Edward Crandall aka Edwin Todd is a con artist who conspired to have his illegitimate wife killed so he could inherit all her money.
History[]
Crandall is a Canadian con artist known to the country's police, running major scams with his wife, Denise Cormier, whom he married in Mexico to prevent the records from being tracked. Stealing the identity of an Edwin Todd, Crandall married a fortune heir named Jessica Blaine, while Cormier married another socialite, Curtis Johansen. After the seductions were successful, the couple drained their according "partners" out of their finances with their fraudulent "businesses and expenses". To keep them from turning on the two cons and to make them legally and physically incapable of trying to stymie their embezzlement after the fact, as well as have new means of defrauding them for money, Cormier stole some of Johansen's semen during sex, which they planned to utilized in fake and real crimes they set up, making sure Johansen had an alibi so he wouldn't be fingered.
They started with Cormier planting semen on her person and filing a "rape-robbery" report while keeping her diamond bracelet handy to pawn for later. When Crandall wasn't finished liquefying Blaine's funds, he had Cormier beat Blaine with a crowbar in her home while Johansen was out of town as a diversion and in an attempt to kill her. Johansen's semen was planted on her as well and her Rolex watch was stolen, Crandall coming back to the apartment to "discover" her beaten bloody on the floor. Blaine was left paralyzed and in need of physical therapy as a result of the brutality of the attack.
Blaine's maid is revealed to have hated Crandall when he made her move out after being live-in for years because Crandall needed the window of opportunity for the embezzlements. When her boyfriend's cleared, SVU find Cormier's "rape" report and question her with Johansen. They notice she wasn't beaten, which seems odd, but they also noticed the locks on both homes were changed by the same locksmith Danny Ryan.
Crandall and Cormier hired Ryan to change the locks for easier access to the home, so he's used as a quick patsy by planting the stolen jewelry in his vehicle. The evidence and charges are dismissed since the items were found without a warrant, and the squad soon realizes Ryan's being framed when his DNA doesn't match the semen samples. When Crandall's prints are found on Ryan's toolbox, he lies about being near it and the procedure of Ryan's lock installations, making him the new suspect. By then, they find and contact the real Edwin Todd, revealing Crandall as a sham.
Figuring out the couple's ruse, the detectives go to Blaine to open her eyes to the truth. She's in disbelief, as Crandall's helping her through physical therapy, even when she admits Crandall gets her inheritance when she dies. Finding a common number of the couple's phone records, they find their apartment under the names of "Brown", which they get a warrant to search and find an old Winnipeg boarding pass. Talking to the Canadian police they get Crandall's and Cormier's real names.
Fully suspecting the couple, they realize Johansen's semen was at both crime scenes, and when the detectives go to tell him the facts, he's baffled but he agrees to a DNA test, and it's a positive match. Blaine's shown Crandall's real records, but she says even if she were convinced, she can't testify, as spousal privilege prevents her to when Crandall confessed to her after and she forgave him. Johansen has the same move pulled on him by Cormier. But when SVU does more research, they find the marriage license in Mexico, meaning their American marriages are void and the testimony's open.
Crandall and Cormier are confronted by prosecution, and Cormier's shocked while Crandall snips at her to shut up. Blaine's wheeled in on her wheelchair and Crandall's still convinced she won't testify, "promising" her a vacation to wherever she wants to go. All Blaine says is "The only place you're going is to hell," changing Crandall's grin into a scowl.
Crandall and Cormier are found guilty of their crimes and imprisoned for life. (SVU: "Greed")