For the Love of a Daughter (A Criminal Minds Fanfic)

Chapter 12: Nobody Said it was Easy

Any other weekend plans had to be put on hold due to a case that came up on Sunday morning. The random kidnapping of an eighteen year old girl in Virginia. Or at least it appeared to be random. The team gathered around the table in the conference room, coffees in hand, as Garcia handed out copies of the case file.

"Morning everyone. I apologize for cutting your weekend short but Metro asked us to assist on this case. The lead detective thinks it may be connected to two other kidnappings as well as a homicide that occurred sometime last week." Hotch told his team. "Go ahead, Garcia."

"Alright, crime fighters. Hope you're well rested because this one is pretty crazy. Approximately four hours ago, eighteen year old college freshman Stephany Dawson was kidnapped outside the gym she usually goes to." Garcia clicked her remote and a picture of the victim appeared on screen. She had long dark brown hair and bright green eyes.

"Who reported her missing?" JJ asked.

"Her parents did. After they received this." On screen she brought up an email that had contained a video link as well as a few pictures of Stephany tied to a chair, with tape placed over her mouth.

"Where did the link lead to?" Morgan asked.

"That's the awful part. It was a live-stream video feed, which can't be traced unless it's online. But even then, it could take weeks to track done." She said with a grimace.

"Please tell me this unsub did not make her parents watch while he hurt her." Prentiss pleaded.

"I wish I could Em. According to her parents, he made her say goodbye to them. When she refused, he hit her and held a knife to her throat until she agreed."

"This guy is cold. Making his victim say goodbye to her family before he does God knows what to her." Rossi shook his head, disgusted.

"What about the other two cases?" Reid asked.

Garcia brought up the other cases on the screen. "Alyson Stevens, nineteen, was kidnapped last Monday. Three days after that, Halle Roberts, eighteen, was kidnapped." The smiling faces of two pretty green-eyed brunettes were shown on screen. "Two days after the second kidnapping, Alyson's body was discovered in a shallow grave near her home. She had been severely beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times in the chest and abdomen." Garcia relayed, choosing not to look at the horrible images displayed on the screen behind her.

"This is brutal. There's a lot of rage shown." JJ noticed. "What was the cause of death?"

"According to the M.E, exsanguination. She bled out from the stab wounds." Garcia answered.

"He obviously has a type. All three victims have the same physical features: Dark brown hair, green eyes, fair skin, athletic built." Morgan pointed out.

"Yes. He does. And Halle is still missing. If he sticks to the pattern, we have less than 48 hours to find her alive." Hotch told them.

"And three days until he kidnaps another girl." Reid added.

"Which means Stephany has less than five days left before he kills her." Emily said.

"Was there any DNA found on the victim?" Morgan asked.

"Yes. But there were no matches in the system." Garcia replied.

"So, he doesn't have a record. He knows we can't use any DNA evidence found on the vic to identify him." Emily pointed out.

"But where and how does he choose his victims? Rossi enquired. "He had to have been stalking them before he kidnapped them."

"Social media, maybe." JJ suggested. "Teenagers nowadays post every little thing online. Where they are, what they're doing, who they're with. It wouldn't have been hard for our Unsub to stalk multiple victims at the same time." She threw out there.