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Luke Doggett photograph

A photograph of Luke Doggett, taken shortly before his disappearance.

Luke John Doggett was the son of John and Barbara Doggett. (TXF: "Empedocles") He was kidnapped and tragically murdered at a young age. (TXF: "John Doe")

History[]

Life[]

Luke Doggett was born on January 9, 1986. (TXF: "Release") He was once formally photographed wearing a brown checked shirt and smiling at the camera. (TXF: "Invocation") Ultimately, multiple copies of this photograph were made. (TXF: "Invocation", "Empedocles")

Search[]

When Luke was 7 years old, he was riding his bike around the block, with his mother sitting on their house's porch counting his laps with Luke waving to her every time he went by. After six laps, Luke doesn't come back around. Barbara goes looking for him, and finds Luke's bike lying on the sidewalk abandoned as Luke had been kidnapped.

There were no witnesses, no ransom demands, no clue as to who took him or why. The police search door-to-door, block-to-block for two days. Nothing was found, and John and Barbara were given no news at all. John and his partner; Monica Reyes, spent three days searching for Luke with Reyes sensing John was afraid his son was dead. This fear was tragically justified when Luke's deceased body was found in a field with a bullet in his back. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")

Remembrance[]

In 2000, John Doggett carried the photograph of his son in his wallet. While trying to solve the mystery of a kidnapped boy, Billy Underwood, who seemingly had been suddenly returned without having aged, Doggett looked at the photograph when he was alone in his car and contemplated the picture. After Billy Underwood started trying to subtly attack his brother, Josh, Doggett and his FBI partner, Dana Scully, contacted a psychic, Sharon Pearl, to determine what was wrong with Billy. When she met the boy, the psychic immediately sensed that there were very powerful forces working through Billy and drawing him to his brother. The psychic also claimed that the force was coming through Doggett, who she realized had lost someone just like Billy. (TXF: "Invocation")

Doggett later introduced Monica Reyes to a case he was working on with Scully involving the disappearance of Fox Mulder, Scully's former FBI partner. When he admitted to Reyes that he didn't know how Scully was managing to cope with investigating the case, Reyes reminded him that he did indeed know. Although Doggett warned her to leave the past in the past, Reyes gently replied that Scully's fear that Mulder might be dead was the same fear that Doggett had felt during the search of his son. Reyes believed that Doggett was so determined to find Mulder alive because his son had been killed before being found. Without agreeing to Reyes' theory, Doggett argued that, because their search for his son had been unsuccessful, he was now aware that he had no time to listen to Reyes' claim that she had seen a UFO and that spaceships were involved in Mulder's disappearance. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")

Moving On[]

John was constantly affected by the fact that Luke's murder case was never solved and the killer never brought to justice, which put a strain on his marriage to Barbara, eventually ending it. John looked for whatever clues he could find, and only after a long time in uncertainty, was the crime solved (thanks in no small part to the crime's only witness; Stuart Mimms, under his alias of Rudolph Hayes): Bob Harvey (who was also the closest they ever had to a suspect), a pervert and associate of a dangerous New York criminal named Nicholas Regali, saw Luke riding his bike and, eventually couldn't stand it, grabbed him and took him back to his place. Regali and Harvey worked together, except Harvey didn't tell Regali what he was doing, so when Regali walked in on him with Luke, Luke saw Regali's face. Knowing there could be trouble if Luke ever told anyone about Regali's "business", Regali killed Luke. John tracked down Regali and was resolved to kill him, only for Assistant Director Brad Follmer, another of Regali's associates, shot Regali in the eye as he left the bar he was at. Afterwards, John and Barbara were finally able to move on from their son's death, and spread his ashes into the sea.

Background Information[]

Luke Doggett was played by Jake Fritz and later by twins Jacob and Zachary Handy.

Appearances[]

Additional Reference[]

Inconsistencies[]

  • Luke's birthdate is given in "Empedocles" as 7/9/90 (or July 9, 1990) but "Release" establishes that he was born on January 9, 1986.
  • Also, the "date of last contact" is given in "Empedocles" as 8/12/97 (or August 12, 1997) although "Release" gives his date of death as August 13, 1993. It is well established that his father, John Doggett, was still working in the New York City Police Department when Luke's body was discovered. "Within" gives 1995 as the year that John Doggett left the police force, providing evidence that the dates given in "Empedocles" are incorrect and that those given in "Release" are more accurate.


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