Darrin Call

"We're gonna get him back for everything that he done, Tommy. Every single thing."

Darrin Call is a traumatized spree killer who underwent a psychotic breakdown in Season Five of Criminal Minds.

Background
Born in 1969 and presumably unnamed, Darrin's mother died in childbirth and his father, Bill Jarvis, a serial killer also referred to as "The Hollow Creek Killer", maintained an abusive environment. He was forced to participate in the abducting, torture, and killing of adolescent boys. Being only six, according to Haunted, Darrin was helpless to stand against his father's orders. However, a boy and would-be victim named Tommy Phillips eventually talked Darrin into giving him the keys to the cage in which he was imprisoned. When Tommy escaped, he attempted to take Darrin along with him, but was unsuccessful when Bill caught up with Darrin and prevented him from escaping. Darrin fought back while Tommy escaped, wounding his father with his own knife in the process. He fled to the nearest town and was found on May 1, 1975, being eventually put into foster care, where he received his present identity. He didn't say a word his first year in foster care and Child Services described him as being extremely physically abused. Since then, he has maintained a shaky hold on reality, suppressing his memories of his past. He was later hospitalized at the same state facility on two separate occasions. He also made several attempts to move away, but always found himself gravitating back to Louisville. In 1990, he found employment at a local factory, but lost the job directly prior to "Haunted" without having a single promotion. Sometime prior to the events of "Haunted", Darrin's doctor, Charles Cipolla, took him off his medication, a tranquilizer (which is erroneously referred to in the episode as an anti-psychotic) called Alprazolam, when Darrin wished to remember his past. However, as his memories began catching up with him, this caused him to slowly lose his grip on reality.

Haunted
"Does it look like I'm better?!"

Darrin is first seen at a pharmacy, already without his medication for a month, attempting to obtain a refill on his prescription for Alprazolam. When the pharmacist is unable to fill his request, Darrin becomes agitated. A stock boy is called to intervene, but Darrin notices his box cutter, has a flashback to Bill threatening him, and stabs the stock boy in the throat the moment the boy touches him. When a customer yells at Darrin for committing the act and grabs his wrist, Darrin stabs her before attacking three men who attempt to subdue him, as well as attempting to kill the pharmacist. Acquiring a gun from one of the three (a bank guard) during his attack, Darrin flees the scene, leaving behind three dead bodies. Darrin then shows up at his doctor's office, where Dr. Cipolla is consulting with another patient. He bursts into the session and demands that Dr. Cipolla explain why he is not getting better. When the present patient attempts to escape, Darrin murders him and the doctor. He then takes the doctor's clothes and his report file. He later approaches Sternor Orphanage, where he lived in as a child. When a young woman working there answers the door, he demands to know what happened to the "nice man" Mr. Cureton, who used to work there. When the woman tells him that Cureton had retired and tries to get Darrin to leave, he cuts her wrist after looking at his reflection and seeing his father. Grabbing a boy named Ryan, who reminds him of Tommy, Darrin hijacks a minivan and flees. This poses as a problem for the BAU, as Darrin doesn't have a driver's license.

Meanwhile, the real Tommy is tracked down by the BAU and questioned about the events. Tommy tells them he has lived a life of guilt. He feels guilty about leaving Darrin behind. He is relieved to hear that Darrin was indeed alive and goes with the BAU to help them track down Darrin. While the BAU searches for him, Darrin drives to Bill's house, ironically not crashing into anything. He tracks it down from "visions" and flashbacks that he has been having throughout the episode. He confronts Bill, holding him at gunpoint. Hotch, at the time still trying to recover from psychological trauma induced by a stabbing attack on him, then bursts into the room, trying to talk him down. Hotch's pleas are unsuccessful, however, and Darrin shoots Bill, killing him. After killing Bill, Darrin seems to have become much more lucid, being able to talk without stuttering or twitching like he did during his psychotic breakdown. Ryan is rescued, and Darrin is arrested. Afterwards, Tommy is told that he is allowed to speak to Darrin. Approaching him, Tommy apologizes for leaving Darrin with his father. Darrin then replies that Tommy was the one that saved him, as he made him no longer feel afraid of his father, and is then taken away. Tommy is left to brood on his past and the experience, while Darrin happily observes a group of boys playing in a basketball court located across the street. He was presumably institutionalized afterwards.

He was later mentioned in Cradle to Grave by Morgan as examples of recent events that demonstrated Hotch's strange shift in his behavior following his stabbing attack.



Profile
Darrin suffers from a severe form of PTSD due to the events of his childhood. He has suppressed those memories but, as he goes longer without his meds, they begin to resurface. He starts having flashbacks of bits and pieces of the traumatic events. When he realizes there was one boy, Tommy, who escaped, he begins to realize that Tommy had "saved" him, as Darrin was able to escape shortly after. As his memories become complete, he hunts down his father to make him pay.

Modus Operandi
Darrin used either a box cutter (which was taken from the pharmacy employee) or a handgun (taken from the bank guard) to kill his victims. In the case of Brad Binston, he attacked him with both weapons. He usually attacked people when they touched him somehow or when he had flashbacks of his childhood and his father's crimes.

Known Victims

 * Unspecified date in 1975, Hollow Creek, Kentucky: Bill Jarvis
 * September 30, 2009, Louisville, Kentucky:
 * Three killed and two critically injured, plus one attempted murder, in the pharmacy killings. The victims are:
 * John
 * An unnamed female customer
 * An unnamed male customer
 * The unnamed pharmacist
 * Milton Pargrave
 * Brad Binston
 * Two killed in the psychiatric office stabbings :
 * Unnamed male psychiatric patient
 * Doctor Charles Cipolla
 * The attack and abduction at Sternor Orphanage:
 * Unnamed female orphanage employee
 * Ryan
 * Unnamed male motorist
 * The Jarvis house standoff:
 * Aaron Hotchner
 * Bill Jarvis

Appearances

 * Season Five
 * Haunted
 * Cradle to Grave