Michael Keppler

Michael Keppler was a fictional character on the show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Hailing from Trenton, New Jersey, he worked with the CSI team of Las Vegas on the graveyard shift, filling in for Gil Grissom who was on a four week sabbatical. In real life, actor William Petersen (Gil Grissom) took a four-week vacation to Connecticut to perform for a theatre group. Michael Keppler was portrayed by acclaimed actor Liev Schreiber.

Fictional character biography

Childhood
Michael Keppler was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in either 1966 or 1967 (his age was cited as 40 in an on-screen database capture). He is an only child to his parents Herb and Roberta. His mother was a homemaker, while his father was a plumber. When Keppler was three years old, his father was killed in a car accident. This forced his mother to take her young son and move in with her "hippie" sister. After this, she never remarried.

As a child, Michael wasn't allowed to watch television; his mother forbade it. Instead, he would read and play sports out in the neighborhood. He was forced to grow up fast, becoming the tough Jewish kid in an all-Irish neighborhood at school and emerging as the "man" around the house.

His high school career was relatively average. He played sports and was even the tight end on the football team. He wasn't one for alternative lifestyles or the drug scene, but he did enjoy a night out in the woods drinking with his boys. Whenever he would listen to music, however, he didn't exactly go mainstream and kosher with bands such as Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Squeeze, or Metallica. In his sophomore year, he got a job at a local garage to help out with the bills after his aunt moved to New Mexico; it was in this garage that he learned all about cars.

In Michael's junior year, he met a freshman girl named Amy McCarty, with whom he fell in love. During his senior year, he and Amy planned to get married after she was finished with high school. He wanted them to move to Manhattan, where he would become a fireman and she could raise a family. Their dreams of a happy life were ended when Amy allegedly committed suicide on January 22, 1985. Keppler was nearly destroyed by this, but he was eventually able to cope with the help of Amy's father Frank, who became Keppler's surrogate father. Frank had lost his wife a year before losing Amy, his only daughter. The two men forged a bond in grief and love. Frank used the money he'd saved for Amy to help put Keppler through college.

Education
Keppler received his undergraduate degree from SUNY Binghamton, and a Master's Degree in Chemistry from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. At college he was anti-social but soared academically even though he was functioning on little sleep. He became plagued with nightmares. While he was well-liked by everyone, he didn't let anyone get too close.

Early career
Shortly after his graduation, Keppler's mother was diagnosed with bone cancer. He returned home to care for her and began his life's work as a criminalist. After his mother died, he accepted a job in Philadelphia and left to start a new life. While there, he met and married a pretty, if less than challenging, woman. Keppler settled into a suburban life for five years. The problems of his past came back to haunt him, causing his marriage to disintegrate. Keppler began suffering from chronic insomnia. Despite a successful career in Philadelphia, Keppler took a new job in Baltimore. Shortly afterwards he transferred to Las Vegas, where he hoped the miles would put enough distance between himself and his troubled past.

Death
The anniversary of Amy's death brought back memories that he just couldn't shake. 22 years after her death, it still haunted him. Keppler had been receiving numerous voicemail messages from Frank McCarty. The messages were brief and to the point: Frank wanted to see Keppler. Believing that Frank has gotten himself into "another fix", Keppler had been avoiding Frank, but Frank appeared in Vegas on a "vacation" to Vegas with his good friend.

Frank wanted Keppler to help him cover up his murder of a retired police officer. The officer was going to testify against McCarty. McCarty was a dirty cop who helped Keppler kill the man who he thought raped Amy. While investigating the retired cop's murder, Keppler realized that it was Frank who raped his own daughter. He confronted McCarty while McCarty was trying to kill a prostitute who could identify him. Though Frank fatally shot Keppler through the lower chest (in an attempt to hit the witness), Keppler returned fire when Frank pointed the gun at Catherine, who had arrived seconds after Keppler was shot. He put six rounds into McCarty's torso.

Despite the efforts of CSI Catherine Willows and the paramedics, Michael Keppler died in the ambulance. Not counting Detective Cyrus Lockwood who was killed during the bank robbery (episode S03E23, "Inside The Box"), Keppler was the second graveyard-shift CSI (after Holly Gribbs in episode S01E01, "Pilot") in seven years to be murdered (episode S07E15, "Law of Gravity").

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