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| “ | No, no, no! Leave her where she was! She belongs with me! | „ |
| ~ The unsub once arrested |
The Varnville Unsub (so named for Fandom) is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode “Starter Home”. The unsub is a reclusive manchild traumatized by his grandparents, serial killers Dorothy and Karl Elgin, into committing similar murders to them: kidnapping women to be his “mothers” and killing them when they didn’t fit his standards.
He was portrayed by Niko Papastefanou, and the unsub as a child was portrayed by Archer Moeller.
Biography[]
Background[]
The unsub was born to LeeAnne Garrity and Steven Milburn when they were both teens. Dorothy and Karl Elgin are LeeAnne’s grandparents, and they forbade her from a life outside of their isolation into their home, which is why it shocked them when LeeAnne was pregnant. They barely if ever let her leave the house from then on, even forcing her to stay at the house when she was giving birth to her son. LeeAnne prepared to run from her neurotic parents, wanting Steve to come with her. Not only did the Milburn family refuse the implore, but they made LeeAnne leave her son behind with them instead of take him with her. In the worst case scenario possible, the Elgins found out their grandson was still around, so Karl shot the Milburn family dead and stole the baby back, disguising their deaths as a murder-suicide. Dorothy was utterly grief-stricken not having LeeAnne around to complete their family, so they found “daughters” in runaway girls Karl kidnapped and held captive to force to care for LeeAnne’s son as his new “mothers”. Dorothy was unable to cope with LeeAnne’s loss and the presence of the girls she knew could never replace LeeAnne, so Dorothy would poison each of them, and Karl would bury the girls in the walls and floors of their home. Seven girls were held captive in murdered in this cyclical fashion, but it wouldn’t last forever, as Karl passed away, and Dorothy wandered outside of town in a sundowning episode due to cognitive decline and was placed in nursing care. The son, an adult but now completely alone and with the mindset of a childlike shut-in, wanted a new “mother” for himself and decided to find more women to hold captive. This time, he found average-class, middle-aged women, who he’d incapacitate and kidnap in the hopes of them “raising” him as he wanted to be. When they didn’t meet his standards, the son would entomb the mothers alive in the house, or in the shack he held them captive in separate from the family home. The first woman the son killed, he kept at the shack in a closet for unspecified reasons. However, he entombed June Berkholt and Amy Sanders at the family house.
On Starter Home[]
The Elgin home was put on the market, and when a young couple purchased it in the hopes of renovating it, they found one of the dead women inside the home. Cadaver dogs were overwhelmed by the scent of more women in the house, and soon, all nine women killed in the house were unearthed. Dorothy was unreliable for questioning, and she eventually killed herself to evade justice and keep her crimes hush. The agents knew from June and Amy there was another killer, but they realized the murders were more aggressive, involving blunt force trauma to snatch them and not euthanizing the women compared to how Dorothy poisoned the girls. After speaking with LeeAnne, who came to the police after the agents put out a public call for help, the agents realize the truth about the Milburn family murders and, to LeeAnne’s devastation, knew full well her son is the new killer. In the meantime, the son is holding Mary Brewer captive, tying her to a chair in the shack. The son whimpers to Mary to sing him a song to make him feel better, and Mary sings him “Hush Little Baby” while shakily holding him and resting his head on her shoulder, which placates the son. The son cooks a plate of eggs and asks Mary to hand-feed him, but when he’s looking away, she hits him with the food pan in hopes of escaping, but all she does is anger the son, who growls “why won’t you love me”. She still tries to flee when she finds an opportune moment to cut her ties, hiding in the cabin closet after she stabs the son. But the dead woman inside falls on her and she screams, the son dragging her to a hole in the floor to tie her to until she dies. The agents arrive to arrest him, and they demand to know where Mary is, but the son just shouts at them to leave and stay away from his “family”. Mary is found under the floorboards, and the son is walked off in handcuffs despite his loud protests. The son is presumably institutionalized due to his diminished competence, and LeeAnne is consoled by the agents, who offer her assisting her in reconnecting with her son to make up for lost time.
Trivia[]
- The unsub is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional criminals:
- Ed Gein, a.k.a. “The Plainfield Ghoul”, a killer of two women in his small town in Wisconsin to make a “women’s suit” out of their skin to cope with his mother’s death, after grave robbing women for the “suit” wasn’t enough.
- Brahms Heelshire, the main antagonist of The Boy films, a sociopathic serial killer who murdered his nannies his parents provided him when he was never satisfied. His parents committed suicide when they were done with him.
- Jessabelle, the main hidden antagonist of the horror film of the same name, a resurrected murder victim who tries to kill her sister and replace her, with the assistance of her mother, who wanted revenge after Jessabelle's stepfather murdered her.
