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STATS:Date of Birth: September 16, 1971*
Place of Birth: Tamales Bay, CA*Height: 5'8" *Weight: 107 lbs. *
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown, straight, shoulder length


Sara had a rocky childhood while growing up in California. Her father abused her mother until her mother, no longer able to cope, stabbed him. Sara was placed in foster care while her mother was placed in psychiatric care. Sara moved from one foster home to another and felt uncomfortable at school because she was constantly being moved. She was also intellectually gifted and was moved ahead several grades. She began studying advanced physics at Harvard University while still a teenager and started working at a California crime lab not long after graduating. It was during her early career that she met Gil Grissom, who would later recruit her to work at the Las Vegas crime lab.


Sara moved to Las Vegas at Grissom's invitation after the unfortunate events that take place in the series's pilot episode. Warrick Brown had been accompanying Holly Gribbs, a rookie CSI on her first day on the job, to a crime scene. Warrick left to place a bet on behalf of one of Las Vegas's judges (he's uber corrupt, this one), leaving Holly alone to dust for fingerprints at the crime scene. The suspect returns and Holly is shot and killed. Grissom does not believe that Warrick intended any harm and chooses to bring in someone he knows to conduct the investigation.

At first, Sara's involvement irks some of the other CSIs, particularly Warrick and Catherine Willows. Warrick doesn't take well to her repeated questions about why he left the scene and snaps at her, at which point she tells him that Holly Gribbs died on the operating table a few minutes beforehand.

After heading up the investigation into Warrick's conduct, Sara becomes a member of the crime lab.

Her family background causes a number of problems within her work. While she is generally regarded as a hard-working and devoted CSI -- to the point of being a workaholic -- she is often criticized for becoming emotionally attached to victims and letting her family history taint her perspective. She is unable to deal with cases involving domestic abuse in an objective manner and has, on occasion, lashed out at suspects in said cases. This sort of behaviour earned her an unpaid suspension when she lashed out at Catherine after disagreeing with her handling of a domestic abuse case. It was after this incident that she first revealed her family history to Grissom, who had been charged with the task of deciding whether or not further disciplinary action should be taken.

Despite the incident, Sara was not fired. It appeared as though the lab took greater care in assigning Sara's cases given her family situation from this point on.

Her background also allowed her to connect with certain witnesses, particularly those who had been in the foster care system as children.

Sara's emotional problems and resulting workaholism have been mentioned numerous times throughout the series. Her lack of a life is hinted at very early on, as Grissom tells her she needs to get out more. In an episode dealing with a murder victim who didn't have much of a traditional social life but used the Internet to reach out to people, numerous parallels were drawn between Sara and the victim -- both did their shopping from catalogues, ate mostly takeout, and so on. This episode is notable for its ending, which sees Sara throw out her catalogues and takeout menus, call someone on the phone and ask whether that person wants to go out. While it's never explicitly revealed, it's widely thought that she called Grissom.

At other points during the series, Sara is dating a medic with whom she's worked at several crime scenes. The relationship ends when she discovers that he's cheating on her.

As mentioned, her tendency to become emotionally attached to victims -- particularly female victims of domestic abuse -- has caused some tension with her colleagues. Grissom, as her supervisor, has warned her repeatedly about forming emotional bonds with people because it isn't her job to save them and her feelings will lead her to become distracted from her work. She has also become noticeably frustrated when the police have to let domestic abuse suspects go due to a lack of evidence. It was a scenario such as this one that led to her infamous public fight with Catherine, thus getting her suspended.

Due to how many times she's been told not to get emotionally attached to victims, she becomes offended when Grissom becomes emotionally attached to a murdered infant in one episode. She reminds him that he's told her that no victim is any more special than another; he responds that a baby taken from his own bedroom and found dead in a nearby park is special.

She is generally portrayed as an amiable member of the team; unless she's upset about something, she appears to get along with everyone and has a sense of humour. She, like the other CSIs, engages in well-intended teasing of DNA tech-turned investigator Greg Sanders, who is believed to have a crush on her. She is usually at her most snarky around trace technician David Hodges, who seems to have that effect on people.

As the series progresses, Sara is thought to become somewhat more emotionally stable. Once she explains the reasons behind her sensitivity to domestic abuse cases in season five, she seems to become less inclined to freak out over them. Of course, part of the reason behind her increased stability may be...


Romance with Grissom


... the fact that she's sleeping with her boss. We know that Grissom and Sara have had some kind of thing in the past, as she alludes to it while asking whether that will have any effect on her application for a promotion. When it began is up for debate, with many fans speculating that she was a student in one of his seminars when it started. There have been subtle and less-subtle hints throughout the entire series, including a variety of statements that seem to suggest something more than a professional relationship ("When did you become interested in beauty, anyway?" "When I met you"). People also seemed to be picking up on this, such as when Sara demonstrated some obscure knowledge about entomology, leading other characters to question when she became an insect expert (that's Grissom's thing). When she responded that he gave her a textbook on the subject for Christmas one year, the other characters pointed out that he'd never gotten them anything.

The romance became official at the end of season six.

The very last scene of the season finale sees Grissom half-inclined on a bed, clad in a kimono-like bathrobe, speaking in his usual philosophical manner about how he'd like to die. He'd like to know in advance, he says. He'd prefer to be diagnosed with cancer because, despite being a slow and agonizing way to go, it would give him a chance to see the rainforest one last time and re-read Moby Dick. But most of all, he continues as a woman visible only from the waist down in a pink bathrobe approaches the bed, it would give him a chance to properly say goodbye to those he loves. The woman kneels to his eye level -- it's Sara, OMG -- and says "I'm not ready to say goodbye." And scene.




The couple spends much of season seven trying to make sure the interoffice romance stays a secret. Unfortunately, all their hard work comes crashing down in the season finale when Sara is kidnapped and trapped under a car, and in a fit of panic Grissom announces to the team that the person behind this is acting out of a desire for revenge: "I took away the only thing she ever loved -- and now she's doing the same thing to me." Cue the confused stares from colleagues!