Tim Vogel

"What did I tell you about the tape?"

Timothy "Tim" Vogel, a.k.a. "The Seattle Strangler", was a serial killer and rapist who appeared in the pilot episode, Extreme Aggressor, and is the show's first unsub.

Background
Vogel was a guard at Cascascia Prison and was affiliated with a local sociopath, Richard Slessman, who served time in the prison and whom he protected in exchange for his later assistance. At an unknown point of recent years, Vogel snapped presumably because of his impotence and started killing. Targeting Melissa Kirsch as his first victim and starting from there, Vogel's murders became well-known in Seattle, eventually earning him the name of "The Seattle Strangler".

Extreme Aggressor
Vogel is first seen arranging a test drive of his Datsun 240Z to a young woman, Heather Woodland, over the Internet. He sent her a picture and told her the car has new paint and new tires. She asks him why the price is so low, and he tells her he's moving and has to sell the car. He suggests he pick her up so they can go for a test drive. Heather huddles under her umbrella on the sidewalk as the car pulls up. Vogel ushers her into the driver's seat and they drive through the rain, talking about the car's features. After they look under the hood, he opens the passenger door for her, but, as he closes it, he removes the lock button from the door and pockets it. Heather points out the turn to take her back to her office, but Vogel misses it. Heather begins to get nervous as the driver now stares straight ahead and refuses to respond to her. She tells him to stop the car and reaches for the lock button, but it isn't there. She lunges for the door handle, but he hits her across the face.

Later, Heather finds herself gagged in a wire cage in a room with one bare light bulb overhead. She reaches up to pull at the duct tape that covers her eyes, but a voice from the darkness reminds her that she was warned not to touch the tape. He bangs on the cage and begins to open the chain on the door as she begs for mercy. He reaches in for one of her hands as she screams and cries and carefully clips her bloody fingernails. At Cascadia Prison, Gideon and Elle ask the warden who they can interview about Slessman. The warden suggests they talk to Timothy Vogel, the guard who worked Slessman's block. Vogel walks the agents out of the prison, unlocking the security doors for them. He tells them that half of the guard's job is protecting the inmates from each other. Gideon notices that Vogel's keychain has a large metal "Z" hanging from it. On the road, Elle wants to pull Vogel over because something doesn't feel right. When they left him he was nervous but now his behavior has changed; he's stopping at every red light and going the speed limit. They find out that Vogel asked a fellow guard to switch cars with him, effectively leading them from him and giving him time to get to Heather.

Reid is eventually able to figure out where Heather is being held captive, and Greenaway and Gideon pull up quietly to search the shipyard for Vogel's boat. Meanwhile, Reid and Morgan can see that Vogel is inside the room with Heather, unlocking the cage. Morgan calls Elle and tells her to wait for backup, but she cuts him off and tells him if she waits, Heather will die. Heather kicks Vogel as he opens the cage door and tries to run, pulling the tape from her eyes and mouth and screaming. She makes her way outside to the dock before Vogel catches up with her. Heather's screams alert Gideon and Elle, who approach him from opposite directions. Vogel holds Heather in front of him as a shield as Gideon yells for him to stop and encourages him to point the gun at him, not Heather. Gideon then taunts Vogel, calling him a lousy shot and telling him he's impotent and wondering what the girls called him in high school when he tried to have sex with them, saying, "Short stack? Very little Vogel? I've got it Tiny Tim!" Vogel screams and drops Heather, shooting Gideon, but he proves Gideon's statement of him being a lousy shot true when he merely shoots Gideon in the shoulder. Elle shoots Vogel multiple times in response before running to Gideon, who tells her he's fine and that she should comfort a sobbing and hysterical Heather instead.

Modus Operandi
Tim used subterfuge to lure his victims into his car, somewhat similar to Ted Bundy's method. Once the intended victim was in the car Tim would knock them out, take them to a shipyard, keep them locked in a small cage and blind and gag by putting layers of duct tape over their eyes and mouth; the victim would be monitored constantly by a webcam. Tim apparently enjoyed it when his victims tried to fight back, so he left their arms unbound, but clipped their nails as short as possible as a safety precaution so they would scratch him deeply and get his skin under their nails. Tim would rape them with various objects and after a week strangle them using a belt with a fitted crank, which allowed him to control the process and prolong the victim's suffering. He attempted to kill his first victim by strangling her with his bare hands but found that it took too long so he stabbed her to death instead. The bodies would be dumped in secluded, often dilapidated, places.

Profile
The unsub is a white male in his late twenties, who wouldn't be noticed at first because he can blend in with any crowd. The violent nature of his crimes suggest that he has a previous criminal record, either petty crime or auto theft. He is an intelligent, organized, careful psychopath, not a psychotic. He follows the news and has good hygiene. Because of his intellect, the only physical evidence he leaves is what he wants the police to find. He has a car that is in good condition, probably a Jeep Chrokee with tinted windows to conceal a victim's body. The killer also rapes his victims, but it is rape without penetration, a form of piquerism, so he is likely sexually impotent. He also has a history of paranoia stemming from a childhood trauma, likely the death of a parent or a family member, and now, he feels persecuted and watched. With that paranoia, murder gives him a sense of power. Organized killers have a fascination with law enforcement, so he will inject himself into the investigation, even coming forward as a witness to see how much the police already knows about him, which makes him feel powerful and in control. With that said, the police may have already interviewed this man.

Known Victims

 * 2005:
 * May: Melissa Kirsch
 * June: Anne Cushing
 * July: Amy Haberland
 * August: Sondra Watts
 * September 19-22: Heather Woodland
 * September 22: Jason Gideon

Appearances

 * Season One
 * Extreme Aggressor