Trace Lambert is a serial killer and kidnapper who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of high-risk women and his own girlfriend.
Background[]
Lambert worked for a carnival that traveled the Eastern Seaboard, which his overbearing mother Maggie disapproved of since she always saw him as a "loser". In one trip, he met a young woman, Meredith Hart, who became his girlfriend, but she broke up with him. This caused him to act on his psychopathic tendencies. He pretended to be a buyer for an apartment building and when the super was not looking, Lambert poisoned his tea, making the death look like a heart attack. With the owner dead, Lambert now had space to act out his fantasies. Gathering the supplies from the local stores, Lambert began his hunt.
He killed his girlfriend after torturing and raping her for days, and as mentioned by him, she kept begging him to stop. Feeling a rush from the killings, Lambert would kidnap women, usually prostitutes or drifters who he felt would not be missed. Torturing and murdering them the same way, he would keep their mummified bodies in the abandoned apartment building, if not dispose of them outright. Lambert would conduct extensive mutilations on the women even after they died, including eviscerating them and stuffing their remains with their own clothing. Unknown to him, a local kid named Jamal would pass by and see his pick-up truck, but the young boy mistook Lambert as a "vampire" because of him only emerging at night.
They'd Already Disappeared[]
Manhattan Special Victims Unit started investigating after Daria Cruz's sister Tania called her, saying she'd been raped. Tanya then screamed, and Lambert taunted both of the sisters before hanging up. Tracking missing persons revealed numerous other disregarded missing women who were uncanny to Tanya and her friend, Beauty Hanley, revealing the presence of a serial killer. Country Jones was briefly suspected, as he had the same kind of cutlery used on the women, and he drove them to Lambert's hideout. The team found the location of the abandoned building and more women's remains, putting out an reward on TV for help in finding the killer. The theory of a serial killer was further strengthened when a local boy told Velasco and Rollins that "a vampire" had been going into that building at night for some time. Realizing his domain was compromised, Lambert decided to lay low for the time being. Lambert was eventually tracked down after Meredith's son Jack Hart, who is on the autism spectrum, gives SVU the details of his truck and what day his mother were missing.
He was arrested by Rollins and Velasco at his mother's house. Despite his mother pleading, he leaves with Rollins and Velasco, confident that he will not be charged. Lambert was interrogated by Fin and Rollins, but he didn't crack. When finding out just how little esteem Maggie held Lambert to, Benson heard more form her and used that degradation in interrogation to get him to confess to the murders. She played on his ego and made it seem as if she did not know he was the killer who she called very intelligent to be able to elude the detectives. Driven to implicate himself, Lambert confessed to the murders by identifying each girl and their torture, lividly lambasting the police for interrupting and stopping his and relishing in every detail he conveyed, including Meredith's suffering and Maggie about to know everything too.
Afterwards, Lambert was charged and imprisoned for life. Fin also stated the FBI was looking into any other killings that Lambert may have committed across the Eastern Seaboard due to his travels with the carnival. Fin also says that if Lambert was connected to the murders, the feds were willing to push for the death penalty.