Miranda Cole is a physicist diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and later a rape victim of Thomas Mathers before Mathers' spree in one night.
History[]
Miranda was an expert physics student who had chances of success as far as being given an internship in D.C. with a federal senator. Not long after that, she started suffering paranoid delusions and hallucinations, which was quickly diagnosed as schizophrenia. She originally believed Soviets bugged her phone, but her later psychosis was over terrorists tracking her. Her paranoia was extensive enough the apartment her sister Margo bought for her was covered in tin foil and tops of soda cans, which she thought kept her safe.
Cole was stalked at the library she frequented by Thomas Mathers, an orientation-conflicted predator in a gay relationship after peeping and home invasions sprees. Planning a spree of rapes in one night, Mathers followed Cole to her apartment and raped her there two days beforehand to start the spree. She heard his name and he left a drop of blood at the crime scene in a struggle. She was severely traumatized but couldn't piece her memories together to fight the hallucinations she was suffering from the rape. She instead covered the kitchen with tin to protect her state of mind.
When the spree happened two nights later, raping two women, body slamming another woman, and raping and murdering yet another woman, Special Victims gets a sketch and releases it publicly in the area. Miranda sees it and, having a psychotic break again, she scribbles all over the sketch and goes to the precinct. Showing the wanted poster she found, she incoherently talks about physics and slaps Tutuola when he touches her shoulder, before she struggles when being held still and passes out.
Rebecca Hendrix treats her in the hospital with anti-psychotics despite her protests. She gets a rape kit eventually, but it's a false lead since she ended up having intercourse with patient Raymond Ettinger and it's obviously different from the rapes. Cole becomes her lucid self enough to question her, and how she talks strongly implies her rape is like the spree. When shown the sketch again, she cringes and lets out a shrill wail from her throat while scratching deep into her arms. Hendrix rushes the detectives out of her room, but they suspect even more that she's a rape victim.
When she discharges herself, Hendrix, Stabler, and Benson go talk to her sister, Margo. She's horrified by the attack and tells the three about her apartment, where they find Cole in a fetal position behind tin foil in her closet. Going into the kitchen, where the rape happened, they see her underwear on the floor and Mathers' blood at the crime scene. She repeats Mathers' dialogue during the rape and says his first name, leading the team straight to him.
Warner takes a cheek swab from Mathers, but the DNA doesn't match, even though the team still pegs him for the rapes and murder. Walking through the library again, Benson has Cole retrace her steps. Cole gives a major break in the case by pointing to security cameras, which reveal Mathers stalking her. They also find out Mathers has leukemia and had a blood transfusion, which means his blood DNA is the only different coding in his systems.
With that evidence, thanks to Cole's help, Mathers is charged, tried, and convicted of all crimes. Tragically, before Mathers' arraignment, Cole's hallucinations and rape trauma drove her to commit suicide. (SVU: "Weak")