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| “ | I took you in when no one else would! | „ |
| ~ Dorothy Rudd berating one of her foster children. |
Dorothy Rudd is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Care". She is an abusive foster parent who beats one of her foster children to death.
She was portrayed by the late Piper Laurie, who also portrayed Margaret White in Carrie, Ruby Claire in Ruby, and Adriana Petrescu in Trauma.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Dorothy cares for several foster children with the reluctant help of her adult daughter, Jane, who is terrified of her. Dorothy is an abusive tyrant who doles out fierce beatings for the slightest misbehavior, or even for no reason at all, and gets away with it by threatening her foster children with worse punishment if they tell on her. The foster agency who works with her sees her as the perfect parent, however, won over by her surface charm and too busy to look closer at her family life.
One night, one of her foster daughters, five-year-old Cassie Adams, wets her bed, sending Dorothy into a worse fury than usual. When Cassie threatens to tell on her, Dorothy loses her temper completely and beats her to death. She dumps Cassie's body at a nearby construction site.
"Care"[]
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit investigate Cassie's murder, and speak with Dorothy and Jane, who feign sorrow at the little girl's passing. At first, they suspect Dorothy's foster son Glenn, a developmentally delayed teenager who is completely withdrawn into a video game about knights and dragons. Eventually, however, SVU Captain Donald Cragen, bonds with the boy over their mutual enjoyment of the game, and he gets Glenn to admit that he sees its villain, "the Gorgon", as a representation of Dorothy, and says that he saw Dorothy beating Cassie the night of her death. Benson and Stabler interrogate Jane, who confesses that Dorothy regularly abuses her foster children and that she helped her hide Cassie's body. Dorothy is then arrested for child abuse and murder.
During her trial, Dorothy tries to intimidate Glenn by glaring at him menacingly during his testimony. Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot blocks her view of Glenn so he will not be afraid, but Dorothy retaliates by loudly dropping her cane, with which she had beaten him and the other children so many times. Glenn manages to finally stand up for himself, however, by directly accusing Dorothy of abusing him and his foster siblings, and of killing Cassie. When the trial adjourns for the day, Dorothy is led into a police car to return her to Riker's Island, when she suddenly suffers a massive heart attack that kills her instantly.
External links[]
- Dorothy Rudd on the Law & Order Wiki
