11E17 - The Sandman

It's six months after Morgan's abduction and eventual rescue. He and Savannah have since gotten married and are awaiting the imminent birth of their first child. On what is his first day back at work, his welcome back is interrupted by a new case, which takes the team to Wichita, Kansas. A child named Ronnie Brewer is abducted from his rural farm home, with both his parents, Jim and Lyla Brewer, murdered on site. Both parents had their eyes filled with sand and glued shut. The team will learn that the ritual with Jim was done post-mortem, while Lyla was still alive. In addition, each parent was killed differently, Jim by having his throat slashed, Lyla by blunt force trauma to the head. By the time the team arrives in Wichita, Ronnie's dead body is discovered. However, a second victim family, the Zumwalts, is discovered. The early teen daughter Josie Zumwalt has been abducted from the home, father Luke Zumwalt dead on site with the ritual with the eyes and the throat slashed, but mother Ellie Zumwalt who survived the ordeal, albeit with the ritual of the eyes also conducted on her. The team find that a key piece of evidence at both sites is a custom made hourglass, with the sand used both in the hourglasses and placed into the eyes important. Ellie Zumwalt surviving may also provide some evidence both if her survival was on purpose or by accident, and what information she can provide about the unsub. That information makes the team's work time sensitive as they know they have only a certain amount of time before the unsub will kill Josie. This case proves difficult for Morgan who isn't sure if it is anything beyond being off work for six months.