Shane Wyland

"No matter how bad things get, they can get worse."

Shane Wyland is a serial killer and pedophile who appeared in Into the Woods.

History
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Shane was convicted of sexually assaulting a ten-year-old boy in 1994. After serving his sentence, he was paroled and moved into a rundown hotel along with a cluster of other sex offenders. In 2001, Shane stopped visiting his parole officer and left town, hiking along the Appalachian Trail and beginning his series of abductions and killings, eventually claiming the lives of eight children. Around 2006, Shane developed an unspecified degenerative disease in one of his knees, which left him with a limp. When he resumed travelling, Shane began collecting a flower called "Devil's Claw", using it to treat his injury in combination with painkillers stolen from Brandon Stiles, a drug dealer and fellow pedophile at the hotel. Despite his diminished capacity, he kept abducting children, albeit less frequently. The BAU were called in when Shane's twelfth victim, James Clutter, was found when a hiking family spotted a bear digging for his dead body.

He then abducted Robert Brooks and his sister, Ana, the latter's abduction being incidental, and took them to his camp in an abandoned mineshaft, locking them in a storage cell. After Shane molested Robert, the children made a plan for Ana to escape the next time Shane opened the door. When he returned the next day, he pulled Robert out of the cell, causing him to trip. Ana used that moment of opportunity to flee. Shane grabbed her, but was kicked in his bad leg by Robert and lost his grip on her. As Shane and Robert struggled, Ana escaped and was rescued by investigators. Shane left the mineshaft with Robert in tow and returned to Jonestown; from there, he made his way to Harrisburg to visit Stiles. Though Stiles was initially unwilling to let him in after he ripped him off, he allowed him entrance when he saw Robert. Shane helped himself to a new stash of drugs and some cash in exchange for giving Stiles an hour alone with Robert. When Shane saw the police outside the hotel, he turned and walked away, eluding capture. Robert was saved before Stiles could hurt him seriously and reunited with his family. In the final scene of the episode, Shane, having shaved, changed his hairstyle and hair color, cleaned himself up and redressed, got off of a pickup truck, and resumed hiking in the woods, back on the hunt.

Modus Operandi
Shane would abduct boys who were 8-12 years old and were out camping with their parents on the Appalachian Trail. After choosing a victim, he would lie in wait until it turned dark and they left their tents to relieve themselves in the woods. After taking them, he would bring them to an abandoned mineshaft on the Trail, allowing them to bring a toy with them. He would then hold them captive over the winter, molesting them repeatedly, before killing them in some unspecified way and burying their bodies in the woods, marking the graves by making a gash in a nearby tree with an axe, or a similar tool. He kept the toys in the cell in which he kept his victims, possibly as a kind of trophy.

Profile
Shane﻿ lives to hunt children, and has found the perfect place to hide them. That area must be sizeable, durable against harsh weather, well-hidden enough for even the most experienced hikers not to find it, and secure enough to hold the children captive. He has left civilization and with it all moral and legal restraints. Unlike most child abductors, who dispose of their victims quickly when they feel the walls closing in on them or even sometimes out of guilt, Shane holds his victims captive for long stretches of time, and feels no shame about his compulsion.

Known Victims

 * 1994, unspecified location: Unnamed ten-year-old boy
 * 2001-2002, Jonestown, Pennsylvania: Unnamed victim
 * 2002-2007, unspecified locations: Seven unidentified victims
 * 2006-2007, Dawsonville, Georgia: Unnamed victim
 * 2007-2008, Manchester, Vermont: Tyler Stoltz
 * 2008-2009, unspecified location: Daniel Lanham
 * 2009-2010, unspecified location: James Clutter
 * 2010, unspecified locations:
 * Robert Brooks and his sister Ana :
 * Robert Brooks
 * Ana Brooks
 * Brandon Stiles

Appearances

 * Season Six
 * Into the Woods