Lindsey Vaughn

"It's time to go."

Lindsey Vaughan (real name unknown) is an abduction victim who first appeared in 3rd Life. She later reappeared in Season Twelve of Criminal Minds when she became a prolific serial killer and hitwoman.

Background
Lindsey's father Jack was a hitman for apparently all of her childhood. He served with the McCrellan Corporation, a predominantly Irish mob in Boston. Eventually, Jack decided to turn against the "corporation" and testify against them when they went on trial for their criminal activities. The family subsequently went into the witness protection program for ten years, under the protection of U.S. Marshal Pat Mannan. Her mother was later killed in a car crash intended to kill Jack. The two were finally placed in Chula Vista, California, where Lindsey met and befriended another girl named Katie Owens. Considering she was in witness protection, it is extremely likely that Lindsey Vaughan isn't even her real name.

3rd Life
"What you do to me will be nothing compared to what my dad will do to you."

One night, Lindsey and Katie went to watch a movie at the theater. Afterwards, they were approached by three males led by former high school student Ryan Phillips, who Katie had a crush on. They offered them a ride home, which Katie accepted, and a reluctant Lindsey was forced to tag along. Instead, the trio took them to an abandoned house on the outskirts of town, where they sadistically raped and tortured Katie for hours while Lindsey watched. Eventually, Ryan strangled Katie to death with a belt the next day. The unexpected murder caused one of his accomplices to panic and try to report Ryan, but Ryan stabbed him to death before he could do so. Ryan and his remaining accomplice then dumped Katie's body and took Lindsey to the closed Mayford High School. Lindsey was also presumably raped during this time. Ryan later sends his accomplice to his father's home to retrieve a Remington 870 shotgun.

However, when the boy does not return, having been hospitalized by Jack, who had discovered the identity of her abductors, Ryan begins advancing on Lindsey, intent on raping her. At that moment, Jack arrives and attacks Ryan with the shotgun, incapacitating him and freeing Lindsey. Jack then holds Ryan at gunpoint, with Lindsey yelling at her father to kill him, saying that Ryan killed Katie. Reid then arrives at the scene and tries to talk Jack down, saying, "Jack, your life has been about violence, and, if you do this, Lindsey's will be, too. Do you want that? When does it end, Jack?" After listening to the agent, Jack agrees that he needs to make changes in his life for the sake of Lindsey. However, when asked "When is the violence going to end?", he replies, "Tomorrow." Then, he pulls the trigger, killing Ryan. Because he is an important witness against the McCrellan Corporation, Jack is exonerated for his crimes. He and Lindsey are sent to Atlanta, Georgia, to start over. There, they meet a pair of neighbors, a father and his daughter. Both the men and the girls shake hands, and Lindsey introduces herself as "Katie".

Spencer
For reasons currently unknown, Lindsey sought to target Reid in some sort of attack. She somehow managed to learn about Reid's trips to Mexico between November 2016 and January 2017. As a result, she followed him back to Mexico, tracked him down to a local hotel room, and attacked him and a doctor he had been constantly visiting, Nadie Ramos. Lindsey subdued Reid and then drugged him with what appeared to be the powerful dissociative agent scopolamine. As a result, she was able to convince the suggestible Reid to stab Nadie to death. Then, she planted drugs in his car and convinced Reid to chase her to the desert. There, they were intercepted by Mexican police, who shot out Reid's tires and disabled his vehicle while Lindsey managed to escape.

Because she managed to escape, apparently undetected, the police arrest Reid for drug possession after they find the stash Lindsey planted in the trunk. When the BAU get wind of this, they go to Mexico to assist the investigation, and eventually bring in Clara Seger and Matthew Simmons for further assistance. Soon afterward, they find Nadie's body in the hotel room, and the Mexican officers quickly cast suspicion on Reid, though the BAU believe in his innocence and assume it was the work of Peter Lewis, an escaped serial killer by proxy. Reid was nearly transferred to a maximum-security Mexican prison for Nadie's murder, but it was stopped when it was revealed that Nadie has dual American-Mexican citizenship. As a result, he was extradited back to the U.S. However, the federal government refused to provide legal assistance for Reid, because he was never in Mexico for official government business.

Collision Course
Once Reid returned to the U.S., Prentiss hires a lawyer, Fiona Duncan, for him. The prosecutor offers a deal in which Reid pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a sentence of two to five years in prison. After Reid turns down the offer, the knife used to kill Nadie is found in the Mexican desert, leading to another plea bargain of five to ten years in prison. Reid turns down this offer too, and later, he is denied bail by a judge, despite Fiona's best efforts. As a result, Reid is sent to Millburn Correctional Facility in the next episode.

True North
Lewis gets an opportunity to visit Reid and act as his personal psychiatrist, since she has a Ph.D. Lewis gives Reid a cognitive interview; it is during that interview when Reid reveals he stabbed Nadie to death. However, she later tells Prentiss that she believes he manufactured the memory in a desperate attempt to find an answer behind his circumstances. She resumes the interview on the next day, and Reid seems to remember the murder a little more clearly, recalling someone spraying a fine mist in his face during the attack in the hotel; this matched Peter's M.O. However, when Lewis presses further, Reid remembers that the person who was with him and Nadie in the hotel was not Peter, but a woman (though he does not place Lindsey's exact identity just yet).

Unforgettable
At some point, Lindsey replaced Cassie Campbell as the caretaker of Reid's mother Diana when the latter apparently threw her out. She physically reappears at the end of the episode when she comes to the prison at the visitor's area where Reid and Diana are. She tells Diana it is time to go. Distinctly remembering the sound of her voice, Reid turns around and asks her if they met, but she replies that they haven't and introduces herself as Carol Atkinson. When Lindsey extends her arm to shake Reid's hand, Officer Butler tells her that there is no physical contact. Then, Reid remembers Lindsey from nine years ago. Reid tells Lindsey her real name, but she denies it and tells him her alias name. Afterwards, Lindsey takes Diana and tells her it is time to go. Suddenly, Reid remembers that the woman who framed him said the same sentence and realizes that Lindsey is that woman. Before Reid can stop her, Butler shuts the door in front of him as Reid yells out to him and to his mother.

Green Light
Lindsey will reappear in this episode.

Red Light
Lindsey will reappear in this episode.

Modus Operandi
As a hitwoman, Lindsey's murders were all committed with the same handgun her father Jack used, though she used hollow-point bullets instead of the regular brand. The victims, all of them living along the Texas-Mexico border, were shot in the back of the head execution-style (with the exception of Cassie Campbell, who seemed to have been shot in the forehead). Two of her murders were committed through the use of proxies. During the murder of Ryan Phillips, she convinced Jack to shoot him to death with a shotgun. When she orchestrated the murder of Nadie Ramos, she drugged Reid with what appeared to be scopolamine, then forced him to stab Nadie to death with a knife. She then pinned the murder all on Reid by stashing drugs away in the trunk of his vehicle, then luring him out to the desert to be found by Mexican police.

Profile
No official profile of Lindsey has been made by the BAU yet.

Personal Victims

 * Unspecified dates from 2012 to 2017, Texas-Mexico border: Fifteen unnamed victims
 * Unspecified dates in 2017:
 * Mexico:
 * Victor Flores
 * Spencer Reid
 * Washington, D.C., U.S.: Cassie Campbell

Victims by Proxy

 * January 7, 2008, Chula Vista, California, U.S.: Ryan Phillips
 * Unspecified date and location in 2017, Mexico: Nadie Ramos

Appearances

 * Season Three
 * "3rd Life"
 * "Elephant's Memory"
 * Season Twelve
 * "Spencer"
 * "Collision Course"
 * "Alpha Male"
 * "Assistance Is Futile"
 * "In the Dark"
 * "Hell's Kitchen"
 * "True North"
 * "Unforgettable"
 * "Green Light"
 * "Red Light"