"I think we're ready to meet. Trust me. I know what you want."
William M. Lee was an ephebophilic serial rapist, stalker, and indirect killer who appeared in Season Two of Criminal Minds.
Background
A high school graduate, Lee was unable to hold onto a job for very long, holding a total of twelve jobs for the past decade. By the events of "Aftermath", he was a telemarketer working for a company called First Hand Media. At home, Lee lived with his overbearing mother, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. Wanting a child for unspecified reasons, he decided to commit a series of rapes, targeting several women at a Bible College, gaining access to them through his call list and sees their cooperation on the phone as a sign of consent. Eventually, one of his victims, who was pregnant with his child, committed suicide, but not before saying, "The sin of abortion is worse than the sin of suicide." As a result of the suicide, Lee stopped raping for six weeks before deciding to resume his attacks. This time, he shifted his focus towards older women planning to conceive through the aid of a sperm bank.
Aftermath
Lee's first appearance is at the home of Alicia Jordan. After she arrives home, she checks her voice mail, hearing a threatening message that terrifies her. Suddenly, she hears the same voice behind her. She turns around to see Lee, pointing a gun at her. He then rapes her. Lee is seen again in the home of Lisa Blake. She is bound and gagged on her bed, and Lee is pointing his gun at her. Police are outside Lisa's front door knocking. When no one answers, they leave. After investigating dead leads, the BAU finally learns Lee's occupation, a telemarketer. Elle is placed as a client of a local fertility clinic to identify and catch the rapist. Hotch and Morgan know that Lee will stalk her in order to identify her daily schedule. When Elle returns to a decoy house in the suburbs, Lee appears outside in his jeep. Morgan watches him, noting the license plate number and uses it to identify him. Instead of waiting for Lee to knock on the door, Elle pulls her gun out and confronts him outside. The other agents move in hurriedly to back her up. She pulls Lee out of the car and onto the ground, screaming at him as the police move in and cuff him. Lee claims he just stopped to look at a map, and Hotch finds an open map on the front seat.
Gideon and Hotch interrogate Lee as Morgan and Reid watch through the one-way glass. Unfortunately, the team has no real evidence to hold him. Just as Gideon and Hotch begins to build his confidence, telling him that he was the best thing that ever happened to these women, Lee's lawyer shows up and tells him not to say a word. He hauls Lee out of his chair and leads him out of the station. Hotch tells the local detective that since the rapist has been identified, all that is needed is to catch him in the act. Meanwhile, Lee parks his Jeep behind his building. As he walks through the alley, Elle comes out of the shadows, confronts him, and asks him if he waits for his victims like this. At first, he seems scared that she is there but then denies her claims that he would hurt women. Lee then tells her she is pretty and that she should find a man to take care of her, but receives an eerie reply from her. He then thanks her: without her, he knows that he would still be locked up. Lee gets very close to Elle and whispers that she has made a lot of women very happy. Elle seems paralyzed by his words until he walks away. She then turns and gets Lee's attention before pulling out her gun and shooting him three times. She then crouches down next to the body and calls the police. Later, Elle claims that Lee came after her and she shot him in self-defense.
Modus Operandi
As Lee's goal with the rapes was to conceive a child with his victims, he initially targeted Caucasian girls at a religious college, as abortion was not an option for them due to their faith. However, he was apparently successful with impregnating only one victim, who subsequently committed suicide and killed their unborn child in the process.
During his second stage of attacks, he targeted Caucasian women in their thirties who were planning to conceive with the aid of a sperm bank; even though they may not have been religious, an abortion would still have been unlikely as the women wanted to have children. He used his job as a telemarketer to gain access to their personal information, including their addresses, whether they ordered childcare products or related products, and also some other info about their hobbies and favorite drinks. The latter had been written by some victims in the paperwork at the sperm bank as part of a survey and allowed him to enhance his fantasy that he knew the women personally. While stalking his victims and planning his attack, he would leave messages on his victims' voice mail, filling them with fear before their eventual rape. On a few occasions, he actually appeared behind his victims in their homes, surprising them with his mask on and his voice after they heard it on their voice mail. He would then rape them at gunpoint with a .45-caliber M1911A1 pistol.
Profile
The unsub is a white male between the ages of 20 and 40, and who is a power-reassurance rapist. This classification is in comparison to a power-assertive rapist, who wants to hurt and traumatize his victims; an anger-retaliatory rapist; or the sexual sadist, whose attacks are random and excessively brutal. He targets a specific woman, never comes across his victims by accident, and fantasizes that he is in a relationship with the victims. His job either allows him to have some sort of access to homes, like a cable guy or a locksmith; to be near both female college students and older women, such as a deliveryman, crew worker, or handyman; or makes him feel emasculated as if it is more typical for a woman, such as a secretary. He can describe what his victims wear and how they smell; these details are what feeds his fantasy. Because he sees himself as being in a relationship with the victims, he most likely lives alone, which further encourages his delusions.
Known Victims
- 2006:
- August 1-25: Four unnamed victims
- Late August-Early September:
- Shelly Norvell (rape was unreported; committed suicide in an unspecified manner after learning she was pregnant with his child)
- Cheryl Cosgrove
- October 6: Melissa Wells
- October 11: Rebecca Miller
- October 15: Alicia Jordan
- October 17: Lisa Blake
- October 18: Elle Greenaway (intended)
Notes
- Realistically, Lee's exoneration and release from custody was legally impossible, since the BAU and investigators had a large amount of evidence against him on federal stalking charges.
Appearances
- Season Two
- Aftermath
- The Boogeyman (flashbacks)
- Sex, Birth, Death (mentioned)
- No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank (mentioned)
- Season Three
- In Name and Blood (mentioned)
- Season Eleven
- The Storm (referenced)