Trey Gordon

"I did it again. It's not supposed to happen. Please. I need help. Can you help me?!"

Trey Gordon, dubbed "The Day/Night Killer" by the media, is a sleepwalking serial-turned-spree killer who was briefly mistaken for two serial killers. He appeared in In the Dark.

Background
Trey's mother died at some point early in his life, and he was left to be raised by his abusive father Samuel. Samuel was a poacher with a criminal record consisting of arrests for drug use and solicitation. He liked to bring Trey to drug dens and prostitution brothels that he would frequent. In the early morning hours of May 14, 1991, police raided a brothel and found the then-eight-year-old Trey in a bedroom with a naked prostitute who had molested him. Samuel was busy having sex with another prostitute in the next room. It is unclear whether Samuel or the naked prostitute involved were prosecuted as a result.

As an adult, Trey started taking multiple prescribed medications for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline personality disorder, all preconditions for sleepwalking. Six weeks prior to In the Dark, Samuel died of a heart attack, prompting Trey to start killing men who reminded him of his father. However, unconsciously, that was not enough for him; as he succumbed to sleepwalking, he started tracking down the places Samuel frequented, which had now been renovated into up-and-coming suburban homes. There, he would kill any homeowners present.

In the Dark
After claiming four lives, Trey targets Bob Joplin. He is first seen in the woods when Bob targets a deer. As Bob is about to shoot the deer, Trey kills Bob with the rifle. Afterwards, he packs up all of his belongings and leaves the woods. The following night, Trey goes to the residence of Mike Hood. There, he lures Mike at the front door with a noise. Mike steps out with a bat for intruders. When Mike goes back inside, Trey kills him. The following evening, Trey goes to the residence of Jon Kreutzmann and Lyn Anastasio. As they both watch a horror movie, Trey knocks on the door and Jon answers it. When he opens the door, Trey kills him. After killing Jon, Trey approaches Lyn. She tries to escape through the back door, but Trey kills her. The following morning, Trey gets up from the bed and notices a cut on the sole of his foot. He treats the cut and takes his medication. Afterwards, Trey lays down on his bed and has a nightmare of beating up his father, but he grabs Trey by the neck.

The following night, Trey takes a knife and goes to the residence of Paul McConnell. When Paul answers the door, Trey non-fatally stabs him. Then, Paul grabs his shotgun and tries to shoot Trey, but he grabs him and misses a shot. Afterwards, while Paul loads his shotgun, he yells at Trey to get out. Trey starts to run out of the house through the back door as Paul follows him. Paul looks outside to see where Trey is, but he doesn't see him as Trey has escaped. The next day, Trey returns to his residence, takes out his bloodied clothes from the garbage and puts them in the furnace where he burns them. Trey is next seen taking a shower. While Trey takes a shower, he has a flashback to when his father demanded him to open the door. Afterwards, Trey makes himself a coffee when he sees on television the news of his killings, which shocks him. Then, he takes out all of his medication and calls his doctor. He demands to speak to his doctor, but the caller hangs up on him, which causes him to have a psychotic break. Afterwards, Trey puts all of the knives in a bag and shotgun in the cabinets and locks them in, and then he locks the door in an attempt to lock himself in. Later, Trey takes his coffee and slaps himself in a face to stay awake.

The following night, Trey goes to the residence of Janis Weir. However, Janis gets a call from Prentiss to warn her about Trey coming to her residence and kill her, but Trey breaks into the house. Janis runs into the bathroom and locks herself in. Trey breaks the door with the knife and while doing so, he hallucinates that he is stabbing his father. Then, the BAU show up and hold him at gunpoint. Rossi orders Trey to drop the knife. He tries to approach them, but Stephen shoots at the chair, which causes Trey to wake up. He looks at the knife and drops it. They ask him if he knows where he is and Trey looks around. He says that he did it again and it is not supposed to happen. He begs that he needs help and asks the BAU to help him, to which Stephen replies that they will try. Afterwards, Trey is handcuffed by Alvez who tells him that he is under arrest for the murder of eight people, which shocks him.

Modus Operandi
Trey had two distinct M.O.s, which caused the BAU to initially believe two different, independent unsubs were at work. As such, they dubbed one series of murders as the work of "The Woods Unsub", and the other as the work of "The Home Invasion Unsub". Trey's signature, the only thing in common between both sets of murders, was killing all of his victims with a single gunshot or stab wound directed to the heart.


 * As the Woods Unsub, Trey would kill male poachers with a history of violent confrontations, who all reminded him of his father, during the daytime hours. He would follow them into the woods, position himself at a safe distance, and kill them by shooting them once with a scoped Winchester .30-06-caliber, single-action hunting rifle. He was always organized during these killings and made sure he never left behind any incriminating evidence, since he never sleepwalked during those murders.
 * As the Home Invasion Unsub, Trey, while sleepwalking, would break into a home in the middle of the night and stab the homeowner(s) to death with a kitchen knife. All of the homes he targeted were former drug dens or prostitution brothels that his father frequented. The first victims, all women, suffered from multiple stab wounds, but as he devolved, the victims suffered from only one stab wound. During these killings, he was disorganized and more violent, which would increase as he went along due to the heightening seriousness of his sleepwalking.

Real-Life Comparison
Trey has some similarities to the prolific South African serial killer Cedric Maake and may have been indirectly based from him. Maake had three different M.O.s that he used simultaneously: bludgeoning passers-by at a beach with a rock; ambushing couples in cars, shooting the man before raping the woman; and killing tailors in their shops with a hammer. While the first two series of murders were soon identified as the work of a single killer, the third one was believed to be a different case almost until Maake's arrest, much like how Trey was initially assumed to be two independent serial killers.

Known Victims

 * Ron Carini
 * Reba Wilson
 * Jerry Hornsby
 * Pearl Roberts
 * Bob Joplin
 * Mike Hood
 * Jon Kreutzmann and Lyn Anastasio
 * Paul McConnell
 * The attack at 122 Lyon Street:
 * Janis Weir
 * David Rossi

Appearances

 * Season Twelve
 * In the Dark