The Canardos

The Canardos are a hostile couple that abducted, raped (in Tony's case), and
murdered (in Amber's case) a number of women.

Amber Canardo
Amber Canardo (ne Brooks) is a misogynistic serial killer, abductor, and the
mastermind of a two-person killing team.
Amber was abused by her father and brother for her whole childhood and into
her teenage years. Finally, on March 19, 2000, while she was still fifteen, she
managed to stumble into a Tallahassee hospital, showing signs of having been
savagely beaten and raped. When doctors discerned her father and brother were
the ones responsible, they convinced Amber to go to the police, but when Amber
arrived at the station, her mother appeared and told the officers that Amber was
lying about everything, including the rape, and they stopped investigating. The
abuse presumably continued, and as a result, Amber was psychologically,
emotionally, and physically scarred for life, also causing her to become a
misogynistic (due to her mother's neglect and apathy) sexual sadist. In 2005,
Amber began abducting and murdering teenage girls in Jacksonville, Florida,
somehow convincing a current boyfriend to aid her. The girls were taken to a
secluded cabin in the woods, and would be tortured by Amber and her partner
(who took turns filming each other) for weeks, before Amber strangled them to
death. At some point, Amber presumably killed her boyfriend for unknown
reasons, leaving the body to rot on the grounds located near the cabin.
The following year, Amber met Tony Canardo, who became her new partner,
when he was released from prison. The two married, and began killing girls
together, recording the torture and murders. They would then have Tony's former
cellmate Joey Davin dispose of the victims' cars over state lines; he would do so
without realizing what the two were actually doing. When the mother of her sixth
victim, Bonnie Mossenberg, appeared on television, pleading for her daughter's
safe return and begging forgiveness for her abductor, not knowing at the time
Bonnie was dead, an enraged Amber sent a DVD depicting Bonnie being tortured
and raped to Mrs. Mossenberg, as if to say "I don't want, or need, your
forgiveness". Why she was so enraged by Mrs. Mossenburg's willingness to
forgive her is never revealed, but it is possible that it may have been because
the act reminded her of the way her own mother had forgiven the people who
once abused her, drawing Amber's anger.
When the BAU is given a series of DVDs by a number of murder victims'
families, they are appalled that the killer or killers had recorded the murder and
sent the videos to the victims' parents. The team is convinced that the unsub is
actually a two-person killing team, and that the dominant one is most definitely
male. Meanwhile, she is seen abducting Tiffany Spears when she approaches her
for directions. Through investigation, the team finds a link to Joey, but he refuses
to comply and gets himself killed. The BAU then tracks down Joey's old inmate,
Tony, whom they believe is the dominant partner. Tony refuses to give up any
information, so Amber is brought in to talk to Tony to find out the location of the
missing girl. Tony pretends that the killing team was Joey and himself. As Reid

and Gideon watch the tape, they realize that Amber looked too calm when in the
room with all the pictures of the murdered women. They also noticed that she
wasn't scared because she looked her husband dead in the eyes while talking.
Hotch suspects that Tony is trying to protect her, and that Amber is definitely the
mastermind behind the bizarre killings.
It was evident by the defensive wounds on the victims that the killer was not
much stronger than they were. The victims appeared to have managed to get
away for short periods of time and were recaptured. Amber's voice also appears
in the videos, and it is evident that she is not afraid of the cameraman. This
leads Hotch to deduce that she is the killer. Gideon manages to get Tony to
reveal where Tiffany is being kept (a cabin in the woods), and when the team
arrives, they find Tiffany with her face pressed against the window. Hotch sees
Amber, who is tossing Tiffany around the room, beating her as she was once
beaten. The team bursts in, arresting Amber. She states that the FBI has nothing
on her Hotch replies that the BAU has her voice on tape, giving orders to Tony.
She and Tony have presumably been incarcerated ever since, although it is never
revealed what happened to her abusive family after her arrest.
Profile: Having been beaten and raped at a young age, Amber grew to desire
inflicting the same pain on other young women. She and Tony (her unwilling
partner) would abduct young girls so that Amber could relive her earlier
experience as the abuser.
Amber is a rarity among serial killers, as a vast majority of serial killers are
men. In this case, the fact that the abused has become the abuser is also a rarity
among female killers. She is also an outspoken misogynist, which is slightly odd
since she herself is a woman. It most likely stems from the sexual and emotional
abuse she suffered at the hands of her family. It is possible that she may also
suffer from self-hatred due to her misogyny, presumably for not being able to
defend herself from her family.
M.O.: Targeting Caucasian blondes in their teens, Amber and her partner usually
abducted them them while they were jogging, though some victims were taken
from parking lots, along with their cars (which, after Amber met Tony, were given
to Joey Davin, who sold them across the state line). If the victim was jogging, the
partner would approach with a van and ask for directions to lure the victim close,
so Amber could jump out, grab them, and drag them into the vehicle. The girls
were then by taken to a cabin in the woods, where they would be tortured for
weeks, with methods of torture including rape (presumably only done by
whatever male partner was involved), beating, burning, cutting, bludgeoning,
and flagellation. While the duo presumably took turns torturing the girls, it
appears the partner was the primary torturer, working under the instructions of
Amber, who filmed everything, and taunted the victims. It was always Amber
who finished the victims off, which she did via strangulation (originally manual,
but later with a ligature of some kind). The bodies would be dumped in places
where they could be easily discovered, and were left in demeaning positions for
shock value. The only thing they wore was lengths of colored plastic film, which
was wrapped around their pelvises and chests.
Amber eventually started sending DVDs of the torture sessions to the parents of
the victims, as a form of psychological torment. The envelopes the DVDs were in

were sent in were always addressed to just the mothers, and in the case of Laura
Clemensen, included a fake letter from Laura written by Amber.
Name
Alias
Gender
Birth
Date
Family

Amber Canardo
Amber Brooks (birth
name)
Female
1985

Unnamed father
Unnamed mother
Unnamed brother
Tony
Canardo (husband)
Unnamed mother-inlaw
Patholog Serial Killer
y
Abductor
Modus
Torture
Operandi Manual
strangulation (original
ly)
Ligature
strangulation (later)
No. of
7-8 killed
Victims 1 indirectly killed
1 attempted
Status
Incarcerated

Tony Canardo
Anthony Paul "Tony" Canardo is a serial rapist, abductor, and the submissive
member of a two-person killing team led by his wife, Amber Canardo.
Tony's mother was a drug addict who gave him up when he was four. She later
got him back when she became clean, but was incarcerated for prostitution when
he was eleven. After that, he bounced around under the care of Social Services,
growing up to become a criminal (exactly what he was convicted of is never
specified). After being released from prison in 2004, Tony met a woman named
Amber Brooks, married her, and became her new submissive partner in the
murders of young girls (Amber's first partner had died, possibly by her hand).
During a stint in jail, he met Joey Davin, who would later, probably unknowingly,
aid him and Amber in their murders by disposing of their victims' cars outside
state lines. He and Joey worked together at a car body shop until they were both
fired; Tony because he had too much control over Joey and Joey because he
wasn't very competent.
Tony first comes on the BAU's radar after Joey is shot and killed when they
come to his house to question him about his involvement. When Garcia goes
through prison records, she learns that the two were cell mates. When Morgan
goes to talk to him outside his and Amber's home, Tony assaults him with a

baseball bat, but is subdued. In custody, Tony remains defensive when

questioned by Hotch (who, along with the rest of the BAU, believe him to be the
leader and Joey to have been the submissive) and denies killing anyone, not
denying that Joey was involved. They send Amber, who has feigned being
physically abused by Tony, to the room to get him to talk. Inside, they
subtextually argue about the murders and the fact that Tony was only part of the
latter ones (Amber had her current boyfriend aid her in the killings before she
met and married Tony). On her instruction, he (falsely) tells about a storage
space to which Joey allegedly brought the victims.
While Hotch and Morgan go to the storage space, Amber leaves to finish off
their last victim. When Elle goes through Tony's background, she is surprised that
he is the dominant. Gideon and Reid go through video footage of Amber talking
to Tony and the way he watches the crime scene photos. Their suspicions are
confirmed when Garcia calls, having separated the audio on one of their torture
videos, and tells them that Amber can be heard giving Tony instructions and
verbally abusing the victim. Gideon confronts Tony, who initially remains
adamant that he and Joey were the killers. He caves when he learns that the DNA
evidence proves that Amber had killed men before they met and the fact that
she is letting Tony take the fall for the murders and tells them about the cabin in
the woods where they kept their victims. Tony then presumably went to prison
for his involvement in the murders.
M.O.: Tony and Amber would abduct their victims together. After taking the
victims to the cabin, they would torture them with beatings and cuts and have
Tony rape them (since Amber was physically incapable of doing so herself) with
her videotaping him and giving him instructions from behind the camera. After
Amber killed the girls by strangling them, initially manually but then by ligature,
Tony would dispose of the bodies semi-naked and placed in demeaning positions
in the wilderness. Tony and Amber then had an unknowing Joey dispose of the
victims' cars.
Profile: Tony was initially profiled to be the leader of the team, but it is gradually
revealed that, beneath his "tough guy" exterior, he is actually deeply insecure,
especially in his relationship with Amber. The BAU realized that he wasn't the
leader in part because of his upbringing, during which he'd had absolutely no
security or stability and shouldn't therefore have the confidence to commit serial
murder.
Name
Alias

Gender
Birth Date
Family

Anthony Paul
Canardo
Tony
Ton
T-Bone
Male
December 3, 1970
Unnamed mother
Amber
Canardo (wife)
Unnamed fatherin-law

Unnamed motherin-law
Unnamed brotherin-law
Occupation Former mechanic
Pathology Serial Rapist
Abductor
Criminal
Accomplice
Modus
See below
Operandi
No. of
5 raped
Victims
1 indirectly killed
1 abducted
1 assaulted
Status
Incarcerated
The Canardos M.O.
Amber and Tony targeted teenage blondes, which they would abduct while
they were jogging or in a parking lot by having Tony drive up beside them in a
van and ask for directions to catch their attention before Amber would jump out,
grab them, and drag them into the van. If possible, they would also take the
victims' cars, which would be sold across the state line by Joey Davin, who was
unaware of their true activities. The victims were then taken to a cabin located in
the woods, where they would be tortured for weeks through various means,
including beating, burning, cutting, bludgeoning, and flagellation. Tony would
also rape them, with Amber videotaping the act and giving him instructions from
behind the camera. Once they apparently became tired with the victim, Amber
would always finish her off, via ligature strangulation (though it was manual
strangulation when Amber worked with her previous partner). The bodies would
be dumped in places where people can easily discover them, and they were left
in demeaning positions for shock value; additionally, the only thing the corpses
wore were colored plastic film that was wrapped around their pelvises and
chests.
They eventually sent DVDs of the torture sessions they committed on the
victims to the victims' parents as a form of psychological torment. The envelopes
that contained the DVDs were always addressed to the mothers, and, in the case
of the envelope of the DVD containing Laura Clemensen's torture, it included a
fake letter written by Amber that was meant to look like it was written by Laura
herself.
Their profile
The unsubs are a killing team, initially profiled as consisting of two white
males. The dominant one is the mastermind, while the submissive one is
innocent of his crimes. They both share a common delusion, which they have
bonded over and feel that it justifies their actions. It is like the perfect storm;
once their deviant personalities collide, they are deadly and unstoppable
together. They may have met each other during their childhoods or they could be

related. The dominant partner makes the submissive feel invincible, which is his
reward for doing what he is told. Unfortunately, there are countless opportunities
for them to meet, and once they have pulled off their vicious acts, the two
accept this as common behavior and they become bored with normal activity.
They live only for their new reality and are obsessed with it. There is a fierce
loyalty between the two, but the submissive one is usually less intelligent and
once caught, he is easier to turn against his partner. The lack of remorse for their
victims increases their aggressiveness, and only sexual sadists like these unsubs
will stop once they are caught by authorities.
After it was revealed that Tony and Amber were the members of the killing
team, they were initially profiled to be the exact opposites of each other: Tony
would be the mastermind of the killing team, while Amber was the submissive
partner. However, the BAU eventually realized that as an outspoken misogynist,
Amber grew to desire the infliction of pain on other young women so they can
suffer just like Amber did when she was beaten and raped at an early age. As for
Tony, underneath his "tough guy" exterior, he is, in truth, deeply insecure,
especially in his relationship with Amber. This is presumably because that under
Amber's watch, he becomes intimidated.
Commentary for the episode reveals that Amber was based on a real case,
presumably currently free serial killer Karla Homolka, who committed a series or
rapes and homicides alongside her now-incarcerated husband, Paul Bernardo.
The Canardos also resemble Bernardo and Homolka in the sense that their
surnames sound similar to Bernardo's, and that both targeted women, abducting
them after luring them in under the pretense of asking for directions. Also, Tony
raped them as Bernardo did and their rapes and murders were recorded by the
pair. The difference between the Canardos and Bernardo and Homolka is that
their roles were swapped, with Amber being more dominant over Tony, while it
was vice-versa with Bernardo and Homolka. In addition, the Canardos seem to
share similarities with David and Catherine Birnie, a killer Australian couple who
also targeted women, who were usually abducted alongside the road, then raped
by David (but in one case, Catherine had actually directly participated in the rape
as well) before being killed by strangulation.
Also, a scene in the episode where Amber and Tony abduct a victim by driving
alongside her in their van to ask for directions before pulling her into the vehicle
through the side door is similar to how Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, a.k.a.
"The Toolbox Killer", abducted their victims.
Mutual Victims
Unspecified date in 2004: Amanda
Unspecified dates in 2004 to 2006:
Abbey Roxford
Madison B. (full surname unrevealed)
2006:
August: Bonnie Mossenberg
October 1: Laura Clemensen (killed by Amber on October 6)

October 5: Frank Clemensen (Laura's father; indirectly; suffered a

fatal heart attack after watching the DVD of Laura's torture)
October 6: Tiffany Spears (abducted; was rescued the next day after
his arrest)