| “ | No! 'Cause th-they're gonna gonna send you away send you away now. Don't you see? Th-that's what they do with all the strays. They send them away. That's why I make them go to sleep, so that they don't have to suffer. | ” |
— Ervin
| ||
Ervin Robles is an angel of death-type serial killer, poisoner, robber, and the submissive partner of a two-person killing team that appeared in the Season Three episode of Criminal Minds, "Children of the Dark".
Background[]
"She used to make it go dark. I mean, that's what we used to call it. Put me in the bath to pray. And then, she'd hold my head down under the water. Sometimes I could stay awake for like a minute and sometimes a little more. And then it would all go dark. I wanted to stop, but Gary, he went through it way, way worse when we were kids. And he never got the chance to fight back. Only because I wouldn't go back."
Ervin was placed in a foster home run by Mr. and Mrs. Manwaring, being separated from his biological sister Lucy as a result. While there, he was regularly abused and drowned by them. He formed an intense bond with Gary, who was also in the foster home and suffered even worse abuse. After moving out, Ervin became a criminal and served some time in jail, apparently for home invasion. After being released, Ervin took a job at the Denver City Pound. His official title was Animal Care Technician, but in practice, he was the primary euthanizer. He apparently took his job so seriously that his employer once jokingly described him as "the on-site Kevorkian". He eventually came to develop an Angel of Death-like sense of mercy as a result. He still kept doing home invasions together with Gary, who had become his partner-in-crime. During a routine job at the Laybourne's house, they discovered that the parents had been abusing their daughter. As a result, Gary brutally killed them, and Ervin, as an act of mercy, killed the daughter by euthanizing her with pentobarbital obtained from the pound. Gary and Ervin killed two more families before the BAU was called in.
Children of the Dark[]
When they killed the Ortiz family, Ervin feels that their daughter Carrie bears a striking resemblance to Lucy and accidentally injects the pentobarbital into the soft tissue of her arm, missing the vein. She flees and is later found wandering the streets and saved. Eventually, her descriptions lead the BAU to Ervin, who is arrested after he and Gary commit their fifth home invasion. Thanks to Carrie's presence at the interrogation, he is able to open up and give the authorities a lead to Gary. He isn't seen again in the episode and was incarcerated afterward.
Modus Operandi[]
Gary would gain the victims trust by bringing with him a cat euthanized by Ervin, claiming it to have been injured. Eventually, he let Ervin in, tied up and killed the parents. Afterwards, Ervin would take the children to a different room and euthanize them using pentobarbital taken from the pound.
Known Victims[]
- Unspecified dates: At least four victimless home invasions committed with Gary. The victims were:
- Villanosa
- Williams
- Marcus
- Knights
- 2007:
- September 17: The Laybourne's unnamed daughter
- October 7: The unnamed second couple's children
- October 16: Hayden Halbert and his brother Neil
- October 17: Carrie Ortiz and her brother Danny:
- Carrie Ortiz (attempted, but survived; was injected, but the pentobarbital did not kill her)
- Danny Ortiz (killed)
- October 18-19: The unnamed Serrano children