At the time, moving to New York City seems like a good idea, especially given his recent promotion to detective. Molinson's always loved the energy and tempo of the city, and besides, Sleepyside is beginning to get dull. He moved away from Tarrytown because working in the same area where he was born and raised was starting to feel a touch confining, and now his days in Sleepyside are dragging along in much the same way. Molinson wants to be in a place where he can truly make a difference, not in a town where his morning begins with writing parking tickets.
The last straw in Sleepyside is a failed attempt to have social services investigate this one family, the Sammaels. He finds their eight-year-old kid bleeding and crying in the street, lost and wandering around after her father forced her to walk home alone from the country club— a distance that's nearly four miles. Despite Molinson's continued insistence, the Sammael household faces no scrutiny; the parents are wealthy, white, and well-connected, and thus, apparently innocent of any type of wrongdoing.
So he goes to the city, where he eventually ends up in an SVU department. Throughout his time there, he begins to specialize in child abuse cases— all types of child abuse.
Many of his fellow officers have difficulty with child cases, and Molinson will be the first to admit that those types of investigations bring him many sleepless nights. But honestly, it's the adults that get to him more; kids can at least have hope in spite of their fear, because they don't fully understand what's happened to them. But the adults do, and it's their despair and terror that weighs on Molinson the most, the combination of helpless fear and rage that's in their eyes.
Every cop has their breaking case, though, and Molinson hits his early in his career. It's a child abduction case, a brother and sister. Nine-year-old Bianca Ramirez and her six-year-old brother, Luis, disappeared into the car of an unknown man while en route from their bus stop to buy gummy worms at the corner bodega.
They don't find either child alive when they arrest the perp. In interrogation, they discover that Bianca was collateral damage, kidnapped to make it easier to get to Luis.
When the case is closed, Molinson arranges to return to Sleepyside.
Life in Sleepyside is mostly normal and predictable. He takes the Sergeant's exam and is promoted again. He laughs and jokes with the rest of the force, enduring any questions or comments regarding his brief NYPD tenure with grace and good humor. No one knows that the Ramirez kidnapping disturbed him too deeply to continue with SVU.
However, this time Sleepyside is not free of its own challenges. This one local teenager, a girl named Trixie Belden, fancies herself an amatuer detective and is constantly getting tangled up with robberies, burglaries, smuggling operations, and God knows what else. With every close call she has, it's all Molinson can do not to reach out and shake her. Considering all the ways kids can wind up hurt when there's every attempt to keep them safe, it's more than reckless of her to constantly be charging into danger. And it's bad enough when it's just her, but she's also corralled a bunch of her friends into helping her with her "investigations." It'll be a miracle if all of those kids live to graduate from high school.
That Sammael family is still around, and to Molinson's eternal surprise, the parents have remained married. During his encounter with them years back, he figured from their behavior toward each other that a divorce was in progress. Current gossip around town suggests the divorce of the Sammaels still a valid possibility, though, so who knows. Their daughter, Jane, is in high school now and evidently some sort of math and science whiz, with her photos constantly appearing in the newspaper for winning some scholastic competition or another. Good for her. Molinson honestly doesn't expect to see her again, other than in passing ways that one would in a small town, but fate arranges some strange coincidences.
One frigid night in February, Molinson and his partner, Detective Rosa Diaz, are driving back from a conference in White Plains when they spot a young woman slipping and sliding in the ice alongside the highway. Suspecting drug use, they give the siren of their patrol car a brief blast to get her attention, pull away from traffic to the side, and cautiously approach her.
"Ma'am, are you all right?" Rosa calls.
Of all people, the young woman turns out to be Jane Sammael, clad in a pair of heels and some flimsy dress, both utterly unsuited to the winter weather. At least she's wearing a coat.
Despite their first meeting having occurred years ago, Jane recognizes Molinson. "Why, Officer," she says through chattering teeth. "We've got to stop meeting this way."
Rosa casts him a disbelieving glance, while Molinson gives Jane a quiet smile.
"It's 'Sergeant,' these days, Miss," he tells her. "Would you like a lift home?"
Jane returns his smile, with more than a hint of sadness showing through."Thank you, Sergeant. I appreciate it."