Liz Rinaldi is the daughter of legendary thief of Frank Hagar and the mother of Rosie Rinaldi. Liz is also a con artist having stolen one of Hagar's stashes, which leads to Rosie being kidnapped for the ransom.
History[]
Liz picked up her crooked habits from her father, which is how she exaggerated the criminal record of her ex-husband and Rosie's father, Geno Parnell, to get a restraining order and threaten him with another prison sentence to keep Rosie to herself. Her new husband, Pete Rinaldi, had serious gambling problems in the millions, and his bookie threatened to kill him if they didn't pay. Liz saw a lucky break in 750 million in diamonds in one of Hagar's stashes at his pawn shop. She never knew they were stolen by safe cracker Jake and given to Hagar to sell so Jake would get the payment.
When Jake found out the diamonds weren't there and Hagar, who was sadly demented by then, was of no help, he threatened Hagar, trashed his shop, and later that night pretended to be a cop at the Rinaldis' apartment while the couple was out to kidnap Rosie for the ransom.
Liz appears at the station horrified and appearing to be devastated when she sees Parnell talking to Rosie to give her a birthday present, making him a number one suspect. He's exonerated, and they find Hagar in a panic room before he tells them about the diamonds and ransom.
When Liz sees Parnell and Hagar at the precinct, she lashes out and accuses Parnell, who accuses her back. She then presents a garbled ransom demand for the diamonds and a drop point at a tunnel in Central Park. They arrange the stakeout, and she goes into the tunnel with cash Hagar had in a stash. A woman in a parka goes in and out of the tunnel, but she was paid twenty bucks just to walk through it.
Olivia Benson sees Liz lock the storm drain door, while Liz reveals she and Pete set up the one drop, taking advantage of Rosie's kidnapping. They didn't pay all their debts, so they needed to get out of town, and since Pete works in the Sewer Department, the storm drain was their escape. She says she won't see Rosie for years if she gets arrested and asks Benson to tell her daughter that she loves her before she runs, despite Benson screaming her protests.
Jake is later identified and Rosie rescued, with the mention of Liz and Pete being arrested by Connecticut state troopers. Parnell gets himself arrested in a "stickup" with an empty gun, because Hagar's competition, Eddy Mack, left 200 grand to Rosie for wherever she goes as a "favor" to Parnell. (SVU: "Snatched")