Marilyn Nesbit (Law & Order: SVU)

Marilyn Nesbit aka Marilyn Chesterfield (Diane Venora) is the main villainess of "Home", episode 5.16 of Law & Order: SVU (airdate February 17, 2004). She was the mother of three boys: Jacob, Adam, and Daniel. After her husband was killed by a robber while buying milk for Daniel, Marilyn began beating Daniel under the belief that the tragedy was his fault. Daniel was eventually placed in foster care after the abuse was discovered, and Marilyn became extremely overprotective with Jacob and Adam, convincing them that foster homes were abusive and that schools were dangerous. She began forcing her sons onto a strict diet (claiming processed foods were poisonous) and started homeschooling them, pulling Jacob out of public school when a teacher threatened to report Marilyn for neglect.
While Adam was successfully brainwashed by Marilyn, Jacob rebelled against her and the episode opened with him eating food from the garbage after running away from home. When Benson and Stabler went to Marilyn's apartment, she expressed no worry over Jacob and disallowed them to come into her home, threatening to get a lawyer if they didn't return Jacob to her. She eventually went to attorney Denise Brockmorton, who tried to convince the detectives that Marilyn was a fit mother and gave a good home to Jacob and Adam. She was eventually allowed to take Jacob home, but on the condition that she have ACS do a home visit the next day. That night, however, the evil Marilyn convinced Adam that ACS was going to take Jacob away--and that he had to kill his brother to save him from the abuse he'd face in foster care. After Adam shot and killed Jacob, Marilyn fled with him to her friend Nancy Kester's home, where they were eventually tracked down through her car's GPS and brought in for questioning.
Under interrogation, Marilyn claimed that Jacob must've accidentally shot himself with the gun she kept in her apartment for protection and tearfully claimed that the SVU squad was persecuting her. Adam, however, soon confessed to killing Jacob, claiming he had done so on his own. The detectives and ADA Novak began working to prove that Marilyn was involved, and were aided when Nancy's daughter Polly provided them with emails Adam sent her, revealing his fear of his mother and how she had instructed him to kill Jacob. Eventually, Adam confessed the truth along with the fact that he'd tried to kill himself afterwards. Marilyn was arrested and questioned by Dr. George Huang, who refused to admit to having warped her son's minds with her paranoia. Afterwards, Huang diagnosed her with BPD, villainizing anyone who tried to argue against her delusional beliefs.
During trial, Marilyn took the stand and accused the justice system of having a vendetta against her and of destroying families. Novak noticed how she referred to child services as DYFS (which was a program operating in New Jersey) and Benson and Stabler investigated, uncovering how Daniel had been taken away from Marilyn. Daniel then went to talk to Adam, who finally saw his mother for the deceitful manipulator she was and admitted to what she had forced him to do to his brother. Marilyn was then arrested for Jacob's murder, all the while accusing Novak of turning her family against her and shouting to Adam that he would die without her to protect him.
==Trivia==
*Diane Venora later played villainess Lea Muller in the pilot episode of Eleventh Hour.
Category:2000s
Category:Brunette
Category:Callous
Category:Child Murderer
Category:Deceiver
Category:Delusional
Category:Hero's Lover
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Master Manipulator
Category:Mother
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Indirect
Category:Pistol
Category:Psychotic
Category:Would Hurt a Child
Category:Fate: Arrested