The Most Heartbreaking Criminal Minds Episode From Season 1

Season 1, Episode 14, "Riding the Lightning," focuses on a pair of convicted murderers sitting on Death Row as their scheduled execution draws near. Jacob Dawes (Michael Massee) and his wife, Sarah Jean Mason (Jeannetta Arnette), were convicted in 1990 of the murders of 12 teenage girls, as well as the murder of their two-year-old son. After the discovery of a 13th body, and with only hours left before Dawes and Mason's executions are carried out, the BAU heads to Florida State Penitentiary to determine if there were other victims during the couple's five-year rampage.

At one point during the murder spree, the police were given a tip about Jacob, and conducted an interview with him, although he wasn't arrested. Their interest, however, spooked him, and he told Sarah Jean that they needed to go on the run. He also instructed his wife to kill their son, believing the two-year-old would only slow them down in their effort to elude law enforcement.

A short time later, the police returned with a search warrant and discovered the bodies beneath Jacob's workshop. Upon their arrest, Sarah Jean confessed to killing her son and dumping the body. Despite Jacob's claims to the contrary, she denied any involvement in the actual murder of the girls. After the trial — during which Sarah Jean earned the moniker "The Ice Queen" due to her dispassionate demeanor — the two are convicted and sentenced to death.

However, a shocking twist in the story casts Sarah Jean's demeanor in a whole new light.