the great war, spencer reid [ 2 ]

079. rusty

"Pretty gruesome stuff." Rossi comments after the video they had to watch finishes.

"I'm about to quit." Bedelia mumbles, swallowing down her disgust. Spencer lightly pats her on the back.

"Yeah. This is the third killing in the last two months?" Luke asks.

"Yes. The Denver division invited us in." Emily says. "They've got three men dead. Each was decapitated. Heads nowhere to be found."

"The first two were killed in public yet secluded areas, one on a bike path, the other at a park." Penelope says.

"This the first time this guy's left a message?" Matt asks.

"Yeah. Nothing like this was found at the other crime scenes." Emily says.

"Yeah, and speaking of this message, it was filmed on the victim's phone, so there's no way to track it." Penelope says.

"The unsub's not afraid of being seen." Spencer says. "We should take the partial we have of his face, run it through ViCAP, and see if it hits."

"And what did he mean by "everything you know is wrong and this is proof"?" Tara asks. "Proof of what?"

"Power, control, his dominance over the victims." Luke says.

"Well, his word choice plus that head, it feels like a taunt directed at the viewer, not the victim." Matt says.

"If it was a taunt directed at the general public, he would have uploaded it somewhere." Bedelia says.

"Then it must be law enforcement." Rossi says.

"Either way, the distinct lack of empathy and remorse in his voice plus his general demeanor and the nature of his crimes tells us that he's an organized offender with a specific psychopathology." Spencer says.

"One that includes taking his victim's heads." Bedelia says.

"Nothing here says he's close to being done. Wheels up in 10." Emily says.

+++

Spencer and Bedelia walk out of the house and over to JJ.

"So, uh, neighbors reported seeing an older Ford station wagon in the area." JJ says. "Hopefully we can get the plates. Did you guys see the additional home surveillance?"

"We did. We just watched all the footage." Spencer says. "Hopefully, the extra angles can help Garcia with her facial recognition search."

"Sean had cameras all over his house, but based on the unsub's behavior, he had no idea he was being filmed." Bedelia says.

"That means the unsub probably wasn't stalking him." JJ says. "This was all impulse. He ransacked the place after killing Sean. In the video we saw, he clearly wasn't looking for anything. He just lost it."

"Did you see the way he kept squinting and shielding his eyes even though there was no light above him?" Spencer asks.

"Light sensitivity." JJ says.

"Plus emotional outbursts." Spencer adds. "Pretty clear he's going through some kind of psychotic break."

"That could make him easier to spot." Bedelia says. "We should ask eyewitnesses about strangers exhibiting any innocuous, repetitive behaviors."

+++

"So it turns out that there was latent bruising on the torsos and chests of all three victims." Tara says.

"A closer analysis of the contusions revealed that they're some kind of characters." Luke says.

"Now taken together, we think they may be mathematical symbols, perhaps part of a larger expression." Tara says.