Dallas Griffin, nephew of attorney Jessica Griffin, transferred to the Oakdale police department from Chicago and immediately came face to face with one of his first cases. Looking for his Aunt Jessica at the Hughes's house, Dallas unexpectedly came across a teenaged Maddie Coleman, a Chicago rape victim from a year earlier. Upon seeing Dallas, Maddie became defensive and accused him of following her. Dallas assured her that his presence at the Hughes's house (where she was staying) was a coincidence. He then began talking about what happened to her the previous year. Dallas knew Maddie didn't reveal the whole truth about her rape and was holding something back. Maddie angrily denied it, and then hurried off. From that moment, Maddie began acting oddly, distancing herself from her boyfriend, Casey Hughes, and finally acting out by slashing Lia McDermott's car in a jealous rage. Questioned at the police station, Maddie confessed that, while living with her sister, Eve, and her husband, Louis, in Chicago, she had snuck out to go to a college frat party where she was raped. She went to the hospital which was where Dallas found her. Meanwhile, Lia was found murdered and, since Maddie had no alibi or no memory of where she was, she became prime suspect # 1. Soon after, another teenager was found dead and suspicion again fell on Maddie. A week later, Maddie was attacked by a masked person but the detective in charge of the case, Margo Hughes, wondered if an unstable Maddie set up the attack to throw suspicion off herself. Other masked attacks followed, putting more suspicion on Maddie. Though Margo remained certain that Maddie had snapped and was committing these acts, Dallas wasn't so sure and asked his aunt to defend Maddie.

Meanwhile, every time Dallas tried to get Maddie to tell him the whole truth about what happened in Chicago, she refused. Since Margo believed the murders were connected to Maddie's rape, Dallas went back to Chicago to see if he could find out the truth about what happened to Maddie. In Chicago, he discovered that Maddie had lied—there was no frat party the night Maddie was raped. In the meantime, Maddie's brother-in-law, Louis arrived in town and immediately clashed with her brother, Henry. Finally, Maddie admitted to Henry that she lied about the frat party—she was raped by Louis. Henry informed Margo who realized she was wrong about Maddie. Suddenly a new suspect was in view—Louis. Though Dallas berated himself for not realizing Maddie had been raped by a family member, Jessica assured him that he was a good cop. Not long after, a number of teenagers were stabbed at Raven Lake. When the police rushed to the site, it was discovered that the murderer was Maddie's older sister, Eve. Eve blamed Maddie for Louis's obsession and committed the murders to send Maddie away to jail.