| “ | Temperance Brennan and Jack Hodgins have been buried alive. Wire transfer eight million dollars to the following Grand Cayman account, or they will suffocate to death. Upon receiving the wire transfer, I will provide you with Brennan and Hodgins's G.P.S. coordinates. This will be my last communication. | „ |
| ~ Taffet distorting her voice about Dr. Brennan and Hodgins. |
| “ | I'm the lucky one, Lance. If my appeal falls through, I die. But you're forced to live everyday as a repressed, immature imbecile spouting canned theories to people who don't really care. Everyone knows who's the weakest link in the chain. You testify at my appeal, and I'm gonna walk. | „ |
| ~ Taffet taunting Lance Sweets. |
Heather Taffet, or notoriously known as The Gravedigger, is the secondary antagonist of the 2005 FOX crime TV-series Bones.
She was an Assistant United States Attorney who became a serial kidnapper and killer that encased, trapped, or buried people alive and contacted their relatives and friends for ransom, hence her alias. With Taffet's serial killer identity publicly presumed as a man at one point in her debut, she performed six abductions where only four had their ransoms paid and the rest would perish in suffocation. Within her seventh abduction, she kidnapped Dr. Temperance Brennan and Jack Hodgins with the Jeffersonian team at stake of searching for them.
She was portrayed by Deirdre Lovejoy.
Biography[]
All that was revealed regarding Heather Taffet's backstory was that she was married to a man named William Burton for one month in 1998. She used the marriage to create a fake identity, which she used to buy a storage unit that she would use for her kidnapping equipment.
The Gravedigger[]
Taffet began her activities as The Grave Digger a year later, abducting a young boy named Terrance Gilroy and burying him alive. She would demand a ransom from Terrance's loved ones (her eventual habitual modus operandi), and when she didn't receive a ransom, she strangled Terrance to death. Taffet did the same to twins Matthew and Ryan Kent in 2001, killing them after their father, James Kent, refused to pay the ransom. She abducted four others in the next few years, but in the case of those victims, they were rescued after the victims' families paid the ransom to Taffet.
The Gravedigger had debuted himself (at the time the public perceived the killer to be a man) by calling Booth about the abduction of Drs. Temperance Brennan and Jack Hodgins while he was with Cam at dinner in The Royal Diner. Before that moment, Taffet intended to abduct Brennan and bury her, but Hodgins rushed to her car where he found a breakthrough in the Gravedigger case. Therefore, Taffet ran Hodgins over with the car, striking a piece of the license plate onto Hodgin's left leg, and causing it to swell, meaning that she also abducted Hodgins. She demanded an $8 million ransom from the Jeffersonian team, due to Hodgin's involvement in the rich Cantilever Group, which was significantly higher than the Kents' ransom. The ransom was not paid, but Brennan and Hodgins were rescued after the latter used his phone to send a Morse code message to Brennan's partner, FBI Agent Seeley Booth, which contained the specifications of the minerals they're buried in.
Booth's Captivity[]
Taffet later introduced herself to the Jeffersonian team as an AUSA attorney replacing the late Kim Kurland of the Gravedigger case, who was killed in a car crash; with the assumption that she was killed by The Gravedigger, where it's implied Taffet sabotaged the car herself. Taffet stated that evidence from the case was missing, with Brennan, Hodgins, and kidnap & ransom expert Thomas Vega being suspects; while promising full immunity if it's returned.
Taffet abducted Booth by drugging him and transporting him out of the apartment complex through a window. She then locked him in a yellow pod inside the cell of an old Navy ship that was set to be sunk, and informed Brennan of Booth's kidnapping. Due to Vega, who dug deeper into the case, Taffet fought the struggling Vega first, tased him with a stun gun to the heart, and placed his carcass inside his own car, leaving with her broken right side of her ribs. Once Brennan and Hodgins discover his dead body, Agent Payton Perotta arrived to the scene and suspected both for stealing the Gravedigger evidence.
Brennan, Hodgins, Lance Sweets, and Angela Montenegro arrived to a boundary stone where The Gravedigger demanded them to place the evidence. Taffet was viewing the ordeal through a camera attached to a tree behind Brennan and Hodgins, as they arrive to place the suitcase there, and showcase the specific evidence to the Gravedigger, as she expected. When Brennan displayed the vial to the camera, Taffet zoomed into and scanned the vial with the camera while an unbeknownst Angela and Sweets watched it happen. Taffet later triggered an explosive against the distracted yet escaping Brennan and Hodgins, had it not been for Angela to alert them seconds after. The Gravedigger evidence was lost, and Perotta coincidentally (since she kept the Jeffersonian team under surveillance) perceived their evidence tampering upon her arrival once again, thus cheating them from releasing Booth even after the Gravedigger's demands were met.
Brennan had no choice but to request help from Booth's brother Jared to steal Vega's remains to the Jeffersonian. Taffet arrived with a signed warrant to retrieve Vega's remains back, but her inability to move her arm was noticed by Brennan. After a jab to Taffet's ribs caused her to wince in pain, Taffet was officially revealed as The Gravedigger. Following her reveal, Taffet was handcuffed and interrogated, but she never cooperated; only displaying a scowl during the team's search for Booth. The Jeffersonian Team, and Jared, deduced to operating an illegal initiative that allowed them access to her storage unit, containing The Gravedigger equipment and two stun guns. Due to her overwhelming control among the Jeffersonian team, Brennan then picked up a suitcase and smacked Taffet to the ground for catharsis. The villainess was arrested following Booth's rescue, after identifying traces from the boots that came from the old Navy ship.
Trial of Terrence Gilroy[]
Due to Taffet's actions against Brennan, Brennan received nightmares where her friends are taken or locked away from her, primarily Hodgins and Booth for example. She then experienced being buried alive in a glass box, showcasing Taffet at the surface, burying her with a shovel before Brennan woke up in reality.
Taffet was put on trial for the Gravedigger case in which she represented herself against multiple charges of kidnapping and murder, where one involved her first and unfound victim Gilroy. Brennan, Hodgins, and Booth is planned to give their testimony as kidnapping victims, who later had to forfeit their cases to give expert testimony and convict Taffet of Gilroy's kidnap and murder, because they're prosecuted as the Gravedigger victims in their own. Before they proceeded, the Jeffersonan team provided evidence found from Taffet's storage unit, that tied her to the kidnappings, but Taffet refuted them knowingly for obtaining them illegally without a warrant. Taffet reminded them of what imminent danger means, and that their version does not align, concluding that the evidence illegally obtained was therefore inadmissible.
She mentioned a number that Brennan hadn't found yet, which led to the assumption that it was a phone number, since Taffet called someone from Salt Lake City under area code 801 after her arrest. The number was then revealed to be connected to a pizzeria, but Angela figured out that it was a set of coordinates to Gilroy's final whereabouts. Taffet expected the team to find Gilroy's corpse using her phone number as the set of coordinates, and would manipulate the trial with the case and its inconsistencies.
Agent Booth was one of the first few to testify against Taffet. He stated that she was at the Rockland mall on the day Gilroy was kidnapped, and the phone number she called were coordinates to Gilroy's death. Taffet then stated to Booth if there was evidence proving the fact, and Booth replied with just Gilroy's final known whereabouts. Taffet argued against Booth that there are many other people who made purchases at the same mall, and that the coordinates were somehow placed in her prosecution files to make her look guilty. Taffet mentioned a Salt Lake City police officer who arrested her, and pointed out that the cop may have called her and placed the number in her files by mistake. When Taffet was being transported back into prison, career criminal Max Keenan had her in his sights, until Booth arrived and prevented him from attempting to assassinate Taffet.
Angela was next in line to testify against Taffet. Angela discovered that the Gravedigger's voice matched Taffet's by unscrambling the distorted voice and decrypting each 423 segments to clarify the original recording. Taffet yet refuted Angela's claim, stating that anyone can use a voice synthesizer to replicate the same recording; referring retired FBI Agent Graham Steele, who deconstructed the same ransom tape and revealing Angela's voice behind it. Beforehand, she made Angela share her credentials to the jury, so that Taffet can counteract Angela into believing she had no degree in sound engineering.
Brennan was the third to testify against Taffet. She accounted the measurements of Gilroy's kidnapper and assailant to resemble traits of Taffet, that being the weight and height of the attacker. Brennan suspected that Taffet kneeled on top of Gilroy and pushed him into the freezer, and Taffet called her out due to speculation. Brennan later became frustrated and furious in the trial due to Taffet interrupting her presentation of the simulation, as Taffet made her reach when she defied her lack of empathy and experience of the victim. She tormented Brennan to the point that she accidentally recounted her experiences of being buried alive, ruining her objectiveness to the jury within the trial. At the moment, Taffet got close to Brennan as she mentioned her visits with Sweets.
Dr. Saroyan and Hodgins were the final few experts to testify against Taffet. Through dust mites, the Jeffersonian discovered that DNA was left behind on Gilroy's teeth, suggesting it was left by the killer who struggled with him. Taffet's plan was to further taunt the group with the discovery, but it would be her undoing; her DNA was found on Terrance, as he had bit her while she was killing him. Once Taffet discovered this, she was in dismay, as her mistakes were revealed to the jury, while she rambled through her documents to ensure nothing was left out that would convict her. Once it's her turn, her argumentation became weaker against the expert witnesses and stated that they neglected a sample she could have tested independently, and blamed the Jeffersonian for "tampering" with physical evidence.
Taffet fought against Caroline by trying to convince the jury that she was a scapegoat of the real Gravedigger's crimes, but Caroline's striking counter-argument of Taffet's DNA in Gilroy's teeth had swayed the jury enough to declare Taffet guilty. Taffet, who was convicted of her crimes, felt despair, and later snarled to Brennan that her conviction is not the end.
Fate[]
Taffet begins to appeal for her conviction as she's transported from prison to the court house, and she was shown taunting FBI psychiatrist Sweets of his insecurities with the possibility of her going free as she was leaving the prison. Hundreds of protesters and spectators opposed or supported her death penalty, considering her history of her crimes. Just moments later, however, she was assassinated in general public by Jacob Broadsky with a custom bullet configured for a .338 Lapua Magnum, where Broadsky was paid $2 million to kill Taffet by James Kent, who did so to avenge his twin sons.
In her aftermath, the Jeffersonian team began to investigate her assassination, and some garnered haunting memories that gave them post-trauma. Sweets replayed the tape several times that contained Taffet's final messages and taunts towards him, reflecting upon himself as the "weakest in the chain." Caroline visits Sweets, later recounting her trauma received from observing Taffet's exploding head, and tells Sweets about Taffet's death in good riddance. Later on, they start to forget Taffet entirely and focus on the manhunt for Broadsky, who was still at large for assassinating criminals and killing more innocents in his way.
Personality[]
To be added.
Victims[]
Confirmed[]
| Terrance Gilroy | Strangled, meanwhile bit Taffet's arm in the process. |
| Ryan Kent | Stabbed himself to provide oxygen for his brother, yet suffocated. |
| Matthew Kent | Suffocated. |
| Kim Kurland | Car accident that involved her own sabotaged car. |
| Thomas Vega | Stun gun to the chest, and had his heart stopped, meanwhile breaking Taffet's ribs in the process. |
Attempted[]
| Four unnamed victims | Their families had paid ransom, all survived. |
| Dr. Temperance Brennan | Abducted into her own buried car, yet rescued by Seeley Booth and the Jeffersonian team. |
| Jack Hodgins | Accidentally abducted into Dr. Brennan's buried car, yet rescued by Seeley Booth and the Jeffersonian team. |
| Seeley Booth | Abducted into a slated US Navy destroyer set for demolition, yet rescued by Dr. Brennan through Jared Booth. |
Gallery[]
To be added.
Quotes[]
Season 4[]
| “ | My name is Heather Taffet. I'm the United States attorney assigned to the Gravedigger case last month. | „ |
| ~ Heather Taffet's introductory sentence. |
| “ | I have taken Seeley Booth. He has been buried alive. He has 21 hours to live. Bring the evidence to the S.W.5 D.C. boundary stone, in return for which you will receive G.P.S. coordinates. If you involve law enforcement, I will know, and Seeley Booth will die. | „ |
| ~ Taffet distorting her voice about Booth. |
| “ | Turn it over to me today, and you get full immunity. | „ |
| “ | I believe they returned the evidence to the Gravedigger. | „ |
Season 5[]
| “ | You're so brilliant, Dr. Brennan. Why couldn't you find something as simple as the number? | „ |
| ~ Taffet taunting Dr. Brennan of a clue, leading to Gilroy. |
| “ | If I don't receive the money in the numbered account within eight hours, your child will die. This is the last time you will hear from me. There will be no further communications. | „ |
| ~ Taffet distorting her voice about her first victim Gilroy. |
| “ | Bad faith? The motives of every single person at the Jeffersonian are suspect. And now their only physical evidence is gone, if it existed at all. | „ |
| ~ Taffet in dismay, blaming the Jeffersonian for "destroying evidence." |
| “ | This is not the end. | „ |
| ~ Taffet's final message to Brennan before being sentenced. |
Trivia[]
- The original draft of "Aliens in a Spaceship", the episode that introduced The Grave Digger to the series, had Janine O'Connell, a journalist who helped Thomas Vega write his books on the subject, revealed as the serial kidnapper and killer. If this idea was realized, Heather Taffet wouldn't be considered a villain, although her recurring appearance in Seasons 4 and 6 still depend.
- She's chronologically the first doppelganger serial killer of the series, despite her lack of appearance in "Aliens in the Spaceship" but made a significant impact with her kidnapping of Brennan and Hodgins upon her own relevance in Seasons 4 and 6.
- Most of her modus operandi contained inspirations to real-life kidnapping cases such as Ursula Hermann and Barbara Mackle, as well as Taffet's mistakes while serving as The Gravedigger alias.
External Links[]
- Heather Taffet on the Bones Wiki
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 Villains
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Doppelgängers Serial Killers Mass Murderers Rapists Others | ||