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| “ | We were just messing around with him, but he started crying, like he was gonna tell. We shut him up. | „ |
| ~ Courtney Lane confessing to murdering Nico. |
Courtney Lane is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Lost Traveler". She is a sociopathic teenager who tortures and murders a young Romani boy for fun.
She was portrayed by Lili Reinhart, who also portrayed the young Alice Cooper in Riverdale.
Biography[]
Courtney is a sociopath who comes from a wealthy family. Her parents both spoil and ignore her, and so they have no idea who and what she truly is. Courtney and her best friend Emma Butler are the "queen bees" of their elite private school, where they bully and dominate their classmates. They take special pleasure in tormenting Nico Grey, a Romani boy who lives in their neighborhood whom they look down upon because of his ethnicity.
One day, Courtney and Emma follow Nico on his way home and start picking on him, pushing him and playing "keep away" with his backpack. Courtney lights a cigarette and burns him on the chest, arms, and genitals, as Emma reluctantly holds him down. When a terrified Nico screams that he is going to tell his mother, Courtney strangles him to death with her scarf. She blackmails Emma into helping her dispose of the body.
Courtney then frames Marc Rajic, a mentally handicapped Romani man, by giving him Nico's lucky rabbit's foot and masturbating him so his DNA will be found on it.
"Lost Traveler"[]
The NYPD's Special Victims Unit investigates Nico's murder despite the resistance of the insular Romani community, and suspects Rajic after they find Nico's rabbit's foot under his bed. Courtney and Emma insert themselves into the investigation, "helpfully" telling the SVU detectives that they saw Rajic with Nico shortly before the latter's body was found. When Detectives Olivia Benson and Nick Amaro arrest and interrogate Rajic, however, he admits that Courtney and Emma gave him the rabbit's foot and touched his genitals so he would not tell anyone.
Benson brings Courtney and Emma in for questioning under the pretense of needing more information about Rajic, and separates them, sensing that Emma is the weaker of the pair and feels remorse for what they did. Amaro confronts Emma about the pain Nico suffered as he died until she tearfully confesses to helping Courtney kill him.
Courtney, accompanied by her father, sees Emma being led away in handcuffs, and realizes that she has given them up, muttering "Stupid little bitch." Benson tells Courtney that she is caught and may as well confess, and Courtney nonchalantly admits to torturing and murdering Nico, over the objections of her horrified father. When Benson asks her why she did it, Courtney coldly replies, "Why not?" before she is arrested.
Trivia[]
- Courtney is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Levi Aron, responsible for the murder of Leiby Kletzky.
- Mary Bell, a.k.a. "The Tyneside Strangler", a sociopathic child who strangled two boys with the assistance of her friend, Mary Norma Bell.
- The multiple teens responsible for the murder of Reena Virk, which had escalated from bullying to violence, including beating Reena and burning her with a cigarette.
- One of two boys responsible for the torture and murder of James Bulger.
- One of the two girls responsible for framing Stefan Kiszko for the murder of Lesley Molseed.
External links[]
- Courtney Lane on the Law & Order Wiki
