[𝟐] 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 - 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨

𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐑

"Maybe there's something in the water." Rossi let out. I'd say.

"Saving body parts is like collecting souvenirs, right?" Luke asked.

"That's one possibility. It could also be a forensic countermeasure." Emily replied.

"Or he's keeping them as trophies." JJ added.

"Well, homeless people often suffer from crippling mental illness. I mean, is it possible he stumbled across the body and then collected the limbs?" Tara suggested.

"You mean like a hoarder." Rossi spoke.

"Yeah, maybe." Tara replied.

"Compulsive irrational gathering of objects is a common psychosis among the long-term homeless." Spencer added.

"Flushing people out of terrain like this is tough. I mean like really tough. We all know that Eric Rudolph evaded capture in this same wilderness for over 5 years." Luke said.

Rossi got a message on his phone. "Preliminary M.E. report. The body parts came from at least 5 different victims."

"Well, that settles that. The unsub didn't stumble upon anything. He's serial." I let out and rubbed my head.

"This happened less than 90 miles away. It'll be quicker to drive." Emily spoke.

"Our local M.E. isn't equipped to handle all this, so the body parts are being sent to the coroner here. Prentiss and Parks, head out there. The rest of us will set up at the crime scene." Rossi instructed. We nodded and went on our way.

—

The coroner's office was a mess of various decomposing body parts.

"5 victims. 4 male, 1 female, all Caucasian." The doctor started.

"It makes sense his victim pool would skew male. Men are more likely to go into a remote area alone." Emily spoke.

"The fact that he also killed a woman suggests the unsub doesn't have a preference at all. These are victims of opportunity. Any estimates on their ages?" I went on.

"Well, the men are 40 to 50. Female was younger. Early to mid 20s." The doctor replied. That makes this so much harder.

"We'll run DNA, see if we get any hits. It's a long shot, but we might get lucky." Emily said.

I leaned in closer to the dismembered body parts. It was messy. "The limbs don't appear to be removed with any skill or precision."

"They weren't. It was a hatchet job, literally." The doctor replied.

"What about cause of death? I mean, granted, being hacked into pieces would do the trick, but..." Emily trailed off.

"You know, without the full corpse it's almost impossible to tell. And the tox screen on the female showed no drugs or poison in her system." The doctor replied.

"Do we know how long ago they were killed?" I asked.

"Difficult to pinpoint given the exposure to the elements. But one set of limbs was a lot older than the others. Almost a year, year and a half. Best guess on the other 3 males, 8 months, 5 months, 2 months. Female remains were the freshest. Recent as a week." She explained and went down the line of the remains.

"So he killed one victim and then fell dormant for a while." I let out.

"But he's back to it with a vengeance. His rate of kills is accelerating." Emily spoke.

So, we have a devolving serial killer who fancies a hatchet. What more could a girl ask for?

—

Well, they sent out the dogs and found more remains.