Owen Savage

"No, I'm already dead."

Owen Savage is a spree killer who appeared in Season Three of Criminal Minds.

Background
Owen was a student in West Bune, Texas. His mother, Hope, died in a drunk driving accident in 2002, leaving him to be raised by his father, Lou Savage, who was a Marine serving in Afghanistan at the time. He resented his dead wife and son since he had to leave to take care of Owen. Owen had learning difficulties and frequently suffered mental abuse from his father, who believed his son was simply stupid. Owen did in fact have A's in Math and Science, but had D's in English and History due to reading difficulties, an F in Geometry, and a barely legible handwriting due to problems with spacial relations. In an attempt to please his father, he joined the school wrestling team in his first year, but left it when it turned out that the other members had filmed him when he masturbated in the shower room as initiation and posted it on the schools social network from which it presumably reached the Internet. The school didn't want to complicate the situation and didn't report the incident on the grounds that it probably wouldn't lead to anything besides a lot of embarrassment for the school and Owen. Owen's father then blamed him for the whole incident.

During his time in school, he became romantically involved with Jordan Norris, a fellow student who also had learning difficulties, was abused by her father, Rod Norris, and had lost her mother when she left her husband. The two made a plan to leave West Bune together and never return. When her father took away her cell phone, Owen bought her a PDA.

Elephant's Memory
At some point in his life, Owen finally snapped. His father's position as a Deputy Sheriff and tactical trainer with the local police gave him access to a lot of automatic rifles and handguns. He eventually started a revenge plan. First, he made a temporary home for him and Jordan at a ranch whose owner was away. He planted explosives in the entrance of the Norris' residence. When Rod Norris walked in while smoking a cigarette, the explosives went off, killing him. Prior to the explosion, Owen had arranged for Jordan's staged death by stuffing three hams and a dozen bone-in ribeyes in a pair of her jeans and placing them in the area of the explosion. When Lou Savage and Officer Byron Letts from the local police came to investigate, Owen shot them with automatic fire from a vantage point, killing them both, and walked up to his father and shot him at point-blank range in the face.

After the incident, the BAU was called in. Owen then killed Kyle Borden, a nineteen year old former student who slept with Jordan when she was a freshman and told everyone about it. Owen then killed the three students who videotaped him years earlier, Danny Panzer, Chad Heyman and Gavin Pressman, near a lake. He also videotaped it and placed it on the school's social network. Later, he also killed Ike Stratman, the owner of the ranch when he returned unexpectedly. He kept all of his murders a secret from Jordan. Spencer Reid of the BAU related to Owen strongly, having also suffered a lot of bullying during his time in school. Eventually, they decided to save Jordan's life by convincing her to leave Owen, taking away his only reason to live and causing him to kill himself. They were helped by Eileen, a friend of Jordan, and told her about what Owen had done, even showing her his video recording of the executions of the three students, but, since she only trusted Owen, she didn't believe them. When she saw him burying Stratman, however, she ran away.

Owen, heartbroken by the whole incident, dressed up in black, armed himself with an assault rifle, and headed to the local police station where Jordan was hiding, planning on giving her his mother's old necklace before presumably killing an untold number of others and himself. Reid, caring for Owen, approached him and even blocked his colleagues' line of sight in order to talk him into surrendering, telling him that if he died, he would be abandoning Jordan, like his mother abandoned him. While being led into the police station, Owen is allowed to see Jordan, who is given Hope's necklace by Reid.

Profile
Owen's behavior indicated that he was a type of school shooter known as an injustice collector who tried to avenge perceived wrongs. The reason why he hadn't simply attacked the school and then killed himself like Harris and Klebold, the Columbine shooters or Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, was Jordan gave him a reason to live. Owen is smart and competent with technology. He identified with Johnny Cash since he was a "misunderstood loner". Owen has a severe fright of abandonment as a result of his mother's death.

Modus Operandi
Almost all of Owen's murders were committed with an assault rifle and, aside from his father and Officer Letts, Owen made sure the victims he shot knew they were going to die. Rod Norris was killed by a bomb (which Owen also used to fake Jordan's death) and Ike Stratman was stabbed, though out of necessity instead of choice, with Owen being noticeably remorseful while killing him.

Known Victims

 * Three killed in the attack at the Norris residence. They are:
 * Rod Norris
 * Deputy Lou Savage
 * Officer Byron Letts
 * Kyle Borden
 * Shot three fellow students to death with an assault rifle. They are:
 * Danny Panzer
 * Chad Heyman
 * Gavin Pressman
 * Ike Stratman
 * The intended massacre at the local police station:
 * Emily Prentiss
 * Jennifer Jareau
 * Numerous unnamed others present
 * Spencer Reid

Appearances

 * Season Three
 * "Elephant's Memory"