Tracker Season 3 Episode 17 Recap: Colter Races to Save a Missing Teen

By
Rebecca Murray
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Tracker Season 3 Episode 17 Recap
Briana Venskus-Vazquez as Agent Temple and Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw in ‘Tracker’ season 3 episode 17 (Photo: Darko Sikman © 2026 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)

CBS’s Tracker season three, episode 17 travels to Hamilton, Montana where two besties sneak back into one of their homes in the dead of night. One of the girls, Tory, wakes up to a noise and calls out to her friend, Julie. Tory goes looking for her and finds Julie and her parents dead. A man begins whistling, and she hides under the bed, working hard to stifle a scream.

She watches in shock as the man caresses her dead friend’s head. Suddenly, Tory’s pulled feet first out from her hiding place.

(The following is a recap of season three, episode 17 – “Daughters” – and there are spoilers.)

Randy (Chris Lee) calls Colter (Justin Hartley), apologizing for the case he’s about to ask him to handle. Randy admits he’s already told the family Colter will help, but it’s pretty traumatic. Julie and her parents were brutally murdered, and Julie’s friend, 16-year-old Tory, is missing. Tory’s parents are desperate and think the killer took her while she was still alive.

Colter takes the case and meets with Tory’s mom. The police advised her the FBI is on its way, and she just wants her daughter found. She insists her daughter is alive but is scared because the police dogs are searching the surrounding area.

Sheriff Bellows is in charge of the scene and isn’t thrilled about Colter’s presence. He orders Colter off his crime scene. Colter looks around outside and finds a blue pen stuck in the ground and blue material on a leaf. He walks a bit further and sees a branch broken off just as FBI Special Agent Temple (Briana Venskus-Vazquez) walks up. Colter explains Tory’s parents hired him, and both Colter and Temple think this is where the killer watched the house. The blue material is from blue boot covers.

The police believe the killer left through the front door, but Colter disagrees. Temple’s with the Behavioral Analysis Unit and believes the perpetrator has done this before. Colter thinks the killer was watching the house for days and points out multiple spots that prove his point. Temple reveals this guy has done this twice before and always takes a trophy.

He seems to keep his trophy alive for a couple of days to torture them before dumping the bodies. Temple’s working on her own because it’ll be hard to convince her supervisor that it’s the same guy. They both know Tory doesn’t have much time.

They try and figure out how he took Tory, and Colter finds tracks that indicate he put Tory on a drag litter. The killer had outdoor and/or hunting skills. They continue walking through the forest to where he probably parked the car. Given his past, Tory probably has less than 24 hours to live.

We’re shown Tory begging for her life as the killer dresses her up.

Temple’s legal methods of obtaining neighborhood security footage are way too slow, so Colter calls Randy for an assist. Randy hacks into a home security camera near there and sees an RV heading north at 2:37am. The license plate is muddy, but he can make out a couple of numbers and will work on getting the rest.

Temple thinks the killer crosses paths with the victims and then studies them before making his move. Temple believes Julie was the target, not the parents, if this is the same guy. Colter asks to see the crime scene, and Temple warns him it’s brutal.

She shows Colter photos of the dead parents, staged sitting up in bed. They were killed first, and then Julie was stabbed and left on the floor. Temple believes Julie surprised him; he killed her, and then he took Tory.

They look through Julie’s room, and Colter spots photos on a desk that were probably taken last night. The dress Julie was wearing in the photos is in the trashcan. They luck out, and there’s a credit card in the trash can that belongs to Julie’s mom. There’s a charge for a hair salon an hour away last night at 6pm, and that’s where Colter and Temple head.

The stylist confirms Julie’s mom was one of his regulars. He’s shocked to hear about the murders and doesn’t recall seeing anyone strange. The girls told him a professional photographer offered them modeling work, but he doesn’t remember the photographer’s name.

Randy discovered the RV with the partial plate belongs to Nelson Reagan, who has sexual assaults on his record. Reagan’s a photographer and Randy sends Colter his home address.

Tracker Season 3 Episode 17 Recap
Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw and Briana Venskus-Vazquez as Agent Temple in ‘Marshals’ season 3 episode 17 (Photo: Darko Sikman © 2026 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.)

They find the RV and Colter breaks in. It’s set up like a dark room, with photos hanging all over. Colter hears a noise outside and chases Reagan as Temple looks around inside. She locates a bloody knife in a drawer.

Colter tackles Reagan and demands to know where Tory is.

Reagan’s taken to the station and claims he didn’t do anything other than take photos of the girls. Temple shows him the bloody knife used to kill Julie that she found in a drawer. Reagan swears he’s being framed.

Reagan thinks someone stole his RV and asks for a lawyer.

Neither Temple nor Colter thinks Reagan has seen the knife before, and Temple admits he doesn’t match the profile. The knife’s handmade and has a mark on it that might be traceable. Temple confirms this murder was the first time the killer used a knife.

Randy finds the local knifemaker, Amos, and sends the address Colter’s way after warning him that Amos has a violent past. Amos claims he doesn’t know about the knife in question until Colter says the killer took a young girl that they hope is still alive. Amos looks through his receipts and sees he sold it to G. Lee, which is probably a fake name. Fortunately, he has a mailing address where he shipped it.

Night’s fallen when Colter heads to the address while filling Temple in on what he’s learned. He’s going there alone, and she’ll get there as quickly as she can.

Colter makes his way through a building, finding items that could be used to torture victims. He follows noises through a hallway and mistakes Tory for the killer. The killer knocks him out and ties him to a chair.

It turns out the killer is the stylist, and he admits he planted the knife in the photographer’s RV. Colter’s gotten closer to finding him than anyone has before, and Colter claims that’s because he’s gotten sloppy. The killer describes Julie and Tory as having rot in them that needed to be fixed.

Colter keeps him talking, trying to stall until Temple gets there. He asks to see Tory to verify she’s still alive, and when the killer goes to fetch her, Colter begins trying to get out of the chair.

Temple drives up unaware that Colter’s been captured.

The killer tells Tory it’ll be over soon as she begs to be released. He unties her and drags her toward the room where he was keeping Colter, who’s managed to get loose. The killer receives an alert that there’s motion outside and kicks Tory in the face, knocking her out.

Colter grabs a flashlight and spots blood, racing to Tory’s side. He assures her that he’s there to help just as he hears a noise outside.

Temple hears sounds in the woods outside and shoots toward them without actually seeing her target. The killer fires back, whistling as he approaches her. Colter sneaks up behind him and snaps his neck. Temple was shot in the clavicle, which isn’t a fatal injury.

The cops and EMTs arrive, along with Tory’s parents. They’re overjoyed to be reunited with their daughter.

Colter climbs into the back of the ambulance with Temple, who’s sorry she couldn’t save the family. Colter reminds her that Tory’s alive because she did her best. “I think the world’s a better place because you try,” says Colter.

 

 

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