Peter Redding

"You just have to let go."

Peter Redding is an Angel of Death-type serial killer who appeared in A Higher Power.

History
Peter lived on the Brassard College campus with his father Charles and brother James. James was frequently molested by Charles, a professor at the college. Eventually, in 1984, when Peter was fifteen, he couldn't stand his brother's suffering anymore and slashed James's wrists, making it look like a suicide. From that moment, Peter adopted an Angel of Death-like sense of mercy. Three months prior to A Higher Power, a fire occurred at the Shadyside Recreational Center that resulted in the deaths of fourteen children. This set off Peter's serial killing. He would attend multiple anonymous support group meetings for people grieving, looking for parents of the deceased children, and then kill them. When Paul Baleman, the brother of police officer Ronnie Baleman, was found electrocuted in his bathtub, he became suspicious and called in the BAU to investigate Paul's suicide and four others. After he killed two more victims, Peter was identified and tracked down just as he had stated his intention to kill Laurie Ann Morris, who had also lost one of her children in the fire. Since they were in a car, she stepped on the gas and drove into a steel box. The BAU arrested Peter, who kept claiming that he had done nothing wrong. The BAU later told Ronnie that analysis of Paul's journal and the absence of Paul's name in Peter's apartment revealed that his suicide was not Peter’s work.

Profile
The unsub suffered some sort of major, tragic event, after which had caused him to kill someone he believed was so miserable they had to die. After that, he created his own sense of morality, in which he rationalizes his first kill over and over again by targeting people he believes cannot be saved by anyone but himself. Choosing who lives and dies gives him a strong sense of power. He is convinced that he is on a mission of mercy, and even after he is apprehended, he will maintain that he did nothing wrong. He is a white male aged in his mid-to-late 30s, who is polite, forthcoming, confident, earnest, friendly, charming, and not outstanding, as evidenced from his victims allowing him to enter their homes voluntarily. In every case, there was no evidence of a struggle and no attempts of his victims escaping. He finds a personal connection and uses it to buy time to kill his victims. He may work in the medical field or is in law enforcement, as Angels of Death typically are. He may also be a first responder who was present on the day of the fire at the rec center. He is also intelligent enough to know his victims' schedules and daily routines. He is all about control, as he chooses how and when they die, and he even positions them exactly to how he wants them to die. This makes him hyper-vigilant, someone who is always on the lookout, risk-averse, and unseen. The fire at the rec center caused so much grief and suffering for the children's parents, which became a trigger for the unsub. Now, he is unable to stop himself from targeting people he believes needs his help. As more information on the case was revealed, it became possible that if the unsub's father taught at Brassard, the unsub himself may be a local to the area, and the only way to catch him is to find out how he is getting into his victims' lives.

Modus Operandi
Targeting the parents of children who were killed in the Shadyside Recreational Center fire, Peter would sedate his victims using some paralytic which metabolizes so quickly that it wouldn't be detectable through analysis using a syringe, injected in the hairline, making it invisible unless one looked closely at the victim's body. After that, he would kill them in different ways, including gunshot, falling off a roof, hanging, and other ways of committing suicide. He would also leave behind a suicide note of sorts, written by the victims as part of their therapy. At first, he killed his victims two weeks apart, but he later killed more frequently, possibly being set off by Paul Baleman's suicide.

Known Victims

 * April 1984: James Redding
 * 2008:
 * February 10: Alan Forest
 * February 24: Tammy Manuelson
 * March 10: Kevin Dalstrum
 * March 24: Diedra Nollard
 * April 8: Beth Smoler
 * April 9:
 * Curtis Fackler
 * Laurie Ann Morris

Appearances

 * Season Three
 * A Higher Power