"But this is the biggest story of my life, and it's mine. I mean, it's... it's an exclusive."
Roy Colson is an incidental character who appeared in Omnivore.
Background
Roy was one of the many reporters covering the murders of the Reaper, a prolific serial killer active in Boston in the late nineties. The story and its prominence eventually came to fascinate him. During and/or after the investigation, he became acquainted with Tom Shaunessy, the lead investigator in the case, and Aaron Hotchner, the then-new BAU senior whose first case as that rank happened to be that of the Reaper. Sometime after he stopped killing, due to a secret deal made between him and Shaunessy, Roy wrote a book about the Reaper titled The Night of the Reaper; Hotch described it as "a good book" that treated the police fairly and the victims with respect, with all of its proceedings going to the victims' families. In the book, he posited that the Reaper stopped killing because he died or went to prison on an unrelated charge. During his research, he befriended George Foyet, the only survivor of the Reaper.
Omnivore
When the Reaper returned in 2009, Hotch revealed in confidence that the new murders were probably the work of the real Reaper. After killing again, the Reaper sent a paper detailing the deal he made to Shaunessy to Roy. It was confirmed by Hotch, who also asked him not to write about it or the Reaper's return, despite Roy's initial objections. After the Reaper commits a massacre on the bus, however, Hotch changes his decision, approving him to write a story about the deal, but Roy promised not to write anything about the deal until the Reaper was caught. The same night, he planned to meet Foyet again at one of his many residences to interview him. Meanwhile, Hotch and the BAU had figured out that Foyet was the Reaper after Morgan is attacked by him. They went to the residence where he was meeting Roy, whom he was forcing at gunpoint to write an article correcting the assumption that he made in The Night of the Reaper about him being dead or incarcerated for another crime (something that angered Foyet). The BAU and SWAT then stormed in and talked down Foyet by remarking that he wouldn't be able to experience the fame from the media would give if he died. Foyet gives in to his narcissism, saving Roy. He hasn't been seen or mentioned since then.
Notes
- Roy may have been partially inspired by the late police reporter Paul Avery and the true crime author Robert Graysmith. Like Avery and Graysmith with the case of the Zodiac Killer (the basis of George Foyet), Roy covered the case of the Reaper with great interest. Also, he later went on to write a book about him after the killer went uncaught for several years (not unlike Graysmith), while George's attempt on Roy's life may be an obscure reference to the Zodiac's publicized threat to Avery after the latter linked a murder to the killer.