CSI: Miami

Detective Yelina Salas first appears on CSI: Miami as a detective with the Miami-Dade Police Homicide Division. She has a close connection with Horatio Caine, the head of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab: she had married his late brother, Raymond Caine, and bore his son, Ray Caine, Jr. (episode 117, Simple Man). Horatio felt it his duty to protect Yelina from the worst of her husband's misdeeds, and so conceals (among other things) the existence of Ray Sr.'s out-of-wedlock daughter (Madison Keaton--episode 208, Big Brother). He is forced to tell the truth, however, when Madison falls ill and requires a transplant from Ray Jr. Though she is initially hurt by the revelation, Yelina goes through with the operation, anyway (episode 316, Nothing to Lose).

She becomes romantically involved with MDPD Internal Affairs Sergeant Rick Stetler, a personal nemesis of Horatio. When she shows up to work with a black eye in one episode, Horatio immediately suspects Stetler of physically abusing her and forcefully warns him not to touch her again (episode 307, Crime Wave).

After a traumatic case in which Ray Jr. was kidnapped, Horatio tells Yelina that a vacation would do them all good. But, to her shock, she is not going with Horatio, but with her husband (Ray Sr.), who had only recently been revealed to have been alive the entire time, having faked his death to go deep undercover for the DEA (episode 324, "10-7"). Together, the family flies to Brazil without telling anyone but Horatio where they were going. So secretive was their departure, in fact, that Salas's colleague Detective Frank Tripp does not even know if she's still alive and well (Under Suspicion). Unfortunately, Ray Sr. soon gets back into trouble, this time involving the Mala Noche drug gang in Rio de Janeiro. Yelina grows increasingly worried about him, especially when he vanishes without a trace. Horatio and Eric Delko, who are in Rio in an unsanctioned pursuit of Mala Noche leader Antonio Riaz, discover to their horror that Riaz has beaten Ray Sr. to death and, furthermore, that Riaz is attempting to corrupt Ray Jr. into becoming a drug runner for him. Everything is successfully resolved, however, and Yelina and her son decide to try to start afresh in Miami (episode 501, Rio).

Salas finds employment for herself as a private investigator, though Horatio is concerned about the dangers of her profession. Yelina calmly reminds him that she had, after all, been a cop and could take care of herself (episode 522, Burned). In fact, Horatio comes to her for help investigating a parolee who is a suspect in the murder of his parole officer. Yelina discovers the young man's birth certificate, which lists the father as John Walden. Horatio claims that he "knew him once," thus continuing his pattern throughout the series of over-protective deception towards her--"John Walden" was, in fact, Horatio's undercover alias sixteen years before in Pensacola.