Wed, Feb 1, 2017
Reid has returned from Houston, where he was visiting his mother who is in a new facility on an experimental drug program. He is called back home from the office while the rest of the team heads off on their next case. It isn't until the team is in the air that they learn that Diana is no longer in the Houston facility, but that she is now living with Reid, as the trial drug was not having the intended effect. Reid had received professional advice that his mother should be in a facility both for her and his own good, but it may be news from a more caring rather than clinical voice which may carry more weight with him. Regardless, he makes himself available to the team, who are in the Tampa, Florida area where two individual deaths have occurred, both now considered murders, the two tied together by ink drawings on the inner arms of the victims, the second victim's whose has one more stroke of the pen than the first. The M.E. is able to determine that the markings were made with the same pen. The death of the first victim, a model suburban soccer mom, was initially ruled a suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills, her own prescription. The second victim, a homeless man, died of a heroin overdose, he who was known not to be a drug user, but rather an advocate for the homeless to get those in need into drug rehab programs. As such, they were both killed using the tools of their life, they presupposing that the unsub forced them to kill themselves. With two subsequent victims, the team also gathers more evidence: that the victims post-mortem were taken to outdoor sites with disturbed ground, and the unsub is connected in some way to fire. The identification of the ink markings in relation to the aspect of the disturbed ground may provide the key to finding where the unsub will strike next.
Wed, Oct 4, 2017
Following the final incident with Scratch, the team has been taking a mandatory break to decompress. In addition, Reid has gone through his reinstatement evaluation, he who has been conditionally reinstated without the possibility of negotiation on that condition. In their time off, there has been a backlog of cases. However, they depart to Naples, Florida on a case of some currency, as a female has just been discovered murdered, her body stuffed into an old suitcase and placed in a public location. She is the second victim, the first as of yet an unidentifiable Jane Doe whose body had decomposed beyond a state of visual identification. By the time the team lands in Naples, a third victim is discovered. Beyond the suitcase in a public locale, the other similarities between the two identified victims is gender, that they were strangled, and that the same old fashioned shade of lipstick had been smeared on their mouth area. The lipstick and the suitcases indicate that there is some vintage aspect to the unsub's psyche, and that a probable stressor is being abandoned by a female, probably the unsub's mother when he was a child. They also discover that both women were in the process of a romantic evening, friends who can attest that they were careful women not prone to reckless dating. JJ surmises that the unsub is able to lure his victims unwittingly using a Florence Nightingale complex, in that they are attracted to some "broken" aspect to his personality. It isn't until the first victim is identified that a tie between all three victims is discovered. By that time, the team believes that the unsub probably has an ultimate victim in mind, who they have to discover before she becomes an actual victim. In the process of the case, Reid will demonstrate, at least in this case, if the evaluation committee was correct in their concerns about him.
Wed, Oct 11, 2017
The BAU team members head to Detroit, Michigan where two men in two weeks have been discovered dead. Both were married, Caucasian, mildly successful professionals. Both were found in very public places hanging by a meat hook, naked and their private parts cut off pre-mortem. The authorities eventually receive a snuff movie of the second victim, Curtis Wyler, including the entire time it took him to bleed out to death. The team analyzes the video in order to find any clues as to the unsub's whereabouts. Garcia discovers that both men had been systematically withdrawing large sums of money from their bank accounts, small enough not to be questioned by the banks. In questioning the Wyler's wife, the team believes that both men were probably using the money for the services of an escort. What Garcia finds is that it is not an escort service, but rather an online dating site, Blue Siren, where members arrange their own meetings. Both victims had been involved with the same member, a woman with the online handle Dasha, who had recently discontinued her membership. The team is able to locate Dasha, who admits to her involvement with the victims, but does not know why anyone would want to kill them. She is concerned that the unsub may be after her. The unsub is after her, but not in the way that she anticipates.