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Beg me not to.
Andrus

Jeremy Andrus is a misogynistic, prolific, narcissistic, and psychopathic serial killer, serial rapist, and abductor who appears in the Season Three episode of Criminal Minds, "Limelight".

Background[]

Andrus' background is not specified or verified, though Hotch's brief summary of it said that he came from a poor, broken home, had a criminal record of petty crimes and lewd behavior, and went to trade school, where he studied to become an electrician. His childhood drawings suggested that he had a happy upbringing and several interests, but after his mother divorced his father or died, he became reclusive and, over time, developed sadistic and misogynistic tendencies, even possibly raiding his father's porn stash. In adulthood, Andrus became a serial killer, killing his first victim, Dana Foster, on March 3, 2002, and keeping it up without his murders being connected until 2008. At first, he abducted one woman at a time with months between victims, but eventually, he had to speed up his killings to get release eventually escalating to torturing two victims at once. When he no longer was able to derive enough pleasure from the killings, he stopped paying rent for a storage unit containing incriminating evidence, ensuring that the contents were sold off through an auction and revealed to the police, in order to relive his crimes through the media coverage.

Limelight[]

In the beginning of the episode, the contents of the self-storage facility are sold after he missed paying his rent. When the buyers look among them, they find sadistic pornography, bondage images and journal pages in which Andrus has planned his future serial killing, writing about various methods of torture, abduction, binding and suspension techniques, etc, accompanied by drawings. They contact the police who in turn contact the local FBI. An ambitious local agent, Jill Morris, sees the incident as a way to gain personal fame and improve her career, but realizes when she looks through the items that there is nothing among them proving that Andrus has lived out his fantasies. She plants an old strain of her own hair (she was blonde, but had dyed her hair brown to be taken more seriously and kept some of her old hair as a keepsake) among them and calls for the BAU, who sends Rossi and Reid to look through the items. Tricking them with the planted evidence, Morris ensures that the rest of the team arrived.

As the investigation proceeded, the BAU use the journal pages to determine Andrus' M.O. and discovers some of his real victims. As a result of Morris' media coverage of the case, Andrus develops a fixation on her personally, taunting her by leaving an anonymous 911 call that leads her to the bodies of two of his victims. He eventually abducts Kat Townsley (a female journalist and friend of Morris), emailed Morris a scanned-in letter along with an address to a parking garage, makes Townsley call her, abducts Morris as well and takes them both to his residence. He then tortures and kills Townsley, making Morris watch. The BAU is able to narrow down the list of suspects to Andrus' address and are able to save Morris just before he is going to torture her. As the SWAT team enters, she tells him it is over. Andrus replies: "No, it'll never be over. Not for us." and allows himself to be arrested. He is last seen in an interrogation room being questioned by Morgan, confessing to murders he had committed over the years.

Modus Operandi[]

Andrus targeted Caucasian, attractive career women in their 30s. He would abduct his victims, likely after using a ruse (such as in the case of Katrina Townsley, in which he intentionally crashed his car into hers so she would come out of it), blitz-attack them by striking them in the head from behind with a blunt object, knocking them out, and put them into his car. After that, he would take them somewhere secluded to suspend them from the ceiling with rope. He would torture them by electrocuting them with metal objects wired to electrical outlets. His last victim, Katrina Townsley, died from the torture he inflicted on her. He would also sometimes rape them. Afterwards, he would kill them by strangling them to death.

He would take their clothes as souvenirs and alter them to his size so he could put them on and perform rehearsal fantasies, listening to audio recordings of the torture on his computer while pleasuring himself. He left the body of his first victim, Dana Foster, at the murder scene, but for all of his later victims, he would either dump their bodies in different states, thereby making it harder for investigators to connect the murders or bury their bodies so they would never be found; these victims were always left near highways, stripped of their clothing. Initially, he killed one victim at a time, but as his need for sexual release grew stronger, he began killing two victims at once.

Profile[]

The unsub is a white male aged in his 30s to 40s who, judging from his knowledge of circuitry wiring, works as an electrician or an electrical engineer, a job which gives him access to his victims' homes or workplaces and therefore enough time to observe them. He targets successful career women because he finds them strong, righteous, and unattainable, so he seeks to tear them down, reduce them to basic sexual creatures, and punish them. He is a clear sexual sadist of the anger-excitation typology, meaning that he becomes sexually aroused by his victims' suffering. Technically, the killings come afterward for he is actually after the pain his victims feel, and he takes his time to exact maximum stimulation. It is believed that he takes his victims' clothing for rehearsal fantasies; by dressing up as his victims, he can relive the torture, and it is during this time that he most likely pleasures himself in order to reinforce his association between suffering and gratification. When he eventually becomes dissatisfied with reliving the torture, he seeks out a new victim. He has been killing women for a long time and has also been thinking about killing for most of his life. He will continue to evolve his M.O., finding new ways of challenging himself and increasing his stimulation threshold; there is no bond holds for him. It was also revealed that Jeremy frequently called women "bleeders", which is a misogynistic term that refers to menstruation.

Real-Life Comparisons[]

Andrus appears to have been partly inspired by Gary Heidnik - Both were murderous and sadistic serial rapists and abductors who had absent mothers, targeted women, suspended them from the ceiling and tortured them with rape and electrocution, held more than one victim captive at a time in a basement, one of their victims died from the torture, they had some contact with law enforcement prior to their apprehensions (Heidnik was previously arrested and was later questioned by police after neighbors reported an odor from his home, while Andrus called an FBI agent to taunt her), and had at least one surviving victim.

Andrus also appears to be inspired by Edmund Kemper - Both are rapists and serial killers who had sexually sadistic and misogynistic tendencies starting in childhood, were profiled as having been in broken homes and accumulating criminal records, worked in blue-collar jobs, targeted Caucasian female victims, lured them with a ruse before abducting them in their cars, killed their victims by asphyxiation (though Kemper used other means), left their victims' bodies to be found in outdoor areas, tried to get public attention once they weren't sexually satisfied from their murders (which included calling the police), attempted to kill two victims in one day at the ends of their sprees (though only Kemper succeeded), specifically their targets of fixation (Kemper's mother and the primary agent on Andrus' case, accordingly) and a friend of each targeted victim, surrendered to arrest once they were apprehended, and gave full confessions in interrogation.

Andrus also appears to be inspired by Jerry Brudos - Both were serial killers and rapists (Andrus serial) who had jobs as electricians, targeted women, abducted them (presumably in Andrus' case) from public places, strangled them, both deviated from their original M.O. somewhat in their last murder (Andrus unintentionally killed his last victim through excessive torture, while Brudos also bludgeoned his last victim before strangling her) and tended to dress in their victim's clothing after killing them. Their names also mirror each other slightly.

Andrus may have also been based on Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi - All were serial killers and serial rapists, were also psychopathic sexual sadists with organized crimes, targeted women, lured them with ruses (at least once in Andrus' case), tortured them with electrocution before strangling them to death, and dumped their bodies in numerous outdoor locations.

Known Victims[]

  • March 3, 2002: Dana Foster
  • 2003:
    • January 9: Karen Patters (her body was dumped in Maryland)
    • August 1: Lindsey Minton (her body was dumped in New Jersey)
    • November: Anson (first name unrevealed; her body was dumped in New York)
  • Unspecified dates from 2003 to 2005: At least thirteen unnamed victims
  • Unspecified dates from 2005 to 2007: At least three unnamed victims
  • 2007:
    • September 29 (date of disappearance; both were killed and buried in the same grave; found in January 2008):
      • Mimi Adams
      • Sara Coswell
    • November: Unnamed woman
  • January 23, 2008: Katrina Townsley and Jill Morris (abducted both):
    • Katrina Townsley (severely wounded from torture by electrocution; was rescued but died en route to the hospital)
    • Jill Morris (attempted to kill; was rescued)

Notes[]

  • While investigating his murders, Morris created several possible nicknames for Andrus, which was The AC/DC Killer, ETK - Electrocute/Torture/Kill, The High Voltage Slayer, The Fusebox Butcher, and The Shock Therapist.
  • In one of Andrus' journal pages, he made plans to suspend his victims from the ceiling and burn them with a blowtorch. In another, he considered branding his initials into his victims as a calling card. In another, he made up a whole plan for abducting a divorced woman near a softball field. He would pretend to have dropped his keys, ask for help, and then knock her out.

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. She was seen in his childhood drawings
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