Law and Order
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Jo Gage was the biological daughter of profiler Declan Gage, the mentor of Robert Goren.

Background[]

Jo's mother, who's never named in the show, committed suicide when Jo was seven, leaving an impact on her life especially when Declan had to raise her as a single parent. Apparently, her father neglected her because she was not the son he wanted. That was why she let him teach her all about serial killers in order to be near him anyway. Still he never taught her about boys or anything else and surrounded her with serial killer profiles and their crimes. He also believed there could be no female serial killers. Jo would later tell Goren that exposure is how she chose her lovers in her teen years, testing them to see if they'd withstand hearing tapes of torture and making out in her father's office if their stomachs were iron enough. Goren was a friend and student of Declan and knew and cared about Jo as she grew up, which is how Jo found Goren as more of a confidant. As Declan often said he tried to be the attentive father figure to criminals he usually interviewed in prison, Jo was always spiteful of her herself being denied receiving her own affirmation from her own father.

On CI[]

Jo decided to prove Declan wrong about his sexism over criminals, making a bid to get his attention once and for all. Jo copied the crimes of the criminal Declan was haunted the worst by and could never catch, "The Sebastian Killer", a serial rapist and killer of women. Jo stalked and killed three women while taunting the police, including her roommate and her roommate's coworker, using pinking shears as a weapon and raping them with a foreign object before leaving them dead covered in duct tape and their own blood. When Declan barred her from the case, Jo upped the ante to impress Declan by kidnapping Detective Alexandra Eames, Goren's partner, and then tried to blame it all on him. When she's brought to hear Declan in interrogation saying he likes to take time to know criminals, which she says is what she always wanted in front of Goren, she confesses everything to Goren and is subsequently arrested. (CI: "Blind Spot")

Jo was sent to an asylum, where she bit off her tongue because she couldn't stand to see Declan again. She slipped into a coma from the shock and blood loss of the self-harm. The event pushed her father over the edge and turned him into a killer. (CI: "Frame")

Known Victims[]

  • Heidi Conington (left her body in her apartment)
  • Jenna Shea (left her body under a tree)
  • Amanda Hsin (left her body in the trunk of a police car in a parking garage)
  • Alexandra Eames (kidnapped and attempted to murder; was rescued)
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