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| “ | It can be so darn easy to kill someone when you really know what you're doing. | „ |
| ~ Muller trying to intimidate Zach Nichols. |
Dr. Henry Muller is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Major Case". He is a renowned forensic medical examiner and closet pedophile who murders an adolescent girl and tries to frame her mother's boyfriend.
He was portrayed by Dylan Baker, who also portrayed Biff Simpson in Hunters, Aaron Downing in Law & Order, Steven Wilkins in Trick 'r Treat, and Bill Maplewood in Happiness.
Overview[]
Muller is a brilliant forensic medical examiner who works for the NYPD. He is something of a celebrity in the field, writing several books about forensic science and frequently appearing on talk shows to comment on the forensic techniques used in high-profile murder investigations, much to the annoyance of colleagues who are actually working on those cases.
Beneath his respectable façade, however, he hides a dark secret: he is a pedophile who is obsessed with young girls. He most frequently performs autopsies on the bodies of adolescent and preadolescent girls who have been murdered, a specialty he developed in order to vent his pedophilic urges without breaking the law - to be with young girls "without really being with them".
"Major Case"[]
After his mother, Rose, dies, Muller goes back to her apartment to pack up her things. He sees Grace Samonsky - a 13-year-old girl from the neighborhood with whom he has been obsessed for years - running from her drug dealer boyfriend, Justin Lennox. As if on cue, Muller opens the door to let her hide.
He lets her take a shower, while secretly peeping through the bathroom door at her. When she tells him she is leaving New York City to stay with relatives, he is visibly upset. She innocently kisses Muller on the cheek, and he lets loose years of repressed lust and kisses her hard on the mouth. When Grace recoils from him and calls him a pervert, Muller flies into a rage and beats her to death with his bare hands. He cannot bring himself to dismember her body, however, so he uses his forensic skills to cover up any evidence that would lead to him and leaves her body in a dumpster. He then scrubs his floor with luminol to get rid of any blood, fibers, and trace DNA that may be left.
Detectives Zach Nichols and Alexandra Eames of the NYPD's Major Case Squad investigate Grace's murder, and Nichols consults with Muller, who promises to help with the case in any way he can. He "helps" by stealing a tissue sample from Lennox's clothes and putting it under Grace's fingernail, making it look as if she scratched him as he killed her. This contradicts the autopsy report made by Medical Examiner Elizabeth Rodgers, who found no foreign DNA on the body.
Nichols arrests Lennox, but he turns out to have an alibi - two narcotics detectives were following him at the exact time that Grace was killed. Nichols realizes that whoever put Lennox's DNA under Grace's fingernail would have to have skill with forensics and special access to NYPD's morgue. He also notes that Muller's mother had lived on the same street as Grace, meaning that Muller must have been acquainted with her, something he never mentioned. Nichols grows even more suspicious when Muller visits his office to ask about the case and becomes noticeably distracted and flustered when he sees a young girl using a payphone across the hall.
Muller later appears on a talk show, complaining about the "cowboy mentality" of homicide detectives - a thinly veiled swipe at Nichols, which Nichols interprets as a sign that Muller is afraid of being found out. Nichols' superior, Captain Danny Ross, officially takes him off the case, fearing that his antagonism of Muller will alienate the NYPD's forensics department.
Nichols nevertheless visits Muller's office and says that he will continue to investigate Grace's murder with or without the NYPD's approval. Muller makes Nichols a cup of tea and adds sugar to it, all while telling Nichols about a case he once worked on in which the victim was poisoned by her husband, a chemist; he then remarks that is easy to kill someone if one knows what one is doing. Nichols, understanding the threat, politely declines the tea, but is now certain of Muller's guilt and starts forming a plan to catch him.
Nichols and Eames arrest Nate Henrick, the boyfriend of Grace's alcoholic mother, right in front of Muller's apartment building, with Muller watching excitedly. He talks with Rodgers, who tells him that Henrick has a prior conviction for child molestation. She also says that she found a hair on Grace's body and asks him to take a hair from Henrick's head to compare it to the sample. He does so, runs a test, and declares that Henrick's hair is a perfect match to the one found on Grace as Eames interrogates Herick.
Eames then lets Henrick go, while Nichols tells a confused Muller that he was never arrested for child molestation. Nichols says that he used a strand of his own hair as the "sample", proving that Muller is lying, and that Eames and Rodgers were in on the ruse. Muller tries to leave, but Nichols blocks his way and says that the reason Muller performs autopsies on murdered young girls is that it gives him an excuse to touch them. Over Muller's protestations, Nichols confronts him about knowing Grace, and he says that the temptation to put his hands on her must have been overwhelming and that he must have been furious when she called him a pervert; Muller then blurts out, "She kissed me!" Nichols shows Muller a picture of Grace's battered corpse, and Muller bursts into tears as he says that he never wanted to hurt her. Nichols then arrests Muller, who is presumably imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Muller is inspired by Bruce Haims, a bookstore owner who sexually assaulted and murdered a friend's teenage daughter.
- He is also inspired by the antagonist of the Norwegian film Insomnia, Jon Holt, and the villain of the American remake, Walter Finch.
- The episode "Major Case" is the second time that Dylan Baker played a pedophile, the first being his portrayal of Bill Maplewood in the 1998 film Happiness, and the second time he played a child murderer, the first being his portrayal of Aaron Downing in "Flight", a 1998 episode of the original Law & Order.
External links[]
- Henry Muller on the Law & Order Wiki
