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I just wanted her to love me. I just... I just wanted her to love me...
Scolfield

Davis Scolfield was a serial killer and child abductor who appeared in the Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior episode "Two of a Kind".

Background[]

Scolfield was born in Cleveland, Ohio around 1970 and raised by his grandparents. When he was six years old in 1976, they died and he was placed in the foster care system, bouncing from home to home. In 2002, he married an African-American woman and had a daughter with her. Because of his violent temper problems, his wife fled, taking their child with her. Though she often managed to stay ahead of him, he eventually caught up with her in 2009 and abducted their daughter, eventually killing her and burying her outside his childhood home. He then set up a shrine in his home dedicated to her. He was a suspect in her disappearance, but since there were no leads, the case went cold. After that, he began abducting girls identical in race and age to his daughter in an attempt to form happy father-daughter relationships with them.

Two of a Kind[]

Scolfield is first seen in his blue van at a neighborhood, just as Samantha Wells plays hide-and-seek with her older brother Connor. When Wells chooses a hiding spot located too far from her brother, Scolfield seizes the chance to lure her in with a photograph of his daughter, asking for her help in locating her. She slowly and reluctantly accepts and climbs into the van. Connor finishes counting just to see the van drive away and his sister being nowhere in sight.

Wells' abduction immediately finds its way all over the local news, and Cooper's team is summoned as a result. Meanwhile, Scolfield introduces her to his last abductee, Aisha Rawlins, and tries to get them to play. However, the two girls refuse to follow his directions, both wishing to go home. Eventually, he becomes frustrated and takes them to their rooms, yelling at them as he does so. Cooper and the rest of the team later discover Scolfield's burial ground for his two previous captives.

When the police begin to close in, Scolfield is forced to take his captives to his old home. However, with the help of Garcia, the team identifies him as the abductor and killer and arrive at the aforementioned home. They split up, and Simms finds an armed Scolfield by his daughter's grave. Simms tries to reason with him, saying he doesn't want to kill him, but Scolfield says that "he isn't strong enough" and commits suicide. Rawlins and Wells are shortly found and returned to their respective families.

Modus Operandi[]

Scolfield's victims were all usually lookalikes of his daughter: African-American and eight years old. The only exception being Samantha Wells, who was abducted to act as a playmate for Aisha Rawlins. He abducted them from different areas of Cleveland using a simple ruse, transporting them in his van to his house. There, he would hold them captive and try to turn them into surrogate daughters, making them watch cartoons with him and playing games with them. After a week or two, when he realized that his attempts were doomed to fail, he would kill them by strangling them with his bare hands. He then buried them in the ground under an overpass wrapped in a blanket with a doll. His daughter presumably went through the same ritual, but was buried near Scolfield's childhood home instead.

Profile[]

The unsub is a white male in his 40s who is fixated on African-American girls and is intelligent and sociable enough to pull of child abductions using a ruse. His abductions aren't about sex, power, or control. His way of burying them with a toy and wrapped in a sheet suggests that he is trying to gain their love by buying them gifts. Needless to say, this scenario always fails, making him frustrated enough to kill them. After he does so, he feels remorseful, but soon feels a need to abduct another surrogate daughter. The fact that he is simulating a daughter suggests that he is trying to recreate his own lost daughter, whom he may even have killed himself.

Real-Life Comparisons[]

Scolfied appears to be heavily inspired by Alejandro Henriquez - Both are serial killers of girls who were murdered by strangulation, had families they abused, including younger relatives, were manipulative of their communities, and their murders were the focuses of outcries from impoverished, racially marginalized neighborhoods not getting enough attention for the murders of their loved ones.

Scolfield also appears to be inspired by the unidentified "Freeway Phantom" - Both are serial killers of black girls who were kidnapped, murdered, and found dead off public roads, which resulted in major manhunts once the murders eere connected.

Known Victims[]

  • Unspecified date in 2009: Caroline Scolfield (his daughter)
  • 2010:
    • July 22: Ruby Cross
    • December: Wanda Barloff
  • 2011:
    • April 10: Aisha Rawlins (abducted; was rescued along with Samantha Wells)
    • April 18-19: Samantha Wells (abducted to be a playmate for Aisha)



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