April "Ma" Hendricks is a woman who was held captive by Michael Williams, a pedophile.
Background[]
Her mother was a drug addict and was very abusive to her. A young April was also the victim of her mother's boyfriend who sexually abused her for several years. April was also the target to another pedophile Michael Williams who worked as a maintenance worker at her school. Williams kidnapped her from her home and took her to an undisclosed location. Over eighteen years, she believed that their sex was consensual because he saved her from an even worse fate.
After Hendricks got older, Williams got bored with her, but she begged him to allow her to stay because she has nowhere to go. Williams allowed her to stay with him and had her assist him in kidnapping other girls. Hendricks would act as a lookout and will distract the victims long enough for Williams to sneak up behind them tase them and throw them in the car. The pair would bring the girls to their house and keep them locked up in the basement in cages. Williams made the victims his surrogate family going by Pa while Hendricks went by Ma. At one point, they kidnapped Kayla Greyland who was going home, and they refer to her as "Sissy". When Kayla was ten, Williams proceeded to rape her, and Hendricks would explain to her what he did while telling Kayla that she was lucky. Unlike the other victims, Hendricks stayed upstairs and was able to go and stay as she please but remained loyal to Pa. When Kayla gave birth to Williams' son Buddy, Hendricks came to care for him and showed him actual love.
Imprisoned Lives[]
In 2013, Williams' crimes were uncovered after he took Buddy to Times Square, and he was forced to leave him behind after a police officer spotted them. He returned home and fled with Ma and Sissy, while leaving the third "Auntie" behind because she was sick and mentally challenged after years of abuse. This girl was later found by SVU detectives. Later at a restaurant, Sissy escaped, and Pa left Ma behind. Rather than try to escape, Hendricks stayed behind waiting hours for Williams to come back, so that they could be a family again. Eventually, the owner called the cops and Hendricks was brought into the SVU precinct for questioning.
Benson and Rollins interrogate her, as she shows no remorse, stating they were all a family. This causes Benson to snap, and she condemns Hendricks for her actions, nearly causing her to suffer an emotional breakdown in guilt and Cragen has to recuse her. Soon Benson calms down and talks to Ma again, this time getting through to her and while she does not give the real name of Pa, she does give her name April Hendricks who was a troubled youth, and it is revealed her mother died after her abduction. Further research reveals April was helped by her janitor Michael Williams. Williams was hinted to be involved in the disappearance of April but was not suspected. They tracked Michael to his new job as a maintenance worker at another school. After Williams was arrested and confessed, he admitted that he never intended to go back for Ma because she was not young.
Later, SVU begged A.D.A Rafael Barba not to charge Hendricks because of her mental state and rape trauma. Barba was initially reluctant because she played a role in the kidnapping and could have left anytime but detectives Benson and Rollins brought up her sexual abuse before Williams, which showed she clearly suffered from Stockholm syndrome. Barba understood and declared unlike Williams, she suffered enough and instead had her institutionalized to recover from the trauma before her rescue. (SVU: "Imprisoned Lives")