The Romani Family

The Romani Family was a family of killer "gypsies" who appeared in Bloodline.

Background
Originating in Romania and eventually spreading to the U.S. and presumably other countries, the Romani had been around for years and years, killing families and abducting the young girls as wives for their sons, and possibly the inverse as well since at least 1909. One of these abducted girls was Kathy Gray, who was inducted into the family under the name of "Sylvia" after her parents were murdered by a branch of the family in 1971.

Bloodline
The Romani group was discovered in 2009 when the group operating in Alabama was discovered after killing Nancy Hale (formerly Scheuren) and her second husband, Geoff Hale and abducting Nancy's ten-year-old daughter, Cate. At first, they treated her normally, like she was family, the boy even deciding she was to be named "Elena", but after she had an epileptic seizure, the father decided to dispose of the "sick" child, abandoning her near a secluded highway. Cate tried to get herself noticed and almost got hit by a car. She was taken to a hospital, where, after interrogated by Prentiss, she revealed some important details about the family, including a Romanian word they used. Due to the fact that the boy had to have a bride by the age of ten, the family quickly started looking for another victim. They eventually abducted ten-year-old Lynn Robillard and killed her parents. In order to start anew, they burned their RV and most of their possessions. The father took his son and Lynn to hide them from the authorities, while the father forced Kathy to surrender after the team spread out flyers with her age procession and he recognized her.

The BAU interrogated Kathy with a good cop-bad cop routine. Having developed a bad case of Stockholm syndrome, she refused to remember her name and only when she was shown some pictures of her dead parents she started showing some emotions. The BAU eventually got her to reveal the location of her son and the girl. The BAU found the children, then proceeded to arrest the father. When the son was returned to Kathy, she told him not to say a word of his "brothers", which the BAU has yet to track down. Another segment of the Romani group was seen at the end of the episode, about to kill another family. It is currently unknown if the BAU or the police managed to catch every single member of the family. Although, if there are still active members of the family who have not been caught, what they did after Gray and her husband and son were caught (as they presumably would have found out) is unknown.

Members

 * The Alabama family :
 * The unnamed father. Portrayed by Andrew Divoff.
 * Sylvia . Portrayed by Cynthia Gibb.
 * The unnamed son. Portrayed by Slade Pearce.
 * The second family :
 * The unnamed father. Portrayed by Kirk Bovill.
 * The unnamed mother . Portrayed Tonja Kahlens.
 * The unnamed son. Portrayed by Caleb Guss.
 * The unnamed parents of the Alabama father.
 * Presumably more family members and even similar families all over the U.S. and other countries

Profile
The unsubs are a family; a mother, father and a son close to 10 years of age, of Romanian descent. The family travel in an RV, but also have another vehicle to go back and forth between camp sites and cities. The discarding of broken glass and the abandonment of Cate Hale (because of her epilepsy), reveals that they are highly superstitious and that they were following a very specific ritual. The focus of it is the young girls, whom the family did not come across by accident. They are studied and hunted. They'd probably be scouting at parks, malls, and places at a short distance from the RV park.

Modus Operandi
Once their sons were close to the age of nine or ten, the families would find prospective wives for them at large, public places, such as malls, and follow them to their homes. Once at the property, the father and son would break in, kill the parents by slitting their throats, and take the chosen girl, stuffing her in the trunk of the car, which the mother would drive up in. The abducted girls would be held, renamed by the son, and slowly brainwashed into servitude. Due to believing it would bring good luck, the family would sprinkle multicolored glass outside the homes they abducted the girls from, and wherever they happened to be staying.

Known Victims

 * Numerous unnamed victims killed prior to Bloodline, going as far back as 1909
 * Unspecified date: An unnamed family
 * The unnamed parents
 * The unnamed daughter
 * Unspecified date in 1971, Vienna, Virginia: The Gray family
 * The unnamed parents
 * Kathy Gray
 * 2009:
 * January 19, Harvest, Alabama: The Hale family
 * Geoff Hale
 * Nancy Hale
 * Cate Hale
 * January 20, Madison, Alabama: The Robillard family
 * The unnamed parents
 * Lynn Robillard
 * January 20-21, unspecified location: An unnamed family
 * The unnamed parents
 * The unnamed daughter
 * Note: Considering that not every single member of the Romani family was caught, the murders are presumed to have continued.

Appearances

 * Season Four
 * "Bloodline"