Susan Jacobs (Suzanne Cryer) is the main villainess from "Seven Seconds," episode 3.05 of Criminal Minds (airdate October 24, 2007). She is the wife of Richard Jacobs and the mother of their son, Jeremy.
Susan's backstory revealed that she worked at a shopping mall in Potomac Falls, VA, before quitting to pursue another career. She later met and married Richard Jacobs, but their marriage began to fall apart due to Richard being a closet pedophile, with his victim being their six-year-old niece, Katie Jacobs. Instead of being appalled by Richard's cruelty, Susan blamed her niece for her and Richard's separation, and after hearing a news report about a girl, Jessica Davis, who was abducted from the mall and later murdered, she decided to resort to abducting her niece in a twisted attempt to save her marriage.
A week after Jessica's death, Susan took her entire family, which included Katie and her parents Paul (Richard's brother) and Beth Jacobs, to the same mall where she once worked; doing so under the pretense of shopping for a birthday present for Richard. She later spotted Katie and led her away from the arcade and from Jeremy (who was supposed to be watching her), before taking her to the storage area. Susan turned heel when she ripped off Katie's necklace, which was given to her by Richard, and later tied up and gagged Katie before placing her in the storage closet. The villainess removing the necklace was a display of Susan's jealousy and rage towards her niece, and as for covering Katie's mouth with duct tape, the evil Susan did so knowing that Katie was asthmatic, meaning this was also an attempt to kill her niece.
Susan later called authorities herself regarding her "missing" niece, and masked her heel persona by acting as a concerned aunt, while revealing that the intended gift for Richard was a lighter. However, that and Susan's revelation that she worked in retail ended up revealing Susan as the kidnapper, and after Richard's pedophilia was uncovered, Susan was taken away by Emily Prentiss in front of the rest of the Jacobs family. Prentiss confronted Susan regarding her actions and her facade as having a perfect marriage to Richard, but in response, the villainess denied everything: her husband's pedophilia and her abducting Katie. Prentiss later showed Susan a doll belonging to Katie, which the young girl had mutilated as a result of being molested by her uncle, while also begging Susan to reveal Katie's whereabouts. While Susan broke down, Katie was found and resuscitated by Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan, after which Susan was handcuffed by Prentiss and arrested.
Trivia[]
- Suzanne Cryer also played villainess Marcy on Seinfeld, and later appeared as the evil Dr. Jennifer Grier on CSI.