When one teenager is found murdered and her best friend is abducted in Chula Vista, California, the BAU assists local authorities in determining whether the Witness Protection Program is involved.

The new sheriff in Fredericksburg, Virginia, requests the BAU’s assistance in the investigation of a series of mutilation murders that appear to mimic similar crimes that had occurred over two decades earlier.

The BAU and local authorities in Los Angeles investigate gang-related serial killings that might possibly involve a famous comic book artist.

As a team member fights for life, the BAU continues the search for an attacker that leads the unit to believe the assailant could be someone close to the investigation.

A team member’s life is put in jeopardy when the BAU investigates serial killings in Florida that appear to involve the occult and satanic worship. Garcia believes she has met her dream man, but her first date with him doesn’t go exactly as she had expected.

SSA David Rossi returns to the BAU from retirement as the team is called to Montana to investigate the case of four kidnapped and murdered women. When another woman disappears, the search leads to a man who apparently has assumed the identity of his dead partner.

Halloween provides the scenario when the BAU is called to Dallas to assist in the investigation of women who became victims of a man they’d met through a dating service and then rejected him.

The investigation turns to the family as the BAU and local authorities race against time to locate a young girl who has disappeared from a local shopping mall.

When home invasions involve the murder of entire families, the BAU is called to Denver to identify the killers who possibly have been abused while in foster care.

The BAU travels to Portland to assist local authorities in investigating the disappearances of people who are new to the city and have no strong social ties.

In Milwaukee, a series of women have been found murdered with their hearts crudely removed. The BAU is assigned to the case, but they are short three members: Gideon, who is missing, Hotch, who is on suspension and Prentiss, who resigns her commission to join the Foreign Service. Supervisor Strauss steps in as lead, but she doesn’t handle herself well in the field.

The team investigates a serial killer who is targeting women at a small college in Flagstaff, Arizona. The BAU shuts down the campus, creates a detailed profile of the unsub, and arrests a suspect. However, the team members begin to have doubts about themselves when another woman is killed while the suspect is in custody.

When the prolific serial killer Frank returns and murders Gideon’s girlfriend, Gideon takes off to find him without telling the team where he is going. The BAU must then profile Gideon as well as Frank to find both of them.

When homeless persons begin going missing mysteriously from the streets in Kansas City, a local detective calls the BAU to investigate the disappearances.

The BAU is called to investigate after the bodies of missing people are discovered in a remote region of the Idaho wilderness. The gruesome find also leads the team to determine the unsubs have been hunting humans for sport.

Elizabeth Prentiss, a foreign ambassador and SSA Emily Prentiss’ mother, seeks the aid of the BAU when a Russian immigrant is kidnapped and held for ransom.

A serial arsonist who targets the homes of upper-middle-class families as they sleep is investigated. The BAU determines the arson victims are linked together through corporate development companies that have been accused of building on contaminated land.

A case involving a serial killer believed to be copying Jack the Ripper takes Gideon to New Orleans after three victims are found with their throats cut. Once thought to have been killed in Hurricane Katrina, the discovery of a fourth victim in the French Quarter confirms the murderer is still alive. All the evidence and files had been lost in the flood, so the only clue the team has is the word “Jones” that the lead detective wrote on the wall just before he drowned. Meanwhile, Reid meets up with an old rival as he continues to struggle with the aftermath of being held hostage.

The BAU travels to Houston to investigate a series of murders that have occurred near construction sites and abandoned buildings. Because the murders appear to be random, the team believes the killer could be a homeless person. Meanwhile, everyone is noticing an apparent change in Reid’s behavior.

The BAU becomes involved to prevent a possible race riot when the murder of four young black women in a mostly white New York suburb appear to be hate crimes.

In this conclusion of a special two-part episode, finding the serial killer becomes critical to the BAU when the team realizes Reid is being held captive and a live feed of him being tortured is shown on the internet. Meanwhile, Reid’s troubled childhood is revealed in flashback sequences as he drifts in and out of consciousness.

In this special two-part episode, the BAU is called to investigate after a wealthy couple is murdered in their home following a Super Bowl party. The team pursues what they believe might be multiple killers who use webcams to record murders and upload the tapes on the internet. Hotchner, Morgan and Prentiss soon discover the unsub is actually one man with multiple personalities. As they close in on the killer, Reid faces a life-threatening situation.

Gideon is pitted against the scariest and most evil murderer in his entire career. When the BAU confronts the sadistic killer in a remote diner in the Nevada desert, the local authorities want to move quickly and make an arrest. But Gideon bides his time as he attempts to persuade the man, who has sworn not be captured, to reveal the whereabouts of a woman he is holding hostage.

Morgan is arrested as a serial killer after he goes home to Chicago to visit his family. Because the detective making the arrest had used a profile provided by Gideon, the team travels to Chicago to help the local authorities find the real killer and exonerate Morgan.

The BAU is called to investigate a series of murders of prostitutes in Washington D.C. and Reid suspects a teenager he met asking for his help is guilty of the crimes. The case becomes complicated when a congresswoman, who about to make a speech to praise the city’s lower crime rate, threatens to take away the case if Hotchner calls a press conference to discuss it.

Gideon, Reid and Prentiss travel to Guantanamo Bay to interrogate the leader of a terror sleeper cell being detained there after a chemical weapons dispersal device is discovered during a raid at a suspicious house. Working with Reid, Emily’s fluency in Arabic proves to be useful as they scrutinize the suspect.

The daughter of high-powered diplomats, Special Agent Emily Prentiss joins the team, and she must convince Gideon and Hotchner she deserves the job based on merit and not on her family connections. The BAU is then called to St. Louis to investigate two serial killers who appear to be competing with each other. By setting a trap based on one killer’s profile, the team creates a media event by which to capture the second killer.

The BAU travels to Seattle to identify and catch a serial bomber who has been terrorizing the city and targeting centers of automated techology. Working with the author of a science fiction novel that has become a guide for the bomber, the team attempts to determine why certain sites have been chosen as targets.

After a man kidnaps three teenaged girls and locks them in a cellar, he tells them only two of them will live and they must choose which one will die. The BAU team takes the case when the mother of one of the girls travels to Quantico to ask JJ to intercede with the FBI on the girls’ behalf.

The BAU travels to a small Texas community to investigate the murders of children. Meanwhile, Elle is having readjustment issues after being shot, and Hotch becomes worried about her when she misses a mandatory psych evaluation and isn’t answering her cell phone.

The BAU investigates a serial rapist who had been attacking young women at religious schools in Dayton, Ohio and stopped for six weeks. He has resumed his attacks, but is now targeting a different demographic of women. Elle is to go undercover posing as a victim-to-be, but finds and stops the suspect before the operation is accomplished. After the suspect, who is revealed to be the rapist, is released due to lack of evidence, Elle, enraged over his actions, confronts him and eventually ends up shooting him dead in cold blood, with her Glock 38, although she seemingly claims self-defence for her actions.

The BAU is called to investigate a series of bank robberies after it becomes evident the crimes are not based on money because the robber abuses his victims by forcing them to undress before he leaves the crime scene.

The BAU has reason to believe a series of murders might have been committed by two people working as a team after the victims’ families receive DVDs after each crime that includes psychological attacks.

A young boy who had disappeared a year ago turns up for sale by a child pornographer on an online auction in Cleveland. A former profiler who now heads the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Unit asks Hotch and the BAU to help her save the boy’s life before it’s too late.

The BAU team continues to unravel the clues given to each of them by a psychopath in order to save his most recent victim. Gideon decides not to focus on the personal aspects of the case. Rather, he tells the team to profile the killer as they would in any other investigation. Reid stays behind to work on a personal connection that could solve the case as one member of the team fights for life.

While on their vacations, each of the team receives a clue from a psychopathic killer challenging them to save his next victim.

The BAU works with the CIA to identify a mole within that organization, whose leaks are putting operatives at risk.

The BAU works to capture a serial killer who has evaded capture by altering his appearance.

The BAU team travels to Mexico to aid in the capture of a serial killer who is targeting elderly women.

Reid finds himself in danger when he falls for a starlet whose stalker has turned into a killer.