This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
- The 1964 Kitty Genovese case. This was the first widely known example of what came to be known as "the bystander effect." Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old woman who was stabbed in front of her apartment in the early hours of March 13, 1964. The Times reported erroneously that she was stabbed within sight or earshot of 38 witnesses, none of whom tried to stop her attacker. Lacking a central number numerous calls to police were reported only a dozen had seen or heard part of the attack and none saw it in it's entirety. Most believed it to be a domestic quarrel or drunken brawl, not a murder. In 2016 the Times apologized for it's flawed and grossly exaggerated report in 1964. Ten years later the term "bystander effect" was coined after 25-year-old Sandra Zahler was beaten to death on Christmas morning in her apartment overlooking the site of the Kitty Genovese murder. Only one neighbor reported hearing screams and sounds of a struggle at 3:20am but failed to do anything to help, believing the building superintendent would investigate, however the superintendent was not due to visiting family for Christmas Eve. The body was discovered by her boyfriend at 2pm the next day.
- The Matias Reyes (a.k.a. "The East Side Slasher") case.
Talia Balsam (Teri Marks) previously played the role of Turner in Consultation (1992) (episode 3.10).