Sharon Mayford

CRIMINAL
Name	Sharon Mayford
Alias	The Bomber
Gender	Female
Family	Earl Mayford (father; deceased) Tiffany Mayford (née Foundry; mother; deceased) Doug Mayford (brother; deceased) Trisha Mayford (paternal aunt; status unknown)
Pathology	Serial Bomber Hitwoman Cop Killer Mass Murderer (once) International Criminal Gangster
Modus Operandi	C4 bombs
No. of Victims	173-181+ killed ≈ 1,800+ attempted
Status	Incarcerated
Portrayed By	Uncredited
First Appearance	Entropy

Sharon Mayford, a.k.a. "The Bomber", was a serial bomber and hitwoman who appeared in Season Eleven of Criminal Minds.

Background

At some point in Mayford's life, her father Earl died from unspecified causes, her mother Tiffany committed suicide for unknown reasons, her brother Doug died in a motorcycle accident in 2002, and her aunt Trisha was committed to a psychiatric ward for mental illness or defect. Brian Cochran revealed that, as an adult, she received her training (and likely her bomb-making skills) from Mossad. She eventually became a hitwoman and member of a network of hitmen that cropped up after the dismantlement of the Silk Road by the FBI in 2013. She was hired by Cochran to kill a bureaucrat who had forgotten to pay him a bribe on time. As a result, on August 13, 2015, Mayford killed a total of at least 173 people, including the bureaucrat, in several explosions at a container storage station in Tianjin, China.

Entropy

In 2015, the BAU began investigating the network after it set its sights on Garcia. When they began to close in on them and two of their own are killed, Mayford hatched a plan with Cat Adams to attack the BAU. She came to Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar with Cat before Reid and the others arrive. As Cat takes Reid hostage, Mayford operates secretly, setting up explosives powerful enough to destroy an entire city block and kill thousands. After a while, Mayford prepares to detonate the bombs. However, she is found by Morgan and Lewis, who deduced her gender earlier. The two agents subdue her and grab away from her the phone she planned to use to set off the bombs.

Modus Operandi

Mayford would kill the victims in her contract kills by using bombs, hence her nickname. It is likely that she would be contacted and paid by her clients with each contract kill. Exactly how she committed the container storage station chemical explosions is unknown. During the attempted Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar bombing, she used several C4 bombs attached to the restaurant's gas pipelines, which would cause an explosion powerful enough to take down an entire city block.

Profile

No official profile of Mayford was made by the BAU, since they focused on the network as a whole. Although it was initially believed that Mayford was male, the BAU switched their focus on women from the implication of Cat's comments about gender bias. They also briefly described her as being extremely paranoid due to her usage of explosives in her contract kills.

Known Victims

• Killed numerous unnamed victims prior to Entropy
• August 13, 2015, Tianjin, China: The container storage station chemical explosions (hired by Brian Cochran to carry out the hit):
  • The following were killed:
    • Unnamed bureaucrat (target victim)
    • 172 unnamed people
    • Eight unnamed people (possibly)
  • 797 unnamed people (all injured)
• January 13, 2016, Washington, D.C., U.S.: The attempted Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar bombing:
  • Spencer Reid
  • David Rossi
  • Jennifer Jareau
  • Derek Morgan
  • Doctor Tara Lewis
  • Several unnamed police officers
  • Numerous unnamed employees and customers
  • Thousands of unnamed bystanders

Notes

• With a final body of over 173 people, Mayford is one of only seven unsubs in the show's history who are confirmed to have claimed the lives of hundreds. The others are Vincent Perotta (who killed hundreds of people, with an exact number unspecified), Frank Breitkopf (who killed at least 176 people), Billy Flynn, a.k.a. "The Prince of Darkness" (who killed approximately over 200 people), Thomas Yates, a.k.a. "The Womb Raider" (who killed at least 101 people), and Cat Adams, a.k.a. "Miss .45" (a fellow hitwoman who killed approximately over 200 people).
• Though Mayford's true name and personal background were never revealed in Entropy, they could be seen on a spreadsheet the BAU made of the network and a group of operatives-for-hire that abducted Morgan in Derek. This spreadsheet was seen in The Sandman and A Beautiful Disaster, and the show's Twitter account also released a photo of the prop in one of its posts while promoting the latter episode.
• Mayford is partially similar to Izzy Rogers, a criminal who appeared at the end of Season Seven. Both were prolific, female serial bombers and international criminals who targeted victims all around the world and were members of ragtag criminal groups. Both also engineered a standoff against the BAU and other authorities in Washington, D.C., with accomplices; both standoffs involved dozens of hostages, including a member of the team, and the use of explosives, though Izzy was successful in detonating hers.

Appearances

• Season Eleven
  • The Job (mentioned)
  • 'Til Death Do Us Part (mentioned)
  • Target Rich (mentioned)
  • Awake (mentioned)
  • Internal Affairs (mentioned)
  • Future Perfect (mentioned)
  • Entropy
  • Derek (mentioned)
  • The Sandman (mentioned)
  • A Beautiful Disaster (mentioned)