Dawn Grant (Emily Rutherfurd) is the villainess of "The Mystery of the Dodgy Draft", episode 1.19 of The Mysteries of Laura (airdate April 22, 2015). In her youth, Dawn was an NBA cheerleader and had become engaged to three players, but none of the relationships succeeded or led to marriage. Later in life, Dawn began pressuring her daughter, Sara Shaw, to follow in her footsteps to become a cheerleader and later a "trophy wife". She even went as far as to persuade Sara to turn down a science scholarship to Cornell to pursue cheerleading at Fieldston, where she got a job as the cheer coach to continue pursuing her self-centered goal.
At Fieldston, Sara began a relationship with up-and-coming basketball player Marco Williams, which Dawn saw as her plan succeeding. But when when learned that Marco maintained a friendship with his ex-girlfriend, Triva Forster, Dawn saw her as a threat to her daughter's future and decided to take action. After stealing a taser gun from Coach Al Stinz (him having confiscated it from a player), Dawn followed Marco to the Botanical Gardens, where Marco was meeting with Triva to talk. After Marco left, the evil Dawn attacked Triva with the taser, zapping her in the neck. This resulted in Triva falling back and striking her head on a rock, killing her. Afterwards, Dawn fled the area and disposed of the taser in a hot dog cart.
When Laura Diamond and her other detectives began investigating Triva's murder, they began to suspect Sara of killing Triva out of jealousy after realizing the white powder they had found on Triva's body was chalk resin the cheerleaders used on their hands. But after interrogating the meek Sara and uncovering her mother's selfishness, Laura came to believe Dawn was the true murderer. Dawn's guilt was definitively proven when security footage was found of her disposing of the taser gun, which was later recovered by Laura and Frankie Pulaski. The two women then confronted Dawn, who had come to the station to bring Sara to the game, calling her out on her callous treatment of her daughter and revealing how her fingerprints had been preserved on the taser from being soaked in salty water. Dawn confessed to her fatal assault on Triva, claiming she had only been trying to scare her away from Marco and that her death was accidental. Dawn was promptly taken into custody.
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