| “ | Shoot me, how you gonna save them? Without this. Or maybe... that was the plan all along. Good luck. | ” |
— Fowler to the BAU right before his suicide
| ||
Franklin Fowler was a serial killer, abductor, and one time Family annihilator who appeared in the Criminal Minds: Evolution episode "Swimmer's Calculus".
Background[]
Fowler grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia, with his parents and sister. Despite being the son of a lifeguard, Fowler was unable to swim due to his asthma. His father, an alcoholic, repeatedly made him retake the swimming test in spite of this. When Fowler was ten, he killed his parents and sister, with the three being found dead in their swimming pool. Local police suspected Fowler was responsible but were unable to find enough evidence.
As an adult in 2023, Fowler found a nationwide network of serial killers by Elias Voit while he was in a coma. Using new profound skills and being guided by the Network, he began killing again, kidnapping victims and forcing them into his pool until they drowned. His first victims were taken from Chesapeake, but he later switched to other cities on the East Coast.
Swimmer's Calculus[]
Fowler attacks David Hartle in Ocean City, Maryland, managing to convince a police officer that he is Hartle's brother and that Hartle is under the influence of drugs. He later kidnaps and kills Chet Williams in a similar fashion.
Following that murder, Fowler notices the Estes family celebrating father Curtis's birthday on the beach. After knocking them out and kidnapping them, Fowler shoots Curtis and forces mother Kristi and daughter Vivian to tread in the pool. Vivian attempts to escape when Fowler is taking his asthma inhaler, but he notices and fires a gun at her. He then kicks Curtis's body in the pool and uses his remote to put the pool cover on in the hopes of speeding up the process. Kristi finds a corkscrew in Curtis's pocket, which they use to poke a hole in the cover. Fowler notices and shoots at them, hitting Kristi, but the BAU arrive. Fowler puts his gun to his head, crushes the remote, then fatally shoots himself. Tyler Green uses his army knife to cut through the pool cover, allowing Alvez to dive into the pool and save Vivian and Kristi.
After Fowler's death, it is found that he filmed each of his murders and uploaded them online with a VPN. This, plus a comment he made about a "plan" before his death, leads Prentiss to believe Fowler may be a part of the serial murder network
The Zookeeper[]
After the new unsub, Clyde Smets committed suicide, Prentiss looked through both of their technology and videos. Rossi and Prentiss then found out that both their videos were uploaded and the technology was the same, thus linking him to the network.
Modus Operandi[]
Fowler targeted people who used the website AllBeachAndBed.com to find vacation rentals. His original victims were men as surrogates for his abusive father. He would find them and spray them with a fentanyl mix to knock them out, before bringing them to his pool in Chesapeake. Fowler would stab the victims' ribcages as a form of torture, but also to emulate Fowler's asthma. At gunpoint, Fowler would force them to tread water in the 7-foot-deep pool until they inevitably drowned, which was reflective of the abuse Fowler suffered from not being able to swim. He later kidnapped the Estes from them reminding him of his family, shot father Curtis due to his lack of compliance, and severely injured Kristi with another shot when she tried to find ways to breathe. Fowler also covered the pool in an attempt to hasten Kristi's and Vivian's deaths.
Real-Life Comparison[]
Fowler appears to be inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer - Both are serial killers targeting male victims (though Fowler also targeted female victims), took years-long breaks after their first murders (though Fowler's first attack involved killing three people simultaneously), held victims captive at their homes, tortured victims by puncturing, at least one victim escaped to police, who each killer lied to so as to abduct each victim again, victims were submerged in some sort of liquid (Fowler drowned victims alive in pool water, Dahmer melted victims' remains in acid postmortem), both had surviving victims, and both died unnaturally at the ends of their sprees (though while Fowler killed himself, Dahmer was murdered).
Fowler also appears to be inspired by Danny Rolling - Both are serial killers with violently abusive fathers, their first killings were of entire families, began their sprees in their home towns before moving to other states, targeted Caucasian victims of both genders, stabbed them (though Fowler did so premortem for torture, while Rolling did so antemortem to kill), and died as a consequence of their crimes (Fowler killed himself to evade arrest, Rolling was executed).
Known Victims[]
- 2009, Chesapeake, Virginia: His family (all drowned)
- His unnamed father
- His unnamed mother
- His unnamed sister
- 2024:
- June 14, Chesapeake, Virginia: Joel Tanner, 43
- July 15, Chesapeake, Virginia: Mila Stevens, 52
- July 28, Boston, Massachusetts: Simon Gladwyn
- August 2, Providence, Rhode Island: Parker Hollings
- August 12, Ocean City, Maryland: David Hartle
- August:
- Delaware: Chet Williams
- Chesapeake, Virginia: The attack on the Estes Family
- Curtis Estes (the father; sprayed with fentanyl, abducted, and fatally shot when he refused to get in the pool)
- Kristi Estes (the mother; attempted; sprayed with fentanyl, abducted and attempted to drown, later shot; was rescued)
- Vivian Estes (the daughter; attempted; sprayed with fentanyl, abducted and attempted to drown, later shot at repeatedly; but missed; was rescued)
Notes[]
- Fowler share similarities to three prior unsubs:
- Chase Whitaker (“Epilogue”) - Both were serial killers whose first victims were their fathers whom they killed as revenge for abusing them, killed their victims by drowning them, and went dormant for fifteen years before killing again.
- Jerry Tidwell ("Beyond Borders") - Both were serial killers and abductors who suffered abuse at the hands of their fathers as children, killed their families in their first murder (though Tidwell was incarcerated for his murders, Fowler was not) before going dormant for years, both drowned victims (however Tidwell killed his victims using ligature strangulation; Fowler fatally drowned his victims), abducted at least one family, recorded their victims while holding them captive (though Tidwell recorded him tormenting his victims, Fowler recorded their actual deaths) and both were killed during their standoff with the BAU (though Fowler committed suicide while Tidwell was shot by IRT Unit Chief Jack Garrett).
- Jess Carney (“Submerged”) - Both were serial killers whose stressors occurred when they were children, killed their victims by drowning them in pools) and one victim whom they killed by shooting them) and committed suicide before they could be arrested by the BAU.
- In "...All the Devils Are Here", Fowler is referred to as "The Lifeguard" by The Disciple in a video call with Voit using deepfaked imagery of Voit's uncle, Cyrus Lebrun, referencing Fowler's method of leaving his victims to drown in his pool while he sits near it, not unlike where a lifeguard would be present, however, this is unlikely to be a true nickname for Fowler as he is never referred to as such by the BAU.
Appearances[]
Criminal Minds: Evolution[]
Season Three[]
- "Swimmer's Calculus"
- "The Zookeeper" (mentioned))
- "Hell is Empty..." (mentioned)
- "...All the Devils Are Here" (mentioned)
- "CollateRal (flashbacks)