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Minor Character: Miami
Walter-dresden
Name Walter Lee Resden
Gender Male
Family Morris Yates (foster father)
Hallie Yates (foster mother; deceased)
Brett Flanders (foster brother; deceased)
Keith Oakland (foster brother; deceased)
Cindy Sanderly Byrold (foster sister; deceased)
Clint Holtz (foster brother; deceased)
Oscar Vega (foster brother; deceased)
John Massry (foster brother)
City Miami
Occupation Alarm Installer
Pathology Serial Killer
Modus Operandi Strangulation (males)
Stabbing (females)
No. of Victims 12 killed
2 attempted
1 hostage
Status Incarcerated
Portrayed By Damian Young
First Appearance Under Suspicion

"I knew I'd find you, just like I found everyone else. Saved you for last."

Walter Resden is a prolific serial killer who appeared in Season Four of CSI: Miami. He is the arch-nemesis of Horatio Caine.

Background[]

Resden was born in New York City, New York. In the early 80s, he was taken into foster care by Morris and Hallie Yates along with six other children. Morris would often beat his children with his own belt, but mostly beat Walter due to him being slower than the other children. He would also lock Walter in the closet as punishment. One day while Morris was beating Walter, one of his foster brothers tried to stand up to Morris only to get beaten down and sent away. Things only continued to get worse for Walter from then on where he eventually developed a hatred not only for Morris, but to all his foster siblings who failed to protect him. At some unknown point he decided to start killing his foster siblings leading up to him getting enough courage to kill his foster father. This string of killings eventually drew the attention of a young Horatio Caine who started investigating him. Walter decided to get at Horatio by killing his partner's mistress, forcing his partner to retire from the NYPD. Resden eventually drove Caine out of his former career in the NYPD after nearly killing him.

Season Four[]

Under Suspicion[]

He would appear in Miami ten years later, framing Caine for the murder of his (Caine's) girlfriend, Rachael Turner. He has a confrontation with Horatio that gets him nailed for both Rachael's murder and a murder he committed in Orlando a few years back. He gets away with it, however, thanks to the help of Joseph Ratner who rules that Resden be released.

Skeletons[]

He reappears targeting the daughter of two of his former victims. He starts an online relationship with her and prepares a set of killings for Horatio. When he was released, he killed a couple in Cincinnati and froze their bodies. He returns to Miami and kills Oscar Vega and pays someone to plant his body in the middle of a volleyball tournament for the CSIs to find. He proceeds to plant the bodies of the Ohio couple in Vega's house and travels to his foster father's house to kill him before being stopped by Horatio. When he attempts to kill Caine with a shotgun, Caine shoots him in the shoulder. Walter Resden is then arrested shortly afterwards, charged not only with attempted murder, but murder as well, due to the discovery of new evidence against him. Although Horatio learns that Resden targeted his victims because his foster siblings allowed their foster father to brutally abuse him, he tells Resden he has no sympathy for him.

Modus Operandi[]

Walter targeted the foster siblings who did not help him deal with their foster father's abuse. He would kill them in their homes by strangling the males victims with their own belts (as a reference to how Morris would hit him with a belt) and stabbing his female victims twice in the abdomen with a big hunting knife. If his siblings had children, he would leave them alive, locking in a closet (as a reference to how Morris did the same thing to him when he was a child).

In the case of Rachel Turner (who was targeted because of her relationship with Horatio), he stabbed her, dumped her body into in a river, planting evidence and staging a struggle in her apartment to make it appear Horatio as if killed her. To ensure her body would be found, he left a spike strip on the bridge he dumped her body over so a car would drive off the bridge and next to the river. When he attempted to kill Horatio, he stabbed him, then later tried to shoot him with the shotgun he planned to use to kill Morris. After killing Oscar Vega, he left the key to John Massary's home in his throat and paid a man to bury his body on a beach. In the case of Clint and Beverly Holtz, he took their bodies out of their home, preserved them with pine cleaner and staged their bodies in Oscar Vega's home in the exact same way Eric and Judy Wilson's bodies were found.

Known Victims[]

  • 1995, New York City, New York:
    • February 24: Brett and Meredith Flanders
    • August: Keith Oakland and his unnamed wife
    • October 8: Eric and Judy Wilson (left their daughter Jennifer alive in a closet)
    • October: Horatio Caine (attempted, but survived; was non-fatally stabbed)
  • 2005:
    • Unspecified date, Orlando, Florida: Kevin and Cindy Sanderly Byrold (left their seven-year-old son alive in a closet)
    • Miami, Florida:
      • October 23: Rachael Turner (stabbed)
      • October 23-24: Horatio Caine (briefly held at gunpoint)
      • October 24: Calleigh Duquesne (briefly held at gunpoint)
    • November 5, Cincinnati, Ohio: Clint and Beverly Holtz
  • 2006, Florida:
    • February 5, Miami: Oscar Vega (strangled with a belt and shoved a key down his throat post-mortem)
    • February 6, Florida City, the standoff at Morris Yates' residence:
      • Morris Yates (his foster father; attempted to kill with a shotgun)
      • Horatio Caine (attempted to shoot)

Appearances[]

CSI:Miami
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 4 - - - - - X - - - - - - - - X - - - - - - - - - - 2
Total 2

Trivia[]

  • Walter appears to primarily be inspired by Richard Ramirez, better known as "The Night Stalker". Ramirez terrorized California for years in a series of home break-in murders, killing adults in the houses and preferring couples. Ramirez would often rape the women and treat the people he murdered like Satanic "sacrifices". Any children present in the house would be locked in the closets and left behind as witnesses.
  • Walter and his rivalry with Horatio Caine also heavily inspired by the 2000 film The Watcher.
  • Walter has similarities with Billy Flynn, a killer from Criminal Minds. Both were prolific serial killers who were abused by a parental figure (Walter was abused by his foster father, while Billy was abused by his mother), killed victims across the U.S., and would leave the children of their victims, if they had any, behind as witnesses. Coincidentally, like Walter, Billy is also partly based on Ramirez.
  • Walter Resden was originally named Walter Dresden in his first appearance. His surname was retconned to Resden in his second appearance.
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