Autistic Spencer Reid

Chapter 4

Rossi walked in after finishing a conversation with Michelle's family. Morgan and Prentiss arrived back from the ME, walking in with a disappointed look on their faces. 

"We have the ME report, but Mary's already been buried. Her family are unlikely to allow us to examine her again, apparently they were exceptionally distraught and difficult to sort things out with. That's only based on comments made by the funeral company though, they were passing by the ME's office to pick up a body. If necessary, you could still ask the family, but I wouldn't unless it was vital to the case," Prentiss reported. She directed a brief smile at Spencer and JJ before sitting down at the oval desk.

Spencer stood and walked towards the board, about to present the information he had told Hotch already. He looked at Hotch not sure what he was hoping to get from him. But Hotch nodded and held his hands together, mimicking Spencer's hands. Hotch modeled the separation of hands and a slight stretch in his fingers. Spencer knew this was an encouragement to let go of his anxiety and be more himself, to feel comfortable.

Spencer separated his hands and began to explain the geo-profile, he let his hands move to wherever they needed to go. JJ walked in half way through his explanation and immediately noticed the animation in his speech and the positioning of his hands. He was a lot more relaxed and free than he had been over the past few weeks.

Once Spencer had finished explaining the geo-profile he didn't sit down around the table like the rest of team, he hovered behind his seat and swayed left and right instead, stopping occasionally for reassurance from Hotch. 

"Well the ME report for Mary shows many defensive wounds; bruises, badly healed fractures and breaks in her fingers and hands, cuts, she seemed to have received months of abuse at the hands of this man." Morgan explained the ME report, listing the injuries and pulling a disgusted face.

"The Unsub has a lot of displaced anger for the surrogate, I assume that he had a strong bond with the actual person who he's angry with. There's likely a stressor related to her, not just something that reminded him of her, but more like it directly is her that caused this. It's likely that he had spoken to her recently, something changed and it was very significant to the Unsub," Spencer interpreted.

"If he did go to a special education school and attended church then he probably also attended the additional needs support in church. Some churches run a special needs programme and staff provide support to the child while their families take part in the service. Education for children with additional needs was written into the law on the 29th of November 1975 by President Ford, since then there have been over 967 special education schools set up all around the country. The schools used to just be for children with severe mental disabilities, but were treated more like a free childcare institute. However, nowadays they allow children with less severe disabilities. The level of violence shown in the defensive wounds suggest a behavioural disability; that could be Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Pathological Demand Avoidance. All of these disorders can cause violence, but particularly ODD or CD. I'd probably look into these two first as they're more likely. They both actually..." Spencer trailed off after noticing Hotch was about to speak, trying to redirect him without interrupting him.

"Okay, thank you Reid. That helps a lot," He reassured Spencer, trying to make sure he didn't hurt Spencer's feelings. He called Garcia and put her on speaker. "Garcia, can you cross reference the students from special education schools in Burlington and the children who were a part of the additional needs support from the church?"

"I can sir, but do you have any more parameters, you'll end up with lots of names with the current ones?" Garcia responded.

"The wounds show violence and force, but not a lot of organisation, there weren't any objects used in the assault, indicating a younger offender. Probably in his late teens to mid-twenties," Hotch concluded.