When a new body washes up on his beach burial ground, imprisoned serial killer Dr. Gregory Yates  points Amanda to a mummified murder victim in a townhouse. He says the culprit is his old friend Carl Rudnick, the deputy chief medical examiner. After Yates's girlfriend tells Benson she has incriminating evidence, Rudnick kills and dismembers her, then flees dressed as a woman.

Rollins and Carisi capture the doctor, who hires both Calhoun and  Buchanan to defend him. Barba fears Rudnick's improbable self-defense claim is working with the jury, but Sonny uncovers video of the suspect saying the wrong things while talking to himself. Meanwhile, Rollins learns she's pregnant.

We're talking about the Special Victims Unit two-part season seventeen opener, episode one "Devil's Dissections" and episode two "Criminal Pathology."* Our guest is Lauren van der Meer from the Drinks with Death podcast.

Some plot points are taken from the Long Island Serial Killer case.

*Note: some streaming services list this as a single episode.

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