The prime suspect of the murders was bullied Lakewood resident and George Washington High student Brandon James.
About Brandon James
Brandon James was born and raised in a small town called Lakewood. During his early childhood and teenage years, he was home-schooled by his mother as his father was ashamed of him. The only person who truly cared for him was his older brother, Troy. During his youth, Brandon became obsessed with Daisy, a local girl now known as Maggie Duval. He would send her anonymous love letters, and made her a wooden necklace with "Daisy" carved into it.
Having managed to work up the courage to approach her, Brandon went to the school dance and removed his mask. "Daisy" saw his deformity and screamed. A group of jocks heard her, believing that Brandon was attacking her, they pounced on him, beating him. Brandon snapped, on that current day due to his lonely and neglected life, he went on a killing spree, murdering five students in a single day on October 31, 1994.
He failed to kill Kevin Duval. Maggie (aka Daisy) went to the lake to talk Brandon into turning himself into the police. He gave her the carved necklace, uttering his final words "All I ever wanted was to be with you". The police then arrived and opened fire, with the bullets hitting Brandon in the back, causing him to fall into the water as “Daisy’’ watches in horror, having been promised he would not be harmed. However, it is eventually revealed that Brandon survived his gunshots, although badly wounded. Daisy and a young Miguel Acosta took care of Brandon and buried his knife. Brandon left a letter that said "Don't forget about me" and then vanished.
Suspects
Brandon James is currently the prime suspect of the murders. But near the end of Season 1, it's clearly hinted that Brandon may not have been the culprit. There are at least three suspects with motive.
- Troy James: It's public knowledge that Troy was the only person who cared for his younger brother Brandon. It's possible with Brandon severely damaged emotionally by how Kevin Duval and his friends bullied Brandon over the relationship between him and Maggie, Troy took upon himself to take revenge by murdering Kevin's friends.
- Kevin Duval: Kevin learned that during a difficult time in his relationship with Maggie that she and Brandon had a sexual relationship. Angered by this he and his friends beat up Brandon. Apparently that didn't satisfy him. Seeing as his friends bullied him, Kevin may have used that as a way to pin murders on Brandon by killing his own friends so that Brandon would be arrested or, as it does in reality, killed by the police to get rid of him for good. This would explain why Kevin, the chief enemy of Brandon James, would be the sole survivor. He injured himself to make him look like a victim.
- Daisy: Childhood friend and lover of Brandon James. Angered that their friendship is torn by Kevin and their friends. Also they beat up the one person she cared about the most. It's possible she decided to get revenge for Brandon and killed Kevin's friend but allowed her future husband to survive either due to their relationship or as a message to Kevin.
Connection to the recent Lakewood Murders
As a result of Brandon's death and Maggie's family making arrangements to keep her out of sight of the media, Brandon and Maggie's daughter Piper Shaw, who was given up for adoption by her grandparents, went on a murder spree to get back at her mother for abandoning her, for allowing the public to believe her Dad was the monster, and to make her younger sister Emma Duval suffer for having the perfect life that Piper was denied. However, she was stopped by Audrey and later, killed by Emma in Revelations.
In I Know What You Did Last Summer, Piper's accomplice brutally murders one of the survivors of the previous killings as well as harassing Audrey due to her previous involvement with the recent killings at Lakewood.
In When a Stranger Calls, we learn that Piper's secret accomplice was Emma's boyfriend Kieran Wilcox, whom Piper, herself, had a secret romantic relationship with in Season 1. Angry that Piper's mother Maggie (who abandoned her) and Kieran's father Clark began a relationship, Piper and Kieran came together to torture their parents who were the sheriff and town's coroner by starting a killing spree that neither of them could solve. The plan was to make the parents and Emma their final victims. Kieran was seeking revenge on Emma and Audrey for Piper's death, but failed as he was subdued by them and hauled off to prison.
In the Halloween special, Kieran is murdered by another killer in prison. When the survivors go to Shallow Grove Island to catch a break, a different killer, named Tom Martin, struck. He murdered several people that had no relation to Emma, since he wanted to start a relationship with her. After revealing himself and confessing that he did not kill Kieran, he tries to get her to join him, but she kills him instead.
Trivia
- According to Noah Foster, Brandon wore a post-non-surgical mask and had worn many different non-surgical masks due to the multiple operations done in an attempt to repair his face.
- It took Brandon a life time to turn into a sadistic murderer.
- He holds similarities to Victor Crowley and Jason Voorhees from the respective film franchise Hatchet and Friday the 13th.
- Brandon suffers from Proteus syndrome which explains his deformed face.
- 20 years later, Brandon's daughter, acting on revenge of her father's death, killed eight people in 2015 using the mask that Brandon James used when he killed 5 students.
- Three months after Piper's death, her accomplice, Kieran Wilcox, carried on Piper's work in 2016 and killed eight more people until Emma and Audrey stopped him and put him in prison. Later, he was killed by another person wearing the Brandon James Mask.
Victims
Killed
- 1) Dara Aldean (1st Victim) — She had her throat slashed. (Seen in Wanna Play a Game?)
- 2) Brett Kenner (2nd Victim) — He was stabbed in the left eye with a long stick. (Seen in Wanna Play a Game?)
- 3) Laura Cossey (3rd Victim) - Unknown method
- 4) Trent Price (4th Victim) - Unknown method
- 5) Mike Vinson (5th Victim) - Unknown method
