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Aaron Hotchner sat at the conference table, surrounded by the rest of the BAU, waiting for JJ to outline their new case. Morgan was absent-mindedly cracking his knuckles, Prentiss had her head in her hands with her dark hair hanging over her face. Dr. Reid's eyes were vacant and heavy as he sipped his coffee and JJ stood at the head of the table.
"Okay, Pima County, Arizona," JJ said once David Rossi had taken a seat. "There have been seven murders in the Green Valley area in the last four weeks."
"Seven?" Prentiss echoed, lifting her head to look at her friend. "And they're only inviting us now?"
"Yeah. For the last four weeks, a girl has gone missing every Saturday night but on Tuesday a family of three was taken from their car and killed; a mother, a father, and their six-year-old daughter."
"One victim every Saturday night. . . it screams serial killer," Morgan said, his dark eyes showing the frustration that they all felt. "Half of these murders could have been prevented."
"The unsubs burial site was only found a few hours ago," JJ said. "That revealed the bodies of all seven victims. There was no evidence that this was a serial killer until now."
"But four young women don't just vanish. Why did no one report them missing?" Camilla asked.
"The first three girls were prostitutes with no family to speak of. No one even noticed they were gone. But the fourth girl was reported missing, she was a law student walking home from the library in the early evening on the main road. Her parents called the police when she didn't make it to her house. The cops found the rest of the bodies when they were out looking for her."
"So the unsub went from high-risk victims to a low-risk victim and then an entire family?" Rossi asked. JJ nodded.
"So he started out killing someone once a week," Prentiss said. "but now he only waited a few days and took multiple victims? This guy could be devolving."
"Or beginning to enjoy himself," Morgan muttered.
"What connects the murders?" Hotch asked. "The unsub doesn't have a type." The victims were both Hispanic and Caucasian, male and female.
"The victims don't appear to have any connection to each other, besides the fact they all live in Green Valley," JJ said.
She brought up the crime scene photos on the screen behind her. Seven bodies lay in the badly made coffins in the deep pits in the ground. All the victims were in separate graves except for the family, who were buried together. The mother still had her arms around her little girl, the girl in turn was clutching tightly to her teddy bear. The child's eyes were closed but the woman was wide open, dull and glassy with an echo of fear still reflected in them. All of them looked at the screen, and no one spoke. They had seen pictures like these before, but that didn't make it any easier.
"He seems to be choosing his victims randomly but his M.O. is always the same: he keeps them for almost a day and then buries them alive," JJ continued, dragging her eyes away from the dead family.
