Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Episode 14.23 Brief Interlude

While they're investigating the park where Ariel was ditched in a boat, the detectives encounter a homeless man from outside the diner the night Ariel was assaulted. DNA from the homeless man matches samples found on Ariel's body. The man also has a history of drug abuse and sexual assault. He looks like a solid suspect. While Benson breaks the news to Ariel's family at the hospital, Ariel passes away.

A middle-aged woman is attending a rock concert. Out on the dance floor, the woman becomes uncomfortable when a couple of concert attendees get too touchy. She leaves the concert and walks home. The next day, a jogger finds the woman unconscious in the park, and the SVU squad is called in to investigate. Unfortunately, the woman has no identification on her, so the detectives will have to start from scratch.

At the hospital, Benson and Amaro learn that the victim is in a coma as a result of a blow to the head, but an examination suggests that she was sexually assaulted. M.E. Warner also informs the detectives that the victim had ecstasy in her system. Warner tells the detectives to find her next of kin quickly because she probably won't survive the coma.

The detectives track down a hotel room key belonging to the victim, and Benson and Amaro head to the hotel and check the room, which is ransacked. In the room safe, Amaro finds a passport, but the victim's phone is missing. Benson finds a chat link on the woman's computer record that links to a video chat with her two sons, and Benson breaks the news to the woman's spouse.

After establishing contact with the victim's husband, they're able to get all the information they need on their coma patient. Her name is Ariel Randolph, and she was in town recording podcasts from a local music festival. Ariel didn't tell her family what she was up to on the night of her attack, but the squad begins tracking Ariel's phone records to see whom she contacted while she was in town.

After interviewing all of Ariel's in-town phone contacts, the detectives come up with nothing. M.E. Warner tells Benson and Amaro that she found saliva from three different men on Ariel's body. Ariel's husband arrives later, and the detectives show the family to Ariel's hospital room.

Amaro interviews Ariel's husband in search of possible leads while Benson speaks with Ariel's two sons. While reviewing photos from Ariel's Facebook page, Ariel's husband comments that his wife is dressed differently than she normally dresses. It seems that Ariel had a secret life when she was away from her husband. Her husband identifies one person from Ariel's photos, and the detectives decide to question him.

Rollins and Fin visit the home of Santiago, who was with Ariel the night of her attack. Santiago tells the detectives that Ariel interviewed him for her podcast, and that's as far as their relationship goes. He claims that he saw Ariel the night she disappeared and that she was hanging out with him and his cross-dressing cousin, Charlie. He assures them that Ariel left early in the night.

The detectives review security footage and discover that Ariel did, in fact, leave the party alone. Amaro finds a nearby security camera that shows Ariel being picked up by her sound engineer, Phil, whom Ariel had been working with. Fin and Rollins interrogate Phil, who tells them that he picked up Ariel, but that she ran out of his car and into the park when he tried to kiss her. Before they can secure a confession, Phil asks for a lawyer. It's a promising lead, but something doesn't sit well with Amaro.

Before he heads back to Canada, Benson shows Ariel's husband a video recorded on her cell phone the night she disappeared. It's a loving message to her family, and the best way for Ariel's husband and children to remember her in the wake of this terrible tragedy.