| “ | I know what my sister wants. She wants this. | ” |
— Huang's last words
| ||
Michael Huang, a.k.a. "The Vinegar Hill Slayer", was a delusional, international and prolific serial-turned-spree killer, abductor and rapist who appeared in Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Season Two episode, "Type A".
Background[]
Michael's father died at some point while he and his younger sister Natalie were young, leaving them to be raised by their mother Helen. Due to Helen being busy with her job as a corporate executive, Michael and Natalie would be left alone at home most of the time. Michael would later make allegations of abuse and neglect against his mother, though these claims would be investigated and declared unfounded by Social Services. For unknown reasons, in 2001, he raped Natalie, presumably feeling guilty afterwards and repressing the memory of ever doing so. When Helen found out about this, she went to live with Natalie in Taipei, Taiwan while Michael stayed at a boarding school in the U.S. Presumably as a result of being raped by her brother, Natalie later committed suicide by stabbing herself in the heart with her favorite flower, a purple orchid, in her lap.
When Michael found out about this, he snapped, convincing himself that Natalie's death was the result of his mother's supposed neglect, and started serial killing in 2001, murdering four women, each of them resembling his mother, in a six-month span and staging each of their bodies based on how Natalie took her own life. The murders would cause him to be dubbed "The Vinegar Hill Slayer" by the media because of the neighborhood he was active in. One of the women he killed was Lisa Sojourn, a translator for the United Nations and a close friend of both Emily Prentiss and Clara Seger. Eventually, the New York Police Department requested assistance from the BAU, but the investigation into Michael's murders was put on hold when the Bureau's top priority switched to terrorism following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Following the Vinegar Hill murders, he traveled to seven Polynesian countries using different aliases and killed a woman in each of them. At some point after reaching his final destination, Taipei, he continued to kill and also acquired a silicon sex doll and imagined it was Natalie, having been unable to cope with his sister's death, and as he got closer to killing his mother, his murders became more frantic and disorganized as he became more unhinged.
Type A[]
After murdering Lynn Zhou and failing to lure in Mary Gao, Michael is seen walking with Yian Chen, originally conversing with her in Mandarin before she says she wants to practice her English. His charm turns to a look of offense and disapproval when she talks about divorcing her husband and not always being at home with her kids to work more and be her own person with her own life. She doesn't notice, and he immediately changes his demeanor and buys her a slushie which he discreetly laces with Midazolam. As their walking back to her car, the drug starts to take effect, and Michael places Yian in the trunk while saying, "Sorry, it's not your fault, it's how you were raised." before driving off. Yian is later found dead in the same manner as all of Michael's other murder victims. Michael is later seen at home speaking with his doll in Mandarin, and he gets into bed with her while holding a knife over her and smelling her hair. He then goes on a date with Sara Yee and drugs her as well, but before he can abduct her, he sees the Taipei police and runs, and soon after impulsively stabbing Yu-Ting Meng and cutting her hair afterwards when he comes across her on the road. Even further unbalanced at this point, Michael argues with the doll, hallucinating it insulting him in Natalie's over being too weak to protect Natalie. Michael then yells back he plans to kill his mother, Helen. Now looking a mess, he then finds her at the market she works in and says hello while giving her a hug. Helen says he died to her years ago and asks why he returned. Michael pulls out a butcher knife and says it's time for her to pay for what she did. The International Response Team and Taipei police soon arrive and follow Michael and Helen as he drags her around the market at knifepoint. Michael repeatedly blames Helen for Natalie's death, and she responses be revealing he raped her. He says they were meant to be together, and Seger steps in and says if he loves his sister, he won't kill Helen since his sister wouldn't that. Michael replies with, "I know what my sister wants. She wants this." He is then shot and killed just as he's about to stab Helen.
Modus Operandi[]
Michael targeted women aged in their thirties who worked professional jobs, were divorced, had children, and physically resembled his mother in 2001, each of them acting as surrogates for her. During his Vinegar Hill murders, he would brutally murder his victims with varying methods like jugulation and blunt-force trauma. With his Taiwan murders, he would find his victims on dating websites using a fake profile and charm them into going on a date with him. It is unknown how he found his victims in the other countries he killed in, although it is assumed he found his victims in a similar manner.
After his victims talked about their jobs and their children during their dates, he would give them drinks that he laced with Midazolam beforehand, to sedate them, and then put them in the trunk of his car once they started to fall unconscious. Right before they fell unconscious, Michael would say "Sorry, it's not your fault. It's how you were raised." to them. His signature was stabbing his victims in the heart and leaving a purple orchid on their laps, as a reference to his sister's suicide. With Yu-Ting Meng, he killed her by stabbing her in the heart and did not go on a date with her or drug her. This was because he was nearly caught by the IRT and the Taipei police after drugging Sara Yee, one of his would-be victims.
Profile[]
The initial profile of Michael complied by the BAU in 2001 said that he was aged in his late teens to early twenties and a native of New York who was sophisticated, but had anger issues towards women.
Real-Life Comparison[]
Michael appears to be heavily inspired by Joachim Kroll - Both are rapists and serial killers that snapped and began their sprees after a death in their families (Huang's sister and Kroll's mother, respectively), spacing out the timing and locations of their crimes so they wouldn't be caught, received nicknames for their crimes with a location of some of their murders, performed postmortem rituals on their respective victims, and kept sex dolls at their houses for sex acts they couldn't put their victims through.
Michael appears to be inspired in part by Edmund Kemper - Both are serial killers whose mothers hated them out of fearing they'd rape their sisters (though Michael did rape his sister), operated in the cities where they lived, targeted women as surrogates for their mothers, and attempted to kill their mothers as the targets of their rage (though only Kemper succeeded).
Known Victims[]
- Unspecified date, New York City, New York, U.S.: Natalie Huang (his sister; raped only)
- Pre-September 2001, New York City, New York, U.S.:
- Lisa Sojourn
- Three unnamed women
- Unspecified dates from 2001 to 2017:
- Unspecified locations: Three unnamed women
- Vanuatu: Unnamed victim
- Kiribati: Unnamed victim
- Solomon Islands: Unnamed victim
- Niue: Unnamed victim
- 2017, Taipei, Taiwan:
- Lynn Zhou
- Mary Gau (intended)
- Yian Chen
- Sara Yee (drugged and intended to kill, but abandoned the plan when the IRT arrived)
- Yu-Ting Meng (fatally stabbed in the heart and cut her hair; wasn't drugged)
- Helen Chou (his mother; attempted)
Notes[]
- Michael is the first unsub whose identity is revealed to the audience in the beginning. His case is also the first in the series in which the team knowingly departs to investigate the murder of a foreigner by an American overseas, rather than the opposite.
Appearances[]
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders[]
Season Two[]
- "Type A"