History TearJerker / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit

* "Inconceivable" (9.14): the detectives are trying to find a cryotank full of embryos that were 'kidnapped' from a clinic. The detectives hear the stories of the various families and women that had their embryos removed for some reason or another and become more determined to find the tank in the three days they have before the liquid nitrogen in the tank runs out and renders the embryos invalid for implantation. It turns out the tank was taken by a couple that were attempting to raise awareness for their cause (they feel the fertility clinic in question is a death camp that discriminates against certain kind of eggs that may carry genetic defects). With the 'kidnapping' story bringing the attention they wanted, the couple attempted to [[TooDumbToLive return the embryos via delivery, on the last day they could have done so, without considering that the delivery may be late]]. The detectives get to the tank, but once they get to the clinic, the doctor confirms that the embryos didn't survive. One of the extremists responsible ends up getting killed outside the courtroom and the detectives are forced to investigate all the families as suspects in the extremist's murder, including a couple of little people that wanted their child to look like them [[note]]they were primarily doing IVF to screen out a genetic disease that had killed a previous child, but things had come to a head because the doctor only wanted to implant embryos that had the genes for standard height, and the couple disagreed[[/note]], a couple who was worried their family line would end with their disabled daughter [[note]]that one's a little creepy in execution, but the worry is still a valid concern in real life[[/note]], and a woman who had her eggs fertilized and the resulting embryos frozen because she needed to undergo chemo which would make her sterile[[note]]that one's especially heartbreaking because while the other couples could at least start the process over, her eggs are gone, so now she'll never be able to have a biological child[[/note]].

** In the end, Casey helps Katie get justice for her mom, but it's at a steep cost; Ben has learned that Corinne deliberately sought to get pregnant in the hopes of having a non-disabled child, and has her custody of Katie revoked and bans her from the house -- and since Katie lacks the capacity to understand the situation, all she knows is that she's now being separated from her mother for reasons she doesn't understand. Meanwhile, Corinne has absolutely no idea why all this is happening to her, because she's lost all memory of the past few months, and thus doesn't even remember having an affair; when she first comes out of the coma, she panics that she's missing her daughter's heart surgery, which happened a year earlier.

** In the end, Casey helps Katie get justice for her mom, but it's at a steep cost; Ben has learned that Corinne deliberately sought to get pregnant in the hopes of having a non-disabled child, and has her custody of Katie revoked and bans her from the house. Meanwhile, Corinne has absolutely no idea why all this is happening to her, because she's lost all memory of the past few months, and thus doesn't even remember having an affair; when she first comes out of the coma, she panics that she's missing her daughter's heart surgery, which happened a year earlier.

* Avery Shaw's story in "Quarry" (6.13). He was a little league player with a [[CreepyGymCoach pedophilic coach]] who molested some boys on his team. One of them, a teenager named Deacon Brinn, then molested him and tried to molest his best friend Jeffrey Ronson. When Jeffrey fought back, Brinn broke his neck and forced Avery to help bury his body. In order to keep Avery quiet about the incident, Brinn convinced him that he would also get in trouble if he told. Avery remained quiet until adulthood, when he anonymously sent a letter to SVU detective Olivia Benson with the whereabouts of Jeffrey Ronson's body. During the SVU's investigation, Brinn wound up murdered, and Avery tried to take the fall for it, due to believing that he would develop pedophilic urges just like Deacon and be a danger to his son.

** The foster father's heartbreak when his wife turns on him. For most of the episode, he was willing to go to prison to protect her, but when the tables were turned, she was all too willing to throw him under the bus to save her own skin. Even though he's not entirely innocent (he still stood by and let the abuse happen), it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for him when he realizes that his wife doesn't love him the way he loves her but was just using him like she does everyone else.

** Notably, throughout the entire episode, Miller carries himself with an air of arrogance and pride, refusing to admit that anything happened to him by his coach's hand. It's not until the detectives bring him to see the coach and he discovers that he has a new "favorite", that Miller finally agrees to testify and publicly admit his abuse. And even more, he removes his sunglasses, which he had never been seen without during the episode (including while indoors and at night), allowing people to see the true pain in his eyes for the first time as he urges other victims of the coach's sexual abuse to come forward, promising them that the shame and pain they feel truly belongs to the coach, not them.
** In that same episode, seeing Aaron Tveit's character, a former friend and fellow basketball prodigy of Miller's who fell into drugs following his own molestation by the same basketball coach break down in tears is pretty heartbreaking, mostly because [[ManlyTears he's just so convincing doing it]]. It's made worse by the fact that his character dies later in the episode by a forced overdose. And the kicker? Miller's cousin/manager ends up being the one behind it, having done so to protect Miller's image and reputation, and thus, his cash flow.

* It's hard not to have ''some'' sympathy for the main suspect in "Uncivilized" (1.07), Bill Turbit. Yes, what he did to a child was horrible (he raped and used a belt to choke a Boy Scout who came to his door selling cookies), but apparently he was suffering from a psychotic break at the time due to an STP drug cocktail, and doesn't even remember what happened. The cops found him screaming and laying on the floor in the fetal position after the crime. He served his time and then went clean, found faith, and tried to live a quiet life while on parole. After a little boy in his neighborhood winds up raped and murdered, however, his status as a sex offender is revealed and he is harassed by police and neighbors alike, with the one person who could alibi him lying about where he'd been. The city also wants to use him as a test case for a bill that would attempt to keep sex offenders locked up permanently. Eventually he's exonerated, but winds up shot dead by the victim's father anyway. In the end, it was two [[TeensAreMonsters teenagers]] who wanted to frame Turbit after finding him on the sex offender registry online. They only meant to kidnap the boy, but the sociopathetic tendencies of one teen lead to him being raped and murdered. For all we know, Turbit hadn't done anything (more) wrong, but both him ''and'' an innocent child are dead because a couple of teenagers wanted to punish him for something he'd already gone to jail for.

* "Honor" (2.02): A young daughter of an Afghan diplomat is violently injured and later dies as a result of an honor killing. Despite living in America, her father was a strict believer in Sharia law and was enraged that she was going to school to be a journalist, working, and was in love with a fellow Afghan immigrant. The honor killing was carried out by her brother after he and their father discovered that she had accepted her boyfriend's marriage proposal and lost her virginity to him. If it wasn't tragic enough, it turns out that her brother has mixed feelings and multiple personalities as a result of their upbringing. He has been suffering nightmares and flashbacks for years as a result of watching his grandfather slit his aunt's throat after her husband alleged she had been unfaithful. The mother, who no longer cares about herself after losing her daughter, testifies about how her husband forced her son to murder his sister's murder, after her husband was the first one to stab her. It ends up being AllForNothing; the son is still convicted, and Benson and Stabler go to the family's apartment only to discover the mother's body, her husband having killed her before fleeing back to his homeland.

* In "Baby Killer" (2.05) the detectives are forced to arrest a 7-year-old Hispanic boy for murder after he shoots and kills a 6-year-old classmate at school. The detectives, but especially Alex, struggle with the slippery slope of charging a child with a capital crime. Alex's superiors see the case as both a meal ticket and a chance to show that they are serious about stopping child-on-child violence. Unfortunately, Alex doesn't see it that way; especially when evidence surfaces that the kid was exposed to gang violence and and witnessed a murder committed with the gun he used. Then she learns that he was trying to protect himself, shooting at the gang member who had committed the murder because he (correctly) thought the man would kill him as a witness, and hit the little girl by mistake. Upon being asked what he thought his punishment should be, the little boy drew himself surrounded by pink swirls and tells his shrink that he's scared God's going to make him burn in hell for killing his friend. In the end, Alex decides to follow her gut and the child isn't charged. The girl's mother accepts this and tells angry protesters to go home to their own kids and stop similar situations from happening.

* In "Pique" (2.20), Benson finds out that the VillainOfTheWeek's mother has been molesting him since age six. When Stabler relays this information and tries to get him to talk about it, the perp denies at first, but eventually breaks down and tearfully repeats the words his mother said to him when she first initiated the abuse.

** Jennifer's killer turns out to be Robert's ex-wife Linda and while the episode doesn't dwell on it, Tyler's 2 half-brothers through Robert will have to deal with their mother going to prison for most likely the rest of her life.
* Darrell Guan's backstory in "Inheritance" (3.08) is soul-crushing, even though he's a vile person. He was a ChildByRape born when a black man raped his Chinese mother, and was raised by her in Chinatown. His own grandparents called him a "black devil," and the Chinese children would bully him so badly that every day he would beg his mother not to make him leave the apartment. His mother is the only one who loves him, trying to protest that he's a good boy...but when questioned by the detectives, she admits that when he was a child, even she hated him a little, too.
* "Ridicule" (3.10): A male stripper is raped by a group of women, and most of the legal authorities he goes to refuse to take his report seriously. Even most of the guys of the SVU don't believe him because he had gotten an erection during his rape, which is as horrible as saying a woman wasn't really raped because she became wet during it. The ringleader of the rapists gets away scot-free while leaving her friend to be declared guilty on the rape charges instead of her. Luckily she's arrested for the murder of her other friend, who wanted to inform her husband of the group's actions so hopefully she could be declared guilty over that. This DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale episode will most likely hit the sore spots of those who have experienced unwanted sexual advances but were considered to be overreacting or thought to be at fault for a variety of reasons such as occupation, gender etc.

* "Angels" (4.06): Little Ernesto was abducted from Central America and brought to the US under the pretense of going to a fancy school. Instead he was sold as a sex slave to a violent pedophile who then passed Ernesto around to his buddies. When another, younger boy was brought in, Ernesto befriended him and they ran away together, only for the younger boy to end up dying from carbon monoxide poisoning during the escape, for which Ernesto blames himself. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that SVU is able to track down his parents and he finally gets to go home.
* "Waste" (4.08): a billionaire suffering from a chronic health condition pays a doctor to impregnate a coma victim with his sperm in order to provide stem cells which could help cure him. But on the stand he actually starts to win over the jury (and the viewers?) as he describes the living hell he endures every day and that stem cells are his only hope of relief. Then he turns to the girl's parents with tears in his eyes and tells them:
--> "I understand how you must feel, I'm a father myself. But your beautiful daughter died YEARS ago!"
* "Damaged" (4.11): six-year-old Rebecca Kurtz is shot and killed during the robbery of a video store, which also results in the accidental death of an innocent bystander outside. The robber himself, Eric Campbell, is killed as well, seemingly in self-defense by Joey Field, the store clerk and boyfriend of Rebecca's older sister Missy. Before Rebecca dies, the detectives discover that she has gonorrhea and extensive trauma from being raped multiple times. When they find that Missy (who had appeared distraught at her sister's death) also had gonorrhea, she points the finger at Joey, saying that he and Eric were friends and they forced her to bring Rebecca to the store that day. However, the detectives find a video of Missy and Joey sexually abusing a drugged-up Rebecca together (with her using her own sexual manipulation on him to get him to do it), and realize ''she'', not him, is the one behind everything. It turns out that Missy at some point cheated on Joey, contracted gonorrhea, and then passed it on Rebecca during the abuse. Rebecca, who was usually drugged unconscious during the rapes, woke up early one time, saw what was happening and threatened to tell their parents. To silence her, Missy orchestrated the store shooting with Joey and Eric's help. Eric is double-crossed and killed by Missy's instructions to eliminate him as a witness and to try and frame him as the sole conspirator. Unfortunately, at this point Missy has already manipulated them and the D.A. into giving her immunity for her role in this in exchange for testifying against Joey, who is facing the death penalty for the murders. Thankfully, Cabot and Cragen make Joey see Missy for the psychopathic ManipulativeBitch that she is, and Cabot and Joey's lawyer father get Missy's immunity deal voided. By the end of the episode, ''she'' is now the one facing the death sentence for all of her crimes.
** Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz suffer the death of their youngest daughter in a seemingly random robbery, and then discover that their oldest daughter orchestrated the whole thing after raping and abusing her sister for months. And the worst part? They ''still'' love the daughter they adopted despite '''everything''' she has done. While they agree that she should be punished, they don't believe she should be executed and should be imprisoned instead. Unfortunately, because of the law, her inevitable execution means that now the Kurtzes will have to deal with the pain of losing ''both'' of their daughters.
** Joey also gets feels as he genuinely loved Missy and was willing to do anything for her, even if it was wrong, all thanks to her evil manipulations. Afterwards, he is stunned to learn that she not only cheated on him, but set him up to take the fall for all her crimes. And in the end, Joey avoids execution, but he's still facing a 25-to-life sentence for his part in everything. His whole life is now essentially ruined, all because he fell in love with a psychopath.
** ''Missy'', in spite of all her crimes, also garners sympathy due to her DarkAndTroubledPast: her own biological father had not only raped her but pimped her out to his friends for years since she was five. When she was nine, her father was exposed and arrested (and later died of AIDS) and she entered the foster care system. However, Child Services, despite knowing of her abuse, never got her any much-needed therapy; whether it's because they didn't realize the extent of the abuse, simply didn't care enough, or couldn't get the resources for it remains unknown. In any case, Missy drifted through foster homes for the next three years while all the pain and trauma of her abuse was left to fester within her. By the time she was finally adopted by the loving Kurtzes at age twelve, it was already too late: the crucial bonding point of Missy's life was over, and all the memories of trauma and pain had warped her into a psychopath unable to feel remorse or form healthy emotional attachments. As such, she could feel nothing for her adoptive parents and only resentment for her later-born sister Rebecca, resulting in Missy's sexual abuse of her. The saddest part is Missy's cold response to getting caught and being told she will be executed, with her replying that she doesn't care and is "already dead"; she has been broken her to the point where she no longer even cares if she lives or dies. Ultimately, this is a hollow victory for the detectives and Cabot, who know that the one who should be facing punishment for all this is Missy's biological father, for abusing her and directly ruining her life, and indirectly destroying so many other lives in the long run.
* The father of the two perps in "Dominance" (4.20) is so traumatized from being beaten by his elder son that Fin and Duethorn yelling at him, makes him cower in fear and repeatedly plead for them to not hit him.
* ''Cheryl Avery'' from "Fallacy" (4.21) is a transgender woman who was viciously harassed after she started living as a woman, and was consequently [[IHaveNoSon abandoned by her family]] (excluding [[OnlySaneMan her younger sister]]), who are completely unsympathetic towards the multiple attacks she endured and in denial about her gender identity. When things start looking up after she finds a loving relationship, the guy's {{Jerkass}} brother finds out she's transgender and threatens to out her while attacking her in a bathroom at a party, prompting her to kill him in self-defense, then claim he tried to rape her. When the detectives find out, they tell the boyfriend (under the assumption that he already knew and killed his brother to protect Cheryl) and he rejects her, calling her a "freak" and later [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself]]. And in the end, it seems that Cheryl will be OK after she's able to get a good plea deal for only five years time. But later, she finds she'd have to serve her sentence in a men's prison (due to New York law only recognizing pre-operative transgender people by their gender assigned at birth at the time). Refusing to stop hormone therapy (since she would rather die than return to being something she's not) or accept protective custody (it entails solitary confinement 23 hours a day throughout her sentence), she is forced to go to trial and hope for acquittal. And as a cherry on the Woobie sundae, [[DownerEnding Cheryl is found guilty and sent to the men's prison anyways, where she is then violently gang-raped and put into a coma]]. Even worse is that we never see her again and ''don't even know if she survives the attack''.
* In "Grief" (4.23) a distraught father of a raped and murdered victim [[PapaWolf hunts down the perp himself and kills him]], and then goes to the park his daughter loved, intent on killing himself. Elliot, who's empathized with him the whole episode, [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal talks him down]], convincing him that his daughter wouldn't have wanted this, and that her memory lives in him. It's a very moving scene, especially as Elliot approaches him and hugs him, taking his gun from him.

* The episode "Shaken" (5.10) is overall gut-wrenching, featuring a girl who suffered a brain injury at the hands of her mother .

** It only gets worse from there. The social worker who was repeatedly called by the exasperated-to-the-point-of-tears foster father of the child was unable to help because she was dealing with another case, and, after her name is besmirched and she loses her job, she kills herself. After this, it is revealed that there was another, previously unknown, foster child living with the family, who witnessed the death of the boy, but was carted off to a psychiatric ward without anyone believing her. Fin gets her out, but it is also revealed that the foster mother would seriously abuse each of the children who came into the home, leading to them running away, and was the one who killed the boy. At the very end of the episode, Fin, who witnessed the suicide and found out about all of the other events, is visibly disturbed and emotional, which is telling, considering how much of a hardass he usually is.
** The foster father's heartbreak when his wife turns on him. For most of the episode, he was willing to go to prison to protect her, but when the tables were turned, she was all too willing to throw him under the bus to save her own skin. Even though he's not entirely innocent (he still stood by and let the abuse happen), it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for him when he realizes that his wife doesn't love him the way he loves her, but was just using him like she does everyone else.

* The children dying at the hands of a cult leader in "Charisma" (6.07). Later, the leader tells Melanie, his twelve-year-old ''pregnant'' "bride" shoot Olivia. Instead, she shoots him, leaving her sobbing.
** The opening fifteen minutes of the episode may double with Nightmare Fuel. The squad walks into the aforementioned cult leader's home and the camera closes up on each of the detectives' faces when they find a pile of dead children. During mandatory psych evals, Munch admits to Huang that the terrifying part about this job is finding out that people are capable of becoming more depraved than he knew was possible, and Liv admits that she doesn't know if she can handle it. Following interviews, Fin willingly takes leave when the case makes him rethink his relationship with his son and Elliot is taken off the case because after he starts to tell Huang that one of the kids was wearing a night-shirt that his daughter also had, he then immediately clams up and shut it down, leading Huang and Cragen to worry (rightfully so) about the fact that he's not allowing himself to feel the emotions that were triggered by the incident. This is even HarsherInHindsight given that in the next season, Elliot reveals (to a therapist and the audience) ''why'' it's so hard for him to talk about his feelings -- his father taught him (through abuse) not to show emotion, and that "lesson" is now getting in the way of his ability to process traumatic events, something he desperately needs given his line of work.
* Avery Shaw's story in "Quarry" (6.13). He was a little league player with a [[CreepyGymCoach pedophilic coach]] that molested some boys on his team. One of them, a teenager named Deacon Brinn, then molested him and tried to molest his best friend Jeffrey Ronson. When Jeffrey fought back, Brinn broke his neck and forced Avery to help bury his body. In order to keep Avery quiet about the incident, Brinn convinced him that he would also get in trouble if he told. Avery remained quiet until adulthood, when he anonymously sent a letter to SVU detective Olivia Benson with the whereabouts of Jeffrey Ronson's body. During the SVU's investigation, Brinn wound up murdered, and Avery tried to take the fall for it, due to believing that he would develop pedophilic urges just like Deacon and be a danger to his son.

* "Parts" (6.22): The detectives are forced to question people that need kidney transplants about a kidney that was illegally harvested/sold beyond NTCC regulations. Munch re-encounters Amy Solwey from "Painless", who gives up the name of the doctor transplanting kidneys illegally because Munch and Stabler threaten to re-arrest her (though they are clearly uncomfortable doing so). Munch and Stabler get to the hospital in time to stop the doctor from transplanting a kidney into a young boy whose family gave up nearly all of their money for the chance to save him. Munch and Stabler are then told that because the kidney was sold, the NTCC can't use it, but Munch attempts to sneak Solwey into the hospital for the transplant since she was next on the NTCC list anyway. However, doing so puts Munch's entire career at risk and Stabler and Novak tearfully go out of their way to request that the doctor and Solwey not report Munch's actions, lest he be jailed. Munch angrily asks Stabler if he wouldn't do the same if Stabler's son was in the same situation and Stabler doesn't have an adequate answer for him. Later on, Stabler arrests the father of the boy who needed the transplant, and has to explain to him boy that his father is in jail for trying to save him. The boy can't figure out what his father did wrong if he didn't hurt anybody and again, Stabler doesn't have an answer. Munch and Stabler barely manage to patch things up when Stabler mentions the boy was prioritized on the NTCC's list and that Solwey is right after. Munch visits Solwey to ask why she gave up her chance at a kidney for someone else, she says that she can wait for his sake, because she and the boy would both be getting kidneys if it had not been for her earlier actions. Munch asks her if she can wait that long, she takes his hand and says, "I'll take my chances." Given that we never see her again, it's doubtful she made it.

*** The entire case RippedFromTheHeadlines is based on the disappearance of 18-year old American [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Natalee_Holloway Natalee Holloway]] who vanished on a class trip to Aruba in May 2005 and has never been found. Multiple suspects were arrested, but ultimately no one was ever charged and like Jennifer, Natalee's remains have never been located. However, similar to Nick and Doug, the case's prime suspect, Joran van der Sloot, in 2016 would be caught on tape confessing to killing Natalee, but gave no information on the whereabouts of her remains. In 2023, after being extradited to the US from Peru (where he was already in prison for a second murder) to face charges of trying to extort Natalee's mother for information about her death, van der Sloot, as part of a plea deal, finally admitted to beating Natalee to death on a beach for spurning her advances, and then dumping her body in the ocean.

* "Uncle" (8.04) is a massive TearJerker for JustForFun/JohnMunch and his mentally disabled uncle Andrew (Creator/JerryLewis). Stabler and Beck find Andrew disheveled, injured, and with no memory of who he is, and they treat him like a perp. Munch finds him in a holding cell, huddled in a corner under a blanket. Munch helps him get his proper medication which seems to work...until Beck [[IdiotBall interviews a rape suspect front of Andrew. To make things worse, Andrew overhears Beck tell the victim she would put the needle in the perp's arm herself and he takes it seriously. The perp is let go due to lack of proper evidence. During a manic episode, Andrew ''pushes the man off the subway platform'' and he is killed Rather than take the insanity plea to get help, Andrew chooses not to get help as a way to atone for what he had done. The normally unfettered John Munch looks ready to burst into tears when his uncle walks away after saying good-bye in a very somber voice.

*** The entire case RippedFromTheHeadlines is based on the disappearance of 18-year old American [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Natalee_Holloway Natalee Holloway]] who vanished on a class trip to Aruba in May 2005 and has never been found. Multiple suspects were arrested, but ultimately no one was ever charged and like Jennifer, Natalee's remains have never been located. However, similar to Nick and Doug, the case's prime suspect, Joran van der Sloot, in 2016 would be caught on tape confessing to killing Natalee, but gave no information on the whereabouts of her remains.

* In "Stranger" (10.11), a missing teenage girl named Heather returns home after being kidnapped and held as a sex slave for four years. She is eventually exposed as an imposter. At first the unit is inclined to believe her entire story was made up, but Olivia disagrees believing her to be traumatized. She is proven right; the imposter is actually a different missing child named Kristen, and her story of abuse is even ''worse'' than what she told them: she was held for longer than the original story indicated (six years rather than four), and her abuser was her own father who kidnapped her after her mother was awarded custody. She tells Olivia that she never meant to hurt anyone and only pretended to be Heather so she'd have a place to go after she ran away. When Olivia asks Kristen why she didn't go home to her own mother, Kristen replies that her mother died, her father showed her the obituary. Olivia then tells her that it was a lie, her mother is alive and wants to see her. If the look on Kristen's face at hearing that doesn't get the tears flowing, the subsequent scene of her finally being reunited with her mother will.
** The real Heather? [[CainAndAbel Her sister Nikki murdered her]] after Heather caught her doing drugs and threatened to tell their parents. Their mother found out the truth not long afterwards, but kept it a secret because she "couldn’t lose two daughters". But eldest sister Erica’s reaction is the most gut-wrenching. She [[CallingTheOldManOut yells at her mother for hiding this from the rest of the family]], and can barely bring herself to even look at her.

--->"The police gave up looking for Heather a long time ago. Why did you pick us?"

* The episode "Imposter" (18.03) where a woman sleeps with a man she thinks is the Dean of Admissions at a college her son is applying to so that he gets in, then reports him when she finds out he lied about his identity. She's either not the first woman he's tricked, or not the first woman who's slept with the dean, but all the others refuse to fess up in order to avoid the victim's fate -- namely, having her reputation shot straight out the other end of hell, her husband filing for divorce, her son not being willing to look her in the eye, and so on. The detectives return to their house at the end of the episode and find the husband in the doorway, white as a sheet from horror. You might think his wife has [[DrivenTOSuicide taken her own life]] over everything that's happened, but nope: They make their way to the back of the house and find that the son has jumped to his death instead. The episode ends with the woman collapsing into Benson's arms, sobbing inconsolably.