James B Brandt

Logline: FBI Agent ANGELA LOPEZ is assigned to hunt down a serial killer in California. But as the murders mount up, she begins to suspect there is another predator - a copycat killer - who is either close to the original murder... or to the investigators.

 

Treatment: CHRISTY SUMMERS, 19, blond, leaves her job at a rural convenience store in Northern California near dusk. She hitches a ride by an unseen man in a dirty white pick-up truck, saying she is going to the college.  The truck travels down the road but pulls off on a side road, into some dense trees. Christy jumps from the truck, but is quickly brought down by her attacker. Without seeing her attacker clearly, we see she is beaten, her clothes ripped off, and thrown face down in the loam. As she tries to crawl away, her hands are tied and we see she is being assaulted. We next see her at the bottom of a shallow ditch, under a sheet, surrounded by police and medical personnel.  ANGELA LOPEZ, a pretty Hispanic FBI agent, arrives at the scene. She learns Christy was bound at the ankles and wrists, raped and slowly strangled with a cord for an estimated thirty minutes. A single gold loop earring was found at the site. Markings at the top of the embankment and leg impression in the loam indicated the assailant likely slipped or fell dumping the body.

 

Angela is left with mysteries and hounded by a young reporter, CHAD BINGHAM, tall and handsome.  He dogs her every step as she moves through the investigative process: interviews, forensic evaluations, looking for clues to the murderer. As she gets closer, Chad becomes more of a nuisance, until near the end of the first episode, Angela tracks down a lead from the truck's tire tracks and arrests BRUCE WILSON for the murder...

But she does not get to relish her success because while Wilson was in custody,  VICTORIA LY, 13, a middle school student, was found - her remains discovered in a ravine fifty feet off a road just five miles from where Christy was found. The killer had thrown the body at least thirty feet over an embankment. She had been strangled, bound, and raped. A witness to her abduction said she saw her hitchhiking and picked up by a man in a dirty white pick-up truck... and only one of the pierced earrings she had worn was left. And Chad is right there covering the story.

 

Frustrated at the decision to free Wilson, Angela doggedly digs into the Ly murder... only to find that all leads point back to Wilson... who was supposedly in jail. But the leads grow more confusing when BERNADETTE GIBBON, a 14 years old runaway from her home in the same area, disappears. Last seen hitchhiking, her nude body is discovered just three feet from where the remains of Summers was recovered. Cause of death was: slow strangulation. She was raped, and bound hand and foot. Evidence suggested her body had been thrown from the road as the hillside brush appeared undisturbed - again, fitting Wilson's modus operandi. Once more, Chad is on the scene, gathering the details. A profiler is called in... and without meeting Wilson, she profiles him perfectly.

 

The bodies continue to build up. Wilson decides that with all the attention and the harassment, he is free and clear. Picking up ASLEY CAMP, 20, a junior college student hitchhiking to class, he repeats his attack with a new victim, dumping her in the bushes and stealing an earring.  He is arrested and the murders seem to end... he is charged with a total of 10 killings... only two of which are his. The others belong to the The Unknown Killer.

Season two pits the Unknown Killer against Angela in Southern California in a series of bizarre murders committee with edged weapons.

Season three has him again in Northern California, imitating a murder by hanging... and Angela is still being hounded by Chad. He is constantly taunting her inability to close a case before the body counts reach the ceiling in article after article, adding his disdain to SHERRY DURHAM, the profiler contracted by the FBI.

 

Week by Week:

 

Episode 1:  CHRISTY SUMMERS is abducted, raped, and murdered. FBI Agent ANGELA LOPEZ is called in to assist the police. Hounded by reporter CHAD BINGHAM, she begins the arduous task of locating the murderer. After an extensive review of the evidence, she sets out to arrest suspect BRUCE WILSON. But when they arrive at Wilson's they discover his house is rigged for uninvited guests.

 

Episode 2:  Lopez and crew successfully complete the arrest and pull Wilson into jail. They let him stew overnight. The next day they haul him in for questioning, but shortly after beginning, Lopez is called away to where the body of VICTORIA LY has been located. The "MO" for both murders is the same and Lopez gets the unhappy news that time of death was while Wilson was in jail. Bingham is right there, covering the story.

 

Episode 3:  BERNADETTE GIBBON is kidnapped, raped, and murdered. The same MO. Lopez sends a team out after Wilson again and heads back to the Forensic lab. Since this is murder #3, the FBI sends out Profiler SHERRY DURHAM, who has some minor clairvoyant ability. Durham sees some flashing images after handling the cord used to strangle Gibbon, but not enough to identify the killer... the catch is that she sees a tall, thin person, while Wilson is stocky.

 

Episode 4:  The investigation moves into a plodding stage, with Lopez trying to determine if there is only one killer or if Wilson has a "buddy", a killing partner. She doesn't plod long before there is another killing - two girls, both about 15, are picked up hitching back from skating. Wilson has grabbed them and dumps them into a ravine where he terrorizes, rapes and kills them. He is one sick twisted bastard. They are left at the roadside because Wilson is almost caught... he barely escapes as the police try to track him through the woods at night.

 

Episode 5:  Wilson manages to escape and there is no evidence to tie him to the murders, except that one earring from each girl is missing, as with the other cases. However, this time Durham sees a killer with Wilson's build. Wilson is stopped in town and arrested again, but since there is no evidence on him, he is released with the help of his law-suit happy lawyer. Lopez hounds the labs, needing evidence of two killers... meanwhile, Wilson's buddy Sal Wiskowski, becomes a suspect when it is noted that he is tall and thin.

 

Episode 6:  Again, while Wilson is in captivity and Wiskowski detained for questioning, a girl is kidnapped and murdered.  This is MIRANDA RICHARDS, 23, who was hitchhiking to visit her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body is found by fishermen in a river. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled... and thrown off a bridge where her body could have drifted several miles downstream. Bingham is there with Lopez when the body is recovered.

 

Episode 7:  Durham is called back in, but her psychic ability is not much help. It only shows the body going over the bridge. She does lay out a very rigid profile for the killer and the state and local officials begin talking to everyone who fits the profile - Wilson included. There is a very tense confrontation where he accuses the state of harassment and Lopez et al are told to stay away from him. Bingham records it all. The episode ends with a dirty white pick-up stopping for 21-year-old LIZA MCKAY, a former ARMY technician...

 

Episode 8:  The episode opens with a white pick-up bounding rapidly down a dirt road to a small boat house. It skids to a stop and Liza jumps out. She takes off running back up the track, but she is tackled by an unidentifiable assailant. Her military training allows her to escape, but she is quickly brought down with a thrown rock to the back of the head. She is found the next day in the bushes behind the boathouse, hands tied behind her back, nude, and strangled. No rope was found... the killer knows about Durham.

 

Episode 9:  This episode focuses on an internal investigation into the leak of the incriminating evidence, but since it did not appear in print, there is starting point for the probe. MAT DAVIS is introduced, who will later become Lopez's love interest. But now there is friction with the press reporting every mistake - though Bingham has honored his promise to keep certain facts quiet.

 

Episode 10:  Still disarrayed by the tension of the investigation and the growing body count, Lopez and Davis are at each other's throats. Durham is called in and confesses that it appears to be two separate killers with one MO, but she can't be sure...  not enough hard evidence.

 

Episode 11:  Wilson, questioned and released, is beginning to feel cocky.  He picks up hitchhiker CAROLYN DYE and leaves her body near where he dumped his first victim. But that night, the other killer tracks down JACKIE HELENA and grabs her outside a club. As soon as Lopez arrives at work, she is called to two widely separated bodies... but both apparently killed by the same man.

 

Episode 12:  The investigation becomes more confused... tossed back to the beginning. One or two killers? Wilson picks up another hitchhiker, ASHLEY CAMP. She is strangled and raped, left nude by the side of the road. But Wilson is not as careful as before. He leaves some evidence behind and this time Durham's visions match Wilson closely. But when the arrest team gets to his house, they discover that the booby traps have taken a deadly turn.

 

Episode 13:  The team finds a SINGLE EARRING from each of the murders in Wilson's house and launch an immediate manhunt. Wilson and Wiskowski are caught in the mountains after a massive manhunt - a la FUGITIVE style.  Bingham is there with Lopez when the arrests are made, though Wiskowski does not survive the encounter. She is satisfied that the killer has been caught - Both of them. A week later, there have been no more murders. Then LAKISHA GREEN is found bound and hanging from a tree in Southern California with a sign written in blood that she was just the first. Lopez is called south and Bingham decides to keep her in the spotlight as his journalism meal ticket.

 

 

 

CHARACTERS

 

REGULAR

 

ANGELA – late 20’s, good looking, determined, though she dresses plain. Very intelligent, almost a female Sherlock Holmes. FBI agent assigned to find Serial Killers in California. Angela grew up in a family of all boys and no mother from a ranch in Montana. Excellent shot, good with martial arts, has surprising qualities that are revealed throughout the series.

 

CHAD BINGHAM – late 20’s or early 30’s, tall, thin, very handsome, but a relentless pursuer of information on murder suspects. Dogs Angela on her cases. Doubles as the Unknown Killer. Bingham’s father, Hal, is a successful author of true crime books who is also a successful serial killer.

 

REOCCURING

 

BRUCE WILSON – 40’s, stocky, not too bright, one of the murderers in the first season.

 

MATT DAVIS – Internal investigator. Comes in mid season and becomes Angela’s love interest

 

ALBERT KOWALSKI – 60’s, formerly athletic but gone to seed, Angela’s boss, very supportive.

 

SHERRY DURHAM – 40’s, an attractive PhD who profiles for the FBI. She is called in for serial killers. She will never meet Bingham. Actress KIMBER LEIGH is recommended.

 

HAROLD TENTON – FBI Investigator, hates women, always wants Angela fired.

 

REBECCA ALLSWORTH – 30’s, a N. Calif. Lab technician.

 

SHERIFF ALAXANDER – A Northern California Sheriff involved in the first season investigations.

 

INCIDENTAL

 

Victims

Witnesses

Police Officers

Lab Technicians