Eddie Felser

"Don't look at me, please, don't look at me!"

Eddie Felser is a serial killer and serial arsonist who appears in The Monster Within in Profiler.

Background
Eddie has an older brother named Richie, who was always jealous, feeling like their parents doted more on Eddie instead of him. Richie one day wanted to get Eddie into trouble so his parents would love him more, so he tried to set a stove fire in hopes of blaming Eddie for it. Shockingly it was at the cost of himself catching fire, resulting in him being permanently blinded. Whether he blamed Eddie or he told the truth, the brothers' parents resented Eddie for the rest of their lives, Eddie feeling a mixture of guilt and resentment himself all those years as well. When Eddie grew up and moved to an apartment in Allentown, he grew paranoid over people starting at him, fearing they were seeing him as a horrible human being, which lead him to dress like his blind brother, in a thick jacket and black sunglasses. When his brother contacted him again to admit his guilt and reconcile, telling him their father died and that was the reason why, he finally snapped, and while he avoided his brother trying to reach him, he began targeting the random strangers he'd see at the Logan train station and he'd kill them once he followed them around, first by knocking them out, then burning their faces to their skulls with an aerosol flame centered on their eyes so he wouldn't assume they "were gawking at" him any longer. In the span of months, he murdered four random adults in such a fashion after he stalked them home, escalating and killing more often as he continued and grew more paranoid from Richie and strangers at the station. Michael Westmore, an FBI agent Samantha Waters and Bailey Malone knew personally, failed to handle the case well, resulting in the VCTF being called in.

The Monster Within
Eddie's first seen fleeing the scene by an elderly woman who lives in the same apartment building as the man he just killed, whose scorched body she finds in horror sitting in the elevator. He flees just before when she asks for help to use the lift. Eddie's later seen not in his apartment, which Richie comes to visit yet again, but at the station again, where he bumps into Marion Conaway, the station cleaning lady, who's wheeling a trash bin and says "excuse me" to him with exasperation. He later tracks her to her storage locker where she's packing up for the night, taking her by surprise and killing her in the same manner, but not charring her face as badly as the other victims for reasons unknown. He's then seen the next day at the same train station where a woman bumps into him, then he starts yelling for her to stop looking at him and walk away. He then spots, Karen McClain, a federal informant and the mistress of Michael Westmore, hanging up on Westmore at the payphone before going to the coffee stand. She then shouts at him when she sees him staring at her. By the time he's back at home the next day, Westmore's killed McClain in the same fashion as Eddie's murders to frame him, albeit not as accurately. That morning also, he gets another visit from Eddie. He tries to sneak away, but as Eddie's leaving, he has a change of heart and changes his mind, calling out to Richie to stop him from leaving. Richie tells Eddie about his hopes to reconcile and make amends, as well as his intentions of taking responsibility for his own disfigurement. Eddie asks if he means it, to which Richie replies they have to try even if it won't be easy. He then goes into his insecurities over Eddie and how he only meant the stove burning to be a prank. He shows his own guilt over the tragedy and says their father's death encouraged him to reconcile and asks if they can be a real family to each other. Throughout the confession and request for mending their severed bonds, Eddie lights a match and turns the stove on, leaving it on before leaving Richie alone in his own apartment. The FBI, needing to catch Eddie, set up a sting where they plaster eyes around the train station to point him out when he has a nervous breakdown. Westmore's on the ground immediately responding, Eddie running back to his apartment, pushing people out of the way as he does so. Westmore chases him down and pins him on the ground, while Eddie huddles up into a ball and cries "Don't look at me" over and over. Westmore, "consoling" Eddie, stands him up, then to cover up Westmore's own crimes, throws Eddie out the window to his death, Eddie dying instantly when he hits the concrete. Westmore lies about the "suicide", then Speaks to Richie, feigning "sympathy" and manipulating Richie into agreeing to not sue.

Profile
The killer's serious paranoia shows from his violence in the murders and targeting the victims' eyes. He feels guilty, so he wants to destroy their eyes so they don't see his guilt. With this overwhelming penance nagging at him, he feels the need to eliminate who he feels worsens it as he goes more insane. His choice of fire as a weapon is both biblical and volatile, meaning he lashes out when he's triggered despite how he channels it and at the same time he must have experience with fire with enough of a comfort to weaponize it even on a civilian level. He was originally assumed to be a burn victim, but then the profile was changed to the likelihood that he burned someone and he emulates that piece every time in the murders. He's not afraid of fire if he feels he can utilize it to his ends, even if it never offers him closure. He likely draws attention to himself with a paranoia over being stared at, but in the big city, and in a public place like a train station, even if people pay mind, they wouldn't assume he would be worse than they thought.

Modus Operandi
Eddie targeted random strangers with varying physical and birth traits he feared were blaming him at Logan Station, just from shouting at him when they saw him. He would stalk them as far as he felt safe, preferably away from the station, except for Marion Conaway, who was killed at the station because she worked there. Once he found them in a spot he could get them alone, he would blitz-attack them by beating them in their heads once or several times with a stonemason's hammer, just before he killed them while unconscious by burning their faces with an improvised aerosol can and disposable lighter to evoke his brother Richie's disfigurement and blindness, specifically aiming for their eyes so he didn't feel they "saw and watched" him any longer. During the sting, he technically assaulted a few people by pushing them aside to run back to his apartment.

Known Victims

 * Five unidentified victims
 * Marion Conaway
 * Several unidentified bystanders (assaulted; pushed aside during the chase)