Witch Hunter

In a trailer home outside of Houston, Texas, Present Day.

A young woman is being beaten while tied to a chair. It's obvious she's been beaten severely over the past few days; she's covered in bruises of various colors along with dried and fresh blood. The man beating her is not much older than her, also covered in blood and in a rage. He's been beating her on and off for almost 24 hours now, she's been fighting back the whole time, he's doesn't like that. If only she wouldn't fight back then she could live longer, he thinks to himself, but it's time to end this.

"Please, I have children" she begs, but that doesn't mean anything to him. He gets the athame, the ceremonial dagger, with a double-edged blade his love left behind. For a brief moment he thinks she wouldn't want him to do this, but she's not here to stop him, no one can stop him. She continues to fight him as he plunges the knife into her body causing additional wounds on her arms and hands. If only she would just accept her fate it would be over soon, he thinks as he continues to stab her and she continues to plead for her life until she finally breathes her last.

Monday morning BAU headquarters Quantico, VA

Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia's office

Garcia and JJ and staring at the various computer screens surrounding the technical analyst's office, looking at the newest images of horror sent their way but local law enforcement seeking the BAU's help. "Do you miss this part?" asks Garcia.

JJ smiles, "Seeing every single case, even the ones we don't take, NO."

"Hotch handles most of that part, picking the cases we take, where we go. But this one," Garcia picks up a brown file from her desk, "this one came directly from Strauss, so I get to show it to Hotch."

"Don't miss that part either." JJ laughs.

BAU Room

The team is sitting around the round table where they gather daily to review cases. David Rossi sits farthest away from the screen; he's drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. Next to him is Dr. Spencer Reid, he's in a conversation with Emily Prentiss about the latest government report he just read, she's not really listening to him just answering hmm ok every now and then. On the other side of Rossi is Derek Morgan he's also drinking coffee and trying to avoid the conversation with Dr. Reid. Jennifer Jareau sits quietly as she knows what's about to happen. SSA Aaron Hotcher walks in with Garcia and sits down at the table on the opposite end of Rossi, Garcia stays standing holding a remote control looking anxious.

"Let's get started" Hotch says and immediately everyone settles down and looks up at Garcia to start her presentation. "Houston we have an unsub" Garcia says with her usual wit and charm. Pictures of young woman appear on the screen behind Garcia as she starts to speak. "Shelia Leigh, 27, Annie Carrollton, 32, and as of this morning Bethany Davidson 29. All beaten and stabbed to death and left in various dumpsters in downtown Houston."

"All red heads, he definitely has a type" Agent Prentiss notices.

"All suffered severe beatings before they were stabbed, although the second victims wounds weren't as bad as the others", remarks Reid.

Rossi "She didn't fight back as hard as Shelia and Bethany; they both had extensive defensive wounds." Garcia interrupts their discussion, "I didn't get to the good part" as she says this more pictures fill the screen. The dead bodies of the victims appear on the screen along with symbols on and inside the dumpster containing the women.

"Is that a pentagram?" remarks Prentiss. "Yes, at every dump site" answers Garcia.

Emily replies "So the cops are thinking what – satanic killings?"

Hotch replies "The detective in charge believes this theory."

"Some things never change" remarks Rossi.

Reid, "Technically the symbol isn't a pentagram, it's a pentacle. A pentacle is a five pointed star pointing up and has been used by pagans, freemasons and even Christianity as a symbol of protection. The pentagram is also a five pointed star but points down and has long been associated with Satanism."

Morgan tries to move the conversation along, "regardless, there's not much of a cooling off period, only 7 days between each victim."

Hotch jumps in, "Also the detective in charge isn't the one requesting our help, the mayor is."

Rossi smiles, "So he'll be happy to see us."

Hotch again, "We still have a job to do, wheels up in 30."

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Exodus 22:18

BAU Jet en route to Houston

The team is sitting close together to be able to see Garcia on the laptop. They discuss the case.

Hotch – Let's review

Emily – Other than their hair color, the victims don't have much in common.

JJ – They live in different areas of town, Shelia lived downtown and was a grad student. Annie Carrollton lived an hour south of town and was an accountant, and Bethany lived north of town and was a soccer mom.

Reid – Guys we can narrow the victim pool considerably since natural red hair occurs in only 1-2% of human population. It appears in people with 2 copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a mutation in the MC1R protein.

Garcia – Shelia Leigh wasn't a natural red head, DMV records says she was a blond.

Reid – Oh, never mind.

Garcia – You should know the press has named the killer 'Witch Hunter'

Emily – 'Witch Hunter'? Why because of the pentagram, sorry I mean pentacle.

Garcia – Not just that. The first victim, Shelia Leigh, wrote an advice column for a local paper called, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

Morgan – So the press assumes she was a witch and the other victims are too?

Garcia – Yes, apparently you mix in the red hair and the pentagrams and you get Witch.

Emily – Didn't killing witches stop back in the 1600's?

Reid – Just last year in Haiti 12 people were accused and killed for witchcraft for intentionally spreading cholera. And in March 2009 in Kenya 5 people were burned to death accused of being witches while a crowd stood and watched. In November 2009, it was reported that 118 people had been arrested in the Saudi Arabia that year for practicing magic.

Hotch – I'll work with the press and see if I can get them to stop calling the victims witches.

Rossi – (Looking at the crime scene photos) Annie had the least amount of defensive wounds and seems to have survived the longest, almost 48 hours. She was reported missing on Monday when she didn't show up for work. Bethany was reported missing Friday night by her husband and her body was found yesterday, she'd been dead for just over 24 hours.

Morgan – Victim 1 was never reported missing, she was found on a Tuesday and had been dead for almost 4 days.

Hotch – Prentiss and JJ, work victimology. Talk to the families, friends – see if there's any connections

Reid – I don't think a geographical profile will work here, the area is too big.

Hotch – Trying basing it on the dumpsites and maybe when we figure where he's finding his victims we can add that into it. Dave you and Morgan go to the ME's office and see what else we can learn from the victims themselves. Garcia, track their spending in the days before their death. I'll deal with the detective in charge and see if I can convince him were just here to help.

Harris County Morgue

The medical examiner is standing between 2 of the 3 bodies. The women are covered in a white sheet and only their faces and red hair are visible. SSA Rossi and Morgan enter the room.

The medical examiner holds up the sheet covering victim 1 Shelia Leigh. "You'll notice on Victim's 1 and 3 that they have extensive defensive wounds on their arms and hands."

"Were you able to determine cause of death?" asks agent Rossi.

"Blood loss, in all three victims." Replied the ME.

"One other thing, we just got the toxicology report back, all three victims had a blood alcohol level of at least 3 times the legal limit. Victim 1, Shelia Leigh's was the highest." "Any drugs show up in their system?" asked Agent Morgan.

"No, but not all drugs show up." Answered the ME. "GHB or ecstasy doesn't stay in a person's system very long and is not easily detected."

Shelia Leigh's apartment

Agent Prentiss and Agent Jareau enter Shelia Leigh's apartment to interview her roommate and friend Carrie Wilson. Carrie went to school with Shelia. The girl's apartment is a small 2 bedroom place near downtown Houston. The three women are sitting in the living room, Emily and JJ together on the love seat and Carrie on a kitchen chair pulled in from the kitchen area.

Emily starts the conversation, "Were sorry for your loss but we need to ask you a few questions about your roommate."

"She wasn't just my roommate; we've been friends for years, since our freshman year." Carrie replies with fresh tears in her eyes.

JJ enters the conversation, "Can you tell us about her, did she have a lot of friends?"

The young woman answers, "Shelia had a ton of friends, she loved to party with anyone. Other than writing her column and school she was always hitting the clubs. Most people thought since she was a Wiccan that she would be all into nature and stuff but she wasn't like that."

"So she really was a witch?" asks Emily. "Yeah, she loved being called that", answers Carrie, "The other women, they're not witches are they?"

"No, the press made an assumption and were working on correcting that" replies JJ.

HPD downtown station

Dr. Spencer Reid is waiting to talk to Julie Watts a co-worker of Annie Carrollton. He is in a conference room at the Houston Police Department in downtown Houston looking at a white board filled with pictures of the victims both before and after the killings. Before the killings they look like average pretty women who probably wouldn't be together in a social setting but after there's no mistaking that there's a connection. A tall woman in her late 30's early 40's enters the police station and Reid hears her asking an officer for Dr. Reid of the FBI.