"Mas... Mason always says I get mad too hard."
Lucas Turner was an autistic, prolific serial killer and abductor who appeared in Season Four of Criminal Minds.
Background
Lucas waits as Kelly pretends to urinate in the woods
Lucas was the autistic, mentally disabled son of a pig farmer in rural Ontario. As a child, Lucas' father would take him and Mason hunting, and together the three built an underground fort in the forest, where Lucas would spend most of his time when he was away from the farm. Lucas had grown up his entire life on the farm and was angered when Mason wanted to sell the family farm following his graduation from med school. In a rage, Lucas pushed Mason from the loft of a barn, paralyzing him. Lucas then waited on Mason hand and foot, while his brother lay helpless in his bed. Lucas slept in the same loft since he was a child, decorating it with child-like crayon drawings. His brother often ordered him to steal specific medical supplies from pharmacies, labs, and medical supply stores. The supplies were used to keep Mason alive, and to serve the paralyzed brother's twisted purposes.
To Hell and Back
Part 1
Lucas is first seen picking up a homeless man on the streets of Detroit. He had been posing as a drug dealer outside a sleazy motel in order to kidnap transients and other poverty stricken people who cash their welfare checks there. Lucas is then seen carrying the young man back to his farm in Canada, where he kills him and extracts a white fluid from the victim's neck. The victim is later slaughtered and fed to the pigs. Lucas is then seen kidnapping another person, a prostitute named Kelly Shane. After dumping his car in the usual place near the US/Canadian border, he throws her into a skiff and takes her across a river into Canada. Meanwhile, the BAU has theorized that the unsub may be using the old Underground Railroad to take his victims across the border. After identifying the unsub's car as belonging to Mason Turner, the team drives to the farm house. Lucas is then seen holding Kelly in front of a window to the house where Kelly sees Mason lying in bed, surrounded by mirrors. Lucas is presenting her to him to find out if she is suitable. Just as Kelly sees Mason, Lucas sees the team pull up and runs off.
Part 2
Kelly wakes up in a cellar built by Lucas, Mason, and their father, to find Lucas writhing in pain (or mental anguish) near her. She looks around and sees that she is in a room decorated with crayon drawings and white Christmas lights. She begs Lucas to take her to the hospital, but Lucas says that she has to stay. He is apparently in pain because he is waiting for a phone call from his brother (unknown to Kelly). She explains that since they are underground, there would be no cell phone reception. Lucas becomes angry and lunges to hit her, but is surprised and terrified when she screams, "Mommy, please!", causing Lucas to stop. He calms down and tells Kelly his name after she introduces herself. She asks if she can have some food. Lucas goes out for a moment, leaving Kelly behind. She had convinced him not to tie her up, saying they were friends. Kelly tries to escape but the cellar door is blocked. She does, however, find his cell phone. After a minute, Lucas returns with some berries, smiling. After a short conversation, Lucas confesses that he pushed his brother from the loft and "hurt" him.
Kelly then convinces him to let her go to the bathroom outside, where he can't see. She kisses him on the cheek and goes off into the bushes. She tries the phone, but finds that it is restricted to call only one number: Mason. She calls the number. Garcia, who had been tracking the cell phone on Mason's laptop nearby, answers[1]. Garcia tells her that help is on the way and the GPS locator triangulates the signal. The team is dispatched to find her. Meanwhile, Lucas hears her talking and rushes to retrieve Kelly and drag her back to the cellar. Within a few minutes, Reid manages to locate the cellar by way of triangulating a series of strange carvings on nearby trees. Hotch opens the cellar door and rushes to put himself between Kelly and Lucas. Lucas falls to the floor crying, consumed with guilt. Hotch takes Kelly away as armored agents rush in. Lucas stands and charges them. The agents open fire, fatally riddling him with bullets. Meanwhile, William Hightower, the brother of a previous victim, grabs an abandoned shotgun, enters Mason's home, and shoots him in revenge for his sibling.
Profile
The unsub was originally profiled as an intelligent and organized sexual sadist who achieves sexual gratification out of torturing others, regardless of gender, race, or age (hence why the victims had little in common besides being poor), and has managed to abduct his victims without any witnesses. Medical equipment, such as sterilizing agents and anesthesia, being stolen around the same as the abductions indicated the unsub could be performing experiments and surgeries on his captives, and was keeping them alive for as long as possible in order to prolong their suffering. The choice of items he has stolen is extremely specific, so he may have a medical background and might be working in a hospital, medical school, or community health orginazation. The unsub's coworkers would undoubtedly notice his odd behavior, such as enthusiastically volunteering to perform painful procedures, during which he would spend extra time on such as probing a broken hand or a distend abdomen. At the end of the day, while his coworkers would be emotionally drained from the process of dealing with the sick and dying, the unsub would appear unfazed, suggesting things like going out for drinks and talking about the day.
After looking through the unsub's room, it was later realized that he likely suffered from autism or moderate mental retardation, as evidenced by the child-like crayon drawings scattered throughout the barn. Disembodied eyes being present in all the drawings indicated the unsub was being watched over by someone, and if caught, he will be scared and confused, and may lash out. Merely doing what his brother told him out of guilt over what he had done to him, the unsub probably did not fully understand the acts he was committing, as Mason had manipulated him into viewing his victims as mere objects by forbidding him from speaking to or having any extended interaction with them, and told him people always lied to him.
Modus Operandi
Shortly after welfare checks were issued in Detroit, Lucas would park outside a seedy motel, where prostitutes, vagrants, etc. would cash the checks. Lucas would lure a victim into the car by pretending to be a drug dealer or prospective john, and once the victim was in his grasp, he would forcibly take them across the border via a small raft, leaving his car nearby. Once he arrived at the farm, Lucas would show the victim to Mason through a window, draw a red X on their neck, then bash a hammer on the X repeatedly until they were dead. Afterward, viable material would be extracted from the body, which would be dismembered and fed to pigs. The victim's shoes would be placed in a large bin near the pig pen.
Real-Life Comparison
Lucas is partially based on the serial killer Robert Pickton, a.k.a. "The Pig Farmer Killer", who abducted and killed numerous prostitutes before feeding the remains to his pigs, not unlike what Lucas did to the remains of his own victims.
Known Victims
- Unspecified date: Mason Turner (attempted, but survived; pushed off a barn loft and left paralyzed)
- Unspecified year-2009: 78 unnamed victims killed prior to To Hell and Back.
- The 2009 murders:
- April 2: Lee Hightower (a prostitute)
- April 8: Alana
- April 16: Jared
- April 18: Colby Van Kirk
- April 23: Claire Osenbaugh
- April 26: Faith
- April 29: Ivy
- May 3: Sheldon Abernathy
- May 5: Louis
- May 9: Celeste Evercroft
- May 16: Charles Porter (a drug addict)
- May 19-20: Kelly Shane (a prostitute; abducted, attempted to kill, and held captive in a cellar; was rescued)
Notes
- Lucas bears some similarities to Charles Holcombe, a serial killer from the Season Two episode Legacy. Both were prolific murderers with their body counts well into the double-digits; targeted prostitutes, vagrants, and junkies; dismembered their bodies and kept their shoes; and had a partner. Both also attempted to kill a prostitute, but they were shot dead by the BAU before they can succeed.
Appearances
- Season Four
- Season Five
- "Nameless, Faceless" (mentioned)
References
- ↑ Hotch had requested that Garcia come to Canada in person to hack into Mason's computer