After 19 seasons, Criminal Minds has found opportunities to kill off beloved characters over time.
Criminal Minds, which premiered in 2005, follows a bunch of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Evaluation Unit. The crime drama explores different fictional cases and shows how behavioral evaluation helps the team locate their unknown subjects.
The unique Criminal Minds series was revived by Paramount+ after its initial conclusion in 2020. Criminal Minds: Evolution brought back many of the solid with Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster reprising their characters Other key characters — akin to Matthew Gray Gubler’s Reid — have made cameos.
After pulling off quite a few surprise character deaths within the revival, showrunner Erica Messer addressed what continues to be to return.
“I don’t think we are able to ever be prepared anytime anything has ever happened with a beloved character,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2026 before hinting at giving the audience a break.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, praised Criminal Minds for the way they navigated character deaths.
“We love being there. That is such a dream job. It’s just such an exquisite place to indicate up and go to work every single day. No person wants it to be over and no person wants to go away,” he told Us in May 2025. “So hopefully we get to do the show for a very long time.”
He continued: “Hopefully no person gets sacrificed for the sake of fine television and we discover another people who we are able to construct enough merit. Will ended up serving that purpose this 12 months. But I feel it just brings something else to the show that fans can enjoy and suffer through with us.”
Keep scrolling to relive the show’s most devastating deaths:
Haley
Everyone remembers where they were when George Foyet a.k.a The Reaper murdered Hotchner’s (Thomas Gibson) wife while the BAU were forced to listen on the phone.
Maeve
Reid’s romance with Maeve (Beth Riesgraf) was cut short when her stalker killed her in season 8.
Gideon
It had been years since Mandy Patinkin left the show as Gideon but Criminal Minds still found a technique to reveal he was murdered off screen in season 10 by a serial killer from certainly one of his past cases.
Strauss
Despite her ups and downs with the BAU, Strauss (Jayne Atkinson) had won Us over when she was poisoned by an unsub generally known as The Replicator in season 8.
Will
Josh Stewart had a recurring role as Will on Criminal Minds since 2007. Stewart raised eyebrows in 2024 when he revealed that he wouldn’t be reprising his role in future seasons of the show. His character died in a 2025 episode when Will collapsed after experiencing a headache.
Roxy
During a May 2026 episode, Luke (Rodriguez) was mourning a private loss while helping the BAU solve a case. It wasn’t until the top of the two-episode premiere that viewers discovered his dog, Roxy, needed to be put down.