Cora Green is the adopted daughter of Coleman Green, always assuming Coleman was her biological father. Coleman raped and killed one of her daughters, Aretha, disappearing her for years and destroying the entire family.
History[]
Cora's mother insisted to Coleman Cora was his blood, which he always doubted. Nevertheless, he married her mother and took the fatherly role of raising her. Cora had two daughters, Aretha and Nina. Coleman repeatedly raped Aretha, with Nina as a witness, which got Aretha pregnant. She wanted to tell Cora despite Coleman demanded she get an abortion, so he struggled with Aretha and ended up killing her by cracking her head on the bathtub. Coleman left Aretha's remains sunk at the bottom of the Harlem Meer for over two decades, search efforts for her being interrupted by the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.
When a boy fishes in the water and pulls up Aretha's bones, her skeleton an the plastic bag she was left in was pulled up by divers. Christian Garland, one of the officers on the search team, brings the case to Special Victims. Cora was devastated, Coleman feigning consolation. They directed detectives to Nina at the halfway house she was living at, since she descended into substance abuse and, as Cora put it, she feared Nina would be brought back dead before Aretha.
When Coleman gave a full confession, admitting to not being related to the family and that the rapes were because he "loved" Aretha and using a weak rationale of them not being blood, it hit Cora the hardest she ever had been. However, she reunited with Nina and said she'd never care to associate with Coleman, as it'd be her and her daughter for the rest of their lives. Cora then set off with Nina to prepare for Aretha's service. (SVU: "Tangled Strands of Justice")