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| “ | She just looked at me... as if I was the one who betrayed her. | „ |
| ~ Brooke about murdering her own daughter. |
Brooke Thornburg is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Justice". She is a woman who murders her own daughter after finding out she was raped by her husband.
She was portrayed by Valerie Mahaffey.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Brooke had a daughter named Tricia with another man, but she raised Tricia by herself after the relationship ended.
At some point, she met Walter Thornburg, a well-respected judge, and they fell in love, leading to marriage and him adopting Tricia. Brooke was happy about their union, as she gained the opportunity to climb up the social ladder and have what appeared to be a happy family, eventually bearing Thornburg a son, Josh.
Unbeknownst to Tricia, however, Thornburg was a pedophile, and began sexually abusing Tricia almost immediately after the wedding, eventually getting her pregnant. Tricia began acting out as a result of the abuse, so Brooke put her daughter in a reform school. After Tricia gave birth to a boy, Brian, Brooke passed him off as her own son to avoid having her reputation ruined.
"Justice"[]
Brooke found out that Tricia was going to have sex with Tommy Gordon, an ex-con that Thornburg had put in prison, and followed her to a seedy motel. When Tricia came out of the motel room, Brooke confronted her about her behavior, provoking an enraged Tricia to reveal that Thornburg fathered her son. Brooke flew into a rage and hit Tricia over the head with a nearby beer bottle. When Tricia did not get up, Brooke panicked and fled. Tricia was rushed to a hospital, but subsequently died of brain trauma.
Eventually, Gordon shoots Thornburg, and Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit investigate. They interrogate Gordon, who reveals that Tricia had agreed to have sex with him in return for killing Thornburg.
When Benson and Stabler inform Brooke that DNA tests confirm that Brian is in fact her husband's child, she angrily replies that Tricia seduced him. They then reveal that they found her fingerprints on the bottle that killed Tricia. She expresses remorse for killing her daughter, but ultimately blames Tricia for her own death, offering the excuse that Tricia "betrayed" her.
She was subsequently imprisoned for the murder, while her husband is imprisoned for rape and child sexual abuse.
External links[]
- Brooke Thornburg on the Law & Order Wiki
