2.04: "Lt. Jane Doe"

by Sammie

Kate and Tony come in, Kate saying she would have returned the extra change Tony got. Tony keeps rationalizing - it would be more than the change just to drive back, blah blah blah. Kate isn't buying it. She tells him it'll come back to whack him. Just as they go out to the crime scene, Tony spills his drink all over himself. Kate snickers.

Dead lieutenant found by two sailors on leave.... Petty Officer Cluxton, who had watch that day, wore gloves and took care of the crime scene. Kate praises her. Gibbs just ignores her (for which Kate calls him on later.) She used to work with McGee, who talks about his transfer.

McGEE. Uh, you know, one minute I'm in Norfolk, the next -
GIBBS.You're back at Norfolk maybe even permanently, McGee. (Hehe.)

Ducky's off to London for an assembly of the the Collegium Mortum Scrutinium - Society of Medical Examiners. (Hey, Kate took Latin, too! Awesome.) He's all afire to go until he sees the trident on her neck. Then he not only does not go to London, he gets grouchy with Abby and disappears to Norfolk.

ABBY. I got to I.D. her fast, to keep the hound at bay.
GIBBS. I'm more Jack Russell Terrier.
ABBY. No, not you, Gibbs. Ducky. He's barking at my heels like a dog with the mange.
GIBBS. He's still here?
ABBY. He's in autopsy. And he's so grouchy he'll give you a run for your money.
McGEE. If I said that to Gibbs, I would be seeing stars.
ABBY. Well, that's the advantage of being me.

Tony disappears for forty-five minutes, and Kate can't believe it. He starts to tell her what he did, and she covers her ears - she's afraid to know. Turns out he tried to return the money...but then the girl wasn't there, so he didn't. He also bought coffee for Gibbs - to "tame the beast" when Kate tells him they have nothing.

Gibbs comes in, and Tony is offering the coffee to him when he accidentally spills it on himself. Normally, I'd feel very sorry for him, but considering that thing about the change, I'm with Kate in laughing. Kate's reporting to Gibbs when Tony offers an explanation for a military acronym.

KATE. I've been here a year, Tony. I know the acronyms.
TONY. [STILL DRYING THE COFFEE OFF HIMSELF] Ah, a year. Seems like only yesterday you were mixing up NAV-SOCs with NAV-SUPs. Our little girl's growing up fast, isn't she, boss?
GIBBS. [BOPS HIM ON THE HEAD]
TONY. Ow! What was that for?
GIBBS. Not growing up!

Neither Kate nor Abby have any news for Gibbs. Then Ducky comes in...knowing a lot more information than he should.

Ten years ago, a Navy corpsman was out jogging when he found a body. A Navy lieutenant was found raped and murdered with a trident on her neck, but her DNA and prints were nowhere on the military databases. The profiler thought that the killer dressed the girl in a Navy lieutenant uniform to fulfill a revenge fantasy, most likely serving under a female officer he didn't like. ('94 was the first time women officers deployed on combat ships.) Dawes was the NCIS agent who took care of the. Nada.

It's the one Jane Doe Ducky never identified and was never able to tell her family.

The sperm from the ten-year-old case matches that in the recent victim. Plus matching notes.

They ID the recent victim as Janice Santos, but Kate isn't buying it all. The recent victim is dark, Hispanic; the Jane Doe isn't, among other things. They hit upon the idea - what if the sperm was inserted into Santos post-mortum to make it look like she was killed by the same guy who killed the Jane Doe?

To bolster that idea? The killer of the first Jane Doe's dead. Heart attack. Uh oh.

HIGHLIGHT BETWEEN THE ~ FOR THE ENDING: ~ Turns out P.O. Cluxton was dating Santos and something happened; she got mad and killed her. The agent who worked that case was Dawes...who was Cluxton's biological father. (Cluxton took a different last name.) ~

Ducky has the body of the Jane Doe cremated and buried in a quite little cemetery. He was never able to identify her, but he thinks they both will have peace now.

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Crazy Credits

• Donnie Jeffcoat (Seaman Jennings) is credited with Harmon in "After the Promise", and Jack Kehler in "Wyatt Earp".

• from LACoroner:
  In Ducky's case, this [Lt. Jane Doe case] was the one case that A.) Never got a name and B.) Never went home. The only one at this juncture of his career. So I can see his sense of frustration and longing to bring closure to this one case. Most folks in my office have been doing this for years and years...yet they still get excited as schoolgirls at a Sadie Hawkins dance when they finally ID a body...and then the icing on the cake is then locating family...sometimes easy, sometimes very hard.

  I do what I do because it is fun, rewarding, exasperating, frustrating, exhilarating, satisfying and life-affirming. I felt Ducky's sense of failure/frustration because we all think we live in a Mayberry/Brady Bunch world when in fact we live in a world that is fractured, disjointed and cast adrift in way too many cases. Sure there are those that have outlived all of their next of kin, but there are far more that still have family that don't know they are dead/missing, don't care, aren't looking, don't find it unusual not to hear from or try to speak to a close relative for months or years at a time. The worst ones are the families we know we have found, but they chose not to respond because they are afraid they might be asked to pay for the disposition of the remains (which they won't unless they want the remains/cremains).

  I suspect that there are many cardio-surgeons that are haunted by surgeries that had outcomes different than what they anticipated going in. I don't think that makes them less effective...on the contrary, I think it makes them more respectful of the risks of what they do.