Ilena Codrescu is a Romanian immigrant who was brought to the U.S. on a student Visa after her father was murdered and her aunt Constanta Codrescu wanted to bring her to safety. Their hopes were destroyed when yuppie Randolph Morrow manipulated the two women into letting him assist them in finances, only to force Ilena to be a nanny for his daughter Tamara. To make matters worse, Randolph barred Ilena from ever meeting her plans to attend NYU and raped and tortured her in captivity until she was subjugated enough to not try to escape.
Ilena had a moment of resistance when she warned a Romanian vendor of her dangers and to pass a message on to Constanta to say she was right. He went to the police, and they personally went to Constanta, who confirmed Ilena's identity. Constanta finally tried to rescue Ilena when hearing what she suffered, but Randolph made his wife kill Constanta with Beuthanasia from Mrs. Morrow's vet to stop her. Ilena was unphased when met for the first time and was more concerned about Randolph's demands. When the cops were closing in on the Morrows, Randolph imprisoned Ilena in a box under his bed and said nothing about where she was hidden, no matter how much the police degraded him to make him talk. Going through the photos of her he tried to burn, detectives realized where she was hidden and pulled her out from the box she was stuck in. She begged them to not tell Randolph as she kept silent when Randolph told her, but they reassured her he'd never hurt her again. (SVU: "Slaves")