(Season 12)

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It had been a rather boring morning filled with budget meetings and Booth was afraid he was going to dream about numbers if he didn't get a break. Moving into his office, a takeout bag from the Royal Diner in his hand, he turned to close the door when Aubrey sauntered up and placed his hand on the door to keep it from closing. "Hey, Booth. The oddest shit just happened at the Congressional Cemetery."

Annoyed, Booth removed Aubrey's hand from the door and started to close it. "I'm taking a break and I'm going to eat my lunch. Go away."

Not to be deterred, Aubrey raised his hand and stopped the door from completely closing. "A skeleton partly made of bone and partly made of silver was found in an old mausoleum. You can't tell me that isn't weird."

Slowly moving the door until it was fully open, Booth stared at the younger agent and tried to decide if the man was yanking his chain. "Did it have it's arms up in the air and was the skull facing upwards like it was looking up?"

"Yeah." A chill ran down Aubrey's back. "How'd you know that? I just came from the cemetery and I haven't told anyone about it yet except you."

"Shit!" Booth turned around walked around his desk and sat down depositing his lunch bag in the center of the desk. Leaning forward, Booth stared at the younger agent as he walked into the room. "How was it found?"

Filled with questions, Aubrey sat down and answered Booth's question instead. "Someone died and their family decided to put them in their mausoleum. It's been about forty years since they opened it the last time and they were shocked when they found the skeleton. They called Metro Police and Metro called the FBI since the Department of Veteran Affairs is in charge of the place. I went out to check it out and man that is one creepy skeleton. It's being held up with some rods and its arms are raised up towards the sky."

"It's called pharmakos. It means scapegoat or sacrifice." Booth still remembered Hodgins explanation about the positioning of the skeleton they had found in the bank vault back in 2007.

"Wow, how do you know about this?" Both impressed and creeped out, Aubrey shook his head. "Have you seen one of these before?"

Worried that there was another branch of serial killer cannibals in the District, Booth decided he needed more information. "Yeah, I've seen two. One mostly made of silver bones with a few human bones in it and one made of all human bones. They each belonged to a cannibalistic serial killer . . . What did you do with the skeleton? Is it still at the mausoleum or did you move it somewhere else? Did you call Bones or Cam out to look at it?"

"It's still at the mausoleum. I called the Lab and Hodgins and Dr. Brennan are going to go look at it . . . Dr. Brennan didn't mention that she had seen one of those before and she sure didn't mention cannibals. Maybe I should have stayed at the cemetery instead of letting Agent Yardley take care of it."

"If I didn't have a meeting with the Director at one, I'd go out to the cemetery right now." Booth grabbed the paper bag on his desk, pulled out a BLT and a large bag of fries. "Go back to the cemetery and see what Bones says about the skeleton. We need to know how old it is. If it's new and someone is adding human bones to the skeleton then we have a problem . . . When I killed Gormogon I thought that was the end of the cult. Maybe I assumed something that I shouldn't have."

Standing, Aubrey wore a look of disgust on his face. "Gormogon? That was the name of the cannibal? And he was part of a cult?" Aubrey shook his head. "I'm going to go back to the cemetery." As he walked towards the door, Booth could hear the younger man muttering. "Cannibals. Damn it. This is just gross. And a cult? This isn't good."

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Brennan was examining the skeleton when Aubrey returned to the mausoleum. Hodgins was able to roll his chair into the small building and was vacuuming up the floor with the help of an intern.

"Dr. B. you didn't mention that you've seen a skeleton like this before." Aubrey stood in the doorway and watched Brennan using magnifier goggles to study one of the human bones.

"I had to see it to make sure it was similar. I try not to assume anything." Brennan continued to look at the sternum on the skeleton. "This is very similar to the one that Gormogon owned. His mentor's skeleton was completely made of human bones and Gormogon's was partially made of human bones and silver bones. After he killed his chosen victim, he removed the bones that were identified strongly with the victim, boiled them, ate the flesh and then placed the bone on the skeleton using silver screws."

Hodgins moved closer to Aubrey and explained further. "He killed a violinist and used the man's little finger on his skeleton. He also killed a priest and used that guy's knees."

Shuddering, Aubrey found his appetite squelched at least for the moment. "He ate them and then used their bones to make a skeleton? God the guy was insane and he had a mentor? Booth said it was a cult."

"It was a cult." Hodgins move over to where the skeleton was standing and checked the floor to make sure they had vacuumed up everything. "Booth killed Gormogon and we thought that was the end of the cult. Now we're not so sure."

"I need to do some more tests, but these bones appear to be old." Brennan removed her goggles from her face and turned to face Aubrey. "I need the entire skeleton moved to the Jeffersonian as soon as possible. Once it is there, we can run some tests to determine the age of these particular bones. We can also run some DNA tests to see if we can find out who the bones belong to."

Curious, Aubrey stepped closer to the skeleton and asked a question. "Was Gormogon's skeleton all male victims or a mix of male and female? Did the guy just kill men or did he kill men and women?"

"That's a very good question, Aubrey." Brennan appreciated Aubrey's thought process. "His victims were all male. His mentor's skeleton was also made up entirely of male victims."

Pleased that he had not embarrassed himself, Aubrey stepped back to the doorway. "I'll arrange to have the skeleton transported to the Lab. Booth wanted to be here, but he has a meeting with the Director this afternoon."

Acknowledging the agent, Brennan nodded her head while she removed her latex gloves and placed them in a plastic bag. "I'm sure he will wish to be kept apprised of what we find."

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Much to the relief of everyone working with the skeleton, it was determined that the human bones placed on the skeleton were not done recently. The bones were placed on the skeleton approximately 35 years ago. There were four different victims represented on the skeleton and DNA tests had matched two of the victims. Cam was using genetic genealogy to try to tract down relatives of the other two victims. It was hoped that if they found matching DNA from relatives in the DNA databases they might be able to track down who the victims were.

"Well at least we don't have to worry that there's a cult still out there eating victims and making skeletons from their bones." Booth stared at the skeleton found in the mausoleum and sighed. "I hate serial killers. Is there a chance we can find out who started working on this skeleton? Since he didn't finish it, I'm assuming that he died or he's in prison."

"We think we may be able to track down who the killer is by using genetic genealogy to find him." They were using the same process to track down two of the victims. "The DNA we found where he chewed on the bones is not degraded too much. We couldn't find a match in any of the usual databases so we're using genealogy sites now. This is pretty new, but there have been some successes."

Worried about the implications of using genetic genealogy, Hodgins snorted. "You won't get me to send in my DNA to any of those genealogy sites. They can use your DNA for anything and you can't stop it. My DNA belongs to me."

"Well, I'm glad not everyone thinks like you do." Cam smiled at the scowl Hodgins bequeathed to her. "To be able to use genetic genealogy may close cold cases that everyone has given up on. We might be able to capture serial killers that have been lurking amongst us and give families closure."

Leary of using a citizen's DNA against him, Hodgins shook his head. "They're doing tests using DNA without a search warrant."

"On a database that advertises that it shares results." Cam moved towards the steps leading off the platform. "If you don't want to get in to trouble, don't break the law and kill someone."

Amused, Booth chuckled. "She's got a point. I hope we can find out who started this skeleton. If he's dead then great our worries are over. If he's alive, we need to find out where he is. I just hope that this guy whoever he is isn't still killing people."

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After some research, Cam was able to find out who the killer was by using the DNA from the man's niece and two cousins listed in a genealogy database. Ironically Jason Richards died of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. One of the victims that he had eaten had the disease. Jason got the disease from his victim and died a painful death since there is no cure for the disease.

Aubrey was eating lunch when Booth sat down at the table across from him at the diner and told him the news. "God, he ate his victim and then died because of some disease the victim had? Wow Karma can work in mysterious and ironic ways."

"That's a fact, Aubrey." Not very hungry, Booth ordered a salad and a cup of coffee. "I may switch to a vegetarian diet for a while. That will make Bones happy."

"Yeah, but will it make you happy?" The younger agent bit into a bacon and lettuce sandwich, savoring the smoky flavor of the bacon. "Me, I'll take my chances. I'm not giving up bacon for anyone."

Giving it a thought, Booth caught the attention of their server and asked her to put bacon on his salad. "Yeah, no need to be a fanatic about it."

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Let me know what you think of my story. Thanks.

A/N: genetic genealogy is a real thing. If you are interested in learning more about it, look for it here: Bloomberg Businessweek: 'Your DNA is Out There. Do You Want Law Enforcement Using it?'