Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

- In the criminal justice system,

sexually based offenses

are considered especially heinous.

In New York City, the dedicated detectives

who investigate these vicious felonies

are members of an elite squad

known as the Special Victims Unit.

These are their stories.

- Look at this. Original 2002 Levi's.

So excited for this.

- I mean, I love that for you, but doesn't it hold,

like, three songs?

It's got real buttons.

Mm! That's so satisfying.

- All right, let's see if this thing works.

Maybe this is a mix tape.

- How much did you get that for?

- 30 bucks. They're like 100 at Urban.

- You're not supposed to be here.

Hey, come on. Don't do that.

No.

No. I said no!

Please!

Get off! Please!

Please! - Shut up.

You know you want it.

That sounded real.

Where's the case?

I'm gonna show this to my mom.

Mom?

- Hey, pass me the Phillips number 2, will you?

And don't you have a Mandarin quiz tomorrow?

You ready?

What's up?

- I think you should listen to this.

No! Please!

Please! - Shut up.

You know you want it.

- I listened to the rest of the tape, both sides,

and it's all blank except for this section.

- Okay, and this is the only tape like this

that you guys had?

The rest was music.

- Well, that must have been hard to listen to.

It's fine.

It's whatever.

- The thrift store opens at 11:00.

They may be able to tell us where the tapes came from.

Okay. Well, Gabe, thank you.

Thank you so much for bringing this in to us.

Yeah. No problem.

- All right, go on. I'll see you after practice.

- You know, I gotta say, I can't believe that you

pay money for cassette tapes.

I still have my old Dire Straits collection.

You think that might be worth anything?

Is that a band?

I hate you.

Go to school.

- You okay? - Well, you know how boys are.

They act like nothing gets to them, but I can see it does.

He's got a therapist. He'll be all right.

Yeah? And what about you?

I got a therapist too.

- We'll hit the store as soon as it opens.

Here's what I'm thinking.

There's a forensic audiologist that we've worked with before.

They might be able to clean this up,

see if there's anything more to hear.

- So what we have here is a tiny win.

Out of 120 minutes, I was able to successfully

recover four seconds.

And that's a win?

I did everything I could.

- Anything you can tell us about the tape itself?

When it was made, how readily available

was this particular format?

- Sony HF Type 1, mainly used for dictation.

I can even tell you exactly when the tape was recorded.

October 2, 1999.

403 West 24th Street.

And that's all she wrote.

My guess is someone tried to degauss this.

- De-what? - Degauss.

These tapes are magnetic.

That's how they hold the information.

So you wave a demagnetizing wand over it,

and all that data is toast.

- Someone knew they recorded a crime

and didn't want anyone finding out.

- We sell dozens of tapes a day.

Can barely keep 'em on the shelves.

Funny how all this stuff comes back.

- Well, this one looks like a home recording.

It had "number 56" written on it.

You know when he bought it?

Sunday afternoon.

Let me see what I can find.

Oh, my God.

I would have died for one of these when I was little.

- That one's got her adoption papers and everything.

Come on.

Oh.

No, I'm good.

I can drop a hint to Carisi.

Birthday gift. - No.

Maybe.

Mm-hmm.

- Friday night we got a decent haul

from this estate sale on West 46th.

Whole building was being demoed.

We took everything they had.

- Got the building for next to nothing,

comparatively speaking.

Foreclosed property built in 1910.

Last of the tenants moved out, so we started demo.

- You recently had an estate sale.

Where'd you get the items from? - Basement.

It was loaded with crap from, like, generations of tenants.

Still a ton of stuff down there.

Gonna take me another six months to sort through it all.

You mind if we take a look?

Oh, knock yourselves out.

- All right, so I just wanna warn you,

if we encounter a rodent of any kind,

my reaction will be intense.

Noted.

- Hey, Rollins? There's something back here.

You wanna help me out with this?

The remains are with the ME.

They're still working on cause of death,

but preliminary report says our vic was a woman,

roughly 22 to 25 years old.

- And CSU turned that building inside and out,

what was left of it.

No other human remains were found.

- Okay, is there any updates with Missing Persons?

- UF 61 was filed October 7, 1999.

Right age range and exactly five days after the date

we heard on the tape.

- Tameka Davis--she was 24 when she went missing.

Single.

We found some employment records from '97

saying she waited tables, but nothing from '99.

She got a record?

- No, but she rented an apartment

at 403 West 24th Street,

the same address mentioned on the tape.

She was living there when she went missing.

What about next of kin?

- Her mom, Tiffany Davis, who reported her missing,

she's still around. She's 67.

Tameka also had a son, Jayden.

He's 31, but he was just a little guy at the time.

No dad on the birth certificate.

- It's not a coincidence that there was a dead body

and a recording of a sexual assault

in that building.

So the former owner was Brendan Kearney,

a known Westies enforcer.

And the FBI seized the building in '99.

That makes sense.

The Westies were mostly disbanded by then,

but there were still a few running around.

They were good for two things:

running coke and contract killings.

- Well, we could track down whoever

was heading up OC at the time.

- I actually already found a detective who was undercover

for Narcotics back then.

Ha!

Welcome back, Sergeant.

It's part-time for now.

- You look good. Glad to have you back.

Thank you.

Well, I looked into that 24th Street apartment.

That whole 24th Street block was a hot zone.

All kinds of gangs fighting for territory.

But I happen to know a guy who took down

the Westies back in the day.

I'ma hit him up.

You want company?

Let's roll.

Black with a packet of Sweet'N Low.

- Half a pack now, but with your ugly mug,

I'll burn a cheat day.

Bring it in, brother.

Good to see you.

This is Sergeant Rollins.

She's with me at SVU.

Chess partner call in sick?

- Moved to Florida 24 hours after hanging up his badge.

What can I do for you, Sergeant?

- Well, I'm wondering if you recognize this woman.

Sorry, I can't place her.

There were so many of them. So many bodies.

Doesn't mean that this one didn't matter.

- Mm. - Where'd you find the body?

- Found the body in a basement on West 46th Street.

We think she was killed on West 24th.