Detective Benson pins an envelope to her board. A letter and cypher were delivered to the police only a few hours ago, almost 24 hours since Danielle Ortega’s abduction. Just like all the others.

These letters are full of valuable information, but most of it is in the presence of the mail, not its contents. The Minoan Murderer always licks the envelope, which means he was certain he was not in the DNA database. This leads to possibilities of him either escalating his crimes and never being caught, or his first murder was his first offense.  

But he does make sure to wear gloves when packing his envelope. This means he knows his fingerprints are in the system somewhere. The most likely possibility is that he was fingerprinted for his line of work or immigration, but based on the ethnically traced genes obtained from his spit the first is more probable. The most common occupations that fingerprint are anywhere in a medical field, anyone selling a restricted substance like liquor, a federal employee, or a licensed vehicle worker. Considering the victims are all from the same location, traveling for work seems unlikely as he would have to stay in the area for a whole week. There is also almost no federal buildings within a thirty-minute radius of Silverbrook, so that option is unlikely too.

Detective Benson grabs a letter from the table next to her and pins it up next to the envelope.

She ignores the scrawled lines and stares at the signature: Minoan Murderer.

He’s one of few serial killers who has thought to name himself, likened to Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer. That seems to be the point. Men who were never caught, with distinct M.O.s, and whose names have yet to perish in the collective consciousness of the general population. But unlike his idols, he has no pension for violence. He views himself as an intelligent individual, not a brute. He wants attention for his intelligence, thus the cypher.  

Detective Benson adds a cypher to the board. The symbols used have been identified as the Cretan hieroglyphs used by the Minoan civilization, a code still yet to be solved by cryptographers. Thus, the chosen alias.

The letter tends to imply that he solved the real hieroglyphs himself and are now using them, but that is highly debated. What is very clear is that he wants as many people to try and solve his cypher as possible, thus he threatens early death if the police do not publish the cypher (a tool proven effective by the Zodiac killer).

Detective Benson gets up from her chair, rushes over to her desk, and dials the only frequent in her call log.

The Minoan Murder basically took the Zodiac Killer’s M.O., but toned down the violence and tried to one-up him in intelligence. Hopefully that means his ego is his focus not the actual murders. So, if they play it right, his ego could also be his downfall.