Later that day, Hotch, with JJ at his shoulder, stood silently looking at Victoria Gainsville's body as it lay on the table at the coroner's.
"Cause of death?" Hotch glanced at the coroner who stood nearby quietly waiting.
"It appears she was Tasered," the woman relied. "Which, combined with the heat and the stress she was undoubtedly under, caused her heart to fail."
"Tasered?" Hotch repeated. "A couple hundred dollars and you can get one of those on-line. That doesn't help us any."
"At least now we know how he is controlling all these women," JJ spoke up.
"Was she was abused?" JJ knew she had to ask the question.
"Yes, repeatedly, both physically and sexually. It's all in my report," the coroner's response was brief.
"What was her overall condition?" Hotch asked.
"She had apparently been given limited amounts of food and water," the coroner replied. "She wasn't exactly starving, but she had obviously lost a lot of weight and was probably very weak. Whoever was holding her was supplying her with the bare basics, but not much more."
"I understand she was found unclothed?" JJ asked.
"Yes, but my guess is that she had been wearing clothes right up to the end," was the coroner's opinion. "There are tan marks on her wrists and I found fibers caught between her toes."
"Taking her clothes off after death may have been an attempt to humiliate her," Hotch theorized.
"The final insult?" JJ suggested sadly.