Travis Hillsdale was an ice cream vendor who raped two women in front of their children.
History[]
Hillsdale used his occupation as ice cream vendor for Swirly City to scope out his victims. His first victim was Crystal Nuñez, a regular at his truck. He subsequently stalked her to her home and broke in after feigning needing to install something. He would then rape Crystal in front of her son Manny and force her to pretend to enjoy the encounter otherwise he would have killed her child and she complied.
SVU investigated the case and went to Hillsdale who feigned ignorance and pointed out two men who harassed her earlier. He states he had not seen her after the event and went with them to lineup. Because Crystal had not seen his face without his mask, she could not properly identify him and because she had multiple encounters in her room there was reasonable doubt in her story.
Realizing he got a way with the first crime, Hillsdale struck again and attacked Peggy Grogan, another regular from the park. He broke into her house and raped her in front of her 18 month old daughter. He also threatened to kill the child if she cried and when Peggy slipped away to get her gun, he followed her and struck her with it. He finished raping her and took the gun with him to use in other attacks. Unfortunately for him, the victim turned out to be the daughter of a cop and a reward was out for his capture.
Eventually SVU found the connection between the two families: they were both regulars at the ice cream truck. While continuing his job and looking at a new potential victim, he was accosted by SVU who more questions. He seemingly agreed to come in but immediately dashed out of the truck with a gun in hand. Hillsdale entered a standoff with Detectives Rollins and Tutuola. However, he was subsequently tackled by Detective Joe Velasco who almost strangled him for what he did to the victims but was stopped by his colleagues. He was taken to the precinct and denied any accusations but the detectives tell his lawyer that he was previously in for a lineup. However he was confident that they could not charge him.
Hillsdale was put in lockup for the night to await arraignment. While in holding, he was subsequently attacked by the other inmates who heard what he did and proceeded to savagely beat him for his acts, leaving him with a bruise eye and broken arm. He was going to be charged with both rapes but due to circumstances he was only charged with the rape of his second victim and was sentenced 15 years in prison.