Isabel Hoyt is a character in the third season of True Detective. She is the only daughter of Millionaire Edward Hoyt, owner of the Hoyt Food Corporation and his wife Ellen. She is portrayed by Lauren Sweetser.
History[]
After Ellen dies due to an illness, Isabel is raised primarily by the Hoyt family servants Junius Watts and Regina. When Isabel grows up she attended college and meets the man who would later become her husband. The two have a daughter named Mary. Years later in 1977 Mary and her father are killed in a car crash, leading Isabel into a deep depression. She begins taking lithium as an anti-depressant. Edward Hoyt begins to travel, as he can't stand to see his daughter so sad. One night she wrecks a car in a failed suicide attempt. Patrolman Harris James picks her up and helps the Hoyt family cover up the accident.
Later at the Hoyt company picnic Isabel notices Julie Purcell, the daughter of plant worker Lucy Purcell. Julie's resemblance of Mary causes Isabel to become obsessed with her and wants to meet and play with her. Junius Watts pulls Lucy aside to arrange the playdates. Lucy agrees for money and under the condition that her son Will, Julie's brother also plays with them. Julie and Will's father Tom is unaware of the arrangement and is told that the kids are meeting classmates when they go out to play with Isabel. Julie and Will meet up with Isabel and Junius in the forest within Devil's Den. Isabel buys toys for the kids to play with, Barbie dolls and boardgames. Junius purchases several homemade straw dolls at a church fundraiser from Patty Faber. On Halloween Isabel and Junius dress up as ghosts and meet Julie and Will while they are out trick or treating. They give Julie and Will the straw dolls while they are separated from their friends'. Isabel starts to feel better after playing with the kids for a while, but she stops taking her lithium tablets and begins to get confused, and as a result starts calling Julie by Mary's name.
Isabel then has the idea of adopting Julie. Seeing that her family's wealth and resources could provide a better life for her. On November 7th 1980, the day Steve McQueen died, Will and Julie ride their bike's out to Devil's Den to meet Isabel and Junius. The group starts playing hide and seek. As Will searches them out Isabel has her own plans and tries to take Julie back home to the Hoyt estate. Will finds them before they leave and tries to pull Julie away from Isabel, Isabel pushes Will down causing him to hit is head on the rocks and die from the injury. Junius tells Julie that Will was just passed out, they take him up to a cave and lay him down. Julie folds his hands mimicking his baptism portrait and drops the straw dolls nearby. Isabel and Junius take Julie back to the Hoyt mansion. They set up a pink bedroom in the basement of the Hoyt mansion that is restricted to the rest of the staff, apart from Junius.
Over the next ten years Julie lives a happy life with Isabel. Isabel begins to tell Julie stories making Julie believe that she is Isabel's daughter Mary, later calling herself Mary July. However Isabel was feeding Julie lithium the whole time to keep her calm and easy to influence. Isabel gets sicker and sicker without her medicine and Julie begins to forget about her previous family and her brother. As Julie grows up her memories start to come back to her and Junius realizes what was going on and plans to help Julie runaway. One night while Isabel is taking a bath Junius leaves the basement door unlocked and draws a map with instructions for where Julie will meet him, however she fails to show up and is not seen until her finger prints show up at a Walgreens in Oklahoma that had been robbed.
When Isabel realizes Julie is gone she has another breakdown. She puts on her wedding dress and takes all of her lithium pills at once causing her to overdose in her sleep, ending her life for good.
After Isabel's death, Harris James is killed by Wayne Hayes and Roland West. Edward Hoyt discusses the situation with Hayes, though still in the dark about Isabel's actions. The two then make an arrangement that Hayes will leave Julie alone and Hoyt will stay quiet about Harris James. 25 years later Wayne and Roland discover the truth about Julie and Isabel after tracking down Junius Watts.