Ethan Chance is a student who was helped by schoolteacher Marnie Owens.
History[]
Ethan was formerly a delinquent, who hung out with the wrong crowd, much to the dismay of his mother. On several occasions, he was caught dealing drugs and was arrested. However, his teacher Marnie Owens saw that he had potential to be someone great in the future and proceeded to tutor Ethan, which succeeded in getting Ethan's grades up. Happy with this progress, Ethan proceeded to stop his delinquency and really focus himself on school and became a much better young man, while getting praise from his mother. Ethan respected Owens and was outraged when his peers started to harass her upon learning about her extracurricular activities with men.
When Owens was raped and murdered, Ethan was hinted to be the culprit, especially when he went missing. However, he was found attending Owens' funeral and paying his respects. In interrogation, Ethan voiced how he was innocent by revealing the tutoring sessions, how he defended Owens after learning of her past, and that a man in the crowd told him of the murder. He soon voiced his grief in the death of his teacher who helped him improve in school and get his life on track. His genuine grief confirmed to the detectives that he wasn't responsible.
Ethan later revealed to the detectives that because of his study sessions with Owens, he was accepted into Temple University, a great college, and was wished luck in his future. He aided Special Victims by identifying his teacher's real killer, Philip Montrose, the very man who told him of the murder, successfully leading to an arrest. Ethan testified against Montrose, leading to his conviction. (SVU: "Secrets")