DESENSITIZED//CRIMINAL MINDS

1.08 | 'what do you call an acid with attitude?'

"I WAS AT the baltimore field office when this one came in." morgan explained, walking the bau through the house of the crime scene. "baltimore pd's seen some grisly stuff, but never anything like this." he said. "we've got two bodies i.d'd as william and helen dimarco. retired, living here for thirty seven years, no kids." he continued to explain, leading them up the stairs. "neighbor reports a white make twenty to forty years old fleeing the scene, and i quote, 'hopped up on those damn drugs'."

gideon shrugged. "eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable." he said.

"so far it sounds like standard double homicide." hotch pointed out. "why are we here?"

at the top of the steps, morgan opened the door, and revealed the horrific crime scene. "massive overkill." he told them. sierra looked around, every surface, every wall, and even the ceiling was covered in blood. "helen dimarco was found here," he continued, pointing to a blood soaked chair. "tied to the chair in front of the vanity. no defensive wounds. ligature marks around the wrist, one clean laceration from ear to ear."

"looks arterial." elle said, studying the pattern of blood spatter. "probably the carotid. at least she went quickly."

morgan stepped into the bathroom. "the husband william was found in the shower." he began to explain. "but he wasn't quite as lucky." he said, showing them the shower sprayed with blood. "ligature marks on the wrists and ankles and one long laceration up the abdomen through both layers of muscle."

"evisceration." reid spoke up. "that's typical of disorganized behavior."

elle shook her head. "despite all the blood, this crime scene shows method, order, control." she started. "i'd say it's pretty organized."

"there was also evidence of torture with the husband." morgan told them. "burns, contusions, lacerations." he listed. "you name it, this guy tried it."

"if torture is the unsub's signature, the methodology is usually unique." reid started. "a person who burns someone doesn't normally use a knife."

sierra uneasily glanced around the room. "maybe we have more than one killer." she suggested. "or maybe we have a killer with more than one personality."

"we also have three victims." gideon said. "blood on the vanity, wife was found there, husband was in the shower." he recapped. "from the looks of the level of the ring in this tub, whoever was in it lost their entire blood volume."

reid winced. "approximately ten point six pints." he said.

"which means the victim was dismembered." elle told them.

morgan sighed. "and it looks like our guy took all the parts with him."
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"OKAY, WHAT DO we know about the unsub based on the two bodies we do have?" hotch asked sierra and reid in the living room of the crime scene.

"typically torture falls under two categories — sadistic and functional." reid began to explain. "functional torture is used to extract information or to punish. it's measured, impersonal, completely disinterested."

hotch nodded. "like a military tactic."

"exactly." reid said. "then there's sadistic torture, which is used to extract some sort of emotional need."