09E16 - Gabby

The BAU travels to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where four year old Gabby Hoffer has just been abducted. While her divorced mother Kate Hoffer was on a "raffle prize" Caribbean cruise with her boyfriend Rodney Baderson, she left Gabby under the care of her cousin, Sue Walsh, who is more like Kate's sister in that they grew up together after Kate's parents took Sue in as their own following the death of her own parents. A sleeping Gabby was abducted out of Sue's car parked in a gas bar parking lot late one evening as Sue made a quick stop to pick up grocery supplies. Between being abducted by strangers or someone Gabby knows, the BAU, checking both paths in their investigation, believe that the first suspect is Gabby's biological father, Doug Hoffer, a trucker and drug addict who has not seen either Gabby or Kate in over a year. The only other immediate piece of evidence is a witness seeing a dark colored minivan in the parking lot around the time of the abduction. This evidence leads to the team picking up a man by the name of Ian Little, who was Doug's old drug dealer and who Kate knows. Ian, who has second and third degree burns to his face, refuses to disclose how he received those burns, for which he did not receive medical attention, or any knowledge of Gabby. The BAU will have to uncover further ties Ian has to the family to discover Gabby's whereabouts, if it is not too late.