Helen Garrett

"She comes like fullest moon on happy night, taper of waist shaped like magic might, her eye hath glances to quell mankind, and Ruby of her cheeks reflect this light, unveils her hips, the blackness of her hair. Beware of curls that bite with viper bite."

Helen Garrett is the wife of executed serial killer Rodney Garrett, who appeared in Divining Rod.

Background
In 2002, Helen started dating a man named Rodney Garrett, who treated her with respect and stayed with her, even after she was rendered bald due to a surgery for a brain tumor. Following her surgery, the two married and were happy together. However, for unknown reasons, Garrett started killing young, short-haired, blonde women by stabbing them directly in the heart with an icepick, which was left there. It is still unknown if Helen was ever aware of his secret life as a serial killer, or at least suspicious of him. Within a two-year span, he claimed 25 lives before being caught by the authorities and sentenced to death for his crimes. Despite him being a local pariah, Helen visited Garrett daily in Gunter State Prison, being the only one who consistently supported him, sans a "fan" who sent at least two letters to him. Because of her support of Garrett, she was disowned by her family. Every time she visited Garrett in prison, Helen was driven by a prison shuttle driver named Dylan Kohler, who bonded with her and eventually fell in love with her, to the point where he became mentally unstable.

Divining Rod
In 2012, Garrett was finally executed, but Helen did not attend the execution, having said her goodbyes to him the day before. Minutes after the execution, Kohler murdered a woman with an emulation of Garrett's M.O. After the BAU is called in to investigate, Rossi and Prentiss visit Helen at the Garrett home. When Prentiss asks why she kept supporting Garrett despite everything he had done, Helen tells her about the time Garrett stayed with her during her surgery even though he could have moved on to another, healthier woman. She then defends Garrett's actions by saying he had to be mentally unhealthy to do the things that he did. When Rossi asks if she ever suspected something was wrong with Garrett, Helen denies it but remarks that people only see what they want to see. Helen then tells the agents about her planned move to Missouri. As she rummages through her packaged items, she discovers a divining rod used by her great-uncle and tells Rossi and Prentiss about its history. Then, she tells them how her father once told her she had a divining rod of sorts inside of her, which could be used to find any bad man.

After the BAU find Garrett's fan-letters, including one that Garrett quoted right before his death, they interrogate Helen about them. However, she is unable to provide to them any information on their origins. Later, Helen goes to Gunter State Prison to retrieve her husband's belongings. There, she is abducted by Kohler while aboard the prison shuttle. Taking her to his house, Kohler has her wear a wig he designed for her, fashioned from hair and a scalp he cut from his victims. Then, he prepares to have dinner with her when the BAU, having realized he was the unsub, burst into the room, forcing Kohler to hold Helen at knifepoint with one of his icepicks. He refuses to release Helen, forcing Hotch to non-fatally shoot him, allowing Helen to escape, all the while tearfully saying that her father was right. By the end of the episode, Helen visits Kohler, having suddenly come to like him. She reads him a quote that Kohler states he hasn't heard of before, which was the one Garrett recited before his execution. However, as Kohler, who had been initially presumed to be the "fan" who sent Garrett the letters, didn't hear of the quote while Helen did, this implies that it was she who had written the letters to Garrett.

Appearances

 * Season Seven
 * "Divining Rod"