CBS’s Tracker season three, episode six, takes the action to Fort Wayne, Indiana. A two-person crime scene cleaning crew from Biozone takes care of a house where an elderly man fell down the stairs and died. His wife died in the back bedroom. Both deaths were ruled accidental. The cleaner in charge of the back bedroom at the Hardens’ home snaps photos of the death area stains.

(The following is a recap of season three episode six and there are spoilers.)

Randy (Chris Lee) fills Colter (Justin Hartley) in on a new case involving Biozone. Margot Webster, one of the cleaners, is missing and her boss/cleaning partner, Ruth (Rebecca Field), is worried. She’s been missing 24 hours and Ruth’s offering a $10,000 reward. Ruth says Margot didn’t show up to clean up after a triple homicide. Margot didn’t respond to calls, her phone’s at home, and her car is missing.

Ruth recalls that Margot was getting lots of messages as they were leaving the Hardens’ house. She thinks it was a new guy Margot was seeing. Apparently, Margot met the guy in a chat room for the Toybox Killer, but her boss doesn’t know the guy’s name. Margot was fascinated by the grisly crime scenes but didn’t discuss what she did after hours.

Randy hasn’t gotten anything helpful off of Margot’s phone. No one called or texted Margot except for Ruth over the last 72 hours. Fortunately, Randy did get a hit on her car and sends Colter its location.

Reenie’s in Houston so it’s only Mel (Cassady McClincy Zhang) and Randy at the office. Randy fills her in on Colter’s current case, noting that Margot was a true crime buff. Mel has a few ideas on sites Margot might have been posting on, and Randy’s impressed. 

Colter arrives at Margot’s car before it can be towed. It’s unlocked and Colter sees a spot of blood. He also finds another phone. Colter calls Randy, certain this is where Margot was taken from. The phone Randy’s been checking is her work-issued phone. The one Colter found is her personal phone. Randy accesses it and there are lots of texts. One of Margot’s shows she was meeting someone at the usual spot and thought she had something big. The text included a series of photos that were too large to send.

Colter notices a restaurant nearby and thinks that might be where they were meeting. Randy discovers the number she was texting was a burner phone that’s pinging 20 miles from Colter’s location. Cops are there and have the area blocked off when Colter arrives. An officer refuses to tell him if the body behind a dumpster is Margot’s. The body is wheeled away close to Colter, and he gets a look at her face.  

Randy had sent a pin to the burner phone’s location, and Colter realizes it’s nearby. He looks at the small crowd that’s gathered and calls the number. It rings inside a car, but the owner drives away quickly. Colter snaps a photo of the plate as it takes off, and Randy gets an address.

Colter actually beats the car to the location and watches as the driver goes inside a building. Colter follows him, gun drawn, and sees murder boards with crime scene photos. He hears screaming from another room and barges in. The screaming is from 9-1-1 recordings, and the driver turns them off while claiming he had nothing to do with Margot’s disappearance. Colter snatches his ID and the man confirms his name’s Gunther (Connor Paolo). Apparently, he heard the call on the police scanner and went to the scene to see if it was Margot.

Gunther’s a freelancer who takes photos of crime scenes and that’s why he had a camera out the window when Colter called his phone. He took off because he thought Colter was a cop. Another guy tries to sneak up on Colter, but Colter’s far too skilled to let some random dude get the jump on him. The guy introduces himself as Eddie (Jay Lee) and Colter finally puts his gun down.

Eddie collects and sells crime scene memorabilia. They met Margot online and investigate cases that interest them. Colter learns that when she didn’t meet up with them two nights ago, they staked out her apartment and work. They think something bad must have happened but don’t recognize the photos Margo was trying to send them.  However, Margot did tell them that the circumstances around the deaths at the Harden house were strange.

Colter tries to leave to head to the Harden house, but Gunther and Eddie insist on tagging along. They know Margot and can help him figure out what she was up to at the Hardens. Plus, Eddie is a whiz at crime scene timelines and is an entomologist.

Once they arrive at the Hardens’ place, Gunther explains that Nancy Harden was wheelchair bound. Her caretaker/husband, Mort, used a walker to get around. He fell down the stairs, cracked his head open, and Nancy died three days later from starvation. Neighbors discovered their bodies a week later. Eddie believes Nancy died eight and a half days before her discovery, based on blowflies.

Eddie and Gunther were going to investigate the deaths with Margot after she flagged them as suspicious. They look at marks on the stairs and Colter determines that some are from a person being dragged upstairs. Colter wonders if they drew a killer’s attention by posting about the Hardens online.

He looks around a little more and discovers a small hidden room. It’s obvious someone was hanging out in it; there are food containers on the floor. Eddie figures out that based on the larvae, the food was eaten around the time of Nancy’s death. That means someone was in the house at the time of the elderly couple’s deaths. Colter believes the killer took Mort upstairs and pushed him down. Then he sat in the secret room and watched Nancy starve to death.  

This doesn’t explain why the killer went after Margot. Colter spots a drawing that looks like angel wings on the secret room’s door. Gunther thinks he’s seen it before and will look through the crime scene database they’re compiling.

And a short while later Gunther is proven correct. He finds the angel wing drawing in a photo from Linda and Debra Appelbaums’ murder scene. They died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The daughter was disabled, like Mrs. Harden, and the mom was her caretaker, like Mr. Harden. Margot must have realized the cases were connected.

Gunther does a little research on a rival forum and finds the case of Harry and Marie Rafferty. The angel wings were there too, and one of the Raffertys was disabled. Colter realizes the killer is targeting patients and their caregivers, and it’s likely the killer knew them.

Colter asks Randy to cross-reference the Hardens, Raffertys, and Appelbaums and see if they had anything in common—like a rehab center. Randy quickly discovers all three families were clients of the Vorhees Physical Therapy Center.

Eddie and Gunther keep digging for more potential victims while Colter heads to Vorhees. The employee isn’t helpful; everything is confidential. Before he leaves, Colter sees a flyer with photos of siblings Lisa and Hank Brooks who recently died in a fire. One of them was paralyzed. The flyer has the angel wings symbol at the bottom, and the employee says an aide named Francis made it.

Colter uses the employee’s computer when he steps away and gets info on Francis Gable.

A brief scene shows Francis serving a meal to his mom and a tied up and gagged Margot (Cassandra Naud).

Colter heads to Francis’ address and breaks into the house, gun drawn (of course). He looks around the place and heads down to the basement. Francis apparently took a cue from Norman Bates (and/or Ed Gein) and has his dead mom’s body seated at a table. There’s a man’s body in a nearby bed, and the angel wings design is painted on the wall.

Francis drives Margot, still tied up but no longer gagged, to a remote location. He admits he’s been watching her and knows all about her. Francis kidnapped her because of her posts about the Appelbaums. She was too smart and getting too close to figuring out his identity. Francis thinks she’s looking for attention and that’s why she posted about the Hardens.

Margot keeps him talking as he leans her against the outside of the car. She sees a farmer on a tractor not far away, and Francis warns that if she screams, he’ll burn the farm alive.

Colter calls the cops and tells Randy that the bodies have been there for decades. Colter tethers Randy into Randy’s laptop and Randy can tell Francis has been looking at Margot’s online activity. Mel interrupts with a list of dual caregiver and patient deaths in the region that were ruled as accidental. It’s a fairly lengthy list from the last 25 years.

Colter thinks Margot’s still alive because there’s evidence he was feeding her.

Margot believes Francis views himself as an angel of mercy. Francis confesses he watched his mom take care of his disabled brother and decided they were alive but weren’t really living. His mother spent all her time taking care of his brother and never noticed him.

Francis puts Margot back in the car and drives off while Randy’s telling Colter about Francis’ mom and brother.  They vanished 25 years ago, and Colter realizes that those must be the bodies he found. Colter also figures out Francis is keeping Margot alive to get her to lead him to Eddie and Gunther.

Randy wants him to take backup to Gunther’s place, but Colter won’t. He’s sure Francis will kill Margot if he sees the cops.

Francis pulls up near Gunther and Eddie’s and orders Margot to take him inside to meet her friends. Margot insists they don’t know anything, but Francis teases that when he’s done, she can clean up the scene. Margot suddenly headbutts him, but he stops her from escaping.

Colter calls Eddie and Gunther as he races back to their place. Unfortunately, they don’t hear the phone and don’t know Francis is inside their building. (Doesn’t anyone lock their doors anymore?!) 

Colter pulls up outside and hears Margot screaming from the backseat of Francis’ car. Colter has her call 9-1-1 as he runs to save Eddie and Gunter. Francis is suffocating Gunter when Colter confronts him. Francis launches himself at Colter and tries to choke him, but Colter picks up scissors and stabs him in the chest.

Colter checks on Gunther and Eddie and they’re both okay. The cops and EMTs arrive, along with Margot’s boss who hands over the $10,000 reward. Margot’s thankful that Ruth cared enough to hire Colter. Eddie and Gunther rush over for a group hug, happy to have their true crime partner back. Colter praises Margot’s work on finding a serial killer, and the threesome want to make Colter part of their team. Colter thinks they can manage it on their own, but it’s obvious he likes all three. He even says he may take them up on their offer to be consultants if he ever needs help.  

Episode six ends with Randy informing Colter he found something in the records on David Pearson that Russell sent over. Something important enough that Colter should check it out.

• Tracker Season 3 Episode 1 “The Process” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 2 “Leverage” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 3 “First Fire” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 4 “No Man’s Land” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 5 “The Old Ways” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 7 “Eat the Rich” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 8 “Eurydice” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 9 “Good Trouble” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 10 “The Fallout” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 11 “To the Bone” Recap
• Tracker Season 3 Episode 12 “Do No Harm” Recap