058. 3rd life

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"Have you ID'd the body?" Hotch asks.

"It's a girl." The detective says.

"One of the missing girls?" Hotch asks.

"All I can tell you right now is it's a girl." He says.

"Did you draw up a list of those involved in the search?" Derek asks.

"You're gonna find the parents of the girls on that list." The detective says.

"Tell me they didn't discover the body." Emily pleads.

"No. As soon as our dogs caught her scent, we kept them away from the scene."

"She'd been missing 18 hours?" Spencer asks.

"That's correct. We found the body 5 hours ago."

"The parents have been here this whole time?" Jessica asks.

"Yeah, and I'm running out of excuses." The detective says.

"I'm gonna go talk to them." JJ says.

"JJ, I'll come with you." Derek says, following her off.

"Thanks. I gotta be honest, guys. I'm glad you're all here. Because I have never seen anything like that." The detective says.

"Her face and her hands have been obliterated." Hotch says.

"Developed bruises, cuts, layer upon layer." Emily points out.

"Bindings cut deep into her flesh." Spencer notes.

"Around her neck there's heavy bruising. She was strangled to death." Jessica says.

"A belt was used. You can see the indentation marks of a buckle." Spencer says.

"But why destroy her hands and face?" The detective asks.

"It indicates she knew the attacker." Hotch says.

"By destroying her ID, they're hoping to delay you making a connection between the victim and the unsub." Rossi says.

"It gives him time to get away." Hotch says.

"Do you think the other girl's still alive?"

"Until we find her body, we should assume she is." Rossi says.

"One thing's for sure -- this is only the dump site. We need to figure out where she was killed." Hotch says.

"And which girl we're looking for." Rossi adds.

+++

Penelope finishes playing the tape.

"It lasts exactly 53 seconds, and then it goes dead." She states. "I think she was strangled."

"What do you want to do?" Derek asks.

"Do? There's nothing else to do -- the parents can ID the voice." Rossi says.

"What?" Jessica gives him an incredulous look.

"Are you serious?" Emily asks.

"No. No, sir, they can never hear this." Penelope argues.

"And the most traumatizing." Jessica remarks.

"It'll be the fastest way to figure out who we're looking for." Rossi says.

"There's gotta be another way." Emily insists.

"DNA?" The detective asks.

++

"Our feeling is by the time we got the results back, it would be too late to save whoever they still have." Hotch tells the parents and Jack's friend. "It's up to you."

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