Mary Rutka

Mary Rutka was an accomplice of serial killer James Stanworth during his attack on the Sanderson family. She appeared in 25 to Life.

History
Mary was a petty thief who worked at a grocery store alongside another petty thief named Tommy Wittman. The grocery store was frequented by Don Sanderson and his family. One day, she and Tommy were manipulated by James Stanworth to aid him in an attack on the Sanderson family at their home, which previously belonged to him but was lost by his family and therefore enraging him. On the night of March 9-10, 1985, the trio broke into the Sanderson home and carried out their attack. James stabbed Don's wife Carrie and their daughter Abby, killing them, and he prepared to kill the son Joshua, but Mary, acting on a motherly instinct over the boy, convinced him to stand down. Mary fled with Joshua and the trio got away with the murders; Don received all of the blame as he initially forgot to mention Mary's presence to investigators, which made them suspicious. In the aftermath of James's killings, she gave Joshua away to another family; Mary also had a child with James. As James moved up in society, she took advantage of his progress, extorting money from him using a video depicting the attack on the Sanderson family, which she recorded. In 2010, when Don was released from prison and killed Tommy in self-defense, a panicked James decided to remove all loose ends, attacking Mary in her apartment. The BAU arrived midway into the attack, but James was able to flee and Mary died from the inflicted injuries. At the end of the episode, the BAU identified James as her killer and arrested him.

Appearances

 * Season Six
 * 25 to Life