The Big Switch

Originally Aired: January 12, 1954

Dragnet #230, "The Big Switch," Sergeants Joe Friday and Frank Smith investigate what initially appears to be a young woman's suicide attempt at a cheap hotel on Grand Avenue. When a desk clerk discovers Mona Fenton unconscious in a gas-filled room, stuffed sheets around the windows suggest she intended to die. At Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, Dr. Hall delivers troubling news: not only might the carbon monoxide have caused permanent brain damage, but examination reveals needle marks indicating the 20-something woman is an addict. The case grows more suspicious when Friday and Smith learn that Mona checked in as "Mrs. John North" with a man who has since vanished, though her mother confirms she's single.

At the hotel, Friday and Smith find a room showing signs of heavy drinking and a possible struggle, including a bruise on Mona's face that doesn't fit the suicide scenario. With the mysterious male companion disappeared, no baggage left behind, and inconsistent details about the room's condition, the detectives begin to suspect this wasn't a suicide attempt at all, but something far more sinister.

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