Johnny Ray Covey

"You all pretend to care, but you just want to save your own skin."

Jonathan "Johnny" Ray Covey, dubbed "The Nanny Killer" by the media, was a serial killer, rapist, abductor, and stalker who appeared in Season Eight of Criminal Minds.

Background
Johnny was born on April 15, 1973, likely in Los Angeles. On May 13, 1980, when he was seven years old, his younger sister Amanda accidentally drowned in a bathtub while their nanny, Griselda Vasquez, was smoking a cigarette nearby. Johnny blamed the inattentive and abusive Griselda for her death, and although a full investigation was conducted, Griselda was never charged and Amanda's death was ruled an accident. Johnny grew up and adopted a rottweiler named Roscoe, never leaving his house even after his parents both died of heart attacks. When Griselda died of breast cancer on February 9, 2007, Johnny snapped due to being deprived of his revenge before he could exact it. As a result, starting on the following year, he began annually stalking and abducting nannies and the children they watched, trying to make the nannies confess to not caring about the children so that he could project Griselda onto them. He would then kill them and dump the bodies on the anniversary of his sister's death. As for the children, they would be released during the first 24 hours of their abduction. On May 9, 2010, he abducted his third set of victims, Tara Rios and a boy named Jake Perez, but he also abducted a nearby woman vacationing from Dallas, Texas, named Allison Astor, presumably because she saw Tara's abduction and tried to intervene. Two days later, while keeping the two women captive, Tara escaped, possibly because Johnny couldn't keep an eye on both victims at once. Deprived of his intended victim, Johnny killed Allison and buried her in a different location.

Nanny Dearest
"Shut up. Don't pretend that you care."

After claiming the lives of two more victims in 2011 and 2012, Johnny set his sights on Gina Mendes and the child she was watching, Phoebe Payton, both of whom greatly reminded him of Griselda and Amanda, respectively. As a result, he abducts the both of them ahead of schedule. Prior to the abductions, the BAU (who were already familiar with the case) was called in to investigate as part of local apprehension of another impending murder by the so-called "Nanny Killer", as the media dubbed him. When the BAU discovered Gina and Phoebe's abductions, Morgan and JJ headed off to Seattle, Washington, to interrogate Tara, whom they were familiar with. However, she proves to be uncooperative, having been psychologically scarred from her abduction and barely remembering any details of what happened to her. Johnny is then seen filling up a bathtub with scalding water and then holding Phoebe dangerously high over the water, likely acting out a delusion in which he rescues Amanda from drowning in the bathtub. Meanwhile, Phoebe's mother Melody becomes heavily distraught after Phoebe isn't released like the other child victims, to the point where she angrily lashes out at Hotch in an elevator in distress when he tells her that he understands what she is going through.

When the BAU deduce that the unsub had seen something special in Gina and Phoebe, they hold a live press conference, where they release their profile of Johnny before allowing Melody and her husband Shane to speak. The two of them appeal to Johnny and Melody begs him to release Phoebe and Gina, but Johnny, watching his television, shuts it off midway into the conference, unaffected by their pleas. Meanwhile, Tara, having seen the conference as well, has a change of heart and allows Morgan and JJ to interview her. During an interrogation process referred to as EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing), they use a blinking device to provoke Tara's mind into uncovering hidden pieces of information. It is partially successful, as Tara is able to recall Allison before she caves in under the pressure and flees from the room. JJ convinces her to continue, and Tara is able to inform the BAU of how she escaped, Allison's physical description, and the fact that her abductor had a dog. With Garcia's help, the team traces down a corpse possibly belonging to Allison, and the coroner holding it tells them that the deceased woman had been bitten savagely by a dog; this gives the BAU the leeway to narrow down their list of possible suspects. Meanwhile, Johnny allows Gina to alleviate Phoebe of her asthma and calm her down by singing a lullaby before forcefully taking the baby away from her.

Using a sketch compiled with Tara's help, the team searches through two dog parks located near the locations where Tara, Gina, and their children were abducted and also where Allison's body was dumped. Eventually, Morgan and JJ are aided by two local dog owners named Leo and Max, who identify the unsub as Johnny. Garcia finds Johnny's address, and Morgan and JJ race there. They enter the house just as Johnny is about to rape Gina. As JJ finds Amanda's old bedroom, Johnny holds Gina at gunpoint and Roscoe rushes Morgan, forcing the agent to incapacitate the dog by shutting the door on its head. Morgan is unsuccessful in talking Johnny down, and he is forced to close the door when Roscoe withdraws its head. Johnny then flees the house and is pursued by JJ; he fires several shots at her while taking cover behind Morgan and JJ's SUV. When he runs out onto the street and tries to take another shot at JJ, she fires first, shooting two rounds, one of which strikes him in the forehead and kills him instantly. The following night, Shane and Melody reunite with Phoebe and Gina, while JJ congratulates Tara for helping to save two lives and then allowing her to view Johnny's corpse in contempt. Melody spots Tara and hugs her, thanking her for her assistance.

Modus Operandi
"Can you take it?"

Johnny targeted nannies of various ages and races as surrogates for Griselda, along with a child they watched, abducting them from parks. He would abduct them no more than four days before killing the nannies, except for Gina Mendes. His methods of luring the nanny in varied. Sometimes, in the case of Gina Mendes and presumably some of the previous victims, he would use a recording of a baby crying to lure them in and then ambush them, threatening them into compliance with a handgun and/or threats that he will kill the children. At other times (judging from Tara Rios's flashback), he would merely approach them, having Roscoe with him during the abductions to lend further authenticity to his cover, and also further intimidation for the nannies.

Once he brought the victims to his house, he would torture the nannies by placing lit cigarettes on their bodies (as a reference to Griselda's chain smoking). Johnny would also rape them and allow Roscoe to attack them. His signature was killing them on May 13 (the anniversary of his sister's death) after days of torture by drowning them in a bathtub filled with hot water as a reference to Amanda's drowning. He would abduct the victims from different cities located all over California, but then posed all of the bodies on benches and under trees in playgrounds in Los Angeles; his first victim, Rachel Hughes, was abducted and dumped in the same park. The only exception to this was Allison Astor, who was buried in a shallow grave.

During the first 24 hours of the abductions, Johnny would always release the children, dropping them off at hospitals or churches. The only exception to this was Phoebe Payton, who reminded him of his sister the most out of all the other child victims.

Profile
"You'll break. They all do."

The unsub is a Caucasian male who is most certainly a resident of Los Angeles County and operates on a strict yearly schedule, which takes patience and discipline, indicating that he is likely aged in his late 30s or 40s. He abducts his victims from public parks in broad daylight, which suggests that he is socially competent, fits in, and comes off as non-threatening and someone most people would never notice. His schedule is very important to him. He may be suffering from a rare psychological disorder referred to as "paternal desire". Like the contrasting feminine disorder, "maternal desire", it stems from a deep-seated need to fill an emotional void felt by the loss of a child. Such a loss may be related to some kind of long-term stressor in his life, a stressor that would explain why he exhibits so much rage and violence against the nannies that he abducts. He shows little mercy towards his adult victims, but he has been compassionate to the children.

Later in the case, it turns out that it is "fraternal desire" and not paternal desire that is motivating the unsub, since he is trying to replace his deceased younger sister as opposed to his child.

Real-Life Comparison
Johnny's habit of killing his victims and dumping their corpses on the same day of each year seems to have a loose basis on The February 9th Killer, an unidentified murderer who killed two women, both of whom were of Hispanic descent, one of whom was pregnant, on the same day, February 9 (hence the name). As of 2011, the February 9 Killer case has been classified as a cold case.

Known Victims
Note: The locations denote where the victims were abducted or attacked


 * California:
 * May 13, 2008, Los Angeles:
 * Rachel Hughes
 * Christopher Wilson
 * May 13, 2009, San Diego:
 * Melissa Martinez
 * Sondra Jackson
 * May 9, 2010, Los Angeles:
 * Tara Rios
 * Allison Astor
 * Jake Perez
 * May 13, 2011, Santa Barbara:
 * Diana Brooks
 * Daniel Thomas
 * May 13, 2012, San Francisco:
 * Gloria Clemente
 * Jennifer Harris
 * 2013, Los Angeles:
 * May 8: Both were abducted and eventually rescued the next day:
 * Gina Mendes
 * Phoebe Payton
 * May 9: The neighborhood shootout:
 * Derek Morgan
 * Jennifer Jareau

Appearances

 * Season Eight
 * "Nanny Dearest"