Brooke Thornsburg (Law & Order: SVU)

Brooke Thornsburg (Valerie Mahaffey) is the hidden villainess of "Justice", episode 3.19 of Law & Order: SVU (airdate April 5, 2002). She was the wife of Judge Walter Thornsburg, who was the stepfather of the troubled Patricia "Tricia" Stephens. Brooke had married Walter after her first husband abandoned her and, when Tricia began acting out, Brooke wanted to keep her out of the way to protect her new life. Unbeknownst to Brooke, however, Tricia was raped by her stepfather when she was 11 and became pregnant as a result. To get her out of the way, Walter had her sent to a residential treatment center to cover it up. Brooke also adopted Tricia's baby, a boy whom she named Brian.
Later on, Tricia became a troubled teenager who constantly caused trouble for her father and stepmother. One day, while searching her bedroom, Brooke found a slip of paper announcing her plan to meet someone at a hotel (later revealed to be Thomas Gordon, one of the men Judge Thornsburg sent to prison that Tricia had paid to kill him). Brooke went there to stop her, but arrived right after Tricia and Thomas' tryst. Brooke confronted her stepdaughter, demanding to know if Gordon was the father of her baby. When Tricia finally revealed that Walter had raped and impregnated her, Brooke slapped her. This led to a physical altercation that ended when Brooke struck Tricia with a bottle, killing her. Later on, after learning from Captain Donald Cragen (who was an old friend of her's and Walter's) about Tricia's death, Brooke feigned heartbreak. When the SVU squad uncovered Tricia's pregnancy and Walter's attempt to cover his secret, Brooke denied their accusations, claiming that Tricia didn't know her baby's father. 
Brooke was revealed as Tricia's killer when lab tech Burt Trevor was able to piece together the broken bottle used to kill Tricia and find one of her fingerprints on it. Benson and Stabler confronted her and asked if she knew about Walter raping Tricia, to which the evil Brooke claimed that Tricia seduced him. After being cornered with the DNA evidence, Brooke broke down and confessed to murdering Tricia, claiming that she had betrayed her. Brooke was presumably arrested offscreen. 
Category:2000s
Category:Jealous
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Makeshift Weapon
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Bludgeoning
Category:Redhead
Category:Stepmother
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Fate: Inconclusive