Ella Burton is a kidnapping, beating, and rape victim of the pedophile Dale Pennington, lured out by his daughter Darla to make Ella a "wife" of Dale's.
History[]
Ella was out on a trip with her parents, Pam and Kevin Burton. Unknown to her, she was being watched by Dale Pennington, a man who developed pedophilic feelings towards her. Deciding to act, Dale instructed his daughter Darla Pennington to invite her to play to lure her out. Ella accepted the invitation but was kidnapped by the pair, being repeatedly raped and beaten by Dale over the years until she came to depend on him.
Her parents were devasted and adopted a girl named Mackenzie, but were unable to get over Ella, they abused her by making her look like Ella, even putting a tracking chip in her arm, giving her a doll resembling Ella, and arranging her nose job.
When Mackenzie ran away to meet one of her former foster brothers, after being fed up with the abuse, she was tracked and returned. When the abuse was revealed, the Burton parents became suspects in Ella's disappearance. They still stuck to their story of witnessing Darla and eventually, she was identified and tracked down. Under threat of pinning Ella's victimization on her, she revealed her father's intentions of kidnapping Ella, and after beating and raping her for years, Darla thought he beat Ella to death, with Darla to scared to intervene. Dale was tracked and arrested, and Ella was revealed very much alive and suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
She was returned to Kevin and Pam, where she recovered from her disorientation with a tearful reunion while the family hugged each other. Mackenzie looked on with a scared look on her face, dreading where that left her in her own situation, (SVU: "Locum")