3.) The Investigation
When Amy and Ricky arrived at the SVU precinct, they were surprised to see over a dozen parents in the bullpen.
"We've interviewed them all Cap," said Stabler, "None of the DNA matches any of our victims or the hair fibers."
Cragen just nodded not knowing what to say. Kidnap victims were sometimes the hardest. Statistics showed that of the 876,213 missing reports files of those 973,570 of them were younger than eighteen.
Amy looked around the precinct and went to the nearest person, "Excuse me I'm looking for information about my son."
"What's your son's name," Detective Benson asked.
"John. John Juergens."
Olivia quickly put together the first letters of the name. J.J. She gestured toward Amy. "I'm detective Olivia Benson."
"Amy Underwood…er…Juergens, this is my husband Ricky."
Olivia just nodded to Ricky, "Please come with me."
Amy looked over at Ricky and he followed. The three of them went into one of the interrogation rooms.
"So how long as your son been missing?"
"13 months and 3 weeks," Amy replied.
"When did you realize he was missing?"
"The day before his birthday on March 22nd. Um, we live at a family housing complex at CU. There's a park in the back where you can see our apartment window. I was making dinner and Ricky was studying in the living room. We must have turned away for two seconds and he was gone."
"By chance do you happen to have a picture of John?"
Ricky reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a recent family photo. He handed it to Benson.
"This was taken earlier that same day."
Olivia studied the photo carefully. John looked exactly like the two victims.
"Do you know of anyone who would want to take John or harm him in any way?"
Amy shook her head indicating no. Olivia looked at Ricky and could see some kind of pain in his eyes.
Ricky cleared his throat and replied, "No."
"Okay then. This next part may difficult to hear but we've been telling all the parents that have come in just so they're informed and so they're not surprised by what we ask next of you."
"Okay," replied Amy.
"The boys we found were both sexually assaulted." Olivia looked up in time to see Ricky cringe away for just a second. "Hair fibers were found at the crime scene and we'd like to ask for your permission to do a DNA test. All it would entail is a swab from the inside of your cheek."
"Sure," Amy said, "What are the odds the kidnapper could be someone we know."
"Right," Ricky said not sounding all that reassuring. In his mind he had all ready pieced together this case. Ricky looked at Benson, "Go ahead and take my DNA," Ricky told her all ready having a feeling in his gut that he would be connected.
"Okay," replied Benson, "I'll get our doctor."
Olivia stepped out of the room where Cragen, Stabler, Cabbot and Wong were watching.
"So what do you think," Benson asked.
"The kid knows something like he's covering for someone," Stabler said studying Ricky.
"It doesn't strike me as covering," said Dr. Wong, the unit's on-call psychologist. "I think he's afraid of something."
"Of what?" Stabler asked.
Wong turned to Benson, "Did you notice Ricky cringe when you said the words sexual assault?"
"Yeah I did, think that could mean something?"
"I think it could mean a lot. Victims who undergo sexual abuse usually tense up or try to detach themselves from anything related to that abuse. Or they go in an opposite direction. They have sex to justify the abuse."
"So you think Ricky Underwood was sexually abused," asked Stabler.
"It's a big possibility."
Olivia let her thoughts go as she formed them, "And if you factor that in with how similar their son is to our vics then…."
"Then the Underwood's are most likely connected to our rapist," Stabler said filling in the rest.
Cragen spoke up, "Get me their DNA stat. We've all ready had another two bodies found this week. We need to end this now. In the mean time make sure they don't leave the city."
