Murdoch Mysteries: Season 1, Episode 8

1 - 8: Still Waters

The body of Richard Hartley, the newest member of a prestigious men’s rowing team, is found washed up on a beach after a night of drinking with his teammates. According to his fiancée, Minerva Fairchild, Hartley had just replaced the team’s top rower Horace Briggs, who admits he’d been disappointed when he was bumped from the team – but not enough to kill. As the evidence mounts, it seems increasingly apparent that Hartley was killed in an initiation hazing gone wrong. Sure enough, the team’s coach admits that Hartley would have cost them a spot at the Olympics, so he instructed the boys to put him out of action so they could bring Briggs back. When things got rough, Hartley panicked and ran into the lake – but he was a strong swimmer; they never dreamed he’d drown. Still no closer to the truth, Murdoch orders a test on the water in Hartley’s lungs – and that’s when the investigation finally blows wide open.