| “ | But, ha, given that the feds are looking for him, I'd summise that he's still running cons. Guess what? You're never gonna catch him 'cause I taught him everything I know. Everything and that is enough to keep him always just out of your reach... | ” |
Roberta "Bobbi" Lynch was an incarcerated killer and con artist who appeared in the Season Fourteen episode "Chameleon" via flashbacks and in Season Fifteen.
Background
Roberta is a con artist and a bigamist who would marry men for their money and worth only to either abandon or kill them when they outlived their usefulness. Roberta was then arrested for fraud and first degree murder of a boyfriend. At some time, she was supposed to look after her granddaughter, Grace, while she was bathing but Grace drowned which caused Everett to snap and walk along his mother's footsteps. This turned out to have been a lie, as Grace was not only alive and well but her father's accomplice. During her time in prison, in the summer of 2018, she stabbed another inmate with a shank, which took her privilege to utensils away.
Season Fourteen
Chameleon
When the BAU figured out that her son is the unsub and visit her to question her, she arrogantly and snidely remark on the BAU that they will never catch her or her son. She's startled by hearing about Everett blaming her for Grace's near-death, which results in her calling her lawyer to pass on an angry message to Everett to let the incident go, as she sees it in her mind. Everett is thus alerted the team is after him, making a hasty escape while leaving grace behind to be arrested.
Season Fifteen
Awakenings
Roberta has been transferred to a federal prison in DC and is still cocky towards the team, still thinking they'll never catch her son. She is seen to be interrogated by the team, mostly Rossi. Soon, she is devastated to learn that her granddaughter Grace has been murdered at the hands of her son.
Face Off
Roberta arrives at the BAU and is interrogated by Tara and JJ, and has her lawyer present with her. Roberta admits to wanting to help, but they know the only reason she wants to is to exact revenge on Everett killing Grace. Nevertheless, she's granted parole and is released to prison. After ditching her attorney, she makes her way to Reno and manages to get in contact with Delvin Weaver, her ex-husband and Everett's father. After having a conversation with him about Everett's whereabouts, she pulls out a gun from behind her and repeatedly shoots him and screams. Walking in with a gun, Roberta finds Everett at the house she spent her teenage years. Lynch took Olivia hostage and was forced by Roberta to take her to the basement, where he showed Olivia the cremated body of Marilyn. After the BAU and SWAT arrive outside, Reid started speaking to Roberta on the phone. Through his guidance, Roberta had Everett let Olivia go, but fired a warning shot at him.
Alone together in the basement, Roberta teared up while holding her son at gunpoint, as she wanted to die in an impending explosion with him and was hesitating to hold the gun. Lynch quickly knocked out his emotional mother and took her gun, which he used to set off an explosion before escaping through secret tunnels. The SWAT team and Reid started to move in once Rossi told them about Roberta's intentions. However, the entire house exploded, killing Roberta and six SWAT agents.
Modus Operandi
Roberta aided her son Everett in conning men whom she would get to marry her to get their money by having him pretend to be a "blubbering seven-year-old" living on the street with her. Every time they were successful in their cons, they would laugh together.
When she killed Everett's father, she shot him fourteen gunshot wounds—meaning Roberta reloaded and forty-seven stab wounds following that; Everett took away Grace, so Roberta took away his father.
Profile
No profile of Roberta was made by the BAU as they were focused on Everett. However, Reid did comment that having a narcissistic con-woman for a mother would have instilled the misogynistic tendencies they profiled in her son.
Real-Life Comparison
Robert appears to be partly inspired by Sante Kimes - Both were murderous con artists who were in-and-out of marriages, were skilled at their crafts, they had a son who would aid them in their crimes as youths, their son's fathers died (though Lynch murdered him while Kimes's passed away naturally), they killed their victims when they could no longer con them, shot one victim to death with a handgun, they killed two victims each (though Kimes is suspected of killing more), they were investigated by the FBI, and their sons became estranged from them and later turned against them.
Roberta also appears to be inspired by Aileen Wuornos - Both are Southern killers with eccentric personalities, murdered men they seduced, had sons, made up sob stories to cover for their crimes, refused to cooperate with law enforcement, and died at the ends of their sprees.
Known Victims
- Late 1970s to early 1990s:
- Unspecified dates and locations throughout the southern U.S.: Numerous unnamed men (all conned)
- Doctor Sebastian Hurst (conned)
- Nashville, Tennesse: Unnamed man (conned)
- Little Rock, Arkansas: Unnamed man (conned)
- Unspecified dates and locations throughout the southern U.S.: Numerous unnamed men (all conned)
- Unspecified date in 1998: Her unnamed boyfriend (killed in a domestic dispute; likely intended to con)
- May-Early September 2018: Unnamed inmate (shanked with an unknown instrument; it is unknown if she survived)
- February 2020:
- Delvin Weaver (her ex-husband and the father of Everett Lynch; shot fourteen times and stabbed forty-seven times following as revenge for her son killing her granddaughter Grace)
- Everett Lynch (her son; held at gunpoint and intended to die with him)
Appearances
- Season Fourteen
- "Chameleon" (via flashbacks)
- Season Fifteen
- "Awakenings"
- "Face Off"