John Myers

John Myers, a.k.a. "The Silencer", was a deaf serial-turned-spree killer who appeared in Season Eight of Criminal Minds.

Background
Myers was born sometime on 1974 as the youngest child of an abusive Julie Myers. On October 30, 1988, while he was fourteen, Myers was given a cochlear implant, for which Julie was paid $650 by the medical trial. At the time, it was a highly experimental and rather controversial procedure tested only on humans. By then, his childhood had been spent in isolation, most likely due to his deafness. As a result, he resorted to reading, which resulted in him gaining a high level of reading intelligence. After the surgery, Myers developed an interest in foreign languages due to his mother's New Orleans-based origins, but became enraged by a buzzing noise that was one of several side-effects of the surgery; another side-effect involved the left side of his face appearing sunken, with his left eye being unable to close on its own. One day, on August 26, 2004, he snapped and killed Julie, sewing her mouth shut afterwards. Authorities didn't suspect him of Julie's murder, and he and his brothers were put in foster care. Both of Myers's older brothers, Mark and Greg, eventually went off the grid, their current statuses unknown.

Myers went on to kill two more women, with the last victim being murdered three months after Julie's murder. Sometime in November, he was pulled over for a traffic violation, which was most likely intentional, as it would be revealed that he wanted to be caught. During the incident, police found no registration, no tags, and no means of identification, but a gun with a silencer (a reference to his nickname that went unnoticed) was found in his car. Because he had illegal possession of the gun, he was arrested and simply registered as a John Doe after there was no way of identifying him. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment without parole after he killed two other convicts in prison fights. During his time in solitary confinement as a result of the two murders of the inmates, he learned of a town well-known for its honey products from another inmate named Danny Tucker. The details of this town led to Myers believing it to be some sort of safe haven. He began a series of writings in prison and also developed an idea to flee to the town should he have the perfect chance.

The Silencer
Myers first appears in the episode, seen being strapped onto a stretcher by medics and prison officials as he convulses repeatedly due to a severe allergic reaction. He is wheeled onto an ambulance and is taken away. As the ambulance drives onto a lonely road, the prison guard on-board talks with the medic, telling him about Myers's homicidal tendencies, to which the medic asks him why they are saving his life. Just then, the driver spots a deer walking onto the road ahead and makes a sharp turn to avoid hitting it, but winds up driving the ambulance into a ditch and crashing into a tree. Everyone but Myers and the guard is killed in the crash; Myers revives from his state, breaks free from one of the handcuffs restraining him onto the stretcher, grabs the guard's key and Beretta 92FS handgun, and uses the former to unlock the other set of handcuffs. The guard regains consciousness, but Myers holds him at gunpoint. The guard convinces him to put down the gun, and Myers kindly helps him up, but when the guard attempts to go for his gun, Myers knocks him back down. He then fatally asphyxiates him before escaping with the guard's gun and several ambulance supplies. Later, in the coroner's office, Morgan and JJ are shown a note Myers left behind in the guard's mouth, which says, "Gazing through to the other side." As the investigation proceeds, Myers goes on to kill two more victims, a gas station owner and a male motorist, while on the run, leaving behind another message inside the former's sewn mouth and taking care of the latter's baby (and then stealing his car) after killing him.

The BAU soon realizes that Myers's messages are clues to where he intends to go. Meanwhile, he starts hallucinating about his abuse at the hands of Julie after finding the secluded spot in Sweetwater Tucker had talked to him about, only to find it mostly under reconstruction. Myers promptly becomes scared by the loud buzzing noise that is brought by the heavy machinery sounds. The BAU later find out that Danny Tucker might be in serious danger, as Myers would become enraged at finding his supposed safe haven being under construction, and leave for his house, but Myers reaches him first, holding his wife and daughter hostage and knocking him out when he tries to fight back. He then puts him on a chair and attempts to sew his mouth, but Danny regains consciousness and Myers again asphyxiates him to the point of unconsciousness. Believing he is dead, he resumes his assault, but is cut short when the BAU burst into the house and hold him at gunpoint. Blake, the team's newest member, tries to reason with Myers, communicating with him through sign-language. Myers argues that he doesn't want to return to prison, but Blake tells him that there is no other way. In defeat, Myers stands up, backs away from Tucker and up against a wall, and commits suicide by shooting himself under the chin with the guard's gun.

Myers would go on to be mentioned or referenced throughout the rest of the season. At the end of The Apprenticeship, Hotch was informed via cell phone call that a body with his mouth sewn shut was found in Dallas. He and Rossi briefly converse on this, stating that it was definitely a copycat, as Myers is already dead. At the end of Magnificent Light, a photo of the victim is seen in the copycat's room. Myers was briefly mentioned again in Perennials by Hotch. At the end of Broken, the copycat can be seen viewing the photos of his victims, including that of the Myers-based victim; such photos would reappear in The Gathering and Brothers Hotchner. Myers was mentioned frequently by the BAU in Carbon Copy. He was then mentioned in the season finale episode The Replicator, where it is revealed that the Myers-based victim was the copycat's second victim, not the first. Two years later, Myers was mentioned once again in Angels when Hotch stated that a Texas Sheriff had examined their handling of the Silencer case, which inspired him to summon the rest of the team to investigate a series of religious murders.

Modus Operandi
Before his incarceration, Myers targeted brunette, working-class mothers aged in their late 40s, all of whom resembled his mother Julie, his first victim. He attacked them at night and choked all of them to death with his bare hands and/or his arms. His signature was sewing their mouths shut with thread while they were still alive, using a unique double-knot ligature. He also beat them and left their bodies in ditches. In prison, he beat two inmates to death with his fists during prison fights. After his jailbreak, his M.O. evolved; he targeted men out of necessity, apparently did not beat them, and left messages in the mouths of two of the victims before sewing them shut. These messages were written on a white sheet protected inside a plastic bag, and were meant as clues to find out where his last crime is going to be committed.

Profile
The unsub is a white male, between the ages of 35 and 45, about 6'0" to 6'2" in height, and 180-200 pounds. It cannot be predicted where he is going, or what his current state of mind is, but his seemingly random actions will betray his intentions eventually. It is also unknown as to why he leaves messages in the mouths of his latest victims. At the gas station, he could have stolen money in the cash register, but he did not, which means he isn't planning a long road trip, but he is logical enough to be aware of survival skills. Sewing the mouths of his victims is a compulsion over which he has no control, which could mean he feels silenced by having a speech impediment that makes him embarrassed to talk and therefore relentlessly bullied and tormented because of it. His first three victims indicate that a woman, likely a mother figure, is to blame for his rage. Chances are that she was abusive and convinced him that whatever he would say did not matter.

References to IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, in his personal writings indicates that he is able to hear and able to talk but chooses not to. His usage of multiple languages highlights a desire to communicate, and he also seems to be proficient in sign language. Additionally, he is incredibly well-read, which means he most likely grew up in isolation, with literature being his only escape from his cruel reality. His own writings do not seem as profound, and despite his astounding reading comprehension, he most likely did not have an extended, or at the very least, outstanding education. Every aspect of his psychosis says that the spoken word has value to him, but it also greatly angers him. If he is yelled at or made to feel stupid, he holds onto his anger until he snaps. He could possibly snap like this on a mission. It is unknown if his target includes a person of some type or a particular location, but his target is definitely close by.

Known Victims

 * 2004, Abilene, Texas:
 * August 26: Julie Myers
 * October 6: Sally Pargrave
 * November: Cindy Keelson
 * November-December:
 * Unnamed inmate
 * Unnamed inmate
 * 2012, Texas:
 * September 26, near Abilene: Kevin Jensen
 * September 26-27, Interstate 20:
 * Tyler Parker
 * Unnamed female motorist
 * Unnamed male motorist
 * September 27, Sweetwater: The Tucker family
 * Danny Tucker
 * Laura Tucker
 * Kelly Tucker

Appearances

 * Season Eight
 * "The Silencer"
 * "The Apprenticeship"
 * "Magnificent Light"
 * "Perennials"
 * "Broken"
 * "Carbon Copy"
 * "The Gathering"
 * "Brothers Hotchner"
 * "The Replicator"
 * Season Nine
 * "Angels"