Wade Hatchett

"The story's not over yet."

Wade Hatchett was a serial killer who appeared in Season Five of Criminal Minds.

History
A trucker living in Edgecomb, New Mexico, Wade's wife Caroline died in a house fire in 2009, leaving him as their daughter Jody's sole guardian. Due to his busy schedule, Wade was unable to properly care for Jody, and was deemed an unfit parent, with the girl being remanded to the custody of Lynn Clemons until a foster home could be found. The thought of losing his daughter drove Wade to begin seeking out surrogate mothers, random women he would pick up on his routes and hold captive in his truck, strangling them if they failed to live up to expectations and dumping the bodies off the highways he drove through. After he killed, Wade would visit Jody, telling her sugarcoated stories of his escapades, where he was a lonely king, she was the princess and his victims were queens.

After abducting and killing a bartender named Tanya Hill, Wade makes his way to the Clemons house in the middle of the night, sneaking in and waking up Jody, who he tells about his latest "adventure". After finishing his story and saying Tanya wasn't the one, Wade says he will continue looking for a queen, and when Jody asks what will happen if he does not find one, Wade says he will "go to a better place". Some time later, Wade is eating in a truck stop when he spots a hitchhiker named Bobby Lainsford enter. His interest drawn when he sees Bobby interacting well with a patron and her child, Wade, after overhearing Bobby ask an employee if she knows anyone heading west, says he is, and offers her a lift. After presumably knocking her out, Wade places Bobby in the back of his truck, and when she wakes up, he communicates with her through a ceiling-mounted intercom, telling her to be quiet when she asks what he wants, also saying he wishes to talk.

Eventually stopping, Wade enters the back of the truck with a water bottle, telling Bobby he has some questions when she asks for some water. After quizzing Bobby, Wade grows dissatisfied with the initial answer she gives to him when he asks she wants to have children, and as she desperately starts saying yes, he tells her that he does not believe her, and leaves. A few hours later, Wade, after killing and dumping Bobby, spots Nancy Campbell and her daughter Courtney pull over at a rest stop. Following Nancy into the ladies' room, Wade bashes in the door of the stall she is in, and abducts her. As the seemingly claustrophobic Nancy begins panicking in the back of the truck, Wade turns on a light and the intercom, telling her that if she is quiet, the light will stay on, also saying that he wants her when she asks why he is doing this. As Nancy's anxiety escalates, Wade turns the light off.

At a diner, Wade is eating breakfast with Jody and Mrs. Clemons; when the latter leaves to take a call, Jody, after Wade tells her how much he misses her, shows Wade a picture she made, and asks for another story. Wade tells Jody he had almost given up hope, until he found Nancy, who he claims is the one. Before Wade can finish, Mrs. Clemons reappears, and tells Jody it is time to go school, and gives her some money for candy. After Wade tells Jody they will be a family again soon, Mrs. Clemons tells him to stop telling her that, saying that nothing has changed, and that Jody is going to be adopted soon. When Wade becomes distraught, Mrs. Clemons tells him that he has know for months that this was a possibility, and that it is for the best, since Wade can barely manage to take care of himself, as he is without any family or home, and has been reduced to living in his truck. Refusing to admit Mrs. Clemons is right about this being the best for Jody, Wade, after stating he made a promise that he would always take care of her, says goodbye to Jody, telling her that the story is not over yet when she asks if he is sure the latest queen is the right one.

Entering the back of his truck, Wade gives Nancy water (angrily telling her to take when she at first refuses) and tells her she is not like the others, she knows how important family is. Wade begins questioning Nancy (referring to Jody as "our daughter") and, after being satisfied with her answers, pours sugar on her clothes to clean her up, and leaves when Nancy starts talking about Courtney. Later, Wade, gun in hand, forces Nancy out of the truck, and kills Mrs. Clemons, dumping her body by a highway, not bothering to pose it like the others he has killed. Making his way to her home after killing Mrs. Clemons, Wade parks his truck and prepares to get out, only to spot SWAT agents surrounding the house. Getting his gun, Wade enters the back of the truck, unlocks the handcuffs he has Nancy in, and forces her to the front of the vehicle, where he uses her as a shield. When Jody starts communicating with him over his radio, asking him to tell her the rest of his latest story, Wade tells her he and the queen are at the castle to pick her up, but the guards are in the way. At Prentiss's urging, Jody convinces Wade to let Nancy go. After Nancy is secured, Jody asks her father why he is not getting out to, so Wade tells her that his search for a queen is over, and that he is going to live happily ever after, answering in the positive when Jody asks him if he is going to "the better place". Before anyone can reach him, Wade commits suicide by shooting himself in the head.

Profile
The direction the unsub was heading when he dumped the bodies of his victims indicates his comfort zone, the place where he feels most at home and safe, is Edgewood, New Mexico. Since no effort was made to hide the bodies, which were probably dumped at night, the unsub either does not care if they are found, or knows the cannot be connected to him. The bodies being posed to make it look like the victims are sleeping indicates either remorse, or is simply staging. Metal shavings found under the victims' nails, traces of diesel fuel and sugar (which absorbs fuel) on their clothes and the places the victims were taken from (diners, bars, gas stations, etc.) indicates the unsub is a trucker, whose preferred victim type is women in their mid to late twenties, who he watches for some time, taking them when he is sure there are no witnesses. Since he would need time to hunt and kill, the unsub is probably not a company trucker, since their schedules are to tight.

It was odd for the unsub to take Nancy, a woman older than his usual type, from a rest stop, which is unlike his other abduction sites. While target rich and offender friendly, it could not allow him to blend in or have any extended interaction with a victim, so it must just be a dumping and clean up site. Nancy may have been taken since she was older and more "sophisticated" than the other victims, who it would not take more than a day to discern are not suitable for companionship, which the unsub appears to be after, since he holds the victims for hours, but does not rape or torture them. Delusional, the unsub has a romanticized view of himself, which is amplified by his isolation. He is looking for a wife, someone sweet, outgoing and warm, who, if they fail whatever "test" he puts them through, he strangles in a rage.

Nancy was an anomaly, however; she may have been taken because she was a parent, which the unsub may be also, which would explain why he keeps coming back to Edgewood. He may be involved in some kind of custody dispute, which would be his stressor, and he could be a widow, since he would not want to tear his own child away from the mother.

Modus Operandi
Wade found his victims, almost always women in their twenties who had piqued his interest for one reason or another, in truck stops or similar locations he stopped at along his routes. Watching his targets for a short time, Wade would either blitz them or somehow lure them into his truck, placing them in the trailer, which had a light and intercom attached to the ceiling. Eventually stopping, Wade would enter the trailer and begin questioning his captive, asking things like if they were religious or if they wanted children and, if he received an answer he did not like, Wade would deem them unworthy of being his daughter's new mother and strangle them, dumping the body off the highway at night. Usually, no real effort was made in hiding the bodies, which were posed to look like the victims were sleeping.

Known Victims

 * Erika Joy
 * Amber Hardgode
 * Karen Clay
 * Benita Gibson
 * Sam Marshall
 * Michelle Aubrey
 * Julie Marie
 * Violet Harrison
 * Tanya Hill
 * Bobby Lainsford
 * Nancy Campbell
 * Lynn Clemons
 * Himself

Appearances

 * Season Five
 * "Solitary Man"