The Real Murderer Who Inspired The Scariest UnSub on ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’
Criminal Minds has created some of the scariest serial killers ever for the long-running crime procedural show, but did you know some of the killers are based on real-life criminals? The latest season, Criminal Minds: Evolution, featured a murderer whose who commits crimes inspired by a real killer.
The first season of ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ follows a terrifying online serial killer community
Criminal Minds: Evolution is a spinoff of the original series and features many of the original cast, including Joe Mantegna, AJ Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Paget Brewster, Aisha Tyler, and Adam Rodriguez.
The spinoff is much like the original Criminal Minds, with episodes that follow the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit as they track down serial killers across the United States.
The first season of Criminal Minds: Evolution saw the BAU deal with a network of serial killers created during the COVID-19 lockdowns. One of the deadly killers the team is up against? Elias Voit, played by Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ cast and crew weigh in on Elias Voit
“I think Elias is a pretty terrifying character because you would never notice him,” Gilford explained in a promotional video for the show. “I mean, look at me! Like, I just look like a normal dude.”
Executive producer Erica Messer also gave her take on the killer, saying that, while he looks just like a “normal, charming, family man” who audiences almost feel “sympathetic” toward, Voit is really a “monster.”
Jim Clemente, a retired FBI consultant, shared his take on Voit. “Elias Voit has a very complicated profile,” he said. “It’s not a common backstory for an unsub [unknown subject].” Clemente detailed how Voit’s relationship with his uncle, who was also a killer, taught him how to literally get away with murder.
“He has no real human connections,” Clemente continued. “He can see them in other people because he’s really smart and he can mimic them, but he doesn’t actually feel [that connection].”
The real-life killer Elias Voit was based on
Voit is clearly a complicated character. And many viewers assumed the Criminal Minds: Evolution writers created him in the writers’ room. However, Messer revealed that they drew inspiration from an actual murderer: Israel Keyes.
“I don’t think they ever found out how many people he killed,” she explained. “But one of the things he did was bury ‘kill kits’ all over the U.S. He would fly into town, drive for hundreds of miles, and then dig up a kill kit and kill some unsuspecting person or people.”
Keyes committed his crimes, which included murder, arson, robbery, rape, and kidnapping, from June 2001 to February 2012, when he was arrested. Keyes died by suicide while in jail, leaving no clues as to the whereabouts of other possible victims.
Will ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ get a second season?
Criminal Minds: Evolution‘s first season is still airing — the season finale will come out on February 9, 2023 — but it has already been renewed for another season.
