Rena West is a woman who was held captive, raped, and tortured by slashing by murderer and serial rapist Mark Foster.
History[]
When Foster was distracted, she escaped and was saved by Nate Kendall, a cop without a deep connection to helping victims, which made it harder to get along with Rena and carefully support and console her through the investigation into the rape.
By Rena's account, she was assisted by Foster with her groceries when heading home, when in reality Foster was stalking her since spotting her at the shop. When getting her alone, Foster threatened Rena with a knife, cut cords from her window dressing, tied her to her bed, and raped her while cutting her body. While Foster was distracted, she ran while covering herself with her sheets. The trauma was so bad she imprinted on Nate because he saved her, going as far as refusing other officials and even hitting Benson when she got too close.
The detectives were appalled and disgusted by Nate's lack of caution and professionalism with Rena, but despite her fear of Foster targeting her again, Nate encouraged her to help with the investigation, and she affirmatively picked Foster out in a photo array. Rena later stood outside of an interrogation room hearing Foster's confessions, shaken but relieved he was arrested. (SVU: "Unstable")