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Liam Ryan and Julie Ryan are the main antagonists of the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Merchandise".
Liam was portrayed by Tim Buchanan and Julie was portrayed by Jennifer Lamb in uncredited roles.
History[]
Background[]
The Ryans are a married couple of wannabe farmers who originated from Maryland, where they ran a family farm which was lost to foreclosure. The couple moved to North Carolina, and later Florida, before turning heel and sustain off finding slavery candidates for their operating farms, like children and illegal immigrants. The Ryans would even torture, rape, and pimp children and illegal immigrants out.
The Ryans set up their business in Sarasota, but were eventually reported by their neighbors to the police. To avoid being caught, the Ryans killed their five child slaves by forcing them to drink cyanide-laced grape juice before fleeing. Florida police found the five dead children at the abandoned site, revealing the Ryans killed the kids they're done with or unable to subjugate, illegal immigrants too terrified to file reports. After their arrival in Wyandanch, New York, the two resumed their depraved lifestyle by leasing a bogus farm (subsequently referring to said farm as Mission Farms) and employing at-risk children as their slaves. Fellow human trafficker Victoria Reyes supplied the two with siblings Carly and Micah Holbart.
"Merchandise"[]
Carly escaped and was ready to rescue her brother Micah, but he was too subjugated to agree and in a struggle, he pushed Carly out into a road out of fear of the abuse he and the other captives would face in retaliation for his sister's escape. The Ryans were then subsequently revealed as Carly and Micah's "owners" after Reyes got questioned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut by SVU Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson (temporarily deputized as U.S. Marshals) along with the Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Danielson, with Reyes boasting about how she profited due to assisting their business. As Reyes tells them more about the history of the couple, she warns the authorities that when the heat closes in, the Ryans will kill the children. After unearthing their criminal backstories, Stabler, Benson, and Danielson went to apprehend the Ryans before they could harm any of the kids they currently had. As they approached Mission Farms, however, they saw the Ryans approaching in a truck, having just finished poisoning their recently chained-up victims. The detectives force the pair off the road, with Stabler placing them under arrest while Benson went to rescue all the remaining children. They were all transported by EMS for treatment.
With the plans of the couple foiled, Danielson happily noted the irony of the pair being placed in full body chains just like they did to their victims, and also mentioned that they immediately invoked their right to remain silent. However, the evidence in their vehicles guaranteed their life imprisonment without parole in a maximum security federal prison and led to a search for additional children and numerous babies who were produced from rape.
External links[]
- Liam Ryan on the Law and Order Wiki
- Julie Ryan on the Law and Order Wiki
