April Troost is a brilliant con artist (estimated IQ of 170) who managed to elude the Special Victims Unit after posing as a rape victim.
Background
April was born as the only daughter of Lorraine Dillon and had numerous stepfathers growing up. She eventually learned how to be a con artist from her mother and even ran scams with Lorraine's boyfriend, Patrick Sullivan, from time to time. One day, at the age of fourteen, Patrick raped April and she became pregnant with his child. April was sent away to a facility by one of her stepfathers to have the baby privately in order to protect it from Lorraine. When she had the baby the facility's cook, Arliss Driver, drove her to the hospital. She ended up giving birth in the car and had a boy, but became frightened after discovering he was deformed. She convinced Arliss to keep it to himself and help her dispose of the baby's body. Using some supplies from his car, she killed her baby and buried the body. She later started dating Arliss for a month before stealing his money and car. Ten years later, she found her birth father, Douglas McManus, and started working for him as an accountant.
Police Investigations
April first appeared when Detective Benson talked her down from a roof as April claims she was raped, pregnant, and scared. When she is apparently murdered, they focus their investigation on her alleged rapist, Barclay Pallister. It later turns out that she had been stealing men's sperm, including Pallister's, to impregnate herself and had been scamming several couples under the belief that she was selling each of them her baby. When she did give birth to her baby, she refused to give the child's location until she got a deal for full immunity. Her mother Lorraine held onto the baby while April negotiated the deal and eventually detectives took the baby, Sarah, to her new family after A.D.A. Novak agreed. (SVU: "Design")
The two later teamed up with Patrick to defraud a businessman named David Glass out of $500,000. April posed as another mark while her mother posed as an SEC agent and pretended to shoot Patrick, and Glass bought the act. April got greedy, however, and fatally shot Patrick for his share of the scam when they went back to clean up the staged crime scene. She then lied to her mother, as a cover, about why she did it; that he had raped her when she was a minor. When the detectives arrive and arrest her mother and the trial seems to be going in Lorraine's favor, April lies on the stand, stating that the sex was consensual, and frames her mother for the murder. Lorraine is convicted of murder and April gets all of the money they got from the scam. Benson is not satisfied, however, and continues investigating and finds out about her first baby's murder. The trail leads them to a new home construction site. There, they find witnesses to the crime but couldn't find the body and therefore couldn't tie her to the crime. However, that changed when her own mother turned on her, and April was arrested for murder. (L&O: "Flaw")
Known Victims
- Unknown date in 1995: Her unnamed infant son (wrapped in a towel, put in a black garbage bag, and buried alive nearly immediately after his birth)
- Unknown dates in 2004: A total of 34 men (all drugged and raped for their semen to create a baby). Named ones are:
- J.J. Price
- Leo Ashford
- Don Lacey
- Barclay Pallister
- 2005:
- Unknown dates: Numerous couples (all defrauded out of thousands of dollars with the promise of giving them her daughter). Named ones are:
- Roger and Monica Mason
- The Ramseys
- The Harts
- The Fritzlers
- March 23-29: Sarah Pallister (her infant daughter; kidnapped and held for ransom; was rescued)
- July 6:
- David Glass (defrauded out of 500,000 dollars; committed suicide three days later as a result)
- Patrick Sullivan (shot once in the chest)
- Unknown dates: Numerous couples (all defrauded out of thousands of dollars with the promise of giving them her daughter). Named ones are: