Marauder (Season 25, Episode 12)
Premise: Benson quietly reopens the decades-old disappearance of Agent Sykes’s sister and connects it to other missing girls across the Northeast.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 12
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly)
- Guest stars
- Larry Pine as Richard Kincaid, Kenneth Tigar as Ed McCluskey, Gabe Fazio as Cal Markham, Alberto Isaac as Harry Dao, Laurel Casillo as Hannah Kincaid
- Director
- Juan J. Campanella
- Writers
- Story: Brendan Feeney; Teleplay: Greg Contaldi; Story & teleplay: Gabriel Vallejo
Summary
“Marauder” opens years ago in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where young Crystal Sykes bikes alone toward a pool after her sister, Shannah, stays home to take a phone call, and a man in a pickup offers her a lift. In the present, FBI Agent Shannah Sykes has not come to work since the Brouchard trial. Over drinks she tells Benson the anniversary of Crystal’s disappearance was three days ago, that her parents nearly fell apart two decades ago when remains thought to be Crystal’s proved to be someone else’s, and that she would rather move on. Benson drives her home.
Without telling Sykes, Benson runs Crystal’s case through ViCAP and finds five similar disappearances of girls in the Northeast, the pattern of a “marauder” who offends around one home base. She tells the squad the work is for a case of Carisi’s on appeal. Only one is in Manhattan: Gwen Markham, who vanished in 2002 after going out for eggs and was later found dead. Her cousin Cal, the last to see her, wants answers; her father, Lee, wants the past left alone. Benson and Fin visit retired Allentown detective Ed McCluskey, who agrees to dig on his side of the state line. Holiday cards that Kim Dao’s father received for years after she disappeared are traced to a Bayonne post office box; Ronald Givens Jr. admits he sent them as a 14-year-old true crime fan and gives a DNA swab.
Gwen’s parents refuse to allow an exhumation, and the court order is denied. After Benson tells Cal they need new evidence, he walks in and confesses to killing Gwen, and his confession gets her body exhumed. DNA from Gwen’s body excludes Cal and Givens; Cal says he confessed only to get the body tested, and the charges are dropped. Sykes learns of the inquiry when Allentown police visit her parents, calls embedding with SVU a mistake and turns Benson’s own past, Johnny D and William Lewis, against her. Curry’s genealogy search leads to Hannah Kincaid and her 72-year-old father, Richard, a former insurance adjuster.
Spoiler, the ending: Detectives arrest Kincaid at his wedding anniversary party, finding a packed bag with cash and a .357, and a police dog turns up a Polaroid of Gwen behind his home. Faced with the photos of Kim Dao, Peyton Freeman and Crystal, he says he remembers Crystal, and to avoid a possible death sentence in Pennsylvania he agrees to show where all the girls are buried. Sykes, who had asked Benson to leave the case alone, sees what is believed to be her sister’s remains, asks why Benson did not, and then asks for a moment to herself as she weeps.
Why it stands out
- Resolves the disappearance of Shannah Sykes’s sister, Crystal, the personal story behind the agent’s interest in the Maddie Flynn case earlier in the season.
- Sykes throws Benson’s own history back at her, naming Johnny D (Season 16) and William Lewis (Seasons 14–15).
- Larry Pine plays Richard Kincaid, and Kenneth Tigar plays retired Allentown detective Ed McCluskey.