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Law & Order's long-running spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, popularly called Law & Order: SVU, has been successfully running for 26 seasons now and has been on air since 1999. Most of the episodes that feature on the show are based on real-life cases.
While Law & Order: SVU does not majorly deal with cold cases, when it does, the approach is slightly different. Although the entire story won't be a retelling of the actual case, there will be several elements in the episode that can help the audience tie the episode to the cold case.
Here are five such instances where Law & Order: SVU put its own spin on infamous cold cases.
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5 Law & Order: SVU episodes where the show put its own spin on cold cases
1) Season 6 Episode 4, Scavenger
Like every other crime show, Law & Order: SVU also undertook the depiction of a serial killer case, and they did so in Season 6 Episode 4, "Scavenger."
In Scavenger, the killer is known as RDK, based on the name he uses to address his first letter to the police. He essentially sends the police on a scavenger hunt to find out where his victims have been buried.
Several nuances make it extremely similar to the BTK murders - the first and most obvious one being the use of initials. Moreover, the episode also shows RDK trying to appear in the newspaper headlines, a move that was also made by BTK.
The confusing yet thrilling sequence of events is what makes Scavenger one of the highest-rated episodes of Law & Order: SVU.
2) Season 4 Episode 7, Dolls
Dolls is often considered one of the creepiest cases to have been explored in Law & Order: SVU. While the story focuses on a villain who is creepily enthusiastic about collectible dolls, it is inspired by the real-life story of Baby Hope, whose decomposing body was found in a cooler in 1991.
The story begins as the decomposing body of Cherish Doe is found in the trash. The police seem to have trouble identifying the child. The episode revolves around the story of the police navigating the case with a young mother who is convinced that the decomposing body found in the trash is that of her daughter.
Baby Hope was finally identified in 2013, when an anonymous tip revealed that they had heard her mother talking about her missing daughter.
3) Season 6 Episode 13, Quarry
The murder of Adam Walsh is a case that took the entire United States by storm and is one of the most famous cold cases in the country. Although several SVU episodes feature some elements from the case, Quarry portrays the most similarities.
The episode unfolds when the police receive information about the body of a seven-year-old boy, who has been missing since 1980.
Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a department store when he was just six years old, and his head was found two weeks later. Although the police primarily suspected Ottis Toole, they never gathered enough evidence to arrest him.
Although Toole died in 1996, the Adam Walsh case was officially closed in 2008.
4) Season 4 Episode 19, Appearances
Appearances explores the dark side of children's pagaents, which often turn into hunting grounds for predators. The body of a young girl is found hidden in a trunk in the back of a bus. While this differs from the case of JonBenet Ramsey, as her body was found in the basement of her home, the resemblance lies in the fact that both girls competed in pageants.
The case of JonBenet Ramsey is often considered one of the worst-handled cases in history, as friends and family were freely allowed to roam around the house while her body was missing, and the house was only treated like a crime scene after her body was discovered.
5) Season 7 Episode 10, Storm
Storm is loosely based on the Louisiana families that were displaced after Hurricane Katrina, but the story also sees some similarity with the mysterious case of the disappearance of the Sodder children.
In 1945, the Sodder family experienced a fire breaking out within their home. Although the parents managed to escape unharmed with four of their children, five other children were unaccounted for. Although the police labeled the disappearance as death by fire, the parents were convinced that the fire was not large enough to burn all five children to ashes, to the point that their remains were never discovered.
This remains one of the most mysterious cold cases explored in Law & Order: SVU, as the case has not been solved to date.
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These are some of the most interesting yet disheartening cold cases that have been explored on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
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