Leo Fortier

Leo Fortier is the killer in the first Temperance Brennan novel Deja Dead. Fortier is a sexual sadist having gone on a killing spree in Montreal, eventually targeting Tempe when she was investigating.

Background
Fortier had a severely religious grandmother he was left with when his mother died, always being brutalized over slights. In teen years, Fortier was institutionalized for fighting back and beating his grandmother with a lamp, despite not killing her. Fortier grew older, had a history of misconduct, and was unfaithful to a wife who never loved Fortier. Fortier’s mistress planned to tell his wife about the affair, leading to Fortier bashing her skull to silence her. After cutting apart her body and disposing of her remains in trash bags, Fortier began to start a series of serial killings once having a newfound sexual sadism.

Deja Dead
After killing Chantelle Trottier, Isabelle Gagnon was the next woman to die, each woman blitzed and killed with several blows to their heads, before their remains being left in the same conditions. Tempe made the connection in her mind when she identified Gagnon. Margaret Adkins was killed in her home when her some was out, but she wasn’t dismembered and tossed in trash bags. She was found posed graphically, her breast cut off and in her mouth, raped with a statue, and her stomach slit. She was killed with the same cause of death, several blows to her head. Tempe and the police were close to catching Fortier in his hideout in a sting, but Tempe lost Fortier in a festival and got trampled by the crowd. That wasn’t the end, as Fortier started targeting her. Having already stalked her friend Gabby extensively, she was eventually murdered as the last victim of Fortier to die, same cause of death, but no mutilations. Just laid in a shallow grave surrounded by bricks, which broke Tempe deeply. She then feared for her daughter Katy’s life as well, but by then, when she knew Fortier’s identity and history, that wasn’t her concern. Fortier broke in and bound and choked her with a chain, snarling intents of being ready to torture her to death. Tempe fought back hard, kicking Fortier’s crotch, running into the kitchen, and, when she was pinned to the countertop, stabbing Fortier’s eye just as the police arrived. For tier was given medical attention and, left with one eye, confessed to the five murders, denying the deaths of two unrelated women. Fortier was incarcerated, and Tempe got a letter of thanks from the detectives cynically opposed to her approach beforehand, but grateful at that point she got Fortier off the streets.