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| “ | You're sorry?! Well, I am too, and look where we are. "Sorry." doesn't change a damn thing. | „ |
| ~ Sheila Harrison berating her sister's rapists. |
Sheila Harrison is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "What Happens in Mecklinburg". She is a vigilante who stalks, kidnaps, and attempts to kill the men who gang-raped her sister, as well as others who enabled the assault.
She was portrayed by Anne Leighton.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Sheila raised her younger sister Lauryn-Anne after their mother died of ovarian cancer, and worked to send her to college at Mecklinburg University.
One night, Lauryn-Anne was drugged and gang-raped at a frat party by Adam Richmond, Trevor Burkett, and Christopher Stafford, then force-fed her alcohol while holding her against her will in hopes her credibility would be worse if she were drunk. They then dumped her in front of her house, where she called Sheila and told her what happened. Sheila took Lauryn-Anne to the hospital, where she fell into a coma. The responding physician, Dr. Edward Calder, altered the medical report to suppress the fact that Lauryn-Anne had been raped at the behest of his friend Michael Smith, the coach of Mecklinburg University's football team, which included Burkett and Richmond.
Lauryn-Anne was in a persistent coma for three years before her doctors counseled Sheila to take her off of life support. Sheila, who by now is bankrupt from paying her sister's medical bills and facing eviction from her apartment, snapped and decided to punish Lauryn-Anne's rapists.
"What Happens in Mecklinburg"[]
Sheila kidnaps Smith and holds him hostage in the abandoned building where the party was held. She then kidnaps Burkett and Christy White, Lauryn-Anne's friend who took her to the party. She then beats and sodomizes Burkett in front of the others. Burkett disingenuously apologizes for raping Lauryn-Anne and begs Sheila to let him go, but Sheila responds by tricking him into drinking hydrochloric acid, severely burning his mouth. She dumps him in the nearby woods, where he is found by hunters and hospitalized. The local police call in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) to profile his assailant.
The following day, she goes to the hospital to visit Lauryn-Anne, who is about to be taken off of life support. At the last minute, however, she refuses to sign the official papers, and asks for a moment alone with her sister. She tearfully apologizes to Lauryn-Anne for "failing" her, and then signs the papers and watches as the doctors remove her sister's life support.
Sheila then kidnaps Richmond and knocks him out. When he regains consciousness, she demands to know what he raped Lauryn-Anne, but he replies that he was too drunk to know what he was doing. Enraged, Sheila beats him with a fireplace poker until he admits what he did, as she then stabs him through the neck with the poker.
Meanwhile, the BAU profiles Burkett's assailant as a female "injustice collector"-type vigilante, and at first they believe that she is punishing people she blames for the death of James Linwood, a member of the fraternity who died of alcohol poisoning during the party. Eventually, however, they find out about Lauryn-Anne's rape and the cover-up, and realize that the vigilante is someone close to her who is punishing her rapists and their enablers. They theorize that she will next target a member of the sorority that helped throw the party, and that she will try to kill them at the site of the party as a symbolic show of justice.
BAU agents David Rossi, Derek Morgan, and Jennifer Jareau arrive at the abandoned building just as Sheila is about to kill White with the poker, and a standoff ensues. They assure her that Lauryn-Anne's death was not her fault and that her rapists will be prosecuted, which convinces her to lower her weapon and let the hostages go. Sheila is then imprisoned for life for the murders, while Richmond is imprisoned for rape.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Shiela is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Gary Heidnik, a serial kidnapper/rapist of black-American women and girls who were all raped and tortured together in his basement with similar means of violence, two of them dying from the violence.
- The “Hi-Fi Murderers”, a group of hostage takers, rapists, and murderers with similar M.O.s of torture with forced acid ingestion, rape, and other violence on multiple different victims in the aforementioned hostage-crisis.
- Sergey Golovkin, a.k.a. "The Boa", a Russian serial killer/rapist of boys, who were held captive in his garage, tortured, raped, and once killed, left in isolated natural areas. The final three boys he killed were all tortured to death simultaneously.
External Links[]
- Sheila Harrison on the Criminal Minds Wiki
