Chapter 16
"You found fingers...in her stomach?" I asked the medical examiner, trying my best to keep down my lunch.
"Yes ma'am. We're having the fingerprints run on them now, to see if they match any of our missing persons, and we'll send the information over once we have it." He explained.
"Can you tell if they were out there ante or post mortem?" I asked, still choking down my lunch.
"From the teeth marks we found on them, the victim was alive and fighting against whoever did this while the fingers were being shoved down her throat." He explained. "You've got to be one sick bastard to force somebody to eat human fingers."
"Mhm." I nodded, too afraid of spewing if I spoke.
"Are you okay ma'am?" The examiner asked, concerned. "I know this can be a little sickening sometimes."
"I'm fine." I said, taking a deep breath. "This kind of thing usually doesn't phase me but-"
"Ever since you got pregnant, every little thing makes you sick to your stomach?" He finished for me.
"How did you know?"
"I have eleven kids myself ma'am, I've been around the pregnancy block a couple of times."
"Right, well thank you. If you find out anything else, please give us a call." I said, handing hi, my business card before walking out of the office and running straight for the bathroom I saw on the way in here.
I hunched over the toilet seat and made it just in time, or else I would have had a mess to clean up, which would not have been fun.
I flushed the toilet and used the sick to splash water in my face, before grabbing a mint out of my blazer pocket.
.......
"Forced cannibalism?" Emily asked, looking at me after I told them what I found out at the medical examiner's office.
"He's forcing his victims to eat the fingers of previous victims before he kills them." I explained, trying not to think too much about it. "None of the fingers found in her stomach were pairs, all of them belonged to different prostitutes that have been missing for a while."
"So is our unsub a cannibal himself?" Derek asked, crossing his arms.
"More than likely, yes." I nodded. "Cannibalism, and apparent vorarephilia, explains the unsub's drive to blame things on outside forces. The unsub does not take too many precautions, as he believes Satan will protect him. He targets athletic women because he is attracted to them, and because they are meatier than the emaciated prostitutes he killed initially. Blaming the devil for his urges and cannibalism isn't enough to lessen his guilt, so he tricks others into participating to make them as guilty as he is."
"What a sick and twisted bastard." Emily said, shaking her head.
"I think it's time to deliver the profile." Hotch said, standing up and walking out of the conference room we were set up in.
We followed him out into the main station and got the attention of the officers.
"There are two types of violent Satanic offenders: teenagers who assume the Satanic identity to rebel and who rarely cause fatalities," Rossi started.
"And adaptive serial killers who rationalize their fantasies and urges by blaming outside forces, and use Satanic imagery as a means of causing fear and panic." Hotch added.
"Those of the latter do not kill because they truly believe in Satan; they only believe in Satan because it gives them an opportunity to kill. There is no evidence suggesting Abby Kelton's killer is a teenager, or that there were multiple attackers, so the unsub is of the latter kind, whose ritualizing of Abby's murder means he will kill again soon, if he has not already." I stated.
