Episode Number:   178
Episode Name: Vanished
Directed By: Julian McSwiney
Written By: Sam De Brito
Screen Date: Adelaide: Monday, 16th August 2004
Rest of Australia: Tuesday, 17th August 2004
Viewers: 628,424
Repeated: None
Rating: M15+
Preview: None
   
Description: When a young woman goes missing from a popular Fitzroy hotel, Homicide fear a serial killer is operating and call in Undercover to help. Claire Driscoll has been gone less than 24 hours, but she's the third woman to disappear near the hotel in under five months. It can't be a coincidence.

Angie is placed in the pub as a barmaid to get closer to the hotel owner and prime suspect, Benjamin Mortlock. Things look promising when she locates Claire's leather jacket in Benjamin's living quarters above the hotel. However, physical evidence soon rules out foul play. Benjamin claims to have found the jacket at closing time and the D's have to swallow his story. For now.

Angie continues her investigation at the hotel but is blindsided when she leaves for home and is picked up a by sleazy cabbie who locks her in his taxi. The driver Marin Lussich, becomes a second suspect in the disappearances but this is diluted when forensics find no trace of the missing girls in his cab.

Matters are further complicated with the discovery of a drugged bottle of water at the hotel bearing Claire's prints. The narcotics in the bottle also match the type being dealt by Claire's boyfriend Graham Boone, who's not as squeaky clean as first thought. The D's are chasing three horses and no closer to an arrest.

Meanwhile, Flynn and new recruit Megan Walsh make a routine cocaine bust only to find the drugs they've confiscated are icing sugar. Internal Affairs is called into to examine Flynn's claims of innocence as the rest of the team fight the clock to find Claire.

Suspicion over Claire's disappearance swings back and forth between Benjamin, Marin and Graham, until Megan provides a vital piece of the puzzle through an intimidating act of bravery.
   
Media Release: Not enough to have salf rubbed into its wounds by airing during the Olympics,when most of the other shows are on hiatus, it now screens after two hours of CSI repeats. At least this is a stong episode, with the team following a trail of a missing women back to a Fitzroy pub with a dodgy owner and a dodgy past. And there's drama when it looks like a cop involved in a sting has swapped cocaine with icing sugar. Hmmmm.

Watch for: Angie (Kate Kendall) having doubts over her ablilities, post-parenthood.
   
Guest Cast: LISA CHAPPELL as Megan Walsh
JEREMY KEWLEY as Bryan Gray
RICHARD MORGAN as Reg Masters
KATRINA MILOSEVIC as Sophie Novak
GIGI EDGLEY as Katherine Marks
JOHN RIDLEY as Det. Snr Sgt Eric Chatterly
JEFF TRUMAN as Det. Snr Sgt Angus Tufnell
ANDREW S. GILBERT as Benjamin Mortlock
JEFF KOVSKI as Marin Lussich
RYAN HAYWARD as Graham Boone
BRENDAN BACON as Marcel Gibbs
OLIVIA TRUSSELL as Claire Driscoll
JANE HOPKINS as Joyce Driscoll
JO HALL as Newsreader
   
Music Credits: FROM THE SEA
(Quartermain/Macleod/Beaton)
Mushroom Music Publishing
Performed by Eskimo Joe
Licensed courtesy of Festival Mushroom Records

NO THROUGH ROAD
(Larkin/Satchell/Vanderwert/Bourke)
J. Albert & Son Pty Ltd
Performed by Dallas Crane
Licensed courtesy of Albert Productions
   


















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