Coleman Green was the adoptive grandfather and prime suspect in the murder of Aretha Green.
Background[]
Green was a part of the National Guard reserve, which was always on duty. He was involved with a woman who claimed her daughter Cora was his child. Although he had his doubts about the paternity, she insisted her child was his. Believing her, he decided to step up and married his girlfriend and help raise the child. Green acted as a father figure to Cora and was very much loved by her.
After Cora became a mother herself, Green helped her raised her family. He was very close to his granddaughters, specifically his oldest Aretha. However, he developed a pedophilic lust for her and started sexually abusing her, something witnessed by his other granddaughter Nina. By the time she was 13, Green ended up impregnating Aretha and panicked after realizing that his crimes would be exposed. He tried to have her get an abortion, but Aretha wanted to tell her mother causing Green to become upset and violently shake her to talk some sense into her. However, this act ended up killing Aretha after hitting her head on the tub. Horrified by what he had done, he dumped her body in the lake at a park.
Because 9/11 had just occurred, Aretha remained at the bottom of the lake for 20 years. This action ended up taking a toll on Cora who became reclusive as well as Nina who became a drug addict and ended up in prison. Green avoided detection and comforted his daughter through this time, acting as loving father.
Tangled Strands of Justice[]
In 2022, Aretha's remains were discovered in the lake and Manhattan Special Victims Unit investigated the scene. A DNA test confirm that the remains were Aretha Green. The Green family was updated, and Coleman put up a grieving façade to avoid detection and comforted Cora after she discovered the body of her daughter. Green also sent the detectives away once it was discovered that Aretha was pregnant and fetal remains were also discovered. During questioning, Green misled SVU into seeing Cora's former lover who had a temper but he was innocent. When the detectives told Green and Cora they had to speak with Nina about her sister, they told them they had no idea of her location.
To cover his tracks, he secretly visited Nina in a halfway house and threatened her into silence about her sister. Unfortunately for him, the Special Victims Unit detectives found Nina who revealed Aretha confided in her that Green abused her. SVU soon discovered through a DNA test of the fetus that Green was the father of the baby but not the biological father of Cora nor the biological grandfather of Aretha and Nina.
With this new evidence, Green was brought in and was not too shocked to hear that he was not Cora's biological father and stated he always had his doubts. He revealed the circumstances of how he married his wife and how he loved her daughter as if she was his. He admits to raping Aretha and states that when he discovered her pregnancy, he wanted her to have an abortion to cover his tracks. He also reveals that he killed her by accident. He decides to accept the consequences but earns the disgust of A.D.A Dominick Carisi, Jr. and Christian Garland by stating their encounters were a form of love because they were not blood. He was then imprisoned with it being said that he would most likely die in a cell.
Upon discovering the truth, a devastated Cora cut ties with Green and reconciled with her surviving daughter, who was all the family she needed, and they gave Aretha a proper funeral.