The Inferno Killers

Minor Character: Las Vegas
Name	Matthew Tarland (left) Jake Tarland (center) Ellie Brass (right)
Gender	Male (Jake, Matthew) Female (Ellie)
Birth Date	September 24, 1982 (Ellie Brass)
Family	Jim Brass (Ellie's stepfather) Nancy Brass (Ellie's mother; deceased) Mike O'Toole (Ellie's biological father)
City	Las Vegas
Occupation	Prostitute (Ellie) Church assistant (Jake)
Pathology	Serial Killers Spree Killers House Cleaners Kidnappers Stalkers Conspirators
Modus Operandi	Varied
No. of Victims	8 killed 2 assaulted 1 abducted
Status	Incarcerated (Jake and Ellie) Deceased (Matthew)
Portrayed By	Lucas Kerr (Matthew) Luke Kleintak (Jake) Teal Redmann (Ellie)
First Appearance	Skin in the Game

The Inferno Killers (so named for the purpose of this wiki) were a group of serial-turned-spree killers who appeared in the Season Thirteen finale and the Season Fourteen premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Background

Jake and Matthew Tarland were at-risk brothers who assisted aristocrat Oliver Tate in procuring women in prostitution. Tate even alter their DNA with his biotech experience, forced them into porn with the women and girls, and likely raped the brothers, all to dominate and possess them until Tate kicked them to the streets. The brothers were furious and vowed revenge. Matthew, having been arrested for solicitation, met Ellie Brass, the troubled stepdaughter of Jim Brass, in San Diego and became engaged with him, relating over their problems with father figures in their lives. The trio agreed to get revenge on Tate and Jim with an elaborate series of murders of the women and teenage girls he'd pay for services, specifically from pimp Daniel Larson usually exhibited in a catalog of posed photos depicting the Nine Circles of Hell, based on a 16th Century copy of Dante's Divine Comedy in the Inferno chapter. The plan was to frame Tate for the murders, then kill him to complete the job, while Ellie also targeted Jim as the spree was to escalate.

Season Thirteen

Skin in the Game

Megan Ramriez was found strangled on a porn stage, her corpse decayed and posed, but "honeysuckle summer" perfume sprayed in the air and her lingerie being newly purchased. Rehydrating her remains led to her identification from facial features and fingerprints, but only after familiar face Angela Banner returned and recognized her as Megan Ramirez, who wanted out of sex work. A Balliol's bone dowel is seen in a hollowed bible, holding a "false black widow" still alive, and a gold heart charm is found inside Megan's heart. More women and girls from the Fellowship of fallen Angels religious sanctuary, where Angela and Larson run the place for endangered and vagrant people, are found out to be missing, including Ellie, so Jim calls her mother Nancy to the city. A woman Matthew strangled into a coma, Teresa Hill, who ran her own virginity auction, is tracked to the hospital through her photo. She was found posed in an alley, almost dead, and among her belongings is another gold heart charm.

Chloe Rudolph, who ran a food fetish porn site, is found dead in the studio she streamed from after a live feed of the crime scene ran for an hour and viewers called the police. She was also strangled, posed around trays of desserts, and locusts covered in chocolate were pouring out of her mouth. She had a pimp, Greg Hill, who was shot in his head and posed seated in her freezer. When another "bone" in a hollowed book is found with a third gold heart pendant, the team is convinced there's a serial killer. Bruising on Chloe's back spells a message under UV light, "THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS", which could only be done antemortem and was all too likely to be found in autopsy. Larson is suspected from a hollowed-out bible at his sermon, but he says the CSIs now only care because Ellie is missing.

They return to the church at night when the livestream is traced to a computer there and the caliber gun matches Larson's, whose record is found out. Angela is found there with a girl chained to a bed while she detoxes, and she's arrested when the CSIs misinterpret the whole scene. Matthew watches while smoking, and John Merchiston, a journalist who follows the team's investigation, goes to pick up the cigarette he dropped, only for Matthew to hit his head and knock him out. When Merchiston joins the team and notices round objects all over the crime scenes, D.B. Russell notices they're really circles, even nine on the dowels, to imply the Nine Circles of Hell. When the engravings are matched to the murders, the police find their break in the case.

When Larson is brought in for questioning, and photos of the victims are on his phone, he only cops to still being a pimp for the elite, giving up Tate as the client that likes the Nine Circles fantasy. Larson asks for his lawyer and insists on a deal for Ellie's safe return, lying he knows where she is and wanting no charges in exchange. Knowing another solicitation is arranged for that night, Morgan Brody offers herself as bait in a sting, despite Conrad Ecklie completely against his daughter being put in danger. Jake arrives at a corner to pick Morgan up in an SUV, then takes her to Tate's condo. The team follows her in separate cars, and a necklace is hidden in her camera. Tate is suspected due to dowels in his art collection, but he has no criminal record once he's identified. Tate steals Morgan's necklace, which cuts the visual feed, then dismisses her and shows her out when she asks about the other women he solicited.

Matthew is outside to take Morgan in a separate SVU, while Jake leads the police away. He's arrested when he's stopped, and in the meantime, Ellie mails a pre-recorded video of Matthew smacking her around saying "we have sinned and we'll be punished" to Nancy, in a hollowed-out bible with a dowel holding a flash drive in blood. Realizing Morgan is in danger, Russell's too late, as Morgan's already kidnapped around the time Ellie was confirmed to be "taken hostage".

Season Fourteen

The Devil and D.B. Russell

Tracing the path of Matthew's van leads to an abandoned warehouse, where a large locker reveals a murdered Denise Tyler, impaled on a spear posthumously like the Circle of Hell rendering Morgan was shown by Tate. Merchiston knows Ellie and Morgan are still alive, confirmed when Morgan wakes up tied to a bed with a collar around her neck, just like Ellie next to her. When asking where she is Morgan is told by Ellie the abandoned house with religious scribbles on the walls is "Hell". Jake denies culpability and shames the victims, resulting in Ecklie beating him in a failed attempt for answers. Larson reveals he blackmailed Tate with his payment of sex from women Larson pimped, then told his family and friends when Tate refused the demands. Believing Tate to be ruthless, Larson reveals Angela was one of Tate's favorite women to procure.

Denise's back has "BARB THEE THORNS" bruised under her skin, and the boat in the locker, since it couldn't fit through the door in one piece, is pulled apart to reveal more Balliol's bones, but with computer coding instead in ones and twos. Matthew's dried sweat on Denise's forehead reveals no gender genes, and Finn sees UV messages in the condo saying she's "warmer" and then "on fire" when she finds a fireplace burner doesn't work. Synthetic DNA in saline is removed from the gasp cap, and Merchiston arrives at the condo to say a message sent him to Finn: another bible holding a dowel with a bloody flash drive. The message on the gates of Hell is seen on the screen, then a video of Morgan, with Ellie behind the camera with a knife against her throat by Matthew, showed Morgan reciting a bible verse and that the team has six hours to decide if Ellie or Morgan dies.

Noticing Morgan keeps staring up in the video, the sound of air traffic is isolated, which can determine their location by finding the plane. Knowing the dowels have ternary code, the CSIs determine the synthetic DNA has data storage in its nucleotides, which, when put together, reveal all the murdered women in photos posed based on the Divine Comedy images. Angela realizes the Tarlands are the killers and calls Russell, demanding he meet her at the church alone. Matthew silences her by beating her to death and tying her to a pole over thorns, to represent the Sixth Circle. Russell sees the Bible with the dowel first before a dead Angela. Tate arrives with a gun aimed at Russell, demands Russell's phone, and says he's not the killer, assuming Larson is despite him being in custody. He flees in his car to save his own skin, trying to run Russell over on the way out, but Matthew sets off a bomb in the car, killing Tate in a scene staged like the Seventh circle and leaving the CSIs fearing Morgan and Ellie will make the last two circles.

Brass gets a message from the SIM card in the dowel, then calls a number Ellie answers, pleaded for a decision. When he refuses, as he wanted Morgan alive instead, she gest the message and lets Matthew hang up the phone. "BABRB THEE THORNS" is revealed to be an anagram for Theban Brothers, brothers cursed by their father's sins, revealing Jake has a familial accomplice. DNA from under Angela's fingernails identifies Matthew, and his print is on the bomb remote. Jake is confronted by Larson to give up Matthew's specific location, with Russell showing he murdered Angela, which devastates Jake. Morgan, who's pulled a pin from the mattress, is ready to escape with Ellie, who she told earlier is also being sought for by Nancy. Morgan taunts Matthew by saying he's a coward to wear a mask when he returns. He removes it and leans in to say it doesn't change the predicament he'll "make her feel everything", but Morgan stabs him with the pin.

Morgan and Ellie restrain Matthew and run, but Ellie lies "another girl" is in the house. Morgan runs back and sees Matthew missing, but heading back out again, Matthew draws a pistol on her and forces her to kneel in the sand. He again says he'll torture her, but she punches his crotch and forces the gun out of his hands in a scuffle. Ellie gets the gun and screams for Matthew to let Morgan go, causing them both to stand up and apart from each other. Ellie shoots Matthew in the chest dead without provocation, and Morgan thanks her and tells her to come get help with her. Ellie shoots Morgan in her back and nearly kills her to silence her, but the team get her to the hospital and Ellie lies and says Matthew was behind it all. but the team realize the distance Ellie said Matthew was shot was a lie, and they see Ellie's photos has photos of her and Matthew as an engaged couple.

As Nancy was in the photos and was a witness, and because Ellie wanted to get to Brass, Ellie stabbed her to death in the bathroom. After Brass arrives with takeout and finds the scene, Ellie appears with another gun, saying she hates Brass for not choosing to save her life. Distraught, Brass begs Ellie to shoot her over losing Nancy, until the cops storm the hotel room. Ellie hands brass the guns at his request and surrenders to arrest. Morgan wakes up, reassures by Ecklie Ellie was arrested, and brass holds Nancy a proper funeral while utterly broken.

Modus Operandi

The group targeted, prostitutes, strippers and other sex trade workers who sought shelter at the Fellowship for the Fallen Angels, Matthew as the primary killer, Jack as an accomplice, and Ellie as a distraction. They would first kidnap their victims and hold them for days or weeks while they prepared to kill them. They would kill them in various ways, originally by strangulation, unless they deviated from the M.O and up until they started to escalate. The victims were then posed to look like illustrations from a 16th century edition of Dante's The Divine Comedy, as a reference to Oliver Tate's solicitation. The group's signature was leaving behind hollowed-out bibles with a rectangular case inside near the victims. Circles were also prominently featured at the crime scenes, not just in objects, but also carved on the cases. Forensic evidence was left behind at each scene to try and incriminate Tate, up until killing him once the CSIs closed in on him as a taunt at the police. They eventually escalated to kidnapping Morgan and pretending Ellie was captive to get to Brass, making him "choose" between the two of them. Tate himself was finally killed to complete their revenge, and eventually Ellie worked independently to kill all witnesses to her crimes, including her own fiancé and accomplice, Morgan, and her own mother, by shooting and stabbing.

Known Members

• Matthew Tarland (leader; deceased)
• Jake Tarland (incarcerated)
• Ellie Brass (incarcerated)

Known Victims

• 2013:
  • March: Megan Ramirez (strangled and mummified over two months; staged her body on May 12 to represent the second circle, "Lust")
  • April 29: Teresa Hill (non-fatally strangled and slipped into a coma; represented the first circle, "Limbo")
  • May 12:
    • Chloe Rudolph (strangled and force-fed chocolate-covered locusts postmortem, found twelve hours later on May 13; represented the third circle, "Gluttony")
    • Greg Lee (shot once in the head; represented the fourth circle, "Greed")
  • May 13: John Merchiston (knocked unconscious with a strike to his head)
  • May 14-15: Morgan Brody (abducted, held hostage, and shot in the back by Ellie; was rescued)
  • May 14: Denise Tyler (strangled and stabbed through the heart postmortem; represented the fifth circle, "Wrath")
  • May 15:
    • Angela Banner (killed with blunt-force trauma to her head and tied to a pole by Matthew; represented the sixth circle, "Heresy")
    • Oliver Tate (killed in an explosion by Matthew; represented the seventh circle, "Violence")
    • Matthew Tarland (member; non-fatally stabbed and shot to death by Ellie)
    • Nancy Brass (stabbed repeatedly by Ellie)

Appearances

CSI:Crime Scene Investigation
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	#
Season 13	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	X	N/A			1
Season 14	X	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	N/A			1
Total																										2