Cold Case/Maternal Instincts

Maternal Instincts
Season 1, Episode 21
Airdate	April 25, 2004
Production Number	176720
Written by	Laurie Arent
Directed by	Kevin Hooks
← 1x20 Greed	1x22 → The Plan
Cold Case — Season One

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Maternal Instincts is the twenty-first episode of the first season of Cold Case.

Starring: Kathryn Morris (Detective Lilly Rush), Danny Pino (Detective Scotty Valens), John Finn (Lt. John Stillman), Jeremy Ratchford (Detective Nick Vera), Thom Barry (Senior Detective Will Jeffries)

Guest Starring: W. Earl Brown (Victor Lake), Bahni Turpin (Lindsey Dunlay), Channing Chase (Sally Frandsen), Jim O'Heir (Ned Ryan), Ashton Holmes (Sean Morgan / Bobby Gordon), Neal Matarazzo (Jeff Gordon), Tracy Middendorf (Rebecca Morgan / Linda Frandsen), Susan Chuang (Frannie Ching), J. Downing (Leon Kincade)

and Michael Nouri (Kyle Silver)

Co-Starring: Heidi Bohay (Sally Frandsen (87)), Elan O'Connor (Mia Gordon (87)), Debra Sullivan (Mia Gordon (04))

Plot Overview

The date is October 11, 1989. A young mother is brutally stabbed to death in her home while her then-three-year-old son watches. Fast-forward to 2004, and the boy has grown into a 17-year-old punk with a record of violent offenses. A court psychologist who's an old friend of Lilly's asks her and Scotty to reach out to the young man, who, while difficult to talk to, tells her that he remembers 'red and yellow balloons' and 'a train'. With only that to go on, the case is re-opened, and it's discovered that the victim had ties to several men, at least one of whom visited her the day of the murder. The detectives get a pair of shocks when they discover that the victim had stolen someone else's identity--that of a young college student killed in a car crash--and also that she had never given birth at all!

Trivia

The Show

Some of the songs featured in this episode: "Closer to Fine" by the Indigo Girls, "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison, "Love In an Elevator" by Aerosmith, "Listen to Your Heart" by Roxette and "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles.