Realistic or Modern Open Investigation

[Dragongal]

In the old days, departments used to hire a painter to come in and apply the black lettering onto the frosted glass windows of office doors. Nowadays, they just put a removable nameplate on a slot on the door and left it at that. It was such a shame; didn't have the same flare and decorum, but then again, it was probably reflective of the high turnover rates, Erolith figured as he watched the office door swing open. An officer walked in, manila folder in hand, "Hope we aren't keeping you too busy, Kolchak," he chuckled.

"On the contrary, I agreed to consult for your office because I was bored." Erolith smirked and took the file, tipping his head to the side, "Ah - homicide?" Steel blue eyes traced up to the officer, only because they'd had this conversation before. Cold cases, missing persons, or 'unsolvable' homicides only - so far he hadn't heard of anything 'unsolvable' within the last week.

"It's a cold case detective, don't worry."

Erolith grinned, "Now that's more my style."

 

[smitty]

The case file sat unopened for only a minute, but when opened it revealed around 10 documents. Most were reports from cops about the scene, a good majority even, detailing what had been left. There were about 3 papers detailing the events, all from now older and reputable police officers.

The first detailed the scene, listed as written by 'Officer Cuther Nathye'. The report reads as follows ;

' Jane Doe found underneath the Interstate-67-B underpass on January 23rd, XXXX at 3:14 AM. Passerby and witness, [ SIGE NOVERA ], reported smelling something rotten while walking to a nearby store. On the way back, Mr. Novera opted to check out the source of the smell, discovering the body laying face down on an assortment of blue tarps. The witness reported calling the cops as soon as he realized that it was a body, calling in at 3:02 AM. Police arrived on the scene.

When police arrived, Mr. Novera began explaining what had occured. Wanting a snack at a late hour, he left his home at around 2:30, coming up on the body the first time around without realizing at 2:45. As he walked back, at around 2:56, he grew curious of the smell and checked the source. The witness described the body as 'broken' on the call with a 911 operator, hysterical and crying. As he was questioned by other police, he seemed to calm down, though he was still disturbed by the scene. [ Taken to the police station, unable to question further. ]'

The report from here on out only describes the surrounding scene around the body, what stores were open and what the store owners had to say. Despite the close proximity to shops that were open for 24 hours, none of the store owners claim to have seen anything. The list includes 2 shop owners who were described as 'cagey' and 'snippy' with officers, though a small post-it note rests over the face of one. The note simply reads 'missing'.

The next few reports were filled with police interrogations, though none truly offered anything useful. Mr. Novera's interrogation led to nothing, even noted by 2 other officers that he seemed 'incredibly open' and 'willing to help the investigation however he can'. The reports from the 2 shop owners are filled with dead ends and brick-walls, all questions answered with an 'I don't know' and profanties towards officers. The shop owner that had gone missing, [ GARE FORRESTER ], specifically was inflammatory. He insulted every officer on the scene, shouted at them to 'leave him the fuck alone before he loses it', and proceeded to slam the door and close his shop. Despite this attitude and the proximity to the crime, no judge was willing to put a warrant out to allow the officers into the building and to interrogate Mr. Forrester.

After those reports, there was an on-scene report on the scene. The report explains how the woman was found, detailing her clothing being otherwise pristine aside from blood seeping from the injuries she had sustained. There was no sign of the clothing being tattered or ripped despite the injuries on the woman, and the blood was in far smaller amounts than indicated by how large the injuries were. Her body was also laying in, as officers describe, a 'manner implying she was placed, rather than randomly thrown down'. Her body is described as 'laying on the stomach, with her hands pulled under her body in a praying position, while her legs are tightly pulled together, in a tip-toe position.' The report then continues to talk about the tarp, and just like the clothes, it was pristine outside of blood. There was no dirt, no litter, and no implications that an animal had been near the body. The report finishes with this fact, stressing that the entire scene was far too pristine.

The final report comes in as an autopsy report. The report reads as follows ;

[ Pathologist name: [ DOCTOR BERTIO NANIM ]
Patient : JANE DOE
Age : Mid-to-late 30's
Race : Human

Cause of death : Suffocation
Injuries : Several cuts along the back of thighs and chest. Bruising implying grabbing on wrists, ankles, and throat. Bruising on throat implying strangulation. Small branding mark on inner thigh, unable to tell what it's meant to say or look like. Missing 2 teeth, central inscisor and 3rd molar.
Extras : Tattoo on wrist ; '813'.

Drug Analysis : Propofol in large amounts, seemingly long-term use. No other drugs found.]

The rest of the report details the injuries in more detail, including the branding mark. The image of the branding mark makes it more obvious on why the doctor could not make it out, the lines were blurred and roughly done. The doctor noted it as 'made while Doe was moving', and with that, the doctor notes that it's quite old. Dr. Nanim continues to say that, with the amount of Propofol in their blood, Jane Doe was more than likely completely unaware of what was going on in her last few hours of life. With this, he notes the decomposition of the body, mixed with how it was found in the cold, that Jane Doe could have died between January 19th to the 23rd. Dr. Nanim then implies that with the tarp being clean and the blood seeping through the clothes, his personal opinion led to the 22nd and 23rd.

Finishing the report from Dr. Nanim finished the file, outside of a few small images and notes mixed in.

 

[Dragongal]

Erolith read through the file, tipping his head to the side in interest as he went. Good, a tricky one, it was about time. He laid out the images on his desk and looked them all over slowly, taking in the images and looking for the slightest inconsistencies. Hadn't he been in that neighborhood before? Likely so, he was 117 and had lived in this city for ages, but he'd never paid attention to the path going under this bridge.

He looked over the files again. There were a lot of details here that could easily get missed. The main leads were clear though - this woman had history, and Forrester was, most likely, connected. At this point, Erolith did not suspect him of killing her - the crime scene was too pristine. There was that word again, 'pristine'. That always meant it was going to be a troublesome case. So current assumption, Forrester didn't kill her, but he may have known her or known of her. If this had to do with drugs as Erolith had a slight suspicion of, it would make sense Forrester could be connected. But her body was placed so nicely... whether she was involved in the drug trade somehow or not, this murder was its own event, not just some hit.

He needed to find the original crime scene, where she was actually murdered, then taken from. Nothing could be proven without a scene. It was a simplification he liked to utilize: suspects were great if they could lead to a crime scene. Forget motive, anyone could have motive to kill someone, crime scene included means and opportunity and both were essential.

He sat up straight in his chair, twirling his pen to click it against the desk, and pulled over a black spiral-bound notebook from a stack of similar notebooks on his desk. He grabbed another pen, then another, holding them all between his fingers as he looked at the images in front of him again.

Erolith leaned close, eyes on the images as he scribbled with a blue pen: placing implies care taken for her body - cult, emotional connection, or remorse? Face down. Eyes closed/open? Branding, lack of identifiers, long use of Propofol denotes possible trafficking - trafficker/trafficked? If jail time in this country, DNA would have matched her identity. Out of country jail time? Ankle bruising could denote being bound, but no commentary on if there are the indicative marks.

With a red pen: magics report? Not likely much magic was used, but not impossible.

Orange pen: similar positioning? Copycat? Research. Maybe he'd put a novice detective on the researching part for him - but could they be trusted to get all the details? All the little details?

Green pen: how much light is at the site? How easy is access? She was transported there, after all, he knew that much. She wasn't small, and the tarp was large, so someone couldn't have dragged her very far. The pristine-ness of the scene couldn't be from dragging her, this was careful.

Purple pen: find out more about Novera, full background check past and current. What was he doing out that late? He had his excuse, but there was something suspicious about a witness who was losing it over the phone, notably upset afterwards, and then 'couldn't be interviewed'. Erolith scoffed, if he'd been there he would have at least written more than 'couldn't be interviewed', there was so much you could read from someone before they even spoke - not that that was submissible in court.

Black ink: - Find out where Forrester is (when did he go missing), find out about 813, go to location body was found

Erolith closed the notebook and stood up to grab his trench coat. Time to go to delegate some work, and go to the scene where the body was found.