David Turner and Toby Whitewood were a man and a teenager who embarked on a series of murders. They appeared in the Season Eight episode of Criminal Minds, "The Apprenticeship".
Background[]
See sections on the David Roy Turner and Toby Whitewood pages
The Apprenticeship[]
Turner and Whitewood decide to evolve from their killings of dogs to attacking prostitutes. Whitewood takes a bus to the city and asks for the services of a prostitute named Amanda Lopez. While she is counting the money, he blitz-attacks and suffocates her, enjoying his first human kill. The next morning, he learns that Turner was watching him when his tutor sends him a video of the act. He watches the video, excited. At his job, Whitewood sees Turner at the pet shop and asks his boss Hollie Riggio to leave early. He meets with Turner, who criticizes his sloppiness. He apologizes and Turner reassures him, after which he kills another prostitute named Vicky Thomas as a lecture. The following night, the two pick up another prostitute named Shawna Radford on the road and mutually kill her. Pleased with Whitewood's progress, Turner takes him to a hardware store to buy murder supplies, advising him what to buy and what not to use, like the difference between a simple garden hammer found almost everywhere, and a more efficient titanium one. This causes Whitewood to be late for his job, and Riggio fires him. Enraged, Whitewood abducts her and brings her to Turner's house, expecting him to be pleased.
However, upon finding out, Turner angrily yells at Whitewood for not only abducting someone he knows, in his neighborhood, but also transporting her with her own car, and with the FBI in town. They drive Riggio to the boat dock owned by Turner's father Nate, intending to dump her in the water and clean up Whitewood's mess. The two get into an argument about who gets to kill Riggio, during which Whitewood remarks about how he easily noticed Turner's always been gawking at him with sexual intent. Then, an angered Whitewood knocks Turner out with a hammer. Thinking he is dead, Whitewood tortures and taunts Riggio before being interrupted by Turner, who strangles him to death with his bare hands in a fit of rage. In shock after murdering his pupil, Turner rambles to Riggio before moving to kill her with a large tool, but is interrupted by the arrival of the BAU. Not wanting to go back to prison, Turner charges forward with the tool in hand and is shot and killed by Morgan. Later, in "Carbon Copy", someone murders a woman using the duo's M.O. The duo was then mentioned in "The Gathering".
Profiles[]
Based on the victim type and kill-zone dynamics, the unsubs are two white males, one significantly older than the other. The younger unsub is an adolescent who probably lives in the area and is likely a student at a local high school. The older unsub is in his late 30s to early 40s who is sophisticated, so he probably has a violent criminal experience. He is most likely an ex-convict, but someone with law enforcement training cannot be ruled out. The older unsub has some sort of access to teenagers, but somehow, he does not stick out. He most likely lives or works in an area where young people would frequent, like a school, church, or community center. He is also charismatic and likely holds a job that would easily gain the trust of a teenager, such as a teacher or a coach. There is also a chance that they are related, possibly like a father and son, brothers, or maybe even an uncle and nephew.
The unsubs' relationship is a mentor-student type, in which the older one is trying to teach the younger one on how to be a better killer. This kind of killer team dynamic is rare, but this symbiotic nature of their mutual desires is what actually strengthens their affinity for one another. However, even if there is no biological connection, this relationship has all of the hallmarks of this kind of bond, especially if the younger unsub might be looking for a father figure and/or looking to fill in some kind of emotional void. Their killing pace is relentless and given their combined appetites and this player-coach dynamic, these two are exceptionally dangerous.
Real-Life Comparison[]
They are also very similar to Dean Corll and his accomplices - Both teams consisted of serial killers (budding at least) and abductors, with the dominant partner (Corll and Turner) being an ephebophilic, and homosexual killer in his 30s (though Turner might have been bisexual instead) mentored a fifteen-year-old boy, whom they were sexually attracted to (Henley and Whitewood, respectively), in serial killing. They also used them to lure new victims for themselves. Subsequently, in both partnerships, the boy disobeyed the adult's advice and brought a victim that didn't fit the preferences of the adult, causing a confrontation and the eventual murder of one member by the other (though it was the adult who died in Corll and Henley's case, and the boy in Turner and Whitewood's). Also, like Corll, Turner revealed that he had plans to murder both the chosen victim and his own pupil, and was willing to be shot when someone pointed a gun at him and demanded that he release the victim. In addition, the confrontation between Turner and Whitewood took place in a boat shed, while Corll and Henley buried most of their mutual victims in one.
Mutual Victims[]
- 2012:
- November 5: Amanda Lopez (beaten, then fatally suffocated by Whitewood)
- November 6: Vicky Thomas (bit repeatedly and bludgeoned with a hammer by Turner)
- November 6-7: Shawna Radford (killed by both; tortured with suffocation and fatally bludgeoned with a hammer)
- November 7: Hollie Riggio (abducted and attempted to kill; was rescued)
Appearances[]
- Season Eight
- "The Apprenticeship"
- "Carbon Copy" (indirectly referenced)
- "The Gathering" (mentioned)
- Season Twelve
- "Taboo" (indirectly referenced)