Carissa Gibson was a prostitute who worked for high-end escort services.
Background[]
Carissa started working for Delia Wilson's matchmaking service as an escort and eventually became one of her top earners. When a new pimp named Bart Ganzel started stealing some of Delia's girls, Carissa joined him and eventually became Bart's top prostitute. She and Bart eventually became engaged. When Bart hires Brian Cassidy as security, she and Brian start having an affair and Brian tries to get her to leave the business.
On SVU[]
In 2012, Carissa is first seen working at Will Brady's bachelor party and spends most of the party with Clayton Hannigan. She later brings Clayton into a bedroom to have sex, but as she lies down on the bed, she feels something and gets up. When she moves the coats, she finds Maggie Murphy's dead body and gasps in horror. Carissa then leaves the party with everyone while Clayton did his best to clean up the crime scene and disguise her death as an accident. When the cover-up is discovered, she is brought into SVU for questioning by Olivia Benson and Nick Amaro. Carissa immediately says she wants to wait for her attorney, Barry Querns.
Carissa asks Amaro for something to drink, then attempts to flirt with him to seduce him but it doesn't work. When her attorney arrives, he explains Carissa didn't know Maggie and assumed she was somebody's date. Carissa mentions she works for an escort agency and she gives them Bart's name, who is also represented by Barry. When Carissa sees Cassidy talking to Benson and Amaro, she interrupts and takes Amaro aside to talk. Carissa tells Amaro she doesn't know Anya and continues to flirt with him as he continues to rebuff her. She mentions her engagement to Bart and comments on Amaro's apparent obsession with saving women.
On May 9, Bart orders Carissa to go to the house of former governor Harrison Fletcher and poison him with scopolamine and erectile dysfunction medication, then frame one of Delia's girls for the murder to out Delia as a madam. She later meets Amaro outside the precinct and asks if she can talk to him about the governor's death. She tells him that she thinks she is going to be the next casualty in the war. Amaro tries to get her inside but she refuses and leaves with Amaro's card. Carissa is last seen on May 11 with her neck slashed, lying on Captain Cragen's bed. (SVU: "Rhodium Nights")
In a flashback, it is shown that after she left, Carissa called Amaro at his home after he came home. After leaving four messages at the precinct, Cragen agrees to meet Carissa at a diner. While he wasn't looking, Carissa poisons his tea, then tells Cragen that she went to Amaro and said he promised to protect her if she slept with him. Cragen doesn't believe her and leaves. Carissa then calls Bart to keep him updated. Afterwards, she catches up to Cragen to return his car keys and goes with him to his apartment. (SVU: "Lost Reputation")
It is later revealed that Carissa and Bart were working to frame Cragen, and Bart arrived at the apartment after she called him. To this end, Carissa scratched Cragen's back and Bart snapped some photos of her and Cragen while Cragen was unconscious. Carissa than started crying, then tells Bart that Cassidy thinks if he loved her he would treat her with more respect. She then confesses her love for Cassidy and Bart, in a rage, grabs a knife from the kitchen and kills Carissa. (SVU: "Above Suspicion")