Caroline Pereira is a murder victim and a skilled college con artist, from paper scams to poker competitions.
History[]
Caroline and her best friend Adam Halder grew up in impoverished beginnings in the small town of LaGrange, needing financial aid and doing cafeteria work when they were enrolled. They decided to cheat and hustle their way through New York City and beyond to start getting rich quick and getting themselves into the in-crowds. Caroline started selling plagiarizing term papers for payments she privately took at paymepronto.com. Adam would scout the world of poker tournaments, legal, elite, and illicit, and gamble for big wins, which he'd spend on the high life and use to impress the rich crowds. Caroline was a silent partner in Adam's poker operations and became more involved, each one scouting the rings and telling the other to fleece their targets when they report their strengths and weaknesses. This also worked on online sites, Carolines favorite being pokerfastlane.com. Caroline's roommate, socialite Gloria Kulhane, who failed to fill out a housing form for accommodations she wanted, interjected herself into the two friends' operations, seducing Adam so he'd burn his money on her most of all. Gloria was also the highest paying student for Caroline's paper fraud.
Caroline and Adam's schemes began to unravel eventually. Caroline was on a hot streak, even down to winning a diamond ring of football star Roddy Franklin, bragging he'd have to try and win it back if he wanted it. But eventually, Dr. Farouq, a university professor, was eventually tracking her scam with a program that was surveying the university plagiarism epidemic. One paying student, Brian Townsend, tried to bribe Caroline into silence about his purchases, but she just laughed and flashed Franklin's ring in a cocky taunt, saying she had to be bought for much more. Eventually, her streak in poker had its ultimate crash in the ring of "Riley", really an undercover agent named Doug Kersten attracting organized crime for surveillance while using the ring as a base of operations. In her greedy ambitions getting the best of her, and unwilling to kick her addictions, Caroline lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, debts she and Adam couldn't pay for the life of them. Gloria was only disgusted Adam seemed less than human just because he would lose all his money in an instant.
To keep the debts from being paid, Gloria ordered Adam to track Caroline to the ring. Adam strangled Caroline to death, her fingernails scratching the wall paint and her phone camera flashing to get a picture of Adam, but the flash only reflected off the diamond ring and distorted the image with a massive glare. Gloria also demanded Adam take the ring from Caroline and give it to her to keep for herself. Kersten found Caroline dead after Adam fled and, to save his cover, had one of his bouncers leave Caroline in a red light district, hoping enough evidence was left behind to catch the killer. A prostitute named Vegas heard the bouncer leaving Caroline and assumed he was another prostitute on her turf, but she saw Caroline dead and called the cops.
Gloria denied much if any knowledge of Caroline and her life, even after wads of cash were all over her side of the dorm room. Adam only gave up her term paper scam, and when Gloria was found out to have paid for the most orders, she just diverted the team to the poker games. After finding Franklin, then the crime scene, Kersten agreed to trap Adam, under the alias of "Jack King", by tracing him in an online competition. He was arrested and confessed, being taken to trial for murder two. His defense of gambling addiction ell through when Gloria was found out. Unable to actually link her to the murder, Gloria testified against Adam, despite his pleas for her to stop. Because was painted as the aggressor and control freak, the conviction was successful. Gloria just blamed Adam entirely when he voiced his devastation she sold him out. Nevertheless, Gloria was arrested for being an accessory from eagerly accepting the diamond ring she knew belonged to Caroline despite the fact she was murdered. (SVU: "Class")