“ | You hang up on me again and I rip her open! | ” |
— Shyer
|
Vincent Shyer is a murderous "collector"-type stalker and abductor who appeared in the Criminal Minds Season One episode "Broken Mirror".
Background[]
Shyer was an employee at the FBI Field Office located in New Haven, Connecticut. He and his father were old friends with the Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Davenport, who had twin daughters named Patricia "Trish" and Cheryl. At some point before the episode, Shyer grew obsessed with the twins, believing they shared his feelings. In 2005, Trish and her boyfriend Jordan made plans to get engaged, enraging Shyer and prompting him into enacting a plot to abduct Trish and Cheryl, who was away at college.
Broken Mirror[]
"Does it ever annoy you when people want to line you and Patricia up together to examine the differences? It seems like it would get old real fast. But I don't need to do that. I've known you both for so long, loved you for so long."
"Please don't do this."
"But this is how it should have been all along, the three of us together."
One night, when Trish and Jordan are returning home from a party, Shyer leaves his car parked in the middle of the road and, when the two go out to investigate, he takes the keys out of their car to ensure there is no chance of escape. When the couple returns to their car, Shyer appears and shoots Jordan in the face, then forcibly drags Trish to his car and drives off. Taking Trish to his hideout, Shyer forces her to write a ransom letter, which is sent to her father, who alerts the authorities, who in turn calls in the BAU. A few hours before calling the Davenport residence, Shyer helps the other agents to set up the equipment, which he has bugged, in the house. When Shyer calls (using a disposable cell phone) at 8:00 p.m., he refuses to speak to anyone but Cheryl, who he instructs to bring $500,000 to a rental car lot at 3:00 a.m. When the time comes for Cheryl to drop off the money, Shyer goes to meet her but is forced to flee when Hotch and Morgan, who had realized he did not care about the money and intended to abduct Cheryl, open fire on him.
Returning to his hideout, Shyer calls the Davenport residence and reveals his obsession with Cheryl and Trish before hanging up. When Shyer tries calling again, Gideon continually hangs up on him, as a means of applying pressure. Growing infuriated by this, Shyer threatens to kill Trish if he is hung up again, and goes on to taunt the BAU team, revealing to them that he knows all about them and is somewhat adept at profiling. The BAU realizes the abductor is probably an FBI agent and have Cheryl taken to a safe house, with Shyer being the part of her escort. Once at the safe house, Shyer knocks Morgan out with a taser and enters Cheryl's room, ranting about how much he loves her while brandishing a knife. Before he can escape with Cheryl, Shyer is ambushed by Elle, who holds him at gunpoint and demands him to drop the knife. After doing so, Shyer tries to attack Elle, but he is knocked over, and his sidearm taken. Pointing a gun at his face and placing the heel of her shoe on his crotch, Elle demands to know where Trish is. Panicking, Shyer quickly complies and tells Elle where Trish is. Trish is shortly found at Shyer's hideout alive and is taken to the ambulance along with Cheryl and their father.
Profile[]
The unsub is a white male who was originally believed to be a simple abductor whose abduction of Trish was solely motivated by profit. The ransom note (which Trish was forced to write) never once used the word "I" (using just "you"), which meant the unsub is distancing himself from the crime, while the way the note was written implicates that the unsub is working alone and is targeting Evan Davenport for specific reasons, feeling like he owes him and does not deserve everything that he owns. The unsub sounds at his most comfortable state when talking to Cheryl, meaning he may already know her, and, judging by his overly-sophisticated speech pattern (which lacked contractions such as "they're" and "you're"), is arrogant and pretentious, making an effort to sound smarter than he actually is. When Trish was briefly allowed to talk to her family, she sounded delirious, meaning the unsub is keeping her drugged, implicating that he may be lacking in physical strength and needs to rely on sedatives to keep Trish under control.
When it became apparent that the unsub did not care about the money and only wanted the Davenport twins, he was profiled as having erotomania, a type of disorder that causes the sufferer to believe that someone of a higher social status is in love with them, projecting this secret affection using subtle hints and gestures; this makes the unsub a mission-based offender, the most determined kind of criminal. The unsub's ability to profile and having intimate knowledge about the BAU team's personal lives meant that he is a part of the investigation, probably one of the field agents.
Modus Operandi[]
When Shyer abducted Trish and killed her fiancé Jordan, he left his car out on a street they were driving on, knowing that they would come towards it to see if someone was inside and then took the keys out of their car while they were gone. He then shot Jordan in the face with a handgun and took Trish to his hideout, drugged her, and had her write a ransom letter for her father.
During his first attempt to abduct Trish's twin sister Cheryl, he had her bring a suitcase of ransom money to a parking lot, to which he planned to drive towards her and abduct her. During his second attempt, he utilized a taser and knife, using the former to knock Morgan out and attempting to use the latter to kill Elle.
Known Victims[]
- 2005:
- October 17: The road shooting and abduction:
- Jordan (Patricia's fiancé; presumably stalked; was fatally shot in the face)
- Patricia Davenport (stalked for an unspecified amount of time; later abducted and held captive; was rescued two days later)
- October 19:
- Cheryl Davenport (Patricia's twin sister; stalked for an unspecified amount of time; intended to abduct, but was nearly apprehended by Hotch and Morgan)
- The attack at the FBI safe house:
- Derek Morgan (assaulted with a taser, knocking him out)
- Cheryl Davenport (attempted to abduct)
- Elle Greenaway (assaulted and attempted to stab with a knife)
- October 17: The road shooting and abduction:
Appearances[]
- Season One
- "Broken Mirror"
- "What Fresh Hell?" (indirectly referenced[1])
- Season Three
- "The Crossing" (referenced)
References[]
- ↑ A photo of Patricia and Cheryl Davenport can be seen in a collection of photos of rescued victims kept by Gideon