Penelope Fielding is a criminology professor and a member of the Vidocq Society, a cold case organization of devoted employed, retired, and unofficial criminology professionals. A major administrator of the local New York chapter, she worked with Detective Chester Lake tirelessly in investigating his first homicide case, the 1988 rape and murder of Alisa Hernandez, a young illegally immigrated Latina girl.
History[]
Fielding discovered with lake the lack of forensic evidence was the crucial missing piece, as the only criminals who knew about forensic evidence in its early usage before its growing popularity were cops. This assisted Lake in tracking one of two cops responsible, Edward Kralik, with evidence gathered against him being a nightmare due to his connections.
When Lake disappeared after an ambush by Kralik and his accomplice that fatal night, Tom Crane, leaving Kralik dead when Lake shot back, Fielding rushed to Special Victims and reported his disappearance. Not only was he found, but the missing witness from that night: Cecilia Cruz, Alisa's friend and another Latina girl, who was brutally raped that night and didn't come forward because of her own immigration status.
Lake surrendered in a standoff, and Crane was arrested and taken to trial. When Crane was acquitted due to the prosecution's conspiracy to romanticize their weak evidence, Lake shot Crane dead at the spot where Lake was nearly killed himself. He surrendered to arrest and was imprisoned. (SVU: "Cold")