The Forgotten Episode 1.05 River John

A gunshot rings out in the rain and a man's body is dumped at a storm drain. A pistol with the serial number filed off was found on the gunshot victim, but no ID. Sounds like a case for the Forgotten Network.

Alex Donovan and his team discover the victim crossed paths with a drug dealing street punk named Tre. But their John Doe wasn't looking for drugs. He was looking for his wife. A pricey notebook was found at the scene but the pages are illegible due to water damage. Alex has a friend named Greta who may be able to help decipher the damaged book. There's a lot of hard-to-read tension between these two, but we have no idea why.

Greta manages to restore only one page, a list of local addresses. The locations are all pretty far apart, so they reason the victim drove to each spot. An impounded car contains the victim's prints. It's registered to a Jack Carson, who sold the victim a junker after John Doe's car died. Carson remembers a bell was on the license plate of the victim's original car. Lindsey and Walter check the missing persons lists in the 11 states that have bells on their plates. They find a match for a missing man from Indianapolis. His name: Henry Morse.

Alex meets Henry's neighbor, Jerry, who says he divorced his wife over a year ago. They have a nine-year-old daughter named Claire. Alex tracks down Anna's brother, Frank Breen, who promptly punches Alex in the face. Don't worry, Alex quickly takes down Breen, who says Henry abused his sister. She took off with Claire over a year ago and he hasn't heard from her since.

Alex and Russell go to visit Li's aunt but all they find is an empty apartment. Well, almost empty. Only a bedroom is fully decorated. It appears Li was living alone. They track down Li's aunt, Miss Chen, who says she is not related to Li by blood. Li's parents hired her as a guardian. Li lived with Miss Chen, but the apartment they visited was the one arranged by Li's parents. Li only went there to hang out during the days.

Candace and Tyler head to Northwestern University where they meet Kate, the girlfriend of Li's brother, Quon. Kate is freaking out and it's not because midterms are just around the corner. She's upset because the police are searching Quon's room. When Candace presses her, she takes off. They head back to the prep school where Li's friend, Dana Hayes, agrees to talk to them off campus.

Anna was one of street punk Tre's heroin customers and they made deals at many different random locations. The team re-canvasses the locations found in Henry's notebook, this time looking for Anna. They find the building where Anna was living and surveillance tapes show that Henry actually found his daughter. He looked scared as he shuffled her out of the apartment building. Another man rushed out after them. A neighbor says the second guy lived with Anna and Claire. The mystery man's name is Oscar Temple and he has priors for assault.

A letter filled with cash is found amongst Anna's mail. The return address is from Indianapolis. It came from Henry's neighbor, Jerry, who is a heroin addict. He was sending cash to a fellow junkie. Jerry spoke to Anna recently and she was shocked to hear that Henry was dead. They trace the call that came into Jerry's cell phone from Anna. It came from a landline in Ohio where a drugged-out Anna is now being held at gunpoint by Oscar Temple.

They discover that Miss Chen made a business out of posing as a guardian for parachute kids. She takes their parents' money and then abandons the children. Most kids enjoyed their freedom, but not Li. If Miss Chen had been reported to social services, her entire scam would have been blown. Sounds like a motive to us. But when they track Chen down, Russell says they still can't place her at the scene of the crime.

Lindsey remembers the necklace with the broken clasp. It was a little too high-end to be owned by a 15-year-old high school student. A passport photo shows Miss Chen wearing the necklace. Li ripped it from her neck as she was being attacked.

Miss Chen is charged with murder and Quon's parents arrive from Taiwan to share in his mourning. Li says in a closing voiceover, "In the end, I didn't get to go home after all. But in a way, home came to me." We know that wouldn't have been possible without a little help from the team at the Forgotten Network.