A Course of Passion

2: Death to I do

Spencer and I hop into the government vehicle waiting for us and I drive to the morgue. Once inside, the doctor goes over the start of her findings "Ashley Wilcox, cause of death, asphyxiation caused by strangulation. Her head was wrapped postmortem."

"Were you able to get anything out of the sash?" I ask, handling the evidence carefully.

"Some trace DNA. We're running it through CODIS." She responds to us.

Spencer moves from looking over my shoulder to get a better view of the victims neck, "the ligature marks show hesitation on the part of the killer."

"He pulled the sash tight across her neck and then released it several times before she died." The doctor informs him, also leaning down to look at what he is looking it.

"It could be the unsub's way of torturing his victims, or he's reluctant to kill." He moves his eyes to her head "this looks like it was caused by some sort of heavy object. I'm thinking a flashlight or a lead pipe, perhaps."

"That's what I was thinking." She confirms.

"Any sign of sexual assault?" I question, as if that's the first thing I wanted to know.

She answers, "no. The first victim, Brandy Green, died instantly from the blow to her head, but the killer took more time with Ashley."

"The unsub could be impotent, and choking his victims is how he satiates his urges." I offer the thought to Spencer.

Spencer moves to the victims hands, pulling her hand up gently to look at her fingers, "the press-on nails on that hand are missing, probably ripped off in the struggle." The doctors informs him, seeing what he is looking at.

"The nails have been bitten off." He comments, looking at me with a wondering glare.

"Maybe Ashley bit her nails before she was tortured?" I offer the reasoning.

"Nail-biting's an unsanitary habit, but pretty common." The doctor agrees.

"True, but it's still considered an impulse control disorder." Spencer adds on his own facts "It's often associated with other body focus repetitive behaviors such as skin picking, skin biting, and the trichotillomania. But, in this case, I think there's more to it than that, because the nails haven't been bitten underneath the press-on nails." He continues to eye the victims nails. He leans up "are you testing the saliva?"

"What are you thinking?" I question him.

"I'm thinking the unsub bit Ashley's nails." He answers me, letting go of Ashley's hand.

The doctor looks at him then the victim and comments, "I've seen some freaky stuff in my day, but never this." Her face shows a bit of discomfort.

"He most likely has some sort of mental disorder." I tell her.

She agrees, saying, "I'll say."

A few hours go by since we touched down and we get news of a body being found in a wooded area. Hotch sends Derek, Tara, Spencer and I to the scene. On the way to the body, Derek calls Penelope, "Baby girl, you there?" He asks as he puts it on speaker phone.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace." She returns.

"Listen, Reid and Grey think that our unsub may have a mental illness." He tells her, summing up what we told them "run that against your list of local men with records. Domestic disputes, peeping, public intoxication."

Spencer adds on, "and check to see if any have been released from public or private mental health institutions within the area."

Not even 30 seconds go by when she tells us, "bingo, 5 names. Sending them now."

She hangs up and the captain of the police departments tells us, "a man walking his dog found her" as we approach the body.

Tara asks, "why change dump sites now?"

Derek offers, "the unsub could have figured a dumpster downtown was too risky."

Spencer notices and points out, "she's got a gash on the side of her head like the others."

"And look at this" Tara adds on, moving the sash just a little bit.

"Is that lipstick?" The captain asks, noticing the word slut written across her forehead.

"By wrapping and marking Madison's face, the unsub's taking away her beauty." Morgan explains.

"And by choosing the word slut, the unsub's commenting on Madison's virtue. Virtue and beauty are traditionally celebrated attributes in women." Spencer elaborates even more.

"That's especially true for a bride or a bride-to-be." Derek says.

"The unsub is female." Tara returns, looking to Derek, Spencer and myself.

The captain questions, "how do you figure that?"

I explain, "no sign of sexual assault, and the victims were all strangled, but not manually."

Then I move a bit over to where Tara is, moving the sash a bit to the side to show the word, Tara adds on, "and this word slut, written here in lipstick, is linguistically a word choice typically made by females."

Morgan comments, "now it's time to deliver the profile." The four of us begin to walk back out of the woods to let the rest of the team know what we found and prepare to deliver the profile.
Once we gather everyone together at the police station, Hotch starts it off, "we believe the unknown subject we're looking for is a white woman in her late 20s to early 30s."

"Because she was able to subdue, control, transport, and dispose of the 3 victims, she's most likely large and strong." I add on to the profile, most officers taking notes.

Spencer continues, "but she comes across as non-threatening, allowing her to get close to her victims before attacking them."

"We should be interviewing wedding vendors." Hotch suggests to the police "they may have come in contact with this woman."

"This list obviously includes caterers, florists, photographers, wedding planners, hotel managers, and bridal shop workers." Spencer clarifies to everyone.

"Is she making a statement about the institution of marriage?" An officer asks us.

I respond, "because of her poor self-image, as evidenced by the demeaning language and the nail-biting, we believe she is angry with these brides-to-be because of some romantic frustration or disappointment in her own life." I pause for a moment, letting our profile really sink in. "She's most likely lashing out over something or someone she feels she'll never have."

Hotch ends the meeting, "she attacks with a level of violence that demonstrates this is personal. She may be jealous of her victims for having something that she desperately wants for herself. Thank you."