Case

The team were working on a case that had been active for ten years now but had only just been brought to their notice a few days ago. The fact it had been brought to their notice only a few days ago frustrated Hotch as there were so many victims that could have been saved if they'd been brought in earlier. Some of the families still didn't have closure and they were trying to gather names of the victims.

There were only names of missing people; no victims yet only Jane and John Does. There were only a few of those anyway but they suspected there were a lot more dead bodies they were never going to find. The only way they believed they would get names was once they'd caught the person behind all this.

People had gone missing all over Virginia and Washington DC for the last ten years. At first it had been men and women but for seven years it had been just men. They believed this could be because they'd found a woman they wanted to keep and she was still one of their hostages.

The few bodies they'd managed to find in the beginning gave them some insight into what the UnSub was doing but they weren't sure if they were doing it themselves or making the victims do it to each other. There were masses of stab wounds and signs of damage caused by fighting. On the last body there had been severe burn damage which made them believe the other bodies had been cremated somewhere on the UnSub's property.

They'd whittled down a list of potential victims from listening to their friends and family and looking into their personal histories. Even then they'd come to about 70 potential male victims and 30 female. They promised their families they would find the truth about their disappearances.

They believed they already had a profile for this UnSub and they believed it could be more than one involved. The leader was clearly a psychopath and the more they looked at the wounds on the skeletons it looked like they hadn't been inflicted by the same person so they believed the victims had been made to do it to each other.

They believed the UnSub was a man and might be controlling a female partner to help him capture the victims. She was the one who would try and make friends with the victims and reel them in. Once they were reeled in the man would kidnap them and take them to wherever they were holding the victims. He was clearly demanding and intimidating enough to convince them to hurt each other. He was also clever enough to hide their tracks by burning the bodies. They believed he had a crematorium on his property or at least a large amount of land and suffered something psychologically damaging as a child.

They had reports of the smell of burning flesh coming from a property down by the lake in Georgetown. The neighbours had complained about it before but believed it was only animal flesh; now they suspected it might have been the victims. They'd never been able to make contact with the owner of the property Darrell Shipman but there was an outhouse at the bottom of his land that was kept out of the way but the neighbours were sure they'd heard the sounds of fighting come from.

Hotch was closest so he drove over there to check it out. When he got there he parked the car and went out to investigate the property. He heard noises come from that outhouse and could smell the pungent smell of burning flesh so he headed to that area with his gun.

As he got closer he saw a woman watching over the fire almost in a trance as the flames came up and engulfed the body inside. He could clearly see the victim had been another young man and from the missing reports that had come in he knew it was one Andrew Flint. He covered his nose and mouth trying to escape the putrid smell.

He suddenly felt someone whack the back of his head and he fell forward but managed to grab his gun just in time. He shot up at the man and he saw him get hit but he felt the heat of the fire just above his head. He struggled as he felt someone cover his mouth and the smoke from the fire burning his eyes. Soon it was too much as everything went black and he passed out.