Cold Case Episode 6.05 Shore Leave

The skeleton of a body is found in an oil drum during the cleanup of an industrial waste area. It turns out the be the body of Private First Class Tully, a well-respected Marine who went AWOL the on his last night of shore leave before his ship left for the Korean War in 1951. He had been dishonorably discharged and his family has felt that shame ever since. Tully was a minor hero to his fellow soldiers: on the afternoon of their shore leave, he won a key boxing match against the Navy who were transporting them. Rush and her team piece together Tully's last night, revealing a young passionate man filled with integrity; that night he went barhopping with friends, defended a young Marine his superiors wanted to get rid of and fell in love with a beautiful woman. Though there are plenty of suspects, including the rival Navy fighter, an angry local longshoreman and some of his fellow Marines, ultimately his own Sargent killed him because Tully refused to go along with a lie that would falsely discredit his fellow Marine.