Cold Case

the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event

(indistinct shouting,"Corduroy" by Pearl Jam playing)

You're finally here and I'm a mess...

I can see from down there that you have not shaved.

Why is that?

Why are you staring at me?

Do you think I am attractive?

You better tuck in that bottom lip.

Double time and down to the quad.

Is that understand?

Sir,yes,sir!

Go!

*************

Caretaker relocating graves came across a bastard coffin.

- No headstone. - Perfect place to bury a body.

CSU found a duffel bag and personal items buried underneath the box.

Idiot bag.Bears a book of knowledge to be worn by knobs at all times.

- Knobs?- First-year cadets,military school.

Shave their heads to look like knobs.

Well,this knob got a name?

ID says Kate Butler.Parents reported her missing three years ago from...

Pennsylvania Military Institute.

Oh,I remember this girl.

PMI.That's in what,Bucks County?

How she wind up out here?

Weekend leave in the city?

Except this box is a military footlocker.

Issued by the school.

Fractured skull,possible blunt-force trauma.

Could be our murder weapon right here--

seven-pound hand weight with her initials on it.

Yeah,we'll have those examined for blood or hair.

Corroded laptop,clothes.

Made it look like she ran away.

Got her in there without cutting up the body.

Had to be before rigor set in.

So she's murdered on campus,stuffed in a footlocker.

Driven all the way out here,30 miles away?

Hoping it would never get tied back to the school.

Well,it just did.

COLD CASE Season 6 Episode 22

All-male for 162 years.

Well,mid -'90s,Justice Department forced almost every state military academy to admit qualified female applicants.

Even Valley Forge and the Citadel are coed now.

PMI was one of the last holdouts till four years ago.

Can't believethis is still an issue.

Male institutions dragging their feet to admit women?

Yeah,glad that's behind us.

Next thing you know,they'll start letting 'em be detectives.

Kate Butler was one of two female cadets who entered PMI in the fall of '05.

Missing clothes,laptop.

Assigned figured she ran away.

Well,the body changes all that.

What happened to the other girl?

Uh,Courtney Gaines.Went into the infirmary after the first day,gone within a week.

Butler almost made it to Thanksgiving.

School reported her missing when she didn't show up for chapel on Sunday morning.

Campus computer system had her swiping out her ID card at the front gate night before,8:26 p.m.

Well,ID was found with the body.

Possible her killer swiped her card on the way out?

Used the footlocker to get the body off campus,but he still needed a car.

I'll look into parking permits.

Victim's father's downstairs,just coming from the morgue.

Mother's on her way in now.

Separated when they lost their daughter.

Autopsy report.

ME confirmed blunt-force trauma.

Kate's hand weight matched the contusion.

Could have been killed in her own room.

Had a stress fracture in her pelvis.

Undetermined cause.Possible sexual assault?

I'll check the PMI infirmary records.

Latest from the crime scene.

Thanks.How you doing?

Billy moved out this morning.

Finally asked him for a divorce.

I didn't know you were gonna do that.

Ah,I know,right?

Time to move on.

Yeah.

- So,um,see you around? - Yeah,sure.Yeah.

Still have her room the way it was.

Every time the phone rang,a little part of me...

hoping it was her,you know?

We're thinking she may have been killed on campus,Mrs. Butler.

Have you informed her father yet?

He's handling the identification.

Nothing he loved more than that school.

Lot of folks have a problem with her attending PMI?

Including her own father.

He never wanted Kate to go there in the first place.

His alma mater.

She was just as stubborn as he was.

Force of her own.

Never even told us she was applying till after she was accepted.

Mr.Butler was concerned for her safety?

Concern for his daughter?

You'd have to ask him.

Graduated in '78 before I got my commission.

I went to PMI because that's where my father went.

His father before him.

Footlocker we found her body in was from PMI,Mr.Butler.

I think that's how the killer got her body off campus.

I don't want Charlotte to ever see those pictures.

So,how she holding up?

Well,she said you never wanted Kate to go to PMI,that you had a difficult relationship with your daughter.

I knew what she was gonna be up against.

She did it to prove me wrong.

Her mother blamed me for what happened.

Why would she blame you?

She didn't tell you?

Kate would have done anything for her father,but you don't defy Hank Butler.

She'd made up her mind.

I always sided with my husband,but there comes a time when a child needs more than just tough love.

Hank?

Your daughter's going off to college.

Do you intend to say good-bye to her?

Dadd That I feel I know you don't want me to do this.

I just want you to know...

I'm not gonna let you down.

Good-bye,Daddy.

If you can't hack it,don't bother coming home.

Do you think that was...

an ultimatum or a-a means of motivation?

Either way,I always thought it was the reason my baby never came back.

Blamed your husband for that.

Kate didn't need any more people against her.

This is all the hate mail she got before she even set foot on campus.

Did you show these to the police before?

They said they looked into it.

They told us that she ran away.

I guess that's not true now,is it?

Did you talk to Commandant Murillo?

We will.

Thanks for coming in,Mr. Butler.

Sure.

You better find the son of a bitch who did this before I do.

When Cadet Butler didn't return to campus,we assumed that she'd eventually show up on her parents' doorstep.

Got new information indicates she may have been killed on campus.

I find that hard to believe.

First year is difficult,but we have standards of safety for all cadets,male or female.

But there are no female cadets presently enrolled?

Yes,well,it's a rather limited applicant pool.

Maybe if you put a woman on your brochure,see what happens.

Gonna need access to all school records and grounds.

I've been ordered to give you whatever you need.

Cadet Gardner here will show you to Moe.

He's my Operations Officer.

Now,if you'll excuse me...

Attention on the quad!

All hail the Commandant.

Saw a bumper sticker on the lot.

God,country and PMI.

Gotta figure the Commandant's next on that list.

Thought they were supposed to look straight ahead.

Sir,not every day a pretty blonde walks across campus,sir.

Of course I remember Kate Butler.

It was my job to implement the necessary changes to accommodate female cadets on campus.

I don't think these were the accommodations she had in mind.

Got a way to track that footlocker,Moe?

Please.

Two in every room,but,uh,we don't assign them to any particular cadet.

One goes missing,who requisitions a replacement?

No inventory.We just replace them as they fall apart at the end of the year.

Must be,uh,thousands of them.

Sounds odd for a place that keeps such meticulous records.

Like the computer log you supplied back in '05.

Showed the exact time Kate left campus.

It goes into a computer any time a cadet swipes their ID at the front gate.On or off campus.

We're gonna need a list of registered cars and parking permits that year.

Infirmary records,any injuries Kate may have incurred.

Whatever you need.

- Lawrence. - Yes,Major.

You know if Kate had any problems with another cadet?

Every fourth class cadet has a rough go of it.

What about the funion of being a girl?

That get personal?

Well,she never filed a complaint.

Look,I'd be lying to you to say there wasn't resentment among some of the cadets.

Why?She get special consideration?

It didn't matter much.

That girl was determined to be one of the guys.

Major,it is still too long.

How short do you want it,Commandant?

I have no idea.

She still looks like a girl.

With all due respect,sir,she is a girl.

And we don't have a female precedent.

Courtney.Don't.

Don't what?

Well,keep cutting till we find one.

I'm gonna be a knob,I might as well look like one.

Still,cutting your hair doesn't mean you can cut the mustard here at PMI.

This program is just too demanding for most women.

- Kate have a boyfriend on campus? - No,ma'am.

We instituted a non-fraternization policy the year women were admitted.

Yeah,'cause those always work.

Damned if you do,damned if you don't,Detective.

We'd like to see her room.

- Lawrence,show them the barracks. - Yes,sir.