Sonya Purcell is the mother of Holly Purcell and the wife of Holly's father Larry.
History[]
The family's car was hit by a drunk driver, with Sonya in the passenger's seat and the parents suffering the worst injuries that required them to be sedated and rushed into surgery. When Holly fought attempts to remove her clothes to put her in a gown, a careful exam by a doctor she felt safe with revealed she was raped.
Special Victims was called in, and because the Purcell parents were sedated, a court order permitted Holly to be sedate and examined internally, revealing scars and wounds revealing the aggressive sexual abuse she suffered was long-term. When her parents woke up and were told, they revealed Holly's hymen broke from a bicycling accident, but they were at a loss for a better reaction when they were told about her rape trauma. Despite Holly's emotional and personal state, she was questioned. She was afraid to give up the rapist, as apparently the perp murdered another little girl and threatened to kill Holly and her family.
Interrogating around Holly's common grounds and from Dr. Rebecca Hendrix questioning Holly through child art therapy, the detectives suspected the family's friend and a high school sports coach, Mark Dobbins. Holly affirmed the assumptions with an emotional accusation under duress, and thus Dobbins was arrested, with more kids being brought forward with their parents to accuse Dobbins and the Purcells supporting them out of their own anguish.
Holly suddenly recanted her allegations, saying she didn't mean to and she only accused Dobbins out of panicking and still fearing the real rapist. When the parents admitted they made their kids lie to get Dobbins fired, and even the Purcell parents had their own contributions to the panic, Dobbins was exonerated despite never returning to his career or being able to get another job like it.
When the Purcells spoke with Holly and swore they'd be fine and to protect her, she still refused to give up the rapist. Going back in the art therapy, Dr. Hendrix realized she made a horrible confusion in the drawings: she didn't notice she drew the rapist with a lacrosse captain uniform, revealing the rapist as student and lacrosse captain Kevin Wilcox. Wilcox was arrested as well as forced to give up the location of where the girl he murdered was buried. (SVU: "Contagious")