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“ | Beg me not to. | „ |
~ Jeremy Andrus taunting one of his victims. |
Jeremy Andrus is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Limelight". He is a misogynistic serial killer who comes to the attention of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) after his storage locker full of sadistic drawings and pornography is found at an auction.
He was portrayed by Christopher Allen Nelson.
Biography[]
While the specifics of his background are never revealed, his past is suggested. While profiling the then-unidentified killer, BAU Agents Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss theorize that his descent into sociopathy began when he was around six years old, when a maternal figure either died or abandoned him; his anger at her for leaving him turned into a hatred of all women, and he developed sadistic fantasies of torturing and killing them. They theorize that, with the onset of puberty, he began acting out sexually by committing misdemeanors such as voyeurism and indecent exposure. They also infer that he is a transvestite from the altered dresses found in the storage unit.
Once his identity is revealed, it is established that Andrus works as an electrician, and uses electrical equipment to torture his victims to death. He murdered his first victim, Dana Andrews, in 2002, and killed one victim a month until 2008, when his bloodlust had grown so all-consuming that he needed to kill two victims at once.
His victims of preference are attractive, career-oriented women in their 20s and 30s, whom he resents for ignoring him. He abducts them, suspends them from the ceiling of his garage with rope, tortures them with electrical equipment, and finally strangles them. He also sometimes rapes them.
"Limelight"[]
The contents of Andrus' self-storage unit are auctioned off when he stops paying rent, and the new owners call the police after finding sadistic drawings and violent pornography in it. FBI Agent Jill Morris sees in the case a chance to boost her career, and plants a strand of her own hair in the storage unit so that the BAU will get involved. Sure enough, the police call in the BAU, and they profile the killer.
Andrus is excited by the newfound publicity, and becomes fixated on Morris. He leaves her an anonymous voicemail that leads the BAU to the burial sites of two of his victims. He then kidnaps reporter Kat Townsley, a friend of Morris' who has been covering the case, and emails Morris a scanned letter with the address to his garage. He makes Townsley call her, and kidnaps her as well when she tries to reach Townsley.
Andrus tortures both of them, and Townsley dies of her injuries. Just as he is about to kill Morris, the BAU, flanked by a SWAT team, burst in and arrest him. Morris tells him it is over, but he replies, "No, it'll never be over. Not for us."
Trivia[]
- Andrus is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- The "Redhead Murderers", an American case of nationwide rapes and strangulations of women and girls found off major highways in numerous states, suspected as the work of one or more serial killers from the same M.O. used on multiple women and girls with red hair.
- Gary Heidnik, a kidnapper and serial rapist responsible for similar sexual and physical tortures, which would even be the cause of two women's murders.
- Jerry Brudos, a.k.a. “The Shoe Fetish Slayer”, a serial killer/rapist of women and girls guilty of similar crimes to Andrus, including clothes theft for cross-dressing, suspension torture, strangulation, and electrocution.
- Sean Vincent Gillis, a.k.a. "The Other Baton Rogue Killer", a serial killer/rapist with an absent parent, a porn addiction, a history of killing women by varied violent means to build his M.O. while tracking true crime news reports.
- Rodney Alcala, a.k.a. “The Dating Game Killer”, a nationwide serial strangler/rapist of women and girls with evidence in a storage unit and nationwide attention from appearing in a dating game show.
- Lee Roy Martin, a.k.a. "The Gaffney Strangler", a serial strangler and rapist of women and girls responsible for calling the police to lead them to two people Martin murdered after the wrongful conviction of the first woman’s husband for her murder.
- Edmund Kemper, a.k.a. "The Co-Ed Killer", a serial killer of young women relishing in attention from the murders and also attempted (and succeeded in his case) killing two women at the end of his spree, including his mother, the real target of his murderous rage.
- Jill Morris appears to be loosely derived from real-life ambitious FBI agent Candace DeLong, who dedicated her career to significant felony cases she made goals to accomplish closing and has been a public true crime commentator and program host.
External Links[]
- Jeremy Andrus on the Criminal Minds Wiki