Peter Harrison is the prime suspect in the murder of Rachel Nauss, a tourist.
Background[]
Harrison lost his parents in a plane crash when he was 17 and was represented by Julia Zimmer in a civil suit against the airline. Harrison won the suit and Zimmer acted as his trustee until he turned 21. As an adult, he became a conspiracy theorist and was particularly hateful towards the police and any other related authority. Harrison was eventually sentenced to community service after he, in the midst of his paranoia, tried to push a woman in front of a subway car.
Zebras[]
He later murdered a tourist named Rachel Nauss after she took photos of him, and kidnapped her baby, releasing the child shortly afterward with a message for the police attached. SVU detectives quickly traced him down after learning from his supervisor that he left early due to a cut thumb. Harrison is questioned by Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson, and after he spouts anti-police conspiracy theories, he implies his motive for killing Nauss before being stopped by Zimmer, who he hired as his legal counsel.
Sergeant John Munch and Detective Odafin Tutuola find a bloody knife during a search at Harrison's apartment, and the blood is matched to Nauss. This recovered evidence would have easily sent Harrison away to prison. However, Zimmer finds a technical error made by forensics technician Dale Stuckey, which results in Harrison's acquittal and Stuckey's embarrassment. After being let go, Munch and Fin follow Harrison to Coney Island but lose sight of him there. At the same time, another woman is killed nearby, with the same M.O. of Nauss' murder. A bloody fingerprint matching Harrison's is found on a soda can near the crime scene.
With the help of Gwen Munch, an online friend of Harrison's, Stabler and Fin track him down, although he eludes capture again and assaults both detectives with an improvised gas trap. Becoming unstable from the police suspicion on him, he visits Zimmer, who calls in Stabler and Benson to arrest him. Realizing this as he is being brought in, Harrison shouts that traitors are always punished. Moments later, Zimmer is killed by a second gas trap set up in her car as she tries to follow Stabler and Benson to the precinct.
It later turned out that while Harrison was responsible for Nauss' murder and the assaults of Stabler and Fin, he wasn't responsible for the deaths of Zimmer and the woman at Coney Island. These crimes were committed by Stuckey himself, who became desperate to re-implicate Harrison after being publicly embarrassed due to the technical error he made. Harrison was sentenced to life imprisonment for Nauss' murder and the assaults of Stabler and Fin.
Known Victims[]
- October 2008: Unnamed woman (attempted; tried to push in front of a subway car)
- 2009:
- May 24:
- Rachel Nauss (stabbed and mutilated)
- Rachel Nauss's unnamed infant child (kidnapped; was released shortly afterward)
- May 25: The escape from the warehouse:
- Detective Elliot Stabler (assaulted with a gas trap)
- Detective Odafin Tutuola (assaulted with a gas trap)
- May 24: