John Doggett
Luke John Doggett

Name: Luke John Doggett (deceased)
Date of Birth: January 6, 1986
Height: 48"
Weight: 52
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond

Date of Last Contact: August 13, 1993

Episodes mentioning the LukeArc: Invocation, Empedocles, John Doe, Release. Some may also argue that "Within" is the first episode in which the case is referenced. Doggett says that he understands "obsession". We learn later on that Doggett has an obsession with solving his son's unsolved case.

There has been some confusion among fans online as to who actually killed Luke Doggett. Some say it was Brad Follmer and some say it was Nicholas Rigali. Well I can tell you that after viewing "Release" several times now, that it was Nicholas Rigali.

In "Release", we find out that Luke was taken by Bob Harvey (the guy who died in the teaser to "Empedocles" in Season 8 - a pedophile). Bob Harvey was in business with mobster/businessman Nicholas Rigali, who walked in on Harvey and Luke. Because Luke saw Rigali's face, he killed him so he couldn't be identified.

When John Doggett went to speak with Rigali "as a father", Rigali did what most criminals will do when unable to say that they committed a crime, he told about how it "could have happened", using the second person to talk about himself, reliving the crime. As Rigali described to Doggett what happened to Luke, he was admitting that he had killed Luke, even though he did not state "I killed Luke". When Rigali says that the businessman (himself) never did anything to the "little boy", Rigali is rationalizing what he did, making it right in his mind, as if he didn't do anything wrong, that Luke deserved it. Being the good ex-cop/special agent that Doggett is, he knew exactly what Rigali was doing when speaking in the second person and when he was rationalizing what happened. Which is why Doggett was going for his gun to shoot Rigali, to kill the guy who murdered his son (the one thing that I think would make Doggett kill a man). However, Brad Follmer got to Rigali first.

As to why Brad Follmer killed Rigali, well he did that because there was no other way out of his deal with Rigali (Brad took bribes to keep Rigali on the streets). Brad wanted out of this deal and Rigali threatened to expose Brad to the public. When Brad questioned Rigali if he was involved in the death of Doggett's son, he could tell that Rigali was lying to him when he answered "no". It was at this point that Brad gave thought as to how many other people Rigali could have killed or will kill because of him taking bribes. Brad couldn't live knowing what he allowed to happen, and he decided to take out Rigali.

I really hope this all makes sense to you, it does to me. I just want to make it clear to some fans that Brad Follmer isn't the scum that some think he is. He didn't kill Luke, he helped bring down the man who did. Brad will pay for his actions, but at least he will have a clear conscience because he helped Doggett close the case of his son.

If you are interested in looking deeper into the mind of a criminal, I suggest you pick up John Douglas' "The Anatomy of Motive". It was from this publication that I got the information about criminals telling "what could happen" and speaking in the second person about themselves when talking about their crime. Because of this, I have no doubt that Nicholas Rigali killed Luke Doggett. You shouldn't either because if John Doggett was going out of the bar after Rigali, with his hand on his weapon, that's got to tell you that Doggett knows Rigali did it too.