| “ | You think I'm the only guy in town who likes to crack open a cold one. | ” |
— Ivan
| ||
Ivan Bakunas is a necrophiliac and suspect for the murders committed by Roderick Gless. He appears in the Season Four episode of Criminal Minds, "Cold Comfort".
Background[]
Ivan was a necrophile who studied at the Evergreen State University before being expelled for sexually assaulting his girlfriend; he slipped her tranquilizers and had sex with her while she slept, presumably in order to recreate the sensation of having sex with a dead body. Despite this incident, he was later able to get a job as Medical Technician at the Pierce County Medical Examiner sometime after college but was eventually fired for paying an unhealthy amount of attention to the female cadavers. After that, he went back to living with his mother, not holding down a single job. At some point, a friend of his informed him that the body of Sunny Rain, a local weather-girl and celebrity who had died in a car accident, had arrived. Ivan then had him steal the pair of shoes from her personal possessions so he could put them on female cadavers in the morgue along with a blonde wig and have sex with them.
Cold Comfort[]
The BAU learn of Ivan when they are called in to help catch necrophilic serial killer Roderick Gless and ask local mortuaries for potential suspects. They go to his house to speak to him and ask for his DNA so they can compare it to the semen found on the bodies, but he refuses. The lead detective considers him a very good suspect, but the BAU argue that the killer used expensive embalming equipment and needed a lot of space to work in, neither of which Ivan has access to. Despite this, Ivan is still brought in for interrogating when he tries to cross the border. He denies killing or having any involvement with any murders, but confesses to being a necrophile, remarking that many would argue that it is a victimless crime. When he reveals that he put Sunny Rain's shoes on the bodies he had sex with because they were "the genuine article", it gives the BAU the lead they need to solve the case. Ivan isn't seen for the rest of the episode, but since practicing necrophilia is a felony in Washington, he was most likely arrested and either incarcerated, or possibly even institutionalized afterwards.