counting stars | criminal minds [discontinued]

8 | T A X E S

"Big area. Are we sure it's the same unsub?" Rossi asked.

"His DNA was found in all the homes," JJ explained.

"They hadn't connected it becaUse he crossed jurisdictional lines," Hotch added. Florence noticed that that was often a problem. When it came to murder and what-not, she thought that jurisdiction shouldn't really come into play.

"The head of the Sacramento field office has established a multi-agency task force and he wants us to run point," JJ said.

Morgan flipped through the file. "Looks like we got a lot of investigators on this one."

"We'll streamline it if we need to," Hotch said.

"You should know that they've already named him the Highway 99 Killer," JJ warned them.

"That's not even a cool murder name," Florence mumbled under her breath. Garcia, though amused, nudged her under the table.

"We'll deal with that when we get there," Hotch muttered.

"He targets one to two-person households," JJ went on. "He kills the victims while they sleep."

"Blunt force trauma with objects found at the home," Reid noted, flipping through the file. "Multiple bashes to the head.

"After he kills the victims, he ransacks the homes for valuables."

"Which is not unusual for a nighttime burglary-homicide," Hotch said. "What's unique about this unsub is that after he kills them, apparently he sits down to dinner in their homes. They found his DNA all over the food and the table."

"Are these burglaries that turned into homicides or homicides that turned into burglaries?" Rossi questioned.

"Between the two offenses, it seems the primary motivation is homicide. Otherwise, he would have just stolen the items and fled," Morgan said.

"But he stays there for hours," JJ said, beginning to flip through crime scene pictures. "He eats their food, he tries on their clothes, he showers, he even sleeps in their beds."

"It's like Goldilocks became a serial killer," Prentiss added.

The Goldilocks Killer would be a better name than the Highway 99 Killer, Florence thought to herself. But she didn't share that with the group.

"They've got plenty of DNA, but they found no fingerprints."

"He doesn't take their cars. So, how does he get there?" Prentiss asked.

"No witness reports of strange cars on the street."

"No prints, no gun, no noise, no car, no witnesses," Rossi said. "This all adds up to prior experience."

"There's a record on him somewhere," Reid said.

"And until we find it, he's moved on to another town," Hotch said.

"Which could be anywhere," Prentiss added.

It seemed that tracking this guy down was going to be quite difficult.

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There was only so much that Garcia and Florence could do until the team found more information. They found all they could on the victims, which told them nothing new. They were all unconnected and in different locations. There was a four hundred mile radius, which made the geographical profile incredibly difficult. Rossi and Reid were able to deduce that the unsub was hopping from train to train to get around. Then he would stay in the victim's homes.