Shane Wyland

"No matter how bad things get, they can get worse."

Shane Wyland is a prolific serial killer, pedophile, and abductor who appeared in Into the Woods.

Background
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Shane was convicted of sexually assaulting a ten-year-old boy in 1994. After serving his sentence, he was paroled and moved into a rundown hotel in Jonestown along with a cluster of other sex offenders. In 2001, Shane stopped visiting his parole officer and left town, hiking along the Appalachian Trail and beginning his abductions and killings, eventually claiming the lives of eight children, starting with Lance Levenson, who died in Jonestown. Around 2006, Shane developed an unspecified degenerative disease in one of his knees, which had left him with a lasting limp. When he resumed traveling, Shane began collecting a flower called "Devil's Claw", using it to treat his injury in combination with painkillers stolen from Brandon Stiles, a drug dealer and fellow pedophile at the hotel. Despite his diminished capacity, he kept up his abductions and murders, although he committed them less frequently. The BAU were called in when Shane's twelfth victim, Daniel Lanham, was found when a hiking family spotted a bear digging for his dead body in Into the Woods.

Into the Woods
He then abducted Robert Brooks and his sister, Ana, the latter's abduction being incidental, and took them to his camp in an abandoned mineshaft, locking them in a storage cell. After Shane molested Robert, the children made a plan for Ana to escape the next time Shane opened the door. When he returned the next day, he pulled Robert out of the cell, causing him to trip. Ana used that moment of opportunity to flee. Shane grabbed her, but was kicked in his bad leg by Robert and lost his grip on her. As Shane and Robert struggled, Ana escaped and was rescued by investigators. Shane left the mineshaft with Robert in tow and returned to Jonestown; from there, he made his way to Harrisburg to visit Stiles. Though Stiles was initially unwilling to let him in after he ripped him off, he allowed him entrance when he saw Robert. Shane helped himself to a new stash of drugs and some cash in exchange for giving Stiles an hour alone with Robert. When Shane saw the police outside the hotel, he turned and walked away, eluding capture. Robert was saved before Stiles could hurt him seriously and reunited with his family. In the final scene of the episode, Shane, having shaved and also changed his hairstyle and hair color, cleaned himself up and redressed, got off of a pickup truck, and resumed hiking in the woods, back on the hunt. He currently remains at large.

Modus Operandi
Shane would abduct boys who were between the ages of eight and twelve, all of whom were out camping with their parents on the Appalachian Trail. After choosing a victim, he would lie in wait until it turned dark and they left their tents to relieve themselves in the woods. After taking them, he would bring them to an abandoned mineshaft on the Trail, allowing them to bring a toy with them. He would then hold them captive during the winter, during which he would molest them repeatedly, before killing them in an unspecified way and wrapping their bodies in plastic and burying them in the woods, marking the graves by making a gash in a nearby tree with an axe, or a similar tool. He kept the toys in the cell in which he kept his victims, possibly as a kind of trophy.

Profile
Shane﻿ lives to hunt children, and has found the perfect place to hide them. That area must be sizeable, durable against harsh weather, well-hidden enough for even the most experienced hikers not to find it, and secure enough to hold the children captive. He has left civilization and with it all moral and legal restraints. Unlike most child abductors, who dispose of their victims quickly when they feel the walls closing in on them or even sometimes out of guilt, Shane holds his victims captive for long stretches of time, and feels no shame about his compulsion.

Known Victims
Note: The dates all denote when the victims disappeared


 * Unspecified date in 1994, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Unnamed ten-year-old boy
 * September 22, 2001, Jonestown, Pennsylvania: Lance Levenson
 * August 30, 2003, unspecified location: Robertson
 * July 4, 2004, unspecified location: Kevin Millender
 * 2005:
 * January 18, unspecified location: Clinton Harris
 * June 18, unspecified location: Darren Miga
 * February 6, 2006, Dawsonville, Georgia: Max Mattre
 * 2007:
 * April 12, Manchester, Vermont: Erik Ashline
 * October 25, unspecified location: Clayton Mikel
 * May 13, 2008, unspecified location: Matthew Bouska
 * October 16, 2008-March 28, 2009, Manchester, Vermont: Tyler Stoltz
 * November 18, 2009, unspecified location: James Clutter
 * 2010:
 * November 15, unspecified location in Pennsylvania : Daniel Lanham
 * November 16-17, unspecified location in Pennsylvania: Robert Brooks and his sister Ana :
 * Robert Brooks
 * Ana Brooks
 * November 17, Jonestown, Pennsylvania: Brandon Stiles
 * Note: It is unknown if Shane's escape implies that his abductions and murders will continue.

Appearances

 * Season Six
 * Into the Woods