Wed, Oct 22, 2014
Atlanta PD has invited the BAU in for an equivocal death investigation, that of investigative journalist Albert Stillman, who died being run over late one evening as he wandered into highway traffic. An eyewitness who tried to help Stillman just before he was run over states that he was waving his arms in the air yelling, "get them off me", this depiction which goes against Stillman's history of no mental illness. Reluctantly, Stillman's editor, John Carlson, discloses that Stillman was using heroin as medication for a back problem. Stillman was scheduled to meet with a source on a story concerning vaccinations when he vanished for three days just before he died. Garcia learns that another person associated with the case is a Dr. William Suri, a research scientist of entomology, who is later found dead, shot to death. Upon investigation, the team discovers that both Stillman and Suri were abducted - meaning that they are dealing with a serial killer - and had minute bite and deep self-inflicted scratch marks. They thus come to the conclusion that the unsub has delusional parasitosis - the belief that he is infested with bugs - and is looking for people to support his delusion by making them feel what he feels. When they don't support the delusion, he kills them. Based on that theory, the team believes his next victim will be someone in that vein, someone who may have a similar delusion. Locating such people may be easier than getting them to cooperate in the investigation, even if there is the threat of what happened to Stillman and Suri happening to them.
Wed, Oct 29, 2014
On October 30, 2014, a frightened eleven year old Joshua Parker is found at a Halloween fair in San Diego. He went missing on Halloween day the previous year. His case mimics that of Tommy Wilcox, who went missing on Halloween 2012 in Los Angeles, only to be found on Venice Beach October 30, 2013, alive but he who eventually died of malnutrition a few hours later. Joshua, however, is expected to live. Both boys had atrophied muscles, and had splinters and puncture wounds, although Joshua seems to have been fed somewhat properly. Both boys were also considered troubled, Joshua who was never listed officially as missing since he was a chronic runaway. The problem for the BAU is that Tommy's captor, Rodney Tanner, who confessed to the crime, is currently incarcerated, meaning that he either had a partner, there is a copycat loose, or that his confession is a lie. They have to figure out this issue before another troubled early or pre-teen Caucasian boy is abducted in the next day. Reid comes to the conclusion that the boys were housed in a homemade wooden box, which accounts for all their physical issues. Discovering a case similar from the past of boys so confined, especially as it relates to Halloween, may provide clues as to the identity of the unsub.