Missing (NCIS)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Missing
Colour =
Series = NCIS
Season = 1
Episode = 20


Airdate = 4 May 2004
Production = 1x20
Season list = Infobox NCIS season 1 episode list
Episode list = List of "NCIS" episodes
Prev = Dead Man Talking
Next = Split Decision

"Missing" is the 20^th episode of the drama television series "NCIS".

Plot

NCIS is called when a Marine goes missing.

The marine had been having an affair with a reporter from the Washington Post and while at a bar, had revealed to her that several Marines had gone missing and he feared he would be next. A drink brought for him by an unknown person turns out to be spiked with a drug that knocks him out. When he awakes, he finds himself chained to a wall somewhere underground. His assailant does not reveal their identity but over a week, releases a swarm of bees into the cell holding the missing Marine and leaves in the room a silver chain bearing a cross.

At first, suspicion falls on his current Commanding Officer as the two had previously been involved in a brawl and had served in the Philippines. This suspicion increases when it is discovered by Abby that three other members of the unit have also gone missing in the past eight years. All were dishonorably discharged for desertion. A check on one other missing former unit member reveals that he was found dead after being chained to a wall for several months.

Fearing that the CO is a serial killer, DiNozzo tails him, hoping he will lead him to the missing marine. While at the bar, DiNozzo is drugged and becomes a prisoner himself. The missing Marine confesses to him that while in the Philippines, the unit members had found girlfriends and, not willing to leave them behind, had shipped them over to the US in cargo containers. However, the Marines had been split up and without enough food and water to last the journey, the girls had succumbed to starvation.

DiNozzo manages to free the Marine and together they set off through the sewer maze, pursued by the CO, who had tracked them down, and Gibbs and Kate. It is revealed that the CO was not the serial killer when the waitress at the bar reveals herself to the group. She was one of the girls locked in the cargo container. She had barely survived and over the last eight years, exacted revenge for the deaths of her friends.