Ryan Phillips

Ryan Phillips was a thrill killer who appeared in Season Three of Criminal Minds.

Background
A resident of Chula Vista, California and a juvenile delinquent Ryan was kicked out of his high school after being caught using drugs on the premises. Years after being expelled Ryan met and befriended two high school seniors named Douglas Silverman and Coleman Taylor, his future partners-in-crime.

3rd Life
Late in 2007, during a long weekend Ryan, Doug and Coleman approached a girl named Katie Owen outside a theatre and offered her a ride, which she accepted, her friend Lindsey Vaughan (who believed Ryan was trouble) tagging along. Taking the girls to an abandoned house on the outskirts of town Ryan and his friends sadistically tortured Katie for hours, the abuse eventually culminating in Ryan strangling the girl to death with a belt. Katie's death caused Doug to panic and, when he tried to escape, Ryan stabbed him several times with a knife. Not knowing his attack on Doug was fatal (the boy having managed to run some distance before finally dying) Ryan believed he was going to the police and dumped Katie's body in a nearby construction site (destroying her face and hands to delay the identification process) and took Lindsey to the closed Mayford High School.

Trying to think of what to do Ryan decided to keep Lindsey as a bargaining chip and sent Coleman home to get his father's gun. When Coleman failed to return after some time (the boy having been hospitalized by Lindsey's father Jack, a former hitman who had discovered the identity of his daughter's abductors) Ryan begins advancing Lindsey, intent on raping her, when he is bashed with shotgun by Jack. Lying on the floor Ryan begs for his life while Lindsey begins yelling at her father to kill her captor for what he did to Katie. Arriving at the scene Reid begins trying to talk Jack down, stating "Jack, you swore to your wife you’d protect Lindsey. Listen to her, Jack, listen to what she wants - she's begging you to kill somebody right in front of her. What do you think your wife wanted you to protect her from? Jack, your life has been about violence, and, if you do this, Lindsey's will be, too. Do you want that? When does it end, Jack?" After listening to the agent Jack simply says "tomorrow" before blowing Ryan's head off.

Profile
The BAU's profile of the dominant member of the unsubs stated he would be somewhere in his twenties and have a flagrant disregard for the rules and a defiant attitude towards figures of authority. As such the unsub likely flunked out of or was expelled from school and had a record of petty crimes such as theft. Katie's face and hands being destroyed and the girls being taken from a well lit, alley-less and crowded area also implicated they were acquainted with their abductor.

Modus Operandi
Ryan killed Katie by strangling her with a belt (torturing her for hours via beating and cutting beforehand) and killed Doug by stabbing him several times. In attempt to delay the police investigation Ryan mangled Katie's hands and face post-mortem, to make her harder to identify and connect to him.

Known Victims

 * Katie Owens (tortured and strangled with a belt)
 * Douglas Silverman (stabbed three times with a knife)
 * Lindsey Vaughan (abducted, intended to kill)

Appearances

 * Season Three
 * "3rd Life"