| “ | I like to think of these roses as the souls of the forgotten, just like this poor, young man right here. | „ |
| ~ Roger about one of his and Anita's victims. |
Roger Roycewood is the secondary antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Mosley Lane". He is the husband and submissive killing partner of Anita Roycewood.
He is portrayed by Bud Cort, who also portrayed the Toyman in the DC Animated Universe.
Early life[]
Roger worked as an electrician in northern Virginia for most of his life before he met and married his wife Anita, whose family owned a funeral home in the area that he helped her turn into a successful business.
While they were financially well-off, however, they lacked the one thing they truly wanted: a child. After they found out that they could not conceive, Anita's pathological need to be a mother drove her to kidnap Karla Hartaway, a young girl, in 1999, with Roger's reluctant help. They attempt to raise her as their own, but the girl's continual defiance and demands to be taken home drive Anita over the edge, and she kills her and burns her alive in her crematorium's oven. Once again, Roger helped her do it.
In 2001, the couple kidnapped eight-year-old Charlie Hillridge, and made him help them kidnap other children, as well as dispose of their bodies in the crematorium oven after Anita inevitably murdered them. Roger also used the children's ashes as fertilizer for the roses that grew outside of the funeral home.
In "Mosley Lane"[]
In 2009, Roger and Charlie kidnap an eight-year-old girl named Aimee Lynch at a theme park while Anita creates a distraction by claiming to have lost her son. Once they get her back to the funeral home, however, Roger beats Charlie for taking Aimee's picture, fearing that it would fall into the hands of law enforcement. Anita, meanwhile, kills one of the captives, a boy named Stephen, because he "talked back" to her; once again, Roger dutifully disposes of the body in the crematorium.
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates the kidnapping, and connects it to Charlie's eight years earlier; Charlie, like Aimee, had disappeared from a park moments after a middle-aged woman started yelling that her son was missing. Eventually, the evidence leads them to believe that Charlie is alive and working with the kidnappers to take other children, having been brainwashed over the years to see them as his parents.
Technical analyst Penelope Garcia, meanwhile, identifies 12 missing children who disappeared under the same circumstances. Reasoning that the kidnappers live in the country and would want to raise their "children" in isolation from the outside world, the team focuses on families in isolated areas in Virginia who have been visited at least once by social services in the last 10 years. The Roycewoods are included on that list.
When BAU Agents Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss arrive at the Roycewoods' funeral home, Roger greets them, believing them to be customers. When they identify themselves as FBI agents and explain why they are there, however, Roger becomes noticeably agitated, especially after Prentiss notices a picture of Charlie taken shortly after the Roycewoods kidnapped him. He signals to Anita that law enforcement is on to them, which provokes her to try to kill every one of the captive children. In the ensuing struggle, Charlie shoots and kills Anita to save the other children. Roger is arrested, but commits suicide in custody by hanging himself in a police station bathroom.
Trivia[]
- Roger is inspired by multiple real-life serial killers:
- Helmuth Schmidt, a.k.a. "The American Bluebeard", a serial killer of his wives and children, who he cremated; when he was caught, he committed suicide.
- David Meirhofer, a serial killer of children, whose remains were crished into bone fragments and pour aroujd his property. He committed suicide once he was caught by authorities. He was the first serial killer caught by the FBI through profiling.
External links[]
- Roger Roycewood on the Criminal Minds Wiki
