Jill Morris is an ambitious FBI agent who brought in the Behavioral Analysis Unit to consult on a serial murder case on false pretenses in order to increase her own public profile. She appears in the Criminal Minds Season Three episode, "Limelight".
Background[]
Jill was the youngest of four children in a lower middle-class, single-parent household, being raised by her father, an alcoholic whom she grew to see as weak. She was born blonde, but later dyed her hair brown so she wouldn't be stereotyped as a "dumb blonde"; she kept a strand of her original hair as a keepsake. She is very ambitious and an overachiever, earning several awards and decorations during her career as a Philadelphia FBI agent. She met Rossi when he held a seminar, Collateral Materials on Sex Crimes, at the FBI Academy in 1997 and greatly admired him.
Limelight[]
When the contents of a storage unit rented by an apparent serial killer are turned in to the police, Jill sees it as an opportunity to make a reputation for herself. Since there is no evidence proving there are any victims, Jill places her blonde hair strand in an evidence bag and claims it to have been found among the rest of the items.
As the BAU investigate, Jill's lust for fame and lack of concern for collateral damage becomes evermore apparent. She holds a press conference without clearing it with the BAU, displays excitement about finding victims' bodies, and even writes down some possible nicknames for the killer. Rossi identifies with her, saying he sees in her the same all-consuming ambition and hunger for notoriety that drove him as a younger man. He warns her that his egotism resulted in people getting hurt, and that she is heading down that same path.
Eventually, Jill is lured in and abducted by the killer, Jeremy Andrus, who, prompted by Jill’s own hubris and publicity-seeking, had also abducted her friend Katrina Townsley. Andrus forced Jill to watch as he brutally tortured Katrina into unconsciousness. Before Andrus could move on to torturing Jill as well, a SWAT team intervened to rescue her and take Andrus into custody. After being discharged from the hospital, Jill shows little to no remorse for her role in the incident, or for what happened to Katrina. Rossi gives her the benefit of the doubt, however, believing her apparent indifference to be a sign of trauma. Though briefly ashamed when told by Rossi that Katrina didn’t survive, Jill willingly walks towards the press outside the hospital to be interviewed, much to Rossi's dismay.
Notes[]
- During the scene in which Katrina Townsley contacts her, it can be seen that she is beginning to write a book about serial killers, likely to emulate Rossi who wrote several books prior to returning to the BAU.