Top 10 Most Likely Scranton Strangler Suspects on The Office

On the surface, Toby Flenderson seems like the very last character to do such horrendous acts of violence and crime. Throughout the show, he's often seen as a shy, timid, soft spoken, mild-mannered sad sack that distances himself from the rest of his coworkers at Dunder Mifflin, and he generally gets along really well with everyone in The Office, including Michael, who openly hates him. However, while he may appear this way on the outside, we can only imagine the amount of blood that boils inside of him. His boss hates him, his wife divorced him, he struggles to connect with his daughter, the women he tries to make moves on are taken and in relationships with other guys, and any ounce of enjoyment and satisfaction he gets is destroyed by Michael. All of this easily culminates in the need to strangle people as a way to let out all of his pent-up frustrations that life throws his way.

Towards the end of Season 5, Toby briefly moves away to Costa Rica, most likely in an effort to pursue a new life filled with happiness and enjoyment. All of this is cut short though when Toby suffers a neck injury from a zip-lining accident and is quickly sent back to Scranton. During that time, this is also when Pam is pregnant with her first child, Cece. Toby has made it well known at this point that he shows clear feelings for Pam, in which Pam unfortunately doesn't reciprocate. As soon as Toby makes it back from Costa Rica, we get our very first mention of the Scranton Strangler at the beginning of Season 6. The timing fits in weirdly well with Toby's trip to Costa Rica, as well as Pam's pregnancy. You can expect a lot of weird timing and coincidences in regards to Toby in the coming episodes.

The Scranton Strangler isn't mentioned again until Season 7 Episode 8, "The Viewing Party". At the very beginning, everyone in The Office is huddled around a computer screen watching a live police chase with the Scranton Strangler -- everyone except Toby Flenderson. To... more

While I'm sold in the theory that Toby is the Scranton Strangler, I also think that Gabe is a very likely suspect as well and I think he also has some things going for him as well.
Firstly, Gabe is first introduced in Season 6 after the merge with Sabre, the very same season in which the Scranton Strangler is first mentioned. Throughout his time working with Dunder Mifflin, Gabe is usually always on the receiving end when it comes to being made fun of and ridiculed, debatably even more so than Toby, and strangling people can just as easily be his way of letting out all of his frustrations when it comes to working with his colleagues.
Gabe is also shown to have very apparent anger issues, which can clearly be seen when he confronts Andy about trying to set himself up with Erin. From this point onward, we can see that Gabe and Andy have some sort of rivalry with each other and it's clear that Gabe sees him as nothing more than his worst enemy.
Although, while Gabe certainly has the incentives when it comes to being the Strangler, the only thing that really has me questioning his suspiciousness is mostly for the fact that he was present at Dunder Mifflin during the police chase, and unless he paid someone to distract the cops, it's fairly unlikely that Gabe was behind any of it. Still though, it's worth mentioning the evidence in favor of Gabe, even if it's relatively small.

Creed is another common suspect when it comes to being the Strangler and I certainly think it's possible, if only for the fact that Creed in of himself is this strange enigma within the office that is capable of doing anything he truly desires. A few pieces of evidence that could point to Creed's suspiciousness is his overall demeanor, and how he reacts to certain situations. During a Halloween episode, Creed "dressed up" in an outfit with blood stains of them. It's revealed that those blood stains are actually real and he simply forgot it was Halloween. Another interesting piece of information is the fact the Creed has gone on record admitting that he has multiple different identities, which also leads into a completely separate theory in of itself that Creed Bratton isn't actually his name, but rather an identity that he stole from someone he killed. Lastly, the real Creed Bratton (the actor) has gone on record claiming that Creed is the Scranton Strangler, and while he's most likely teasing with the audience, it's certainly possible that Creed could very well be the Strangler.

However, while the evidence is certainly compelling, there's still some aspects that I'm not completely sold on. Firstly, it's very well possible that none of the events Creed often talks about actually happened, and is rather as a result of him being incredibly senile, which I think is certainly possible. Another aspect that's interesting to note is that Paul Liberstein, Toby's actor, claimed that the Strangler didn't actually kill anybody, but rather strangled people until they would pass out. This statement contradicts a lot of major evidence that could have pointed to Creed. Additionally. Creed was also present during the Car Chase, and much like Gabe, unless he was able to pay someone to distract the cops, it's very unlikely he actually did it. Still though, I wouldn't completely count out Creed given his mysterious nature and I'd say it's still possible despite my few doubts.

An underrated suspect, but I'm willing to believe that David Wallace has the potential of being the Strangler as well. Much like Toby and Gabe, the timing weirdly fits into place when it comes to David. David was fired near the end of Season 5, and Sabre wasn't introduced until the beginning of Season 6, which again, is the very same season that the Scranton Strangler is first mentioned. In a later episode, we also get to see a little inside David's post-Dunder Mifflin life, come to find out that his wife had divorced him, leaving him all on his lonesome as his life slowly falls apart. All of this makes it very probable that David saw strangling people as a coping mechanism to deal with his recent hardships in life. On top of that, even David Wallace's actor believe he is certainly capable of being the Strangler, further given it credibility.



While I certainly do think it's possible, the Scranton Strangler is still commonly brought up in Season 9, despite the fact that David Wallace had bought back the company from Sabre. I feel like this gives him less of an incentive to strangle knowing he has his life back on track for the most part, so hearing more intel about the Strangler during this time does lessen the credibility of this theory. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility though and he may very well be the Strangler.