Numb3rs s05e21 Episode Script
Disturbed
So,you working on a little era credit? It's kind of a thought exercise.
About two dozen unsolved murders.
I mean,it looks pretty real to me.
Ever since Don got hurt,I can't stop thinking every violent act is, to some degree,explicable.
You got a lot of different M.
O.
s here,different victim types: men,women,children; shot,stabbed,strangled,bludgeoned.
Three of these are pedestrian hit-and-runs.
But there is a timeline pattern.
You found a pattern in all this? Yep.
By using some of the same mathematical concepts that lk for signs of intelligent life in our universe.
Ah,yeah,of course.
It's not as "out there" as it seems.
The universe creates an endless background of electromagnetic static.
SETI-- the Search for Extra-Terrestrl Intelligence-- uses algorithms to sift through all this random cosmic noise to find a signal that is complex yet repetitive, a non-natural pattern created by an intelligence.
I've adapted the signal detection algorithm to analyze the pattern,and I got this spatio-temporal visualization model.
Its sequence is half lunar.
It's indicative of a recurring emotional need, buffered by planning and survllance.
Okay,but if the M.
O.
s and the victims are all different? He's a different type of serial killer.
All right.
He's working on a theory.
Serial killer nobody's noticed but him.
How does he figure? Signals from deep space.
Seems a little outside the box even for Charlie.
Yeah,thing is,a few years ago,Don got shot at a bank robbery that Charlie had predicted.
He retreated to his garage, and he buried himself in an unsolvable math problem.
He's been in here 24/7 the past five days.
You know,there's a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder called hypervigilance.
Means you're always looking out for potential danger and threats,thinking you see it.
And 's not really there.
Trying to scare me to death.
What are you doing at the FBI till 3:00 in the morning? Nothing.
Nothing,huh? You're working some serial case.
David told me.
He thinks I'm overreacting? Charlie,hey,this isn't your fault.
I know that.
Well,you got to move on.
Since when have you ever moved on? Since I got stabbed.
Sooner or later,we're both gonna have to learn we can't solve every problem.
Hey!Call 911! presents Season 05 episode 01 Ah,Betancourt,thanks for coming.
Yeah,no problem,JJ.
Whatcha got? Postal worker halfway through his rounds popped in the head,small-caliber,close-range.
And what's he doing in the alley? A resident says he uses the alleyway as a shortcut.
Maybe somebody knew his routine But your guy's working on that angle.
My guy? Yeah,the professor.
He's yours,isn't he? Yeah.
Yeah,he's ours.
Well,the pattern isn't perfect.
I mean,there are micro-clusters that are currently anomalous.
But the overall pattern is extraordinarily regular,which is indicative How many murders in a micro-cluster? Two.
Mostly.
Sometimes three.
That's very micro.
David,those are outliers.
The macro-pattern is persistent,statistically valid.
Charlie,we both started here on the same case five years ago.
Okay? You know I'm a believer in what you do.
And I'm asking for a lot.
Working your theory would take hundreds of man-hours.
Everybody's already busy on confirmed crimes; if I tried to reassign agents to work a serial case that had no serial elements, outside of a timeline pattern discovered by a mathematician,I mean,I'd get fired.
This is what he's counting on.
Excuse me? He knows serial killers get caught because of patterns, telltale traits,compulsive behavior, so he switches his M.
O.
s,his weapons,victim types on purpose.
No repetitive behavior means no pattern.
No reason to expend law enforcement resources to find one.
All right,what do you want me to do,Charlie? SETI telescopes-- always gathering data.
I need more data.
I'll take anything you can give me.
Okay,all right.
There's a lot of amateur work being done for serial killer data, and some of it is surprisingly comprehensive.
Amateur work.
Yeah.
There's a guy we worked with on a recent case.
You should meet him.
Good afternoon.
Hah? Hi.
I'm Oh! Professor! Welcome.
Roy McGill.
Oh,welcome! Hi.
Such a pleasure.
Hey,would you mind locking up? Thanks,buddy.
Certainly.
Please forgive the,uh,concrete decor.
Nature of my work requires an enhanced level of security.
Welcome to the Truth Cave.
You like it? Pretty cool,right? Pretty cool.
You hungry? I'm fine.
Okay.
Oh! You got to hear this.
Heads up.
Watch this.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
This'll be good.
You know what that is? 'Course you don't.
That's a sound recording of a UFO from a Russian friend of mine.
Teeger Woods.
Like Tiger Woods,or not.
Huh? Art Bell's gonna run it on his show tonight.
Actually,I'm,um,I'm just here to talk to you about Serial killer,right? You know how I knew that? I have ESP.
I don't have ESP.
I'm totally messing with you.
Agent Sinclair told me.
Oh! Freakin' awesome,man! I always knew you and I were gonna team up.
I always knew it.
I'm really just here to collect some data I'm a little surprised it took the FBI so long.
I mean,I've only got the sixth most popular blog on serial killers.
Oh.
Do you want this seat? I'm fine.
Oh,so am I.
It's pretty comfortable.
Hey,look at this.
So,I found two murders that fit into your I tried to find things that fit into the,spatio-tempura that Agent Sinclair sent me.
By the look of it,I didn't do a good job.
I was really hoping to find more data than this.
Not a problem.
Not a problem.
And we're off! Where are we going? Serial kilr data central.
Yeah! Gene Evans.
It's a pleasure.
You guys should have,like,some sort of,like, you know,crazy,math handshake.
Gene's into numbers,too.
Gene's an accountant.
Mm,retired.
Uh,and,tabulating taxes hardly qualifies as math the way Professor Eppes knows it.
Gene is part of a network-- amateurs who help with police investigations.
The number of missing persons and unsolved murders can overwhelm most agencies, so there's hundreds of us around the country,and we gather and tabulate data as much as we can.
Gene solved four missing person cases in California and a murder case in Oregon.
Well,"assisted" would be closer to the truth.
But the fact is,I stopped.
Couple of years ago,I got a bunch of phone calls, probably just cranks,but it spooked the wife.
Well,any information you can provide would be much appreciated here,Gene.
When Roy described your theory something came to mind.
These aren't L.
A.
-area cases.
They're all from up near Fresno and Bakersfield.
And several years ago.
Yeah,but the time patterns,the knowledge of the victims' routines, uh,very similar.
And-and then there's this.
That's a constrictor knot.
Simple and secure, but once you get it tight,it's very difficult to untie.
Same knot was used in five of the cases you're looking into.
Whoa.
Freaky.
- Have you shown any of this to the police? - Yes.
A detective up in Bakersfield.
Brent Driscoll.
Charlie,you're living and working out of boxes now.
You've become a previous incarnation of me.
What's taking you so long? Do you need some help? I'm too busy.
I need to find the missing pieces here.
Make one mistake,people get hurt.
Cognitive emergence work.
God,you haven't even touched this since Don's injury.
Have you ever considered this might be an overreaction? My theory's correct.
Ifou want to say that this is a reaction to Don's situation,go ahead.
No,I mean,come on,you're an applied mathematian.
You're applying math to a problem.
And there's something to be said for cathartic endeavors.
Well,let's say,for hypothetical reasons, that I'm not crazy, that my timeline pattern is correct.
Let's say that there is a serial killewho has avoided detection.
Why the anomalies in the timeline? Why the micro-clusters? What am I missing? Well,whatever is missing lies beyond all of this.
You seek to quantify a single individual in some elegant,mathematical pattern.
But the universe is full of all these odd bumps and twists.
And so are people.
Now,perhaps your approach needs to be less elegant,more complicated.
Haven't we had this conversation before? Well,now,cosmologically speaking, everything that happens has happened before.
Can I help you find something? Yeah,I think I left something in here,some files.
For your serial killer case? It's an office; people talk.
So everyone thinks I'm crazy.
You know about Kim Rossmo? Canadian detective,mathematician.
His work on geographic profiling was,was groundbreaking.
Rossmo identified the same type of serial killer as you're looking for-- one that deliberately hides any signs of a criminal pattern.
He called them stealth predators.
They try to commit crimes in such a way that authorities aren't even aware of it.
Really? In Vancouver,he did something a lot like what you're doing-- working only off of a pattern.
The police didn't believe his theory that a cluster of disappearances was the work of a single killer.
So they fire Rossmo.
Ten more deaths later, they realize that he's right.
So they caught the killer with 31 bodies buried on his property.
I'd love to see Rossmo's methodology.
Had a feeling you might be interested.
Thanks,Matt.
You're in my spot here.
I fell asleep.
I just had the worst dream.
I wonder why.
What are you doing here? I like it here.
I don't know what it is,you know? I been shot.
I been beaten.
How many sports did I play as a kid? And I-I've never been laid up like this.
You got stabbed.
How can you be so calm about it? Well,I mean,I survived,for one thing.
Who are you? What have you done with my brother? I don't know,Charlie.
All I can tell you is I feel like job ju doesn't o me anymore.
Yeah? Well,that's got to be the meds talking.
Where you going? I might as well work.
I don't want to have another dream like that one.
Charles? Hey.
Um,is everything okay? My search for a non-random signal has revealed not only an intelligence, but an extremely careful and shrewd intelligence.
It's not one area; it's three.
He moves.
What,the serial killer? Yeah.
It became apparent when I combined Gene Evans' data with Kim Rossmo's methodology that this killer is a stealth predator.
He knows that too many murders in one area gets attention, and so he moves.
Terrific.
A super-smart killer.
Who's struck three times in 18 years, starting in northern California, and then the Fresno-Bakersfield area, and now he's here.
It's good to see you.
Bye.
You do realize 7:00 is an inhuman hour to be calling somebody.
We're very close,Roy.
I just need a little more data, and I'm thinking Gene's gonna have it.
Oh,man,this is gonna blow the doors off the Zodiac,Bundy,the Red Ripper.
Gene? Martha? Hello? Let's check the garage.
Well,car's still here.
Oh,my God.
Oh,my God.
Gene Evans and his wife don't fit the macro-pattern.
They fit the pattern of micro-clusters.
What interests me is that Evans collected data on the killings.
Police interviewed a witness who was driving by the Evans' house near the time of the killing.
This is the description he gave of a man he saw walking across their front yard.
Uh,David,sheriff's homicide's asking if we'reorking the Evans murder with them.
Tell them we're looking at it for a possible link to an FBI case.
Okay.
Do I tell them we suspect a serial? No.
Not yet.
First,we need to see if anybody had an ordinary motive for killing Gene Evans.
Want to be sure.
My brother Gene and his wife Martha were good people.
What happened to them is wrong.
Is there anyone who would want to hurt them? I thought you knew about that already.
Former client said Gene me a miste on his taxes,cost him his life savings.
He threatened my brother.
They had to t a restraining order.
There's police reports and everything.
The guy's a nut.
What's this guy's name? Mark Horn.
He said you saw someone outside the Evans' house the night that he and his wife were killed.
Now,could this be the man? It was dark.
And,like I told the sheriff's detectives,you know, he had a jacket on with the hood pulled up.
But yeah,that looks like him.
Thank you.
Uh,that guy,have you arrested him yet? Guys,what about me and my family? Are we gonna be a target now? Who are you? Why you going through Charlie's stuff? I happen to be Professor Lawrence Fleinrdt, holder of the Walter T.
Merrick Chair in Theoretical Physics.
Oh,yeah? Can you prove it? Yes,if you'd care to hear a lecture on the photoelectric properties of Ly-Alpha emitters in a QZ2 plane universe.
I-I have no idea what just happened.
But why are you going through Charlie's stuff? Because,my young friend,I think I have a Green Lantern book in here somewhere.
Green Lantern! In brightest day,in blackest night No evil shall escape my sight.
Sight! I love the Lant.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Charlie and I,we're,uh, we're investigating a little FBI case.
Shh.
Keep it on the D.
L.
Oh,wait,so you must be the consultant,uh,who specializein, well,let's call them unusual explanations.
I think the Bureau refers to me as "the conspiracy nut.
" Some of the history's greatest minds have been rejected by society at large.
Whoa,you're one of us! Well,actually,I prefer the term "conspiracist.
" I drop the word "nut" altogether.
For example,I don't put too much stock in cryptozoology.
Oh,well,you should take a look at my,uh,Bigfoot Web site sometime.
You'll be singing a whole different tune.
It's the same old lyric: silly men dressed up in gorilla suits.
Oh,Charlie! Hey,good timing.
Oh,I got something important to show you.
Why don't you,uh,step into my office.
Your office.
I was just kidding with you.
So,I took a look at your whole three-area idea, and I think I might have identified a victim zero.
High school girl murdered in 1988.
Nancy Kershaw,17.
Found in a wooded area near a public park.
What's your criteria for identifying her as a victim zero? My cr-- for identifying I love your hair,by the way.
I took the earliest of the three areas you identified-- Stockton-- and I,uh,looked for previous murders.
If I may,you know,not all people murdered in that area can be linked to a cluster.
This guy-- he's good.
I got a copy of the M.
E.
's report.
Check it out.
Constrictor knot.
But that's not unique to all these cases.
If she is Victim Zero, serial killers will often start with somebody that they know or live close to.
It's true.
Nancy Kershaw had a boyfriend.
A week after she was killed, somebody claiming to be the murderer called him up, threatened to kill him,too.
I'm good.
Guys,I should be doing this for a living.
Gene Evans' disgruntled client Mark Horn used a credit card at a gas station three miles from the Evans' house on the night of the murders.
Might not be good for Charlie's serial theory.
But it's good for solving Evans' murder case.
Mark Horn.
I didn't do anything wrong! You got no reason to arrest me! Oh,yeah? Well,I guess we have a difference of opinion.
Come on.
I was watching my daughter.
You aren't allowed around your daughter without her mother's permission.
She is my daughter! Damn it.
Why'd you lose custody? My wife didn't understand that I have to fight for what is mine.
Gene Evans.
He had a restraining order out against you.
You violated it.
Yeah,I wound up in a county jail when I am the victim! I am not the one they should be locking up.
Who is? Gene Evans.
Evans is dead.
You went to his house the night he was killed.
I only drove by.
Evans got that restraining order out against you because you broke into his home.
I needed his records.
I didn't kill him! I needed him.
Help me make the case with the IRS.
Charlie's not here.
I know.
He's in his office running another statistical analysis on his serial killer data.
He can be pretty obsessive.
You can never get through to him when he gets like this.
The only way is to find a flaw in his analysis, you know,prove he's not following a valid line.
I went over his work looking for errors.
I think there's a good reason for Charlie to be obsessed.
All right,why don't you talk me through it then? Mark Horn threatened Gene Evans,broke into his home.
We can pla him in the vicinity of the murder.
Can you link him to any of the other deaths? No,he was out of the country for one cluster, in another state for another one.
I just looked at those interrogation tapes.
There's no way that's the guy.
Based on what? Based on the fact that he was arrested for harassing Evans.
I mean,if he's gonna kill him, he's knows were gonna come after him.
Right,but Horn didn't try to leave the area or conceal his whereabouts.
Well,Amita showed me this work she's doing on your timeline, and it answered some questions.
You say he's careful.
He plans his attacks.
He scouts his victims.
So why kill Evans without the usual interval? For the same reason he kills this guy: 'cause he's careful.
The killer didn't know that this postal crier would be running three hours late.
Which means that the mailman saw the killer at the house of the last murder.
Okay,so he kills the mailman as a witness,but why Evans? Why? Because two days before he dies,he goes online, said he's gonna start up with his detective work again.
And the killer decided to stop him.
So the micro-clusters happen when the killer covers his tracks.
We don't have hard evidence.
It's all circumstantial.
And statistics.
And the pattern,which indicates another attack within the next 48 hours.
I say we move now.
I'll take responsibility.
Okay,you all heard the man on desk duty.
Let's get to it.
The one important constant, his careful stalking of potential victims, sometimes for weeks.
There are often police reports of prowlers and peeping Toms prior to the killings.
And yet you say he's careful? I think he likes to spook his victims, let them catch glimpses of him.
And even if they call the police Prowler reports aren't taken as serious threats.
Well,if he's gonna kill again, maybe there'll be new prowler reports and attempted break-ins.
In L.
A.
alone,here have to be hundreds a week.
The most likely target is a couple in their mid-30s within an area of elevated geographic probabilities.
Single-family residence,no locked gates, no alarm systems.
A place to conceal a vehicle,access to a major roadway.
That gives us a starting point.
In your analysis,you,uh,you left out Victim Zero.
Well,that's because I don't think that there's enough to link Nancy Kershaw to the clusters.
See,I kinda have to agree with Roy here.
I share his interest in this Victim Zero.
See? You see that? Physics guy thinks there's something to my idea.
Well,now just consider,Charles, you don't include Nancy Kershaw because she doesn't seem to fit your pattern.
But is that really a reason to exclude data? Do you think her death tells us something? Well,you know when we look at the light from distant stars, we look at the past,millions,maybe billions of years ago.
That's how long it took that light to reach the Earth.
And yet,the undisputed 1862 UFO sighting during the battle of Vicksburg proves that extraterrestrials have mastered superluminal velocity.
Just returning to the point here, if Nancy Kershaw is the first victim, that tells us things about the killer that he was very careful to hide in subsequent crimes.
She was in his orbit,so to speak.
Right,right.
And remember, if our guy did kill her,then he's the same guy who called up the boyfriend and threatened to kill him,too.
So somebody out there has heard his voice.
All right,find out what you can from the conspiracy community, and I'll get the FBI on it.
Thank you,astrology dude.
Astronomy.
Astronomy.
Thanks.
You remember what Gene Evans told Charlie? That he shared his research on serial killers with a detective in Bakersfield? Yeah? Name's Brent Driscoll,and guess what.
He died last year.
How? They said he fell,hit his head, and wound up drowned in his backyard pool.
Doesn't that seem just a bit suspicious to you? Bakersfield PD look into it? Well,sure,but they didn't know there was a killer who eliminates investigators and witnesses.
We need Driscoll's files.
I'm driving up tomorrow.
What do you have there? It's a home improvement oject I'm hope you both will help me out with.
I told you I would.
All right.
So,front and backyard landscaping.
Take a look.
You're asking him about it? What about me? I own this house.
Oh,yeah,like you care what hedges he puts out there.
Point made.
How you doing there? David's got half the office trying to ID potential victims by running down prowler reports.
Hey,you guys remember the first time,huh? That first serial case? Remember? It was right here in this room.
You figured it out together.
Remember? It was like a lifetime ago.
Five years.
Yeah,it was right before that you had grown so far apart that I was the only thing you had in common.
I figured after I died, you might spend years without seeing each other, but to tell you the truth, I'm not worried about that anymore.
Hey,Charlie,you got something new? No,I've got something old.
I was talking with Don and my dad about a previous serial case we worked on, and it reminded me of this.
So I analyzed these three clusters,and it gave me these three probable locations for the killer.
That's the hot zone equation.
The very same.
Now how does this work? Well,think of it like a Can,uh,can I do this? It's like a lawn sprinkler spreading hundreds of drops of water.
Now,it's impossible to predict where the next drop will fall, but if you took away the sprinkler, from the pattern of drops you could calculate its location.
You're saying that we can find out where the killer lives? Yeah.
We know that he's either lived in or is linked t these three areas.
You run a comparative analysis against the prowler reports we got? Oh,I love it when a student grasps the full potential of an application.
Top 30 potential victims, ID'd from police reports,geographic areas, victim profiles.
The numbers represent the probability of their being the next victim.
The best we can get is 23%? In the world of statistical analysis,23% means Uh,can I do this one? It means get your ass in gear.
Come on,guys.
Dinner's ready.
So,he tends to attack couples, right? And also teenagers.
Some with their parents asleep in the same house.
We got people at the 30 residences that Charlie thinks are the most likely targets.
Yeah,maybe we'll get lucky, so to speak.
Hey,what's that movie with Al Pacino-- he's a cop, and he ends up sleeping with Ellen Barkin, and then it turns out that her ex-husband was the killer? Sea of Love.
No,that wasn't it.
Yeah,it is.
Seen it,like,five times.
You a big Pacino fan? No.
Michael Rooker fan.
He was Henry inHenry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Oh,yeah,that guy.
That guy's always the killer.
No,he's not.
You ever seen The Replacement Killers? He was the cop.
Hey,look there.
FBI.
Get down! On your knees! Okay,don't shoot me! What the hell's going on? We're FBI.
Leonard,is that you? You know him? Leonard Philber.
Friend of my daughter's.
What are you doing here? I was just gonna TP the tree,man! FBI! Kill your light.
Kill your light.
Did you see him? No.
He had a car hidden nearby.
He ditched it.
Continued on foot or had a second car somewhere.
He had an escape route planned out in advance.
He knew exactly where he was going.
Everyone all right? Everyone's fine.
All right.
I'll get back to you.
Well,it was the right place,buddy,but he's gone.
Damn it.
He plans ahead.
He knew how to get away.
Listen,I'm worried that we've presented ourselves with an even bigger problem here.
What do you mean? This guy's moved three times.
Now that he was almost caught,he's going to relocate again.
So,the killer started in northern California,moved south, and now he's here in L.
A.
Like three points of gravitational force, the killer residing somewhere in them,unseen, exerting his destructive influence like a black hole.
Yeah.
We need to narrow each hot zone down and profile all the men in them and look for a common link.
That's a lot of legwork.
All right.
I'll get census lists and Social Security records.
We can start cross-checking.
I found something in the Driscoll files.
Now,Driscoll's the detective who worked with Gene Evans, and he supposedly drowned in a pool last year.
He interviewed a man as a suspect in aurder in Bakersfield.
Robert Posdner-- the guy who claimed he saw Gene Evans' killer.
He was a witness in the murder here.
He was also a suspect in a Bakersfield murder.
Bakersfield files ID him as Wayne Potvin.
He's one of 19 suspects in the murder of a married couple.
Now,Driscoll questioned him,did a background check.
He came up clean.
It was a fake ID.
All right,we got more.
We ID'd about 250 men with ties to three geographic areas.
Ran their DMV photos through facial recognition.
Got four hits.
Thomas Park,David Palmer, William Potvin,and Robert Posdner.
It's the same guy.
We got our killer.
We still can't tie him through hard evidence to even one murder.
Well,we can at least get him for faking his identity.
That's not enough.
We need to put this guy away for serial murder.
What's next? You tell me,boss.
Right,okay.
UmWe-We put him under surveillance and we try to see if we can get enough for a search warrant.
Sounds good.
Follow Two to Follow One.
Eagle has landed.
Follow One to Follow Two.
You've been made.
Don't burn the target.
Copy,Follow One.
Breaking away.
It's just weird knowing who the killer is and not being able to prove it.
Yeah.
It's not unlike that period between forming a theory and then finding the proof that supports it.
Well,most theories don't relocate,switch identities, and resume killing people.
No,not that we know of.
You realize,Charlie,at some point, you're going to have to focus on work here.
You need help with your particle analysis? No,no,no.
I'm not talking about me.
I'm talking about you.
Your potential.
Solving crimes is important, but discovering the hidden mathematical structures within brain operations Guys! I t something.
You all right? Uh-huh.
Yeah,I'm good.
My heart hurts,but I just ran from the parking lot.
What's that,like,200 feet? Here's the thing.
So,I was looking at the whole,uh, Victim Zero case,right? The high school girl? There was a fellow student who was expelled from the same school the year before.
He was a suspect.
Thomas Park.
Thomas Park? That's one of the identities the FBI suspect used.
Bingo! This is so Zodiac.
Frickin' awesome.
Look at this.
I got goose bumps.
And it continues down my spine.
Thomas Park was 18 at the time of Nancy Kershaw's murder.
They knew each other and it says here that he was a suspect because he kept asking her out and hanging around her house.
Stalking her.
Nancy Kershaw's boyfriend,Steve Savard Now,he got to the house when the killer was still there.
He chased him away.
Now,one week later, he was nearly killed in a car accident.
Someone cut his brake line.
Couple of days after Kershaw's murder, her boyfriend received a threatening phone call from somebody claiming to be the killer.
Steve Savard heard the killer's voice.
All right.
Do we know where he is now? Well,after the murder,his family got scared.
They moved from Stockton to Nevada.
Are they still out of state? 'Cause we need to find him right now.
Uh,I did.
I used some of my contacts to track him down.
His flight should have landed an hour ago.
Are you kidding me? Huh? Are you kidding me? He's a little angry.
You know,I just figured time was sensitive,right? So,I took the liberty of Of impersonating an FBI agent? I didn't tell anyone I was I can't help what people assume.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
Amita's desied an algorithm that captures Robert Posdner's voice from his Bakersfield interview.
Ah.
When he was interviewed as a possible suspect? Yes,and she's mathematically reconstructed it to have the same tone and timbre as his voice might have had at age 18.
We have some recordings we want you to listen to,okay? Amita,we're ready.
I went to work that day, like any other day.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
I went to rk that y, like any other day.
That one.
There' s one more.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
No.
No,not that one-- the one before it.
That was the closest.
Closest? Or the same guy that threatened you 20 years ago? Well,you-you altered it,right? 'Cause now he's an adult.
You tried to make it sound like a teenager.
Can I hear the recording the way it is? Amita,play #3 straight.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
That's him.
He said he killed Nancy and he was going to kill me.
You're sure? He murdered the girl I loved.
Nearly killed me.
My family moved to another state.
Everything changed.
There's not a week that goes by I don't wake up from a dead sleep and hear that voice.
Yeah I'm sure.
Robert Posdner.
FBI.
Let me see your hands.
It's Agent Sinclair,right? Robert? What's happening? It's okay,honey.
They're federal agents.
Look at her.
Poor thing haso idea.
It'll be a total shock.
Honey,it's almost time to pick up the kids,isn't it? Nobody knew about me.
I liked it that way.
Some serial killers,you know,they write to the newspapers or they taunt the police.
I never drew attention to myself.
I just wanted to go about the things I needed to do.
You know,most serial killers They can't control themselves.
They're too damaged.
They aren't careful.
You need to plan if you're doing it right.
You know,people who know me, they'll all say they never suspected anything.
Well,I made sure they didn't.
That's my favorite part.
Took you guys a long,long time to find me,didn't it? I know there are reasons,psychological motivations for why sociopaths become serial killers.
But this guy He just seems evil.
You really weren't expecting a rational explanation,were you? I mean,with these guys,you know, no matter how smart and focused they appear to be, it always comes down to an irrational rage.
And in the end,it's rationality that caught him.
Rationality and logic.
That and a little obsession.
Your brother gets stabbed, and you react by catching a serial killer.
You got a hell of a way of working through things.
Some people drink.
Some gamble.
I analyze data.
So Charlie,how about tomorrow,we unpack your office and get you set up in your new,prestigious space? Yes,and locate several books of mine I think got left in your stuff.
All right.
I'm ready.
What about you,Donnie? Hmm? You going to be hanging out with me for the next couple of weeks? Sorry,pal.
I'm back to full duty Monday.
Ooh,there's a quick recovery.
So,why don't you try to put some time between injuries,huh? Trust me.
I plan to take it easy.
Yeah,right.
About two dozen unsolved murders.
I mean,it looks pretty real to me.
Ever since Don got hurt,I can't stop thinking every violent act is, to some degree,explicable.
You got a lot of different M.
O.
s here,different victim types: men,women,children; shot,stabbed,strangled,bludgeoned.
Three of these are pedestrian hit-and-runs.
But there is a timeline pattern.
You found a pattern in all this? Yep.
By using some of the same mathematical concepts that lk for signs of intelligent life in our universe.
Ah,yeah,of course.
It's not as "out there" as it seems.
The universe creates an endless background of electromagnetic static.
SETI-- the Search for Extra-Terrestrl Intelligence-- uses algorithms to sift through all this random cosmic noise to find a signal that is complex yet repetitive, a non-natural pattern created by an intelligence.
I've adapted the signal detection algorithm to analyze the pattern,and I got this spatio-temporal visualization model.
Its sequence is half lunar.
It's indicative of a recurring emotional need, buffered by planning and survllance.
Okay,but if the M.
O.
s and the victims are all different? He's a different type of serial killer.
All right.
He's working on a theory.
Serial killer nobody's noticed but him.
How does he figure? Signals from deep space.
Seems a little outside the box even for Charlie.
Yeah,thing is,a few years ago,Don got shot at a bank robbery that Charlie had predicted.
He retreated to his garage, and he buried himself in an unsolvable math problem.
He's been in here 24/7 the past five days.
You know,there's a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder called hypervigilance.
Means you're always looking out for potential danger and threats,thinking you see it.
And 's not really there.
Trying to scare me to death.
What are you doing at the FBI till 3:00 in the morning? Nothing.
Nothing,huh? You're working some serial case.
David told me.
He thinks I'm overreacting? Charlie,hey,this isn't your fault.
I know that.
Well,you got to move on.
Since when have you ever moved on? Since I got stabbed.
Sooner or later,we're both gonna have to learn we can't solve every problem.
Hey!Call 911! presents Season 05 episode 01 Ah,Betancourt,thanks for coming.
Yeah,no problem,JJ.
Whatcha got? Postal worker halfway through his rounds popped in the head,small-caliber,close-range.
And what's he doing in the alley? A resident says he uses the alleyway as a shortcut.
Maybe somebody knew his routine But your guy's working on that angle.
My guy? Yeah,the professor.
He's yours,isn't he? Yeah.
Yeah,he's ours.
Well,the pattern isn't perfect.
I mean,there are micro-clusters that are currently anomalous.
But the overall pattern is extraordinarily regular,which is indicative How many murders in a micro-cluster? Two.
Mostly.
Sometimes three.
That's very micro.
David,those are outliers.
The macro-pattern is persistent,statistically valid.
Charlie,we both started here on the same case five years ago.
Okay? You know I'm a believer in what you do.
And I'm asking for a lot.
Working your theory would take hundreds of man-hours.
Everybody's already busy on confirmed crimes; if I tried to reassign agents to work a serial case that had no serial elements, outside of a timeline pattern discovered by a mathematician,I mean,I'd get fired.
This is what he's counting on.
Excuse me? He knows serial killers get caught because of patterns, telltale traits,compulsive behavior, so he switches his M.
O.
s,his weapons,victim types on purpose.
No repetitive behavior means no pattern.
No reason to expend law enforcement resources to find one.
All right,what do you want me to do,Charlie? SETI telescopes-- always gathering data.
I need more data.
I'll take anything you can give me.
Okay,all right.
There's a lot of amateur work being done for serial killer data, and some of it is surprisingly comprehensive.
Amateur work.
Yeah.
There's a guy we worked with on a recent case.
You should meet him.
Good afternoon.
Hah? Hi.
I'm Oh! Professor! Welcome.
Roy McGill.
Oh,welcome! Hi.
Such a pleasure.
Hey,would you mind locking up? Thanks,buddy.
Certainly.
Please forgive the,uh,concrete decor.
Nature of my work requires an enhanced level of security.
Welcome to the Truth Cave.
You like it? Pretty cool,right? Pretty cool.
You hungry? I'm fine.
Okay.
Oh! You got to hear this.
Heads up.
Watch this.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
This'll be good.
You know what that is? 'Course you don't.
That's a sound recording of a UFO from a Russian friend of mine.
Teeger Woods.
Like Tiger Woods,or not.
Huh? Art Bell's gonna run it on his show tonight.
Actually,I'm,um,I'm just here to talk to you about Serial killer,right? You know how I knew that? I have ESP.
I don't have ESP.
I'm totally messing with you.
Agent Sinclair told me.
Oh! Freakin' awesome,man! I always knew you and I were gonna team up.
I always knew it.
I'm really just here to collect some data I'm a little surprised it took the FBI so long.
I mean,I've only got the sixth most popular blog on serial killers.
Oh.
Do you want this seat? I'm fine.
Oh,so am I.
It's pretty comfortable.
Hey,look at this.
So,I found two murders that fit into your I tried to find things that fit into the,spatio-tempura that Agent Sinclair sent me.
By the look of it,I didn't do a good job.
I was really hoping to find more data than this.
Not a problem.
Not a problem.
And we're off! Where are we going? Serial kilr data central.
Yeah! Gene Evans.
It's a pleasure.
You guys should have,like,some sort of,like, you know,crazy,math handshake.
Gene's into numbers,too.
Gene's an accountant.
Mm,retired.
Uh,and,tabulating taxes hardly qualifies as math the way Professor Eppes knows it.
Gene is part of a network-- amateurs who help with police investigations.
The number of missing persons and unsolved murders can overwhelm most agencies, so there's hundreds of us around the country,and we gather and tabulate data as much as we can.
Gene solved four missing person cases in California and a murder case in Oregon.
Well,"assisted" would be closer to the truth.
But the fact is,I stopped.
Couple of years ago,I got a bunch of phone calls, probably just cranks,but it spooked the wife.
Well,any information you can provide would be much appreciated here,Gene.
When Roy described your theory something came to mind.
These aren't L.
A.
-area cases.
They're all from up near Fresno and Bakersfield.
And several years ago.
Yeah,but the time patterns,the knowledge of the victims' routines, uh,very similar.
And-and then there's this.
That's a constrictor knot.
Simple and secure, but once you get it tight,it's very difficult to untie.
Same knot was used in five of the cases you're looking into.
Whoa.
Freaky.
- Have you shown any of this to the police? - Yes.
A detective up in Bakersfield.
Brent Driscoll.
Charlie,you're living and working out of boxes now.
You've become a previous incarnation of me.
What's taking you so long? Do you need some help? I'm too busy.
I need to find the missing pieces here.
Make one mistake,people get hurt.
Cognitive emergence work.
God,you haven't even touched this since Don's injury.
Have you ever considered this might be an overreaction? My theory's correct.
Ifou want to say that this is a reaction to Don's situation,go ahead.
No,I mean,come on,you're an applied mathematian.
You're applying math to a problem.
And there's something to be said for cathartic endeavors.
Well,let's say,for hypothetical reasons, that I'm not crazy, that my timeline pattern is correct.
Let's say that there is a serial killewho has avoided detection.
Why the anomalies in the timeline? Why the micro-clusters? What am I missing? Well,whatever is missing lies beyond all of this.
You seek to quantify a single individual in some elegant,mathematical pattern.
But the universe is full of all these odd bumps and twists.
And so are people.
Now,perhaps your approach needs to be less elegant,more complicated.
Haven't we had this conversation before? Well,now,cosmologically speaking, everything that happens has happened before.
Can I help you find something? Yeah,I think I left something in here,some files.
For your serial killer case? It's an office; people talk.
So everyone thinks I'm crazy.
You know about Kim Rossmo? Canadian detective,mathematician.
His work on geographic profiling was,was groundbreaking.
Rossmo identified the same type of serial killer as you're looking for-- one that deliberately hides any signs of a criminal pattern.
He called them stealth predators.
They try to commit crimes in such a way that authorities aren't even aware of it.
Really? In Vancouver,he did something a lot like what you're doing-- working only off of a pattern.
The police didn't believe his theory that a cluster of disappearances was the work of a single killer.
So they fire Rossmo.
Ten more deaths later, they realize that he's right.
So they caught the killer with 31 bodies buried on his property.
I'd love to see Rossmo's methodology.
Had a feeling you might be interested.
Thanks,Matt.
You're in my spot here.
I fell asleep.
I just had the worst dream.
I wonder why.
What are you doing here? I like it here.
I don't know what it is,you know? I been shot.
I been beaten.
How many sports did I play as a kid? And I-I've never been laid up like this.
You got stabbed.
How can you be so calm about it? Well,I mean,I survived,for one thing.
Who are you? What have you done with my brother? I don't know,Charlie.
All I can tell you is I feel like job ju doesn't o me anymore.
Yeah? Well,that's got to be the meds talking.
Where you going? I might as well work.
I don't want to have another dream like that one.
Charles? Hey.
Um,is everything okay? My search for a non-random signal has revealed not only an intelligence, but an extremely careful and shrewd intelligence.
It's not one area; it's three.
He moves.
What,the serial killer? Yeah.
It became apparent when I combined Gene Evans' data with Kim Rossmo's methodology that this killer is a stealth predator.
He knows that too many murders in one area gets attention, and so he moves.
Terrific.
A super-smart killer.
Who's struck three times in 18 years, starting in northern California, and then the Fresno-Bakersfield area, and now he's here.
It's good to see you.
Bye.
You do realize 7:00 is an inhuman hour to be calling somebody.
We're very close,Roy.
I just need a little more data, and I'm thinking Gene's gonna have it.
Oh,man,this is gonna blow the doors off the Zodiac,Bundy,the Red Ripper.
Gene? Martha? Hello? Let's check the garage.
Well,car's still here.
Oh,my God.
Oh,my God.
Gene Evans and his wife don't fit the macro-pattern.
They fit the pattern of micro-clusters.
What interests me is that Evans collected data on the killings.
Police interviewed a witness who was driving by the Evans' house near the time of the killing.
This is the description he gave of a man he saw walking across their front yard.
Uh,David,sheriff's homicide's asking if we'reorking the Evans murder with them.
Tell them we're looking at it for a possible link to an FBI case.
Okay.
Do I tell them we suspect a serial? No.
Not yet.
First,we need to see if anybody had an ordinary motive for killing Gene Evans.
Want to be sure.
My brother Gene and his wife Martha were good people.
What happened to them is wrong.
Is there anyone who would want to hurt them? I thought you knew about that already.
Former client said Gene me a miste on his taxes,cost him his life savings.
He threatened my brother.
They had to t a restraining order.
There's police reports and everything.
The guy's a nut.
What's this guy's name? Mark Horn.
He said you saw someone outside the Evans' house the night that he and his wife were killed.
Now,could this be the man? It was dark.
And,like I told the sheriff's detectives,you know, he had a jacket on with the hood pulled up.
But yeah,that looks like him.
Thank you.
Uh,that guy,have you arrested him yet? Guys,what about me and my family? Are we gonna be a target now? Who are you? Why you going through Charlie's stuff? I happen to be Professor Lawrence Fleinrdt, holder of the Walter T.
Merrick Chair in Theoretical Physics.
Oh,yeah? Can you prove it? Yes,if you'd care to hear a lecture on the photoelectric properties of Ly-Alpha emitters in a QZ2 plane universe.
I-I have no idea what just happened.
But why are you going through Charlie's stuff? Because,my young friend,I think I have a Green Lantern book in here somewhere.
Green Lantern! In brightest day,in blackest night No evil shall escape my sight.
Sight! I love the Lant.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Charlie and I,we're,uh, we're investigating a little FBI case.
Shh.
Keep it on the D.
L.
Oh,wait,so you must be the consultant,uh,who specializein, well,let's call them unusual explanations.
I think the Bureau refers to me as "the conspiracy nut.
" Some of the history's greatest minds have been rejected by society at large.
Whoa,you're one of us! Well,actually,I prefer the term "conspiracist.
" I drop the word "nut" altogether.
For example,I don't put too much stock in cryptozoology.
Oh,well,you should take a look at my,uh,Bigfoot Web site sometime.
You'll be singing a whole different tune.
It's the same old lyric: silly men dressed up in gorilla suits.
Oh,Charlie! Hey,good timing.
Oh,I got something important to show you.
Why don't you,uh,step into my office.
Your office.
I was just kidding with you.
So,I took a look at your whole three-area idea, and I think I might have identified a victim zero.
High school girl murdered in 1988.
Nancy Kershaw,17.
Found in a wooded area near a public park.
What's your criteria for identifying her as a victim zero? My cr-- for identifying I love your hair,by the way.
I took the earliest of the three areas you identified-- Stockton-- and I,uh,looked for previous murders.
If I may,you know,not all people murdered in that area can be linked to a cluster.
This guy-- he's good.
I got a copy of the M.
E.
's report.
Check it out.
Constrictor knot.
But that's not unique to all these cases.
If she is Victim Zero, serial killers will often start with somebody that they know or live close to.
It's true.
Nancy Kershaw had a boyfriend.
A week after she was killed, somebody claiming to be the murderer called him up, threatened to kill him,too.
I'm good.
Guys,I should be doing this for a living.
Gene Evans' disgruntled client Mark Horn used a credit card at a gas station three miles from the Evans' house on the night of the murders.
Might not be good for Charlie's serial theory.
But it's good for solving Evans' murder case.
Mark Horn.
I didn't do anything wrong! You got no reason to arrest me! Oh,yeah? Well,I guess we have a difference of opinion.
Come on.
I was watching my daughter.
You aren't allowed around your daughter without her mother's permission.
She is my daughter! Damn it.
Why'd you lose custody? My wife didn't understand that I have to fight for what is mine.
Gene Evans.
He had a restraining order out against you.
You violated it.
Yeah,I wound up in a county jail when I am the victim! I am not the one they should be locking up.
Who is? Gene Evans.
Evans is dead.
You went to his house the night he was killed.
I only drove by.
Evans got that restraining order out against you because you broke into his home.
I needed his records.
I didn't kill him! I needed him.
Help me make the case with the IRS.
Charlie's not here.
I know.
He's in his office running another statistical analysis on his serial killer data.
He can be pretty obsessive.
You can never get through to him when he gets like this.
The only way is to find a flaw in his analysis, you know,prove he's not following a valid line.
I went over his work looking for errors.
I think there's a good reason for Charlie to be obsessed.
All right,why don't you talk me through it then? Mark Horn threatened Gene Evans,broke into his home.
We can pla him in the vicinity of the murder.
Can you link him to any of the other deaths? No,he was out of the country for one cluster, in another state for another one.
I just looked at those interrogation tapes.
There's no way that's the guy.
Based on what? Based on the fact that he was arrested for harassing Evans.
I mean,if he's gonna kill him, he's knows were gonna come after him.
Right,but Horn didn't try to leave the area or conceal his whereabouts.
Well,Amita showed me this work she's doing on your timeline, and it answered some questions.
You say he's careful.
He plans his attacks.
He scouts his victims.
So why kill Evans without the usual interval? For the same reason he kills this guy: 'cause he's careful.
The killer didn't know that this postal crier would be running three hours late.
Which means that the mailman saw the killer at the house of the last murder.
Okay,so he kills the mailman as a witness,but why Evans? Why? Because two days before he dies,he goes online, said he's gonna start up with his detective work again.
And the killer decided to stop him.
So the micro-clusters happen when the killer covers his tracks.
We don't have hard evidence.
It's all circumstantial.
And statistics.
And the pattern,which indicates another attack within the next 48 hours.
I say we move now.
I'll take responsibility.
Okay,you all heard the man on desk duty.
Let's get to it.
The one important constant, his careful stalking of potential victims, sometimes for weeks.
There are often police reports of prowlers and peeping Toms prior to the killings.
And yet you say he's careful? I think he likes to spook his victims, let them catch glimpses of him.
And even if they call the police Prowler reports aren't taken as serious threats.
Well,if he's gonna kill again, maybe there'll be new prowler reports and attempted break-ins.
In L.
A.
alone,here have to be hundreds a week.
The most likely target is a couple in their mid-30s within an area of elevated geographic probabilities.
Single-family residence,no locked gates, no alarm systems.
A place to conceal a vehicle,access to a major roadway.
That gives us a starting point.
In your analysis,you,uh,you left out Victim Zero.
Well,that's because I don't think that there's enough to link Nancy Kershaw to the clusters.
See,I kinda have to agree with Roy here.
I share his interest in this Victim Zero.
See? You see that? Physics guy thinks there's something to my idea.
Well,now just consider,Charles, you don't include Nancy Kershaw because she doesn't seem to fit your pattern.
But is that really a reason to exclude data? Do you think her death tells us something? Well,you know when we look at the light from distant stars, we look at the past,millions,maybe billions of years ago.
That's how long it took that light to reach the Earth.
And yet,the undisputed 1862 UFO sighting during the battle of Vicksburg proves that extraterrestrials have mastered superluminal velocity.
Just returning to the point here, if Nancy Kershaw is the first victim, that tells us things about the killer that he was very careful to hide in subsequent crimes.
She was in his orbit,so to speak.
Right,right.
And remember, if our guy did kill her,then he's the same guy who called up the boyfriend and threatened to kill him,too.
So somebody out there has heard his voice.
All right,find out what you can from the conspiracy community, and I'll get the FBI on it.
Thank you,astrology dude.
Astronomy.
Astronomy.
Thanks.
You remember what Gene Evans told Charlie? That he shared his research on serial killers with a detective in Bakersfield? Yeah? Name's Brent Driscoll,and guess what.
He died last year.
How? They said he fell,hit his head, and wound up drowned in his backyard pool.
Doesn't that seem just a bit suspicious to you? Bakersfield PD look into it? Well,sure,but they didn't know there was a killer who eliminates investigators and witnesses.
We need Driscoll's files.
I'm driving up tomorrow.
What do you have there? It's a home improvement oject I'm hope you both will help me out with.
I told you I would.
All right.
So,front and backyard landscaping.
Take a look.
You're asking him about it? What about me? I own this house.
Oh,yeah,like you care what hedges he puts out there.
Point made.
How you doing there? David's got half the office trying to ID potential victims by running down prowler reports.
Hey,you guys remember the first time,huh? That first serial case? Remember? It was right here in this room.
You figured it out together.
Remember? It was like a lifetime ago.
Five years.
Yeah,it was right before that you had grown so far apart that I was the only thing you had in common.
I figured after I died, you might spend years without seeing each other, but to tell you the truth, I'm not worried about that anymore.
Hey,Charlie,you got something new? No,I've got something old.
I was talking with Don and my dad about a previous serial case we worked on, and it reminded me of this.
So I analyzed these three clusters,and it gave me these three probable locations for the killer.
That's the hot zone equation.
The very same.
Now how does this work? Well,think of it like a Can,uh,can I do this? It's like a lawn sprinkler spreading hundreds of drops of water.
Now,it's impossible to predict where the next drop will fall, but if you took away the sprinkler, from the pattern of drops you could calculate its location.
You're saying that we can find out where the killer lives? Yeah.
We know that he's either lived in or is linked t these three areas.
You run a comparative analysis against the prowler reports we got? Oh,I love it when a student grasps the full potential of an application.
Top 30 potential victims, ID'd from police reports,geographic areas, victim profiles.
The numbers represent the probability of their being the next victim.
The best we can get is 23%? In the world of statistical analysis,23% means Uh,can I do this one? It means get your ass in gear.
Come on,guys.
Dinner's ready.
So,he tends to attack couples, right? And also teenagers.
Some with their parents asleep in the same house.
We got people at the 30 residences that Charlie thinks are the most likely targets.
Yeah,maybe we'll get lucky, so to speak.
Hey,what's that movie with Al Pacino-- he's a cop, and he ends up sleeping with Ellen Barkin, and then it turns out that her ex-husband was the killer? Sea of Love.
No,that wasn't it.
Yeah,it is.
Seen it,like,five times.
You a big Pacino fan? No.
Michael Rooker fan.
He was Henry inHenry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Oh,yeah,that guy.
That guy's always the killer.
No,he's not.
You ever seen The Replacement Killers? He was the cop.
Hey,look there.
FBI.
Get down! On your knees! Okay,don't shoot me! What the hell's going on? We're FBI.
Leonard,is that you? You know him? Leonard Philber.
Friend of my daughter's.
What are you doing here? I was just gonna TP the tree,man! FBI! Kill your light.
Kill your light.
Did you see him? No.
He had a car hidden nearby.
He ditched it.
Continued on foot or had a second car somewhere.
He had an escape route planned out in advance.
He knew exactly where he was going.
Everyone all right? Everyone's fine.
All right.
I'll get back to you.
Well,it was the right place,buddy,but he's gone.
Damn it.
He plans ahead.
He knew how to get away.
Listen,I'm worried that we've presented ourselves with an even bigger problem here.
What do you mean? This guy's moved three times.
Now that he was almost caught,he's going to relocate again.
So,the killer started in northern California,moved south, and now he's here in L.
A.
Like three points of gravitational force, the killer residing somewhere in them,unseen, exerting his destructive influence like a black hole.
Yeah.
We need to narrow each hot zone down and profile all the men in them and look for a common link.
That's a lot of legwork.
All right.
I'll get census lists and Social Security records.
We can start cross-checking.
I found something in the Driscoll files.
Now,Driscoll's the detective who worked with Gene Evans, and he supposedly drowned in a pool last year.
He interviewed a man as a suspect in aurder in Bakersfield.
Robert Posdner-- the guy who claimed he saw Gene Evans' killer.
He was a witness in the murder here.
He was also a suspect in a Bakersfield murder.
Bakersfield files ID him as Wayne Potvin.
He's one of 19 suspects in the murder of a married couple.
Now,Driscoll questioned him,did a background check.
He came up clean.
It was a fake ID.
All right,we got more.
We ID'd about 250 men with ties to three geographic areas.
Ran their DMV photos through facial recognition.
Got four hits.
Thomas Park,David Palmer, William Potvin,and Robert Posdner.
It's the same guy.
We got our killer.
We still can't tie him through hard evidence to even one murder.
Well,we can at least get him for faking his identity.
That's not enough.
We need to put this guy away for serial murder.
What's next? You tell me,boss.
Right,okay.
UmWe-We put him under surveillance and we try to see if we can get enough for a search warrant.
Sounds good.
Follow Two to Follow One.
Eagle has landed.
Follow One to Follow Two.
You've been made.
Don't burn the target.
Copy,Follow One.
Breaking away.
It's just weird knowing who the killer is and not being able to prove it.
Yeah.
It's not unlike that period between forming a theory and then finding the proof that supports it.
Well,most theories don't relocate,switch identities, and resume killing people.
No,not that we know of.
You realize,Charlie,at some point, you're going to have to focus on work here.
You need help with your particle analysis? No,no,no.
I'm not talking about me.
I'm talking about you.
Your potential.
Solving crimes is important, but discovering the hidden mathematical structures within brain operations Guys! I t something.
You all right? Uh-huh.
Yeah,I'm good.
My heart hurts,but I just ran from the parking lot.
What's that,like,200 feet? Here's the thing.
So,I was looking at the whole,uh, Victim Zero case,right? The high school girl? There was a fellow student who was expelled from the same school the year before.
He was a suspect.
Thomas Park.
Thomas Park? That's one of the identities the FBI suspect used.
Bingo! This is so Zodiac.
Frickin' awesome.
Look at this.
I got goose bumps.
And it continues down my spine.
Thomas Park was 18 at the time of Nancy Kershaw's murder.
They knew each other and it says here that he was a suspect because he kept asking her out and hanging around her house.
Stalking her.
Nancy Kershaw's boyfriend,Steve Savard Now,he got to the house when the killer was still there.
He chased him away.
Now,one week later, he was nearly killed in a car accident.
Someone cut his brake line.
Couple of days after Kershaw's murder, her boyfriend received a threatening phone call from somebody claiming to be the killer.
Steve Savard heard the killer's voice.
All right.
Do we know where he is now? Well,after the murder,his family got scared.
They moved from Stockton to Nevada.
Are they still out of state? 'Cause we need to find him right now.
Uh,I did.
I used some of my contacts to track him down.
His flight should have landed an hour ago.
Are you kidding me? Huh? Are you kidding me? He's a little angry.
You know,I just figured time was sensitive,right? So,I took the liberty of Of impersonating an FBI agent? I didn't tell anyone I was I can't help what people assume.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
Amita's desied an algorithm that captures Robert Posdner's voice from his Bakersfield interview.
Ah.
When he was interviewed as a possible suspect? Yes,and she's mathematically reconstructed it to have the same tone and timbre as his voice might have had at age 18.
We have some recordings we want you to listen to,okay? Amita,we're ready.
I went to work that day, like any other day.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
I went to rk that y, like any other day.
That one.
There' s one more.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
No.
No,not that one-- the one before it.
That was the closest.
Closest? Or the same guy that threatened you 20 years ago? Well,you-you altered it,right? 'Cause now he's an adult.
You tried to make it sound like a teenager.
Can I hear the recording the way it is? Amita,play #3 straight.
I went to work that day,like any other day.
That's him.
He said he killed Nancy and he was going to kill me.
You're sure? He murdered the girl I loved.
Nearly killed me.
My family moved to another state.
Everything changed.
There's not a week that goes by I don't wake up from a dead sleep and hear that voice.
Yeah I'm sure.
Robert Posdner.
FBI.
Let me see your hands.
It's Agent Sinclair,right? Robert? What's happening? It's okay,honey.
They're federal agents.
Look at her.
Poor thing haso idea.
It'll be a total shock.
Honey,it's almost time to pick up the kids,isn't it? Nobody knew about me.
I liked it that way.
Some serial killers,you know,they write to the newspapers or they taunt the police.
I never drew attention to myself.
I just wanted to go about the things I needed to do.
You know,most serial killers They can't control themselves.
They're too damaged.
They aren't careful.
You need to plan if you're doing it right.
You know,people who know me, they'll all say they never suspected anything.
Well,I made sure they didn't.
That's my favorite part.
Took you guys a long,long time to find me,didn't it? I know there are reasons,psychological motivations for why sociopaths become serial killers.
But this guy He just seems evil.
You really weren't expecting a rational explanation,were you? I mean,with these guys,you know, no matter how smart and focused they appear to be, it always comes down to an irrational rage.
And in the end,it's rationality that caught him.
Rationality and logic.
That and a little obsession.
Your brother gets stabbed, and you react by catching a serial killer.
You got a hell of a way of working through things.
Some people drink.
Some gamble.
I analyze data.
So Charlie,how about tomorrow,we unpack your office and get you set up in your new,prestigious space? Yes,and locate several books of mine I think got left in your stuff.
All right.
I'm ready.
What about you,Donnie? Hmm? You going to be hanging out with me for the next couple of weeks? Sorry,pal.
I'm back to full duty Monday.
Ooh,there's a quick recovery.
So,why don't you try to put some time between injuries,huh? Trust me.
I plan to take it easy.
Yeah,right.