Vincent Rowlings

"... I have to change my glasses."

Vincent Rowlings was a serial killer who appeared in Season Four of Criminal Minds.

Background
The son of Sid and Kim Rowlings, Vincent's parents' marriage appeared to be an unhappy one, with Kim cheating on Sid with another man. On June 5, 1983, when Vincent was nine, Sid returned home early one day, and caught Kim and her lover together. Watching from a closet with a camera as his parents argued, Vincent witnessed his father murder his mother in a fit of rage after Kim began screaming about how much she hated Sid, and her life. After his father fled, Vincent approached his mother's body, dropping the camera, and sat by her side for almost an entire day before he was found. Vincent hid the tape showing his mother's murder from the police, and kept it to himself, watching it over and over again over the course of his life.

Later in life, Vincent became a videographer, and developed obsessive compulsive disorder. Some of his rituals, which border on the extreme are:


 * Must open doors two-to-three times.
 * Must wear different slippers in every room.
 * Obsessive about color coordination.
 * Brushes teeth in front of mirror covered in plastic.
 * Sandwiches must be crustless and cut exactly diagonally.
 * Steering wheel wrapped in plastic.
 * Can't step on cracks.
 * Must wash or sanitize his hands after touching any foreign object and will use a bar of soap only once.
 * Makes circles twice.

Starting in 1998, Vincent began killing a woman similar to his mother in appearance once a year, stabbing them repeatedly and recording the deaths via cameras in his glasses. In 2007, Vincent killed a woman named Joyce Wolcott in her yard, in front her young, blind son Stanley. Vincent let Stanley live, and after he was placed in foster care, befriended him through a mentoring program, believing the boy (who was unaware of who Vincent really was) helped him "to see". Presumably due to the influence Stanley had on him, Vincent did not kill anyone in 2008. In March of 2009, Vincent was told by Stanley's foster mother Kate Charlotte that they would be moving away soon, much to Vincent's distress.

The Big Wheel
After performing his morning rituals, Vincent strolls down the street to an open house viewing, where Michelle Watson is speaking to her husband on her cell phone. Vincent approaches, and she asks if he is "Robert", a man who had an appointment around that time. Vincent steps forward, a knife appearing in his right hand, and stabs her once. He walks her into the living room and watches her die. He then goes back into the foyer and writes the number 29 in red, circling it twice.

The team is then seen viewing a video of Michelle's death, sent to the Buffalo, NY police by the Unsub. After Michelle's death, the killer had written the words "HELP ME" in red (Marker).

Vincent is seen looking over the death videos of several previous victims. He is using video editing software to cut and paste pieces together. These videos, some of them 20 years old, are then reviewed by Garcia, who got them from the local police.

A woman appears at Vincent's door. She is Alice, possibly a co-worker. Vincent becomes distressed but lets her in. She tells him that she needs him to videotape a wedding, but Vincent explains he doesn't "do that anymore". A news broadcast appears on tv, with a sketch of the possible killer of Michelle. Alice recognizes that he is the one in the sketch, forcing Vincent to kill her and later dump her body.

The BAU believes that Alice was killed incidentally, as she does not fit the victimology.

Vincent is then shown talking to Stanley Wolcott, the son of Joyce, a previous victim. He is now in foster care. Stanley has been blind since birth so he didn't see Vincent when he killed his mother.

Rossi and Morgan later interview Stan, who offers to help catch his mother's killer. Stan describes the night his mother was killed. Stan had gone outside, finding her by following her moans. He sensed someone near her and Stan knows the killer saw him.

As Vincent walks down a street, he is approached by two punks, one blocking him from behind and one confronting him face-to-face. The second punk threatens him with a handgun, but Vincent stabs him. As he dies, the gunman shoots right into the side of Vincent's waist; however, Vincent merely turns to the other, frightened punk, expressionless.

Vincent is then shown at his home, tending to his wounds and changing clothes. He grabs the leftover half of a sandwich and tears a small piece of bread off, which he stuffs into his gunshot wound. He then wraps the wound in plastic wrap before hallucinating about his mother's death.

Morgan, Hotch, and Rossi are interviewing the first punk, apprehended at the scene of his compatriot's death, who describes the unsub; including the clicking noises that he made (an imitation of Stan's echolocation technique). The team races to Stan's house to find him missing.

Vincent and Stan are riding in Vincent's car. Stan tells him that the FBI was at his house earlier. Vincent says that on the night Stan's mother was killed, the unsub may have saw something in Stan, and knew that he couldn't hurt him. Stan confesses that he wishes the killer had gotten him, too.

Stan's foster mother reveals the identity of the man who mentored her foster son as Vincent Rowlings. The team is able to track him down at a local fair.

Vincent and Stan approach a ferris wheel, getting into one of the baskets. Vincent asks the attendant to stop the ferris wheel when they reach the top. Stan then asks Vincent if he can see the stars. Vincent asks Stan if he remembers saying that he wished the killer had killed him too. He explains that he saw his own Mom die too, and that Stan should never wish to die. Vincent tells Stan that he is special because he helped Vincent to "see". Vincent then asks Stan for forgiveness before bleeding to death on the way down. Morgan is there to greet Stan, carrying him away from Vincent's body.

Stan asks Derek if Vincent had killed his mom. Derek doesn't answer, but Stan knows.

Profile
The rage and overkill present in the original murders, and the unsub recording them, indicated he was a sexual psychopath who gained release by repeated viewings of his kills. The lack of overkill in recent murders, and the "Help Me" message sent to the Buffalo police, indicated an emotional change in the unsub, who was growing increasingly ambivalent due to "someone or something showing him who he really is"; the unsub wants to stop, but like an alcoholic, he can't. The mannerisms displayed by the unsub in the video indicated he was obsessive compulsive, while the technology he employed to record the murders indicated he was well-versed in camera technology, and probably generated income from a field related to it. The unsub's vehicle (probably an SUV or something similar, due to the angles in the video) would be something nondescript and low-profile, with muted colors.

The unsub appeared to be devolving, with his OCD growing worse and becoming more difficult to hide. He will begin taking bigger risks to achieve his ultimate goal, something set on the twenty-ninth, the number circled in Michelle Watson's clipboard, which was left at the scene of her murder. If he notices a heavy police presence, and his goal, whatever it may be, has not yet been achieved, the unsub will panic and flee.

Spring is likely a stressor to the unsub, since all the murders were committed then. The degraded video, depicting a woman's murder, that was briefly glimpsed in the unsub's apartment gave possible insight into the unsub's mindset - he may be recreating the death of the woman in the video over and over again.

The way Alice Steadman was positioned, under a blanket and with her arms crossed, showed some level of remorse. Since she did not fit the unsub's usual victimology, and had her possessions and identification taken, it indicated she knew the unsub and could be connected to him, unlike the other victims, whose possessions were left behind. Much like Jonny McHale, another criminal hunted by the BAU, Vincent had an almost inhuman tolerance to pain, barely reacting at all to being shot at close range.

Modus Operandi
While Vincent had a set type of victim, mostly blond women in their thirties, the murders themselves appeared entirely opportunistic. In the spring, Vincent would approach a woman in their home, workplace, or some other random setting, and stab them repeatedly with a knife hidden in his coat sleeve, recording their deaths with cameras retrofitted to his glasses. Leaving the body at the scene once he was done, Vincent would upload and edit the recorded footage at home. After his murder of Joyce Wolcott, Vincent began killing with a single stab to the chest.

Known Victims

 * June, 1998: Emily Flyn
 * May 6, 1999: Vanessa Bright
 * March 4, 2000: Hilary Habner
 * April, 2001: Cindy Stagnal
 * An unnamed woman in 2002
 * April 18, 2003: Erin Whitberg
 * April 20, 2004: Maddy Portman
 * An unnamed woman in 2005
 * May 17, 2006: Tina King
 * April 18, 2007: Joyce Wolcott
 * March 21, 2009: Michelle Watson
 * March 28, 2009: Alice Steadman
 * March 29, 2009: Jay

Quotes

 * Vincent: Remember you said that you wished he killed you? You can never, ever wish to be dead. Never wish for that. I saw my mom die too, and like my father, I did some bad things. I did some bad things.
 * Stan: What are you talking about?
 * Vincent: You're gonna hear things. You're gonna hear bad things about me. But you can never, ever wish to die, Stan. Because you're special.
 * Stan: How am I special?
 * Vincent: (Reaching for his hand) Because you helped me to see. To see.


 * Stan: (Crying) C-can we go around one more time?
 * Vincent: I don't think so.
 * Stan: I-I wish you were my dad.
 * Vincent: (last words) Forgive me.

Appearances

 * Season Four
 * The Big Wheel