Vanessa Blake is a restaurant owner who held Olivia Benson hostage, after fearing that she might lose her restaurant.
History[]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanessa was impacted greatly and suffered tragic losses including her mother's death, which she blamed her son for, and kicked him out as a result. Vanessa regretted kicking him out ever since but didn't reach out to him, fearing that he might not want to talk to her ever again. One day, Vanessa received a notice that her restaurant was going to be closed which left her distraught. As a result, Vanessa grabbed a gun from a briefcase in her home and took it to the restaurant, where she held hostages. Benson walked by the restaurant and saw police cars outside and she was confronted by Ira, who knew Benson personally and he told her that Vanessa had taken hostages. Benson entered the restaurant with her hands in the air and told the two police officers to leave.
Benson persuaded Vanessa to let the other hostages go and to keep her as a hostage instead, which is what Vanessa did. During the hostage situation, Vanessa confided in Benson and told her about the losses she experienced throughout the year. However, Vanessa didn't know that Benson had also experienced some losses until Benson told her about them. Benson encouraged Vanessa to end this situation and even got her son, Nate, on FaceTime who persuaded her to let Benson go. After Nate tells Vanessa that he loves her, Vanessa broke down into tears. Eventually, Vanessa let Benson go and Vanessa was arrested. However, while she was being arrested, bystanders started cheering for her claiming that they were creating a GoFundMe page to save her restaurant. It was unknown if Vanessa was imprisoned or if the charges were dropped. (SVU: "In The Year We All Fell Down")