Criminal Minds: Evolution's Big Bad Sure Seems Inspired By This Terrifying Real-Life Killer
"Criminal Minds: Evolution" is finally here, bringing fans of the hit CBS franchise a case like they've never seen before. In the first season, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit — led by returning characters Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) — shed light on a gruesome network of serial killers who help each other facilitate, commit, and cover up their murders. This dangerous group is led by Elias Voit (newcomer Zach Gilford, of Netflix's "Midnight Mass"), a family man with a dark, murderous double life.
In just the first few episodes of "Criminal Minds: Evolution," the series has already begun to draw parallels between their fictional killers and real-life psychopaths that once walked the streets. Episode 2's fetish-inspired serial murderer, Robert Harris (Nick Bailey), shared similarities to adult-actors-turned-killers Amanda Logue and Jason Andrews. Voit seems to have been influenced by a few different figures including Israel Keyes, whose "kill kits" directly inspired the devices of the same name used on the Paramount+ series. Voit and his ilk also make use of shipping containers, which could be a nod to another real-life serial killer.
The case of Todd Kohlhepp, the Amazon Review Killer
As seen in the very first scene of the series, Elias Voit keeps his victims trapped in wildly retrofitted shipping containers — also known as CONEX boxes. The large, metal containers are big enough to serve as miniature, semi-mobile, disposable rooms for containment, torture, and murder. Upon seeing the shipping container, true crime aficionados may have had chilling flashbacks to the case of Todd Kohlhepp, the Amazon Review Killer.
As recounted by People Magazine, 30-year-old Kala Brown was kidnapped alongside her boyfriend, 34-year-old Charles Carver, in 2016 by Kohlhepp. Kohlhepp was a realtor with an already violent, disturbing criminal record dating back to the 1980s. After killing Carver, Kohlhepp outfitted a shipping container with chains and other supplies to make the space a prison. As seen in the police body cam footage recovered in an online documentary, Brown told authorities that Kohlhepp was planning to keep her hostage until she developed Stockholm syndrome (a coping mechanism for survivors of abuse that causes them to sympathize and/or become friendly with their abusers).
Kohlhepp also used the internet in a number of bizarre ways — his name comes from the fact that he would leave unsettlingly honest Amazon reviews for products he purchased to aid his crimes. He also briefly masqueraded as Carver on Facebook, either to cover his tracks or taunt the friends and family of his victim.