Trama

A toddler seems to have been abducted from a park while her babysitter is several yards distant talking to a nanny. Searching detectives shortly after arriving on the scene find the child unconscious behind nearby bushes.

A missing 4-year-old is thought to have been attacked in a park, but the attack is later revealed to be a case of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Lucy Pritchard, a 4-year-old, wandered off from her nanny, Sarah, in a park. She was reported as missing and Detective Stabler and Capt. Cragen searched the park for her. Stabler found her hidden in some bushes, unconscious. She was rushed into surgery at a hospital for increased pressure on the brain and though no rape kit was done, the nurse said Lucy's clothes were intact and she used a black light to check for semen, and found none.

Veronica Nash, a more experienced nanny who was at the park with Sarah when Lucy went missing, reported a creepy man hanging around the park, taking pictures. Stabler and Cragen investigate but find no true leads. The hospital calls Stabler and says that Lucy's injuries were caused by Lucy being shaken (Shaken Baby Syndrome), and that the injuries occurred 12-48 hours before Lucy was found unconscious in the park. Stabler and Cragen investigate Sarah, but she denies shaking Lucy; she only admits to stealing money from Lucy's mother, Evelyn Pritchard, since Evelyn pays Sarah so little and Lucy is so difficult; Evelyn is revealed to be a workaholic. Stabler goes back and questions Veronica again, and she admits that Lucy is a very difficult, ill-behaved child and that when Veronica and Sarah took their charges to a children's museum, that Sarah yelled and slapped at Lucy for not obeying. Stabler questioned the museum operator, who said that Veronica, and not Sarah, was the one who slapped Lucy. Stabler brings Veronica in for formal questioning. Veronica's alibi for the 12-48-hour window of Lucy's shaking was valid and Stabler was back to square one.

Stabler went back to the hospital and spoke with Evelyn. He asked her who else had access to Lucy in her home (other than her and Sarah). Evelyn breaks down and admits that Drew Farmer, a married man she'd been seeing (who was also her boss), had been left alone with Lucy during the time in question for about 20 minutes, while she went to the store. She began to cry, saying that she didn't think that he could do something like that. Drew was brought in for questioning and admitted that Lucy had been crying and he picked her up to stop her from crying, but put her back down when Lucy threw up on him. He didn't mention the incident to Evelyn because he didn't want to "ruin the mood."

Medical Examiner Warner did a timeline for Lucy's symptoms and deduced that Lucy's injuries and vomiting would have preceded Drew's contact with Lucy; she thought that Evelyn was the one who shook Lucy, and also inflicted some older rib fractures shown on Lucy's x-rays. Stabler and Warner matched the finger patterns on Lucy's rib x-rays to Evelyn's hands (Drew's were too big), and she was arrested. Evelyn immediately lawyered up. During the trial, Evelyn's lawyer tried to suggest that Lucy's injuries were caused by a specific disease or CPR, instead of Shaken Baby Syndrome; Warner couldn't really be shaken, but she had to admit that the possibility of another cause ( however faint) was there. Novak tried to paint Evelyn as a mother who interacted very little with her child and chose work over motherhood. As they waited for a verdict, Novak thought she'd won while Stabler was more skeptical based on "the jury will believe what they need to believe." Then the hospital called Stabler: Lucy had a stroke and was not expected to live.

At the hospital, the nurse informs Stabler and Novak that Lucy is in a persistent vegetative state and will remain alive unless an infection kills her or she's taken off life support. Stabler wants the jury to see Lucy's current state and though Novak thinks she has no legal grounds, she petitions the judge to consider Lucy's condition as new evidence. The judge denies this. Then Novak tells Stabler that the jury was deadlocked, which means that there will be another trial. Novak said that Evelyn is too sympathetic for the jury and that it would be hard to get a conviction as things stood now. Stabler thinks that a conviction could happen if Lucy were dead, and goes to the hospital to see Lucy. Evelyn is there, reading Lucy a story. Stabler tries to get Evelyn to take Lucy off life support to ease Lucy's pain, but Evelyn maintains that he wants that done so she could be charged with murder. Evelyn says that if Lucy dies, she would want to die too. Stabler goes to D.A. Arthur Branch to see if he could petition the judge to force Evelyn to take Lucy off life support and supersede the authority of Lucy's mother. He agreed to try and speak with the judge.

Novak is upset that Stabler went over her head, and Cragen told her that things in SVU are not always black and white, and she should get used to it. The judge listened to attorney arguments and said that she would need to hear concrete medical evidence that Lucy would be better off without life support. Lucy's doctor was put on the stand and testified as to the severity of Lucy's condition, while Evelyn's attorney cited cases where people in long-term comas suddenly woke up and went on to have normal lives. Lucy's doctor again reiterated that Lucy was only kept alive via life support, there was no way she would recover, and that she was in constant, excruciating pain. Evelyn broke down crying and asked for life support to be removed. The judge reminded her that she would be charged for murder if Lucy were taken off life support, and Evelyn insisted that she understood and for the machine to be turned off. She confessed to shaking Lucy because Lucy woke up screaming and crying, and she wanted a night all to herself with the man she loved (Drew). She shook Lucy until she stopped screaming and crying ,and thought everything was okay until the doctor explained that the shaking was the cause for Lucy's medical condition.

Lucy died peacefully 10 minutes after life support was disconnected and Evelyn was remanded to Bedford Hills Correctional Institution.