.
But it won't, will it?
Robert, why are you doing this?
I thought you cared about me.
You're under arrest, Nelda.
You said you knew, you knew how important Barry is to me.
I just wanted to be connected to him, that's why I did it.
I thought you liked Susan's stories.
Why couldn't you just leave me alone?
Don't say that. Let me go!
I have to be with him! No. Robert, please.
How can you be so cruel?
Don't take me away from him.
Hey, come on...
Don't you care about me at all?
I know you do, I saw it.
I didn't mean for you to see it.
No! No, Barry!
Don't leave me! Please don't leave me!
Don't leave me!