Law & Order Special Victims Unit s04e15 Episode Script
Pandora
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.
I just don't understand why you never bring your cell phone.
A cell phone won't change the fact that you ran out of gas.
No, I didn't! The gauge is broken.
Where are you going? Maybe they have a cell phone.
Wait, you don't know who they are.
Nobody.
Now what? Start walking.
What was that? Somebody's in there.
Get it open.
Flag down a car.
Hurry! Multiple stab wounds.
Looks like the guy clocked her a couple of times with a tire iron before raping her with it.
She's conscious, though.
She tell you anything? Can't.
He superglued her lips shut.
She stopped breathing, so we had to crike her.
You got anything to dissolve that with? E.
R.
's got a solvent if she gets there.
No promises.
I'll go.
Call you if she says anything.
You got an ID? No purse, no keys.
Car's registered to Meredith McGrath.
Seems like there's some recent damage to the bumper.
So he bumps into her, she pulls over, he attacks her.
Found these in the trash.
Eighty bucks cash in her wallet.
No driver's license.
All the credit cards say Meredith McGrath.
Did you find keys in there? No.
So he took the keys.
He leaves the money, he takes her license.
With her home address on it.
What's the address on that registration? What the hell happened? Someone heard a commotion.
By the time we get here, he's already dead.
Homicide here? Bishop.
Stabler, Special Victims Unit.
Sam Bishop.
This is Roger McGrath.
Looks like he surprised a burglar.
But I'm pretty sure the guy wasn't raped.
His wife was.
Tonight? Couple hours ago.
We think the perp stole her house keys, came here looking for something.
Hard drive of the computer.
Ripped it right out.
Was that the only thing he touched? Looks like.
But he missed this.
Found this in the desk, with a couple of burned CDs.
I don't know, might tell me something.
So, how do you want to work this? I'll give you a call if I need your help.
Stabler.
When? Okay.
Thanks.
What? My victim, she's dead.
Does that help? Olivia back from the hospital? Still there.
Caught a child abuse case in the E.
R.
But what's the story on the husband's murder? Witnesses only heard a fight.
We found prints at the apartment.
They matched prints on the wife's car.
I ran them through the system.
Zip.
All this to steal the hard drive off the home computer.
Explains why the husband was killed, but why attack the wife and superglue her mouth shut? Sending a message.
Talked when she shouldn't have.
Anything pop up on the laptop? Homicide detective sent it over to TARU.
Said he'd give a buzz if anything looked useful.
Yeah, meaning after his case clears, we'll never hear from him again.
So let's concentrate on our own victim.
She was driving home from work when this happened.
Let's start there.
Everybody here loved Meredith.
Anybody love her in private? What, like an affair? No.
At least, not with anybody here.
How do you know? Well, 80 percent of the department is female and I don't think her door swung both ways.
The guys, not to be a jerk, but I doubt she'd risk her marriage on any of them.
Did she get a promotion lately, a new office, anything to make one of her co-workers jealous? Not at all.
In fact, I almost had to fire her a few months ago.
Why? Well, some performance issues.
Distracted, took a lot of sick days, vacation.
Then she was back to normal.
What was going on with her? I'm not really sure.
She changed her e-mail address seven or eight times last year.
I think she had some kind of stalker.
Do you mind if we take a look at her computer? Oh, she didn't have one here.
She always brought her laptop.
Need the TARU report on that laptop.
I don't have it yet.
Why? Well, it belonged to my victim.
You get anything off those CD-ROMs? Yeah, I got something.
Kiddie porn.
Yeah.
Hundreds of pictures.
Probably what the perp was looking for on the hard drive.
And when were you going to get around to sharing that piece of information with me? I've got to report to you if my victim's a pervert? No, you've got to tell me when you find something pertaining to my victim.
That CD belongs to her.
How do you know? There's no usable prints on it.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Meredith McGrath changed her e-mail address seven times last year.
I am betting she did it because she didn't want to get caught with that.
She was raped, tortured and murdered.
This guy was after her, not her husband.
Well, you SVU guys want the perv crap, you can have it.
Real pleasant work, detectives.
Thanks for sharing.
Find more kiddie porn? More than 50 images.
From what I can tell, they're of two different girls.
One looks eight or nine.
One 14 or 15.
Really twisted stuff.
This computer is jacked.
Some kind of virus.
I haven't been able to view everything.
Any way to ID these girls? We send all child pornography to the FBI.
They use facial recognition software.
Compare the porn to the database at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Any idea where Meredith got these pictures? Sent to her from Nick2Shy@wiremail.
bz.
She saves his e-mails along with the photos.
And where can we find this Nick? Used a Wiremail account.
Anonymous server.
Yeah.
Truth is, nothing is really anonymous.
Every e-mail you send, every website you visit, you transmit an internet protocol address.
Most e-mails have the IP number in the header information.
Who is it? All I can tell you is the server he used.
The IP is assigned to the computer lab at Stuyvesant College.
Get a subpoena, they can tell you who the user is.
One more thing.
Mrs.
McGrath also liked to save her Internet chats.
Oh, yeah? What did she chat about? Trolling for more porn.
I tried reading a couple but then I stopped when I felt like puking.
Wow.
This your partner? Yeah.
Does she date? A lot of guys.
So, there's just no way to retrieve it, right? Okay.
Thank you.
College computer lab? There's no record of anyone accessing the IP address.
Someone from a remote site bypassed the log-in code.
They were hacked.
It's an old system.
There's no way to trace this guy.
This Nick2Shy is going through an awful lot of trouble to keep his identity a secret.
Well, come on, if he killed her, I mean, I think he did us a favor.
I mean, listen to this one.
Here's a guy offering Meredith In return, he wants to take her son to a motel for an hour.
Isn't that sweet? She doesn't have any kids.
She told this guy she did.
That is something I am not understanding.
She seems to be doing an awful lot of lying.
She goes into an adult chat room, pretends she's a 13-year-old girl.
She changes her screen name to "luv2cheer13.
" Almost immediately, six guys are hitting on her.
So she's getting off with a fantasy? I don't know, but then she starts setting up meetings in hotels with these guys.
Now, what the hell is the point of that? It's not like she can all of a sudden turn into this 13-year-old girl once she gets there.
Okay.
Why does she flirt with them online? Think about it.
She saves every one of the communications she has with these guys.
She doesn't offer them anything illegal until they ask for it.
Now, what does that sound like to you? A sicko.
It's also how the Feds sting pedophiles online.
She's an informant.
Yeah, that makes sense.
How? Well, that virus I thought I found? Actually a Trojan horse.
What's that? It's a program hiding within a seemingly innocuous file.
In this case, it was designed to record every single keystroke Meredith McGrath made.
Each time she signed online, it would transmit the information in an e-mail.
To Nick2Shy.
Attached the Trojan to a picture he sent her.
After that, he could read every word she typed.
So he found out she was an informant and killed her, stole the evidence that she'd been collecting against him.
So she's on FBI payroll? Possibly.
She sent huge bundles of information to a dot-gov address.
Federal domain.
Someone named Claudia Williams.
It's not FBI.
She's an assistant U.
S.
Attorney.
When were you going to let us know that she was working for you? When I had something to give you.
Well, when were you going to tell me that you were using a civilian to do your job? Meredith McGrath was going after pedophiles on the Internet long before our involvement.
She considered herself a cyber vigilante.
All on her own? Why? Maybe because she was raped as a young girl and decided to get back at people who exploit children.
She came to us, Detective.
What were we supposed to do, ignore her? So she did your dirty work.
When she got killed for it, "Oh well, it was her decision.
" Is that it? Meredith helped us put away five pedophiles in the last year.
Believe me when I tell you, I want to find out who killed her just as badly as you do.
Okay.
I want to see the files on every perp she went after, and I don't want to hear about it compromising your cases.
Recognize her? Wagner from Queens.
She's one of the girls in the pictures on Meredith's laptop.
How did you ID her? FBI computer got the match.
She's been missing for two weeks.
Mia's photographs didn't start showing up on the Internet until after her disappearance.
You're thinking she was kidnapped and Meredith found out about it? It's possible.
Sounds like a motive for murder to me.
What did the 117 have to say about this missing girl? They wrote it up as a runaway.
She packed her bags, stole a couple hundred bucks from her mother.
There's no mention of the porno pics.
Morning, Captain.
Bishop, you're getting to be a regular fixture around here.
Thinking about a department transfer? No, thanks.
I like my victims dead.
Found the address of the mother's work.
Restaurant in Queens.
Thanks.
I had told the police that I don't think she ran away.
I know it looks like that, but I think she must have been forced or something.
Mrs.
Van Wagner, does Mia spend a lot of time online? No.
My daughter can't have the Internet.
I don't allow it.
Why? Pictures of her showed up in some e-mails.
We're just not quite sure who sent them.
What kind of pictures? Mrs.
Van Wagner You have to show me.
Let me see them.
You don't need to see the pictures.
If it were my daughter, I wouldn't want those images in my head.
Oh, my God.
Well, what's happening to her? That's what we're trying to find out.
Is it possible she uses a friend's e-mail account? I suppose.
She spends a lot of time at Samantha Gilligan's house, but You know, the police already talked to her.
Mia just took off.
She didn't tell me where she was going, and she hasn't called me, okay? Okay.
You know, you don't seem too worried about your friend.
Mia can take care of herself.
She's way more mature than people think.
She ever come over here and use your computer? Probably.
I don't know.
You don't know? Come on.
You guys went online together, right? Hit the chat rooms, maybe try to pick up guys.
Okay, whatever.
Did any guy ever try to pick up Mia? Am I psychic? Wonder what your friend's doing now? Here, take a look at that.
Look like she's having a lot of fun? Put it away.
Oh, my God.
That's Mia? Put it away.
Somebody's doing that to your friend.
So if you know where she is, you've got to tell us right now.
She had this boyfriend, online.
Where are they? I don't know, I swear.
She called me a couple of days after she left, but she didn't tell me where she was.
There's no way he would do that stuff to her.
He loves her.
How do you know that? She showed me his e-mails.
They were really romantic.
Did you save the e-mails he sent? Go to the computer and get them for me.
Why the hell did you show her that? She was lying her ass off.
So your solution is terrorizing her into giving you information? Hey, we got what we came for.
I don't have time to hold her hand.
Listen to me.
I don't want you jumping in my game like that again.
Are we clear? Look, it's only going to get uglier from here on out, so if you can't handle it, you've just got to let me know right now.
Look, let's break up the work.
I'll run down the phone dump on this girl, you run down the e-mails.
I don't recognize the server name.
Let's see if the IP tells us anything.
Whoa.
I think this is going to be a little out of NYPD's jurisdiction.
Another state? Another country.
Server's in Prague.
As in the Czech Republic.
U.
S.
Embassy in Prague has confirmed the sender is Erich Tassig, a German national, living in the Czech Republic for the last two years.
They pick him up? The Czechs won't arrest him based on e-mails.
Which shows he was pursuing a sexual relationship with a minor.
He invited her to live with him.
What else do they need? Proof that he's got the girl.
Erich Tassig has not left the Czech Republic in eight months.
Yeah, well, he must have convinced her to go on her own.
U.
S.
Immigration says Mia Van Wagner has never been issued a passport.
All right, I don't know how this dirtbag did it, but he smuggled her out of this country and he's now circulating pornographic pictures of her.
Prove it.
The Czechs will play ball with us.
We'll make sure of it.
Mia Van Wagner had an e-mail relationship with Tassig for over one year.
Now, photos of Mia and this unknown girl were found on Meredith McGrath's laptop.
All of those photos were sent to her by Nick2Shy.
I'm thinking that this is the guy who murdered Meredith and her husband.
Could Tassig and Nick2Shy be the same person? I was thinking that, but the e- mails coming from Tassig were clearly written by somebody who doesn't speak English as a first language.
Nick2Shy does.
So, Nick helps Tassig get Mia out of the country.
Meredith finds out about it.
Nick kills her.
The question is, how do these guys know each other? Okay.
More importantly This girl is being raped and tortured.
Where the hell is she? Phone dump on Samantha Gilligan.
Mia Van Wagner called from a prepaid cell phone.
LUDs on that show she used it the first two days she was missing.
Nothing since.
Who else she call? Three calls to the same number.
Photocopy shop, Midtown.
You get passport photos from those places.
Hi, can I help you? We're looking for a girl who came in for a passport picture.
Oh, sure.
That's Kerry.
What, is she in trouble? How do you know Kerry? I met her a couple weeks ago.
Ron brought her in.
She's his daughter.
Ron who? Ron Crowley.
He's my boss.
He's right in the back if you want to talk to him.
Ronnie? I'm sorry, this area's restricted to employees only.
No, it's not.
We heard you brought your daughter to work a couple weeks ago.
So? Is that her? No.
Strong resemblance, but no, that's not Kerry.
Take a better look.
Clerk out front said that is definitely your daughter.
Well, I guess I'd know my own kid better than she would.
How many daughters you got, Ronnie? One.
Is that all? Got any pictures of her? I got tons of pictures of my kids with me.
Come on.
I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
What are you doing? Let me see your wallet, Ron.
You can't do that.
Is this your daughter? She looks nothing like the girl you brought in, Ron.
Let's go.
I never saw that girl in my life.
So your employee was lying.
She made a mistake.
How come Mia Van Wagner called your store three times? How do I know? Maybe she needed copies.
Wrong answer.
What the hell is your problem? Detective Bishop here is very impatient.
Now, you're going to do yourself a big favor if you just answer our questions honestly.
I am.
Good.
Tell me about Meredith McGrath.
Never heard of her.
The woman you raped and murdered.
Wait a minute.
You got the wrong guy! She found out about you, Ronnie, what a sick little worm you are.
So you killed her! I did not! Take a walk, Detective.
It's all right.
Let's go, Bishop.
I'm Claudia Williams, Assistant U.
S.
Attorney.
Are you all right, Mr.
Crowley? I'll be better when I smack a lawsuit on that guy's ass.
Did you see that? Well, you won't be dealing with Detective Bishop anymore.
Mr.
Crowley, do you still have custody of your daughter, Kerry? No, my ex-wife's got her.
Did you recently obtain a U.
S.
Passport for her? No.
I have an application you made to Immigration with your signature and I have an official copy of your daughter's birth certificate that you gave them along with this photograph.
This is not your daughter.
This is Mia Van Wagner.
Fraudulently obtaining a U.
S.
Passport is a serious offense, Mr.
Crowley.
And if you think the NYPD was tough on you, just wait until you start dealing with the Federal government.
I didn't kidnap her.
All I did was get her the passport and help her leave the country, which she wanted to do.
Who's in Prague? I don't know his name.
You trade kiddie porn with him.
Don't bother to deny it.
Customs is already searching your house.
He gave me five grand to help her.
He bought her the plane ticket, but I'm telling you, that girl went willingly.
Who's this girl? I've never seen her.
Her picture is on Meredith McGrath's computer.
I never heard of that woman.
Look, I didn't kill anybody, and I didn't force anybody to do anything.
I was helping.
Is that a crime? Crowley's wrong for the murder.
His prints don't match either scene.
I'm more worried about finding Mia Van Wagner.
Detective Stabler, how is it that you've never been issued a passport? Never needed one.
Why? Well, you do now.
Customs wants an SVU detective in Prague when they find the girl.
You can pick up your passport and plane ticket at Kennedy in two hours, assuming Captain Cragen is amenable to loaning you out.
Sounds like you better pack, Detective.
Detective Stabler? Yeah.
Kate Logan.
I'm the Europol officer assigned to this investigation.
Nice to meet you.
U.
S.
Customs will furnish you with a sidearm for the duration of your stay.
Do you speak Czech or German? A little Spanish.
Sorry.
Then you'll stick with me.
NYPD doesn't often dispatch their detectives to foreign countries to arrest a suspect.
Well, they do when the guy is a particular dirtbag.
Well, you'll find there's no shortage of those here.
Welcome to the Czech Republic.
Why is Europol so interested in Tassig? Czech Republic is not even an E.
U.
Member yet.
Both Europol and Interpol have independently suspected Erich Tassig of trafficking young girls from Eastern Europe to Germany and Austria.
Two years ago, he fled to the Czech Republic and he's been off our radar ever since, reinventing himself as this Internet entrepreneur.
Producing and distributing child pornography.
Likely, but we can't prove it.
All his work appears to be legitimate.
My specific interest? We almost had the bastard and he slipped through our fingers.
It won't happen again.
Detective, glad to have you aboard.
Mike Pearson, U.
S.
Customs attaché.
I'd like to give you a chance to sleep but we've had some developments since you left New York.
That's okay.
I came here to work.
What developments? Last night, the Czech police jumped the gun and raided Tassig's flat.
He and the girl are in the wind.
How did he know that we were onto them? Customs in D.
C.
Traced an e- mail from Tassig's ISP to a Samantha Gilligan in New York.
Samantha replied the next day.
That's Mia Van Wagner's friend.
She must have warned her.
Well, we've released this picture of Miss Van Wagner to the media.
Tip line goes to the Czech police, they'll contact us with anything legit.
How hard would it be for them to leave the country? Tassig won't try it.
He's got too much reason to stay.
Why? He's already got the girl.
I think you need a lesson on the child sex trade in the Czech Republic, Detective.
In some of these Czech border towns, the brothels outnumber the churches.
So every week, about 10,000 Germans come here because the prostitutes are half-price, because anything you want, you can get.
See those pink curtains there? Mmm-hmm.
They indicate that if you were so inclined and had 500 crowns, they'd give you a child under the age of 10 for 30 minutes.
That's $17 U.
S.
Blue curtains mean you'd get a boy.
Where do they get these children? Some are orphans, smuggled in from Romania and Bulgaria.
Eric Tassig isn't the only man profiting off the sale of children.
You don't do anything about it, huh? Europol has no authority over the Czech citizens.
As far as the Czech police, they have no incentive to stop it.
There's too much money to be made handing out parking tickets to the German tourists.
Look, this is the world that we live in, Detective Stabler.
I should think in your line of work, you'd understand that.
In my line of work, we wouldn't just sit back and take it.
That's very noble.
But as long as the demand for child exploitation exists, there's little we can do.
So what the hell are you doing here? It's my job.
What are you doing here? Excuse me.
Hello.
Yes.
All right, thanks.
We're on our way.
Detective, a credible tip just came in.
It's not far.
You've seen this girl? Yes, I've seen her.
Comes by every day.
Buys chocolate from me.
She with anyone? Alone mostly.
There was a man with her once or twice.
Not her father.
And how do you know that? The way he kisses her.
Have you seen her today? Not yet.
Then we wait.
Erich, I think somebody's following me.
Come on.
Where? Mia! Mia! Let's go.
Come on, run! Over here.
Come on.
Okay.
Mia! Mia, wait! Mia.
Erich! No! Let me go! I got you.
Erich, help me! I'm here to help you.
Please! I'm a police officer.
Please! Please! Please! Please! Where's Tassig? He's gone.
Stand up.
Stand up.
Okay.
You let him run.
I had two choices, get him or save the girl.
I thought Mia was more important.
You just took away Tassig's one reason to stay in this country.
He could be anywhere now.
So your solution is I should have just let her run away again? We would have had him in custody and we'd have eventually found Mia.
Eventually? And what? In the meantime, you just let a child wander around in a foreign city for a few days? What about the other child you're looking for, Detective Stabler? We forget about her now? Like I said, I made a choice.
We'll talk to Mia, she'll lead us to Tassig.
Mia has been terribly abused and won't admit it.
She thinks we are the enemy.
You expect her to help us? You know, I just figured out why you're so pissed off and you're right, it is easier to arrest the bad guy than it is to deal with the victim.
Why aren't you letting me leave? Because you're 14 years old and we have to protect you.
I don't need you to protect me.
That's Erich Tassig's job, right? Yes.
So, why'd he leave you behind? You think he loves you? I know he loves me.
And I love him and I don't care if you guys don't understand because it's true.
Mia, he's told that to so many other girls.
He's very charming.
You're a liar.
I'm not going to talk about it anymore.
He sells girls for sex.
Did you know that? Very young girls.
No, he doesn't.
Mia, we've seen the pictures.
What pictures? He made you do things.
He put drugs in your arm.
No, he didn't! So you wanted to do those things.
You wanted those pictures taken Stop it! Shut up.
You wanted them put on the Internet? What? Did you want them put on the Internet? That's how we found them.
That's not true, right? Mia, look, I'm sorry, but it's true and this guy is not who you think he is.
Erich Tassig is a criminal, he's a liar, he's a manipulator.
He won't protect you.
So don't sit here and protect him.
Oh, my God.
But you could get them back, right? I mean, nobody has to see them? We'll try.
Please.
Please? You can't let anybody You can't let my mom If we find Erich, then we'll know every place he's sent your pictures to.
We can destroy them and I promise you, we will.
Look, he's got this place where he works.
We'll talk to him at your precinct.
Americans? You are arresting people all across the globe these days? A pleasant benefit from terrorism? I'll never understand the pedophile's instinct to incriminate himself.
We found Tassig's Internet business with customers in New York, Virginia, Washington.
Business is booming.
The authorities in this country have a history of violating human rights.
That shouldn't be your concern, Mr.
Tassig.
You're not in Czech custody.
Because I have done nothing wrong.
You recorded yourself numerous times having sex with Mia Van Wagner.
This is a crime? The age of consent in this country is 15.
She's 14.
She told a lie.
That sucks for you.
Why? Was I forcing her on those tapes? No.
She loves me.
She wanted me.
Did she want these two guys also? Did she want that other girl? Mia has appetites like any of us.
She is an adventurous woman.
She's a 14-year-old girl that you drugged and photographed being raped.
That is a lie.
I am not a pornographer.
We have your computer equipment, Mr.
Tassig.
You run a child pornography website.
You're in possession of over a hundred thousand illegal images Why are you so obsessed with children? That is disgusting.
Your business is selling child rape videos and we're disgusting? I am trapping these people.
They buy from me and then I know who they are.
I'm doing your work.
Don't arrest me, arrest them.
If you're so innocent, Mr.
Tassig, why did you arrange to kidnap a child from America? Mia came to me by her own choice.
But I don't expect you to understand.
I understand.
I understand.
Who is she? Who's that girl? She is lovely.
I don't know her.
You have 50 pictures of her on your computer.
Did you photograph her? No! I am not a deviant.
I'm supposed to be afraid that the American detective will hurt me? You can't.
It is against your laws.
What did you just say to him? I merely reminded Mr.
Tassig that we were not in America.
So perhaps he'll be more inclined to cooperate and stop this ridiculous performance.
You need permission from this bitch? Come here What did you say to me? Huh? What do I need? All right.
This little girl.
Who is she? I don't know her.
I swear.
But I have seen her website.
What website? It has pictures and video of this girl.
It says her name is Amy.
That is all I know.
I swear.
We found the site in Tassig's computer.
It's called Amy's Little Secret.
You need a password to get on.
And for $29.
99 a month, you can buy one from another website, allowing you to access multiple pornography sites, adults and children.
They charge it to your credit card, it shows up as a subscription to a fly-fishing magazine.
How can we see what's on that? We use the ambassador's Amex and get our own password.
I already did it.
Pretty sick stuff.
Hundreds of images, all of the same girl.
Amy at age nine.
Amy, age five.
Age three.
Live webcast, twice a week.
Shut it off.
Can we trace the person uploading these images? All we can do is find the same e- mail that Detective Stabler had, this Nick2Shy guy.
We sent Tassig's computers on to this Customs CyberSmuggling unit in D.
C.
They may be able to tell us more.
The password company is taking money for the website.
They've got to know who's operating it.
According to the credit card charge, they're from your neck of the woods.
Outfit operating out of New York State.
Looks like you're going home, Detective.
Hey, welcome back.
Things turn out okay? Mia Van Wagner's back at home.
She's not too happy about it but she's got a long way to go.
I didn't expect to see you back at this department.
I'm supposed to take you down to the Federal Building.
Why? You won't believe what you started.
Customs put this together while you were on the plane.
Glad everyone's been keeping busy.
Congratulations, Detective.
All this from Tassig's computers, huh? Customs found financial records showing payments from a company called Private-Code, the same password company that they used on the Amy website.
We traced it to a residence in Westchester.
What are the payments for? Private-Code sells the passwords.
Tassig gets a cut of the profits.
Up to 25 grand a month.
And how many people are we talking about? Preliminary search found 15 child porn sites all on Private-Code's payroll in three different countries, over 400,000 individual images.
Who knows how many subscribers.
Private-Code's only a middleman.
Who will lead us to the producers and the distributors and the consumers.
We're busting 17 producers in the Tri-State Area alone.
You've opened Pandora's box, detectives.
This is huge.
So I see.
With the FBI, Customs, the local PDs.
Looks like you got it covered.
We do.
I just thought you'd want to be there when we take the bastards out.
Let's move.
United States Customs service, we have a warrant to search the premises.
Police! Drop everything! Let me see your hands! This is private property.
No, this is destroying the evidence that you pay people to molest children.
We only sell passwords.
We don't know what people put on their website.
What are you telling me, lady? That you don't know what the website child-dot-rape's all about? Shut up.
What's the story? Unbelievable.
This is even bigger than the Feds thought.
Company grossed 15 mil in the past fiscal year alone.
For selling a $30 password? How many subscribers they got? Last count, 300,000 accessing more than a hundred child porn sites in 20 countries.
What else have you got on the subscribers? Everything.
They keep immaculate records.
Bank accounts, checking accounts, credit cards, e - mail address, home address.
Already found 60 in Manhattan, Detective.
You guys are going to be busy.
How hard would it be to look up one of these guy's e - mail addresses? Just a simple word search.
Nick2Shy, Wiremail account.
Name's Nicholas Taylor.
No address listed.
However, I've got a MasterCard and Visa account.
Bills got to go somewhere.
Print that out.
Are you Amy? Hi, I'm Elliot.
I'm a policeman.
Is your dad home? He's upstairs, sleeping.
Where's your policeman clothes? Well, I'll tell you what, will my policeman's badge do? Why don't you take it while I talk to your dad? Please, sweetheart.
You can hang out here with my good friend, Sam.
He's a cop, too.
What do you say? Will you do that for me? Can I get a glass of water? Which way's the kitchen? Go ahead.
You're under arrest.
Get dressed.
Where's my daughter? Where's Amy? Where's your daughter? Like you give a damn.
Now, get dressed.
Your prints were at the scene of Meredith McGrath's murder.
And your prints were at the scene of Roger McGrath's murder.
Okay.
Let's get Cabot down here.
We're ready to deal.
You think you can get a deal out of her on two murders and prolonged child abuse? Good luck.
It's not going to make a difference once the Feds get you, anyway.
I don't abuse my daughter.
Yeah, you do.
Since before she was able to walk.
So you say.
So your website says, genius.
That's why you killed the McGraths, isn't it? She knew what you were doing.
You had to protect your secret.
She misrepresented herself.
Yeah.
Pretending to be as disgusting as you.
She betrayed me.
You betrayed your daughter.
I did not.
I love Amy more than you'll ever realize.
And I'm not going to feel bad just because you're telling me I should.
That's enough.
This interview is over.
Detectives Society says I'm wrong.
But not long ago, society said interracial marriage was wrong, too.
Not long ago, society executed homosexuals.
Did you hear that? Now, that is a classic.
It's the pedophile's justification for why he's not the pervert we know he is.
I used to think I was alone.
I'm not.
There are hundreds of thousands of people just like me.
Maybe millions.
You mean your buddies on the Internet? You're right.
And you freaks will never be alone in prison.
Ever think that maybe you're the minority? Ever think that maybe you're the freaks? Go ahead, arrest us, persecute us.
We're not going away.
We're not going to play by your rules and nothing you can do will ever change that.
Another round.
I'm buying.
No, I've got to get home.
I've got to make sure my kids remember what I look like.
Yeah? How many you got? Four.
They why you do this job? They're part of it.
I guess I can see what you get out of it.
All those guys you put away, who knows how many more kids they would've hurt.
Tough gig, though, huh? Really got to love it.
No.
You've got to hate it.
It's the only way you'll be any good at it.
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.
I just don't understand why you never bring your cell phone.
A cell phone won't change the fact that you ran out of gas.
No, I didn't! The gauge is broken.
Where are you going? Maybe they have a cell phone.
Wait, you don't know who they are.
Nobody.
Now what? Start walking.
What was that? Somebody's in there.
Get it open.
Flag down a car.
Hurry! Multiple stab wounds.
Looks like the guy clocked her a couple of times with a tire iron before raping her with it.
She's conscious, though.
She tell you anything? Can't.
He superglued her lips shut.
She stopped breathing, so we had to crike her.
You got anything to dissolve that with? E.
R.
's got a solvent if she gets there.
No promises.
I'll go.
Call you if she says anything.
You got an ID? No purse, no keys.
Car's registered to Meredith McGrath.
Seems like there's some recent damage to the bumper.
So he bumps into her, she pulls over, he attacks her.
Found these in the trash.
Eighty bucks cash in her wallet.
No driver's license.
All the credit cards say Meredith McGrath.
Did you find keys in there? No.
So he took the keys.
He leaves the money, he takes her license.
With her home address on it.
What's the address on that registration? What the hell happened? Someone heard a commotion.
By the time we get here, he's already dead.
Homicide here? Bishop.
Stabler, Special Victims Unit.
Sam Bishop.
This is Roger McGrath.
Looks like he surprised a burglar.
But I'm pretty sure the guy wasn't raped.
His wife was.
Tonight? Couple hours ago.
We think the perp stole her house keys, came here looking for something.
Hard drive of the computer.
Ripped it right out.
Was that the only thing he touched? Looks like.
But he missed this.
Found this in the desk, with a couple of burned CDs.
I don't know, might tell me something.
So, how do you want to work this? I'll give you a call if I need your help.
Stabler.
When? Okay.
Thanks.
What? My victim, she's dead.
Does that help? Olivia back from the hospital? Still there.
Caught a child abuse case in the E.
R.
But what's the story on the husband's murder? Witnesses only heard a fight.
We found prints at the apartment.
They matched prints on the wife's car.
I ran them through the system.
Zip.
All this to steal the hard drive off the home computer.
Explains why the husband was killed, but why attack the wife and superglue her mouth shut? Sending a message.
Talked when she shouldn't have.
Anything pop up on the laptop? Homicide detective sent it over to TARU.
Said he'd give a buzz if anything looked useful.
Yeah, meaning after his case clears, we'll never hear from him again.
So let's concentrate on our own victim.
She was driving home from work when this happened.
Let's start there.
Everybody here loved Meredith.
Anybody love her in private? What, like an affair? No.
At least, not with anybody here.
How do you know? Well, 80 percent of the department is female and I don't think her door swung both ways.
The guys, not to be a jerk, but I doubt she'd risk her marriage on any of them.
Did she get a promotion lately, a new office, anything to make one of her co-workers jealous? Not at all.
In fact, I almost had to fire her a few months ago.
Why? Well, some performance issues.
Distracted, took a lot of sick days, vacation.
Then she was back to normal.
What was going on with her? I'm not really sure.
She changed her e-mail address seven or eight times last year.
I think she had some kind of stalker.
Do you mind if we take a look at her computer? Oh, she didn't have one here.
She always brought her laptop.
Need the TARU report on that laptop.
I don't have it yet.
Why? Well, it belonged to my victim.
You get anything off those CD-ROMs? Yeah, I got something.
Kiddie porn.
Yeah.
Hundreds of pictures.
Probably what the perp was looking for on the hard drive.
And when were you going to get around to sharing that piece of information with me? I've got to report to you if my victim's a pervert? No, you've got to tell me when you find something pertaining to my victim.
That CD belongs to her.
How do you know? There's no usable prints on it.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Meredith McGrath changed her e-mail address seven times last year.
I am betting she did it because she didn't want to get caught with that.
She was raped, tortured and murdered.
This guy was after her, not her husband.
Well, you SVU guys want the perv crap, you can have it.
Real pleasant work, detectives.
Thanks for sharing.
Find more kiddie porn? More than 50 images.
From what I can tell, they're of two different girls.
One looks eight or nine.
One 14 or 15.
Really twisted stuff.
This computer is jacked.
Some kind of virus.
I haven't been able to view everything.
Any way to ID these girls? We send all child pornography to the FBI.
They use facial recognition software.
Compare the porn to the database at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Any idea where Meredith got these pictures? Sent to her from Nick2Shy@wiremail.
bz.
She saves his e-mails along with the photos.
And where can we find this Nick? Used a Wiremail account.
Anonymous server.
Yeah.
Truth is, nothing is really anonymous.
Every e-mail you send, every website you visit, you transmit an internet protocol address.
Most e-mails have the IP number in the header information.
Who is it? All I can tell you is the server he used.
The IP is assigned to the computer lab at Stuyvesant College.
Get a subpoena, they can tell you who the user is.
One more thing.
Mrs.
McGrath also liked to save her Internet chats.
Oh, yeah? What did she chat about? Trolling for more porn.
I tried reading a couple but then I stopped when I felt like puking.
Wow.
This your partner? Yeah.
Does she date? A lot of guys.
So, there's just no way to retrieve it, right? Okay.
Thank you.
College computer lab? There's no record of anyone accessing the IP address.
Someone from a remote site bypassed the log-in code.
They were hacked.
It's an old system.
There's no way to trace this guy.
This Nick2Shy is going through an awful lot of trouble to keep his identity a secret.
Well, come on, if he killed her, I mean, I think he did us a favor.
I mean, listen to this one.
Here's a guy offering Meredith In return, he wants to take her son to a motel for an hour.
Isn't that sweet? She doesn't have any kids.
She told this guy she did.
That is something I am not understanding.
She seems to be doing an awful lot of lying.
She goes into an adult chat room, pretends she's a 13-year-old girl.
She changes her screen name to "luv2cheer13.
" Almost immediately, six guys are hitting on her.
So she's getting off with a fantasy? I don't know, but then she starts setting up meetings in hotels with these guys.
Now, what the hell is the point of that? It's not like she can all of a sudden turn into this 13-year-old girl once she gets there.
Okay.
Why does she flirt with them online? Think about it.
She saves every one of the communications she has with these guys.
She doesn't offer them anything illegal until they ask for it.
Now, what does that sound like to you? A sicko.
It's also how the Feds sting pedophiles online.
She's an informant.
Yeah, that makes sense.
How? Well, that virus I thought I found? Actually a Trojan horse.
What's that? It's a program hiding within a seemingly innocuous file.
In this case, it was designed to record every single keystroke Meredith McGrath made.
Each time she signed online, it would transmit the information in an e-mail.
To Nick2Shy.
Attached the Trojan to a picture he sent her.
After that, he could read every word she typed.
So he found out she was an informant and killed her, stole the evidence that she'd been collecting against him.
So she's on FBI payroll? Possibly.
She sent huge bundles of information to a dot-gov address.
Federal domain.
Someone named Claudia Williams.
It's not FBI.
She's an assistant U.
S.
Attorney.
When were you going to let us know that she was working for you? When I had something to give you.
Well, when were you going to tell me that you were using a civilian to do your job? Meredith McGrath was going after pedophiles on the Internet long before our involvement.
She considered herself a cyber vigilante.
All on her own? Why? Maybe because she was raped as a young girl and decided to get back at people who exploit children.
She came to us, Detective.
What were we supposed to do, ignore her? So she did your dirty work.
When she got killed for it, "Oh well, it was her decision.
" Is that it? Meredith helped us put away five pedophiles in the last year.
Believe me when I tell you, I want to find out who killed her just as badly as you do.
Okay.
I want to see the files on every perp she went after, and I don't want to hear about it compromising your cases.
Recognize her? Wagner from Queens.
She's one of the girls in the pictures on Meredith's laptop.
How did you ID her? FBI computer got the match.
She's been missing for two weeks.
Mia's photographs didn't start showing up on the Internet until after her disappearance.
You're thinking she was kidnapped and Meredith found out about it? It's possible.
Sounds like a motive for murder to me.
What did the 117 have to say about this missing girl? They wrote it up as a runaway.
She packed her bags, stole a couple hundred bucks from her mother.
There's no mention of the porno pics.
Morning, Captain.
Bishop, you're getting to be a regular fixture around here.
Thinking about a department transfer? No, thanks.
I like my victims dead.
Found the address of the mother's work.
Restaurant in Queens.
Thanks.
I had told the police that I don't think she ran away.
I know it looks like that, but I think she must have been forced or something.
Mrs.
Van Wagner, does Mia spend a lot of time online? No.
My daughter can't have the Internet.
I don't allow it.
Why? Pictures of her showed up in some e-mails.
We're just not quite sure who sent them.
What kind of pictures? Mrs.
Van Wagner You have to show me.
Let me see them.
You don't need to see the pictures.
If it were my daughter, I wouldn't want those images in my head.
Oh, my God.
Well, what's happening to her? That's what we're trying to find out.
Is it possible she uses a friend's e-mail account? I suppose.
She spends a lot of time at Samantha Gilligan's house, but You know, the police already talked to her.
Mia just took off.
She didn't tell me where she was going, and she hasn't called me, okay? Okay.
You know, you don't seem too worried about your friend.
Mia can take care of herself.
She's way more mature than people think.
She ever come over here and use your computer? Probably.
I don't know.
You don't know? Come on.
You guys went online together, right? Hit the chat rooms, maybe try to pick up guys.
Okay, whatever.
Did any guy ever try to pick up Mia? Am I psychic? Wonder what your friend's doing now? Here, take a look at that.
Look like she's having a lot of fun? Put it away.
Oh, my God.
That's Mia? Put it away.
Somebody's doing that to your friend.
So if you know where she is, you've got to tell us right now.
She had this boyfriend, online.
Where are they? I don't know, I swear.
She called me a couple of days after she left, but she didn't tell me where she was.
There's no way he would do that stuff to her.
He loves her.
How do you know that? She showed me his e-mails.
They were really romantic.
Did you save the e-mails he sent? Go to the computer and get them for me.
Why the hell did you show her that? She was lying her ass off.
So your solution is terrorizing her into giving you information? Hey, we got what we came for.
I don't have time to hold her hand.
Listen to me.
I don't want you jumping in my game like that again.
Are we clear? Look, it's only going to get uglier from here on out, so if you can't handle it, you've just got to let me know right now.
Look, let's break up the work.
I'll run down the phone dump on this girl, you run down the e-mails.
I don't recognize the server name.
Let's see if the IP tells us anything.
Whoa.
I think this is going to be a little out of NYPD's jurisdiction.
Another state? Another country.
Server's in Prague.
As in the Czech Republic.
U.
S.
Embassy in Prague has confirmed the sender is Erich Tassig, a German national, living in the Czech Republic for the last two years.
They pick him up? The Czechs won't arrest him based on e-mails.
Which shows he was pursuing a sexual relationship with a minor.
He invited her to live with him.
What else do they need? Proof that he's got the girl.
Erich Tassig has not left the Czech Republic in eight months.
Yeah, well, he must have convinced her to go on her own.
U.
S.
Immigration says Mia Van Wagner has never been issued a passport.
All right, I don't know how this dirtbag did it, but he smuggled her out of this country and he's now circulating pornographic pictures of her.
Prove it.
The Czechs will play ball with us.
We'll make sure of it.
Mia Van Wagner had an e-mail relationship with Tassig for over one year.
Now, photos of Mia and this unknown girl were found on Meredith McGrath's laptop.
All of those photos were sent to her by Nick2Shy.
I'm thinking that this is the guy who murdered Meredith and her husband.
Could Tassig and Nick2Shy be the same person? I was thinking that, but the e- mails coming from Tassig were clearly written by somebody who doesn't speak English as a first language.
Nick2Shy does.
So, Nick helps Tassig get Mia out of the country.
Meredith finds out about it.
Nick kills her.
The question is, how do these guys know each other? Okay.
More importantly This girl is being raped and tortured.
Where the hell is she? Phone dump on Samantha Gilligan.
Mia Van Wagner called from a prepaid cell phone.
LUDs on that show she used it the first two days she was missing.
Nothing since.
Who else she call? Three calls to the same number.
Photocopy shop, Midtown.
You get passport photos from those places.
Hi, can I help you? We're looking for a girl who came in for a passport picture.
Oh, sure.
That's Kerry.
What, is she in trouble? How do you know Kerry? I met her a couple weeks ago.
Ron brought her in.
She's his daughter.
Ron who? Ron Crowley.
He's my boss.
He's right in the back if you want to talk to him.
Ronnie? I'm sorry, this area's restricted to employees only.
No, it's not.
We heard you brought your daughter to work a couple weeks ago.
So? Is that her? No.
Strong resemblance, but no, that's not Kerry.
Take a better look.
Clerk out front said that is definitely your daughter.
Well, I guess I'd know my own kid better than she would.
How many daughters you got, Ronnie? One.
Is that all? Got any pictures of her? I got tons of pictures of my kids with me.
Come on.
I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
What are you doing? Let me see your wallet, Ron.
You can't do that.
Is this your daughter? She looks nothing like the girl you brought in, Ron.
Let's go.
I never saw that girl in my life.
So your employee was lying.
She made a mistake.
How come Mia Van Wagner called your store three times? How do I know? Maybe she needed copies.
Wrong answer.
What the hell is your problem? Detective Bishop here is very impatient.
Now, you're going to do yourself a big favor if you just answer our questions honestly.
I am.
Good.
Tell me about Meredith McGrath.
Never heard of her.
The woman you raped and murdered.
Wait a minute.
You got the wrong guy! She found out about you, Ronnie, what a sick little worm you are.
So you killed her! I did not! Take a walk, Detective.
It's all right.
Let's go, Bishop.
I'm Claudia Williams, Assistant U.
S.
Attorney.
Are you all right, Mr.
Crowley? I'll be better when I smack a lawsuit on that guy's ass.
Did you see that? Well, you won't be dealing with Detective Bishop anymore.
Mr.
Crowley, do you still have custody of your daughter, Kerry? No, my ex-wife's got her.
Did you recently obtain a U.
S.
Passport for her? No.
I have an application you made to Immigration with your signature and I have an official copy of your daughter's birth certificate that you gave them along with this photograph.
This is not your daughter.
This is Mia Van Wagner.
Fraudulently obtaining a U.
S.
Passport is a serious offense, Mr.
Crowley.
And if you think the NYPD was tough on you, just wait until you start dealing with the Federal government.
I didn't kidnap her.
All I did was get her the passport and help her leave the country, which she wanted to do.
Who's in Prague? I don't know his name.
You trade kiddie porn with him.
Don't bother to deny it.
Customs is already searching your house.
He gave me five grand to help her.
He bought her the plane ticket, but I'm telling you, that girl went willingly.
Who's this girl? I've never seen her.
Her picture is on Meredith McGrath's computer.
I never heard of that woman.
Look, I didn't kill anybody, and I didn't force anybody to do anything.
I was helping.
Is that a crime? Crowley's wrong for the murder.
His prints don't match either scene.
I'm more worried about finding Mia Van Wagner.
Detective Stabler, how is it that you've never been issued a passport? Never needed one.
Why? Well, you do now.
Customs wants an SVU detective in Prague when they find the girl.
You can pick up your passport and plane ticket at Kennedy in two hours, assuming Captain Cragen is amenable to loaning you out.
Sounds like you better pack, Detective.
Detective Stabler? Yeah.
Kate Logan.
I'm the Europol officer assigned to this investigation.
Nice to meet you.
U.
S.
Customs will furnish you with a sidearm for the duration of your stay.
Do you speak Czech or German? A little Spanish.
Sorry.
Then you'll stick with me.
NYPD doesn't often dispatch their detectives to foreign countries to arrest a suspect.
Well, they do when the guy is a particular dirtbag.
Well, you'll find there's no shortage of those here.
Welcome to the Czech Republic.
Why is Europol so interested in Tassig? Czech Republic is not even an E.
U.
Member yet.
Both Europol and Interpol have independently suspected Erich Tassig of trafficking young girls from Eastern Europe to Germany and Austria.
Two years ago, he fled to the Czech Republic and he's been off our radar ever since, reinventing himself as this Internet entrepreneur.
Producing and distributing child pornography.
Likely, but we can't prove it.
All his work appears to be legitimate.
My specific interest? We almost had the bastard and he slipped through our fingers.
It won't happen again.
Detective, glad to have you aboard.
Mike Pearson, U.
S.
Customs attaché.
I'd like to give you a chance to sleep but we've had some developments since you left New York.
That's okay.
I came here to work.
What developments? Last night, the Czech police jumped the gun and raided Tassig's flat.
He and the girl are in the wind.
How did he know that we were onto them? Customs in D.
C.
Traced an e- mail from Tassig's ISP to a Samantha Gilligan in New York.
Samantha replied the next day.
That's Mia Van Wagner's friend.
She must have warned her.
Well, we've released this picture of Miss Van Wagner to the media.
Tip line goes to the Czech police, they'll contact us with anything legit.
How hard would it be for them to leave the country? Tassig won't try it.
He's got too much reason to stay.
Why? He's already got the girl.
I think you need a lesson on the child sex trade in the Czech Republic, Detective.
In some of these Czech border towns, the brothels outnumber the churches.
So every week, about 10,000 Germans come here because the prostitutes are half-price, because anything you want, you can get.
See those pink curtains there? Mmm-hmm.
They indicate that if you were so inclined and had 500 crowns, they'd give you a child under the age of 10 for 30 minutes.
That's $17 U.
S.
Blue curtains mean you'd get a boy.
Where do they get these children? Some are orphans, smuggled in from Romania and Bulgaria.
Eric Tassig isn't the only man profiting off the sale of children.
You don't do anything about it, huh? Europol has no authority over the Czech citizens.
As far as the Czech police, they have no incentive to stop it.
There's too much money to be made handing out parking tickets to the German tourists.
Look, this is the world that we live in, Detective Stabler.
I should think in your line of work, you'd understand that.
In my line of work, we wouldn't just sit back and take it.
That's very noble.
But as long as the demand for child exploitation exists, there's little we can do.
So what the hell are you doing here? It's my job.
What are you doing here? Excuse me.
Hello.
Yes.
All right, thanks.
We're on our way.
Detective, a credible tip just came in.
It's not far.
You've seen this girl? Yes, I've seen her.
Comes by every day.
Buys chocolate from me.
She with anyone? Alone mostly.
There was a man with her once or twice.
Not her father.
And how do you know that? The way he kisses her.
Have you seen her today? Not yet.
Then we wait.
Erich, I think somebody's following me.
Come on.
Where? Mia! Mia! Let's go.
Come on, run! Over here.
Come on.
Okay.
Mia! Mia, wait! Mia.
Erich! No! Let me go! I got you.
Erich, help me! I'm here to help you.
Please! I'm a police officer.
Please! Please! Please! Please! Where's Tassig? He's gone.
Stand up.
Stand up.
Okay.
You let him run.
I had two choices, get him or save the girl.
I thought Mia was more important.
You just took away Tassig's one reason to stay in this country.
He could be anywhere now.
So your solution is I should have just let her run away again? We would have had him in custody and we'd have eventually found Mia.
Eventually? And what? In the meantime, you just let a child wander around in a foreign city for a few days? What about the other child you're looking for, Detective Stabler? We forget about her now? Like I said, I made a choice.
We'll talk to Mia, she'll lead us to Tassig.
Mia has been terribly abused and won't admit it.
She thinks we are the enemy.
You expect her to help us? You know, I just figured out why you're so pissed off and you're right, it is easier to arrest the bad guy than it is to deal with the victim.
Why aren't you letting me leave? Because you're 14 years old and we have to protect you.
I don't need you to protect me.
That's Erich Tassig's job, right? Yes.
So, why'd he leave you behind? You think he loves you? I know he loves me.
And I love him and I don't care if you guys don't understand because it's true.
Mia, he's told that to so many other girls.
He's very charming.
You're a liar.
I'm not going to talk about it anymore.
He sells girls for sex.
Did you know that? Very young girls.
No, he doesn't.
Mia, we've seen the pictures.
What pictures? He made you do things.
He put drugs in your arm.
No, he didn't! So you wanted to do those things.
You wanted those pictures taken Stop it! Shut up.
You wanted them put on the Internet? What? Did you want them put on the Internet? That's how we found them.
That's not true, right? Mia, look, I'm sorry, but it's true and this guy is not who you think he is.
Erich Tassig is a criminal, he's a liar, he's a manipulator.
He won't protect you.
So don't sit here and protect him.
Oh, my God.
But you could get them back, right? I mean, nobody has to see them? We'll try.
Please.
Please? You can't let anybody You can't let my mom If we find Erich, then we'll know every place he's sent your pictures to.
We can destroy them and I promise you, we will.
Look, he's got this place where he works.
We'll talk to him at your precinct.
Americans? You are arresting people all across the globe these days? A pleasant benefit from terrorism? I'll never understand the pedophile's instinct to incriminate himself.
We found Tassig's Internet business with customers in New York, Virginia, Washington.
Business is booming.
The authorities in this country have a history of violating human rights.
That shouldn't be your concern, Mr.
Tassig.
You're not in Czech custody.
Because I have done nothing wrong.
You recorded yourself numerous times having sex with Mia Van Wagner.
This is a crime? The age of consent in this country is 15.
She's 14.
She told a lie.
That sucks for you.
Why? Was I forcing her on those tapes? No.
She loves me.
She wanted me.
Did she want these two guys also? Did she want that other girl? Mia has appetites like any of us.
She is an adventurous woman.
She's a 14-year-old girl that you drugged and photographed being raped.
That is a lie.
I am not a pornographer.
We have your computer equipment, Mr.
Tassig.
You run a child pornography website.
You're in possession of over a hundred thousand illegal images Why are you so obsessed with children? That is disgusting.
Your business is selling child rape videos and we're disgusting? I am trapping these people.
They buy from me and then I know who they are.
I'm doing your work.
Don't arrest me, arrest them.
If you're so innocent, Mr.
Tassig, why did you arrange to kidnap a child from America? Mia came to me by her own choice.
But I don't expect you to understand.
I understand.
I understand.
Who is she? Who's that girl? She is lovely.
I don't know her.
You have 50 pictures of her on your computer.
Did you photograph her? No! I am not a deviant.
I'm supposed to be afraid that the American detective will hurt me? You can't.
It is against your laws.
What did you just say to him? I merely reminded Mr.
Tassig that we were not in America.
So perhaps he'll be more inclined to cooperate and stop this ridiculous performance.
You need permission from this bitch? Come here What did you say to me? Huh? What do I need? All right.
This little girl.
Who is she? I don't know her.
I swear.
But I have seen her website.
What website? It has pictures and video of this girl.
It says her name is Amy.
That is all I know.
I swear.
We found the site in Tassig's computer.
It's called Amy's Little Secret.
You need a password to get on.
And for $29.
99 a month, you can buy one from another website, allowing you to access multiple pornography sites, adults and children.
They charge it to your credit card, it shows up as a subscription to a fly-fishing magazine.
How can we see what's on that? We use the ambassador's Amex and get our own password.
I already did it.
Pretty sick stuff.
Hundreds of images, all of the same girl.
Amy at age nine.
Amy, age five.
Age three.
Live webcast, twice a week.
Shut it off.
Can we trace the person uploading these images? All we can do is find the same e- mail that Detective Stabler had, this Nick2Shy guy.
We sent Tassig's computers on to this Customs CyberSmuggling unit in D.
C.
They may be able to tell us more.
The password company is taking money for the website.
They've got to know who's operating it.
According to the credit card charge, they're from your neck of the woods.
Outfit operating out of New York State.
Looks like you're going home, Detective.
Hey, welcome back.
Things turn out okay? Mia Van Wagner's back at home.
She's not too happy about it but she's got a long way to go.
I didn't expect to see you back at this department.
I'm supposed to take you down to the Federal Building.
Why? You won't believe what you started.
Customs put this together while you were on the plane.
Glad everyone's been keeping busy.
Congratulations, Detective.
All this from Tassig's computers, huh? Customs found financial records showing payments from a company called Private-Code, the same password company that they used on the Amy website.
We traced it to a residence in Westchester.
What are the payments for? Private-Code sells the passwords.
Tassig gets a cut of the profits.
Up to 25 grand a month.
And how many people are we talking about? Preliminary search found 15 child porn sites all on Private-Code's payroll in three different countries, over 400,000 individual images.
Who knows how many subscribers.
Private-Code's only a middleman.
Who will lead us to the producers and the distributors and the consumers.
We're busting 17 producers in the Tri-State Area alone.
You've opened Pandora's box, detectives.
This is huge.
So I see.
With the FBI, Customs, the local PDs.
Looks like you got it covered.
We do.
I just thought you'd want to be there when we take the bastards out.
Let's move.
United States Customs service, we have a warrant to search the premises.
Police! Drop everything! Let me see your hands! This is private property.
No, this is destroying the evidence that you pay people to molest children.
We only sell passwords.
We don't know what people put on their website.
What are you telling me, lady? That you don't know what the website child-dot-rape's all about? Shut up.
What's the story? Unbelievable.
This is even bigger than the Feds thought.
Company grossed 15 mil in the past fiscal year alone.
For selling a $30 password? How many subscribers they got? Last count, 300,000 accessing more than a hundred child porn sites in 20 countries.
What else have you got on the subscribers? Everything.
They keep immaculate records.
Bank accounts, checking accounts, credit cards, e - mail address, home address.
Already found 60 in Manhattan, Detective.
You guys are going to be busy.
How hard would it be to look up one of these guy's e - mail addresses? Just a simple word search.
Nick2Shy, Wiremail account.
Name's Nicholas Taylor.
No address listed.
However, I've got a MasterCard and Visa account.
Bills got to go somewhere.
Print that out.
Are you Amy? Hi, I'm Elliot.
I'm a policeman.
Is your dad home? He's upstairs, sleeping.
Where's your policeman clothes? Well, I'll tell you what, will my policeman's badge do? Why don't you take it while I talk to your dad? Please, sweetheart.
You can hang out here with my good friend, Sam.
He's a cop, too.
What do you say? Will you do that for me? Can I get a glass of water? Which way's the kitchen? Go ahead.
You're under arrest.
Get dressed.
Where's my daughter? Where's Amy? Where's your daughter? Like you give a damn.
Now, get dressed.
Your prints were at the scene of Meredith McGrath's murder.
And your prints were at the scene of Roger McGrath's murder.
Okay.
Let's get Cabot down here.
We're ready to deal.
You think you can get a deal out of her on two murders and prolonged child abuse? Good luck.
It's not going to make a difference once the Feds get you, anyway.
I don't abuse my daughter.
Yeah, you do.
Since before she was able to walk.
So you say.
So your website says, genius.
That's why you killed the McGraths, isn't it? She knew what you were doing.
You had to protect your secret.
She misrepresented herself.
Yeah.
Pretending to be as disgusting as you.
She betrayed me.
You betrayed your daughter.
I did not.
I love Amy more than you'll ever realize.
And I'm not going to feel bad just because you're telling me I should.
That's enough.
This interview is over.
Detectives Society says I'm wrong.
But not long ago, society said interracial marriage was wrong, too.
Not long ago, society executed homosexuals.
Did you hear that? Now, that is a classic.
It's the pedophile's justification for why he's not the pervert we know he is.
I used to think I was alone.
I'm not.
There are hundreds of thousands of people just like me.
Maybe millions.
You mean your buddies on the Internet? You're right.
And you freaks will never be alone in prison.
Ever think that maybe you're the minority? Ever think that maybe you're the freaks? Go ahead, arrest us, persecute us.
We're not going away.
We're not going to play by your rules and nothing you can do will ever change that.
Another round.
I'm buying.
No, I've got to get home.
I've got to make sure my kids remember what I look like.
Yeah? How many you got? Four.
They why you do this job? They're part of it.
I guess I can see what you get out of it.
All those guys you put away, who knows how many more kids they would've hurt.
Tough gig, though, huh? Really got to love it.
No.
You've got to hate it.
It's the only way you'll be any good at it.