Law & Order · S12, E16
Born Again
Paula Weston is found dead near the swings in Central Park. A joint is found near the body, and the police suspect she's the victim of foul play. Her grieving mother Janet (Wendy Makkena), who reported her missing, says she could have been trying to sneak across the park to visit her friend Alice Danielson (Bailey Slattery), but Alice says she had no plans to see Paula. The joint, it turns out, belonged to some students on a nighttime field trip to the planetarium. The kids snuck away from the group and admit they found Paula in the park, but claim she was already dead. They say they didn't call the cops because they didn't want to get in trouble for sneaking off and doing drugs. Meanwhile, Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) question Janet's ex-husband, who says that Paula was not his child.
