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The Major Crimes unit draws closer to finding a dangerous serial killer. Rusty faces his biggest challenge yet when he bravely takes the stand against Phillip Stroh. Complicating the case further, the team goes head to head with Linda Rothman, a tough, powerful attorney who doesn’t let morals stand in her way of winning a case.
The Victim
- Fifteen unnamed teenage boys
- Billy Pryor
- Alex Brown
- Andrew Collins
- Johnny Miller
- Gary Barton
- Charles Perry
The Suspects
Evidence
- Bullets from Weller's gun
- Weller's DNA
- Plastic couch covers
- Weller's fingerprints
- Connection of two of Weller's victims to Angel City Homeless Shelter
- Weller's date of birth
- Information from Phillip Stroh
Closing the Case
In exchange for spending life in prison in a federal prison of his choosing, Stroh offers information on the letter writer, sending his attorney Linda Rothman to tell Raydor and DDA Rios that the writer is someone who kidnapped a homeless teenage boy, got spooked when the police started investigating him and turned to Stroh for help. However, he was never arrested and Stroh never represented him at trial so they can't track him that way. Rothman gives them a list of the names of six victims of the letter writer as proof of his information. As the squad struggles to find a connection between the names and the other evidence, they get a familial match on the writer's DNA, that of his mother Susan Mills. Fritz Howard and Raydor interrogate Susan who explains that in 1998 while a heroin addict, she and her son Ryan moved in with a man named Henry Jinx who supplied Susan with drugs in exchange for being able to have sex with her thirteen year old son. Eventually Jinx cut off her drug supply and gave her $20,000 to go find a new life without her son. She left, but returned on Ryan's birthday, September 15th to find Jinx and Ryan gone and she never saw them again. The squad begins looking for people born on September 15th, 1984 figuring that while Ryan likely changed his name, he probably didn't change his birthdate. Listening to Rusty's testimony against Stroh, Assistant Chief Taylor comes up with the idea that the writer possibly changed the year he was born so that he appeared younger to make it easier for him to target boys and passes the idea on to Raydor. At the same time Sykes finds an order for forty couch covers matching the type the killer used for Angel City Homeless Shelter, a homeless shelter for teens. One victim was arrested for solicitation within a half mile of the shelter and another had lived there, giving two of the victims a connection to it. The squad head to the shelter where Flynn asks the director, Mr. Beckwith about the couch covers and he tells them Wade Weller is in charge of buying them. Beckwith leads them to Weller's desk where they find Red Wing pencils. Weller's job application and employment record list his birthday as September 15th, 1990 and Raydor realizes Weller is the letter writer. Tao is able to confirm it from a fingerprint from Weller's desk. Fritz gets Weller's cellphone number from Beckwith's phone and offers the FBI's cellphone tracking equipment if they can get a warrant to use it. Raydor also gets a description of Tyler Lang, the young man Weller was supposedly taking to DCFS for a health check. In order to catch Weller and save Tyler, Raydor organizes a massive roadblock by the LAPD after tracking Weller's location through his cellphone. Once they have him trapped Raydor has Tao send out an Amber Alert on Tyler. Everyone receives it including Weller and the other commuters around him. Seeing this, Weller panics and as Raydor hoped, flees without Tyler. He ends up fleeing right in the squad's direction, but a confused Tyler chases him and is taken hostage. Weller tries to use Tyler to escape, but as it seems Tyler's too close for them to risk shooting at Weller, Provenza suddenly shoots him in the head, killing Weller and saving Tyler. With Weller dead, the threat to Rusty is ended and Stroh is thrown into solitary confinement until they can figure out his future so this won't happen again.
Guest Cast
Locations
Episode Notes
- Wade Weller, Rusty's letter writer is killed in this episode and his protection detail is removed.
- Rusty comes out as gay to Sharon at first fearing that she will reject him and kick him out. She instead accepts him completely and comforts him when he breaks down from the revelation.