 Munch is affected by the death of a young girl who lived near him when he was a teenager; he feels guilty for not noticing that she was being abused by her mother, who eventually killed her, despite seeing the girl every day when he came home from school.In the 14th-season "SVU" episode "Twenty-Five Acts", it is mentioned that Munch's mother is living in a retirement community.During the late 1960s and the early 1970s, he was an occasional reporter and music reviewer for the alternative magazine "The Paper".