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__**Whodunit?**__

Anthony Lynch, a 17-year-old junior, had clinically diagnosed depression, was often violent, and had a track record of fights. Anyone who saw and met Lynch understood immediately that he was unstable. With his grades plummeting, Lynch became a frequent visitor of Miss Penelope Penn, the school psychologist. Penn’s records of their counseling sessions show that Lynch often complained about verbal abuse from Mr. Tim Shepard and even promised to get him fired.

Last evening, the janitor called the police and exclaimed that a boy had hung himself from the rafters of Miss Penn’s office at the high school. When he first opened the door, the janitor saw the scene above.

The police identified the body as Anthony Lynch. While searching the room, the police found a sloppy suicide note lying on the teacher’s desk. It read exactly:

I’m sorry Pa and Ma. I did not want you to see me like this. I can’t handle my life anymore. I have no use in this world. Everything I do and say is ridiculed and made fun of. Please forgive me for the torture I put you through. I was never going to succeed anyway and I should have known that. I’m sorry for everything and this is the only way out. Goodbye Pa and Ma.

Well detective, what do you say? Is this just a sad suicide or something more devious? Argue your case.

__Hired or Fired Report__

Capt. Barra:

We’re confronted by the difficult case of what seems to be a teen suicide; however several issues don’t add up, and from my experience in the field I have feeling there has been some foul play involved. Most suicides are cold, clean, and simple but this is most definitely not the case. There is strong evidence that suggests against this. Penelope Penn and Mr. Shephard should be further investigated.

For starters, a problem with this scenario is the vertical distance Lynch is hanging from Mrs. Penn’s desk and the tidiness of her desk. An individual who commits suicide through hanging needs some means of vertical escalation and is likely to violently kick or thrash about while being suffocated. The crime scene depicts no means of which Anthony could have achieved his vertical height before hanging himself and If Anthony had somehow thrusted himself off the desk it is likely he would have at least knocked over the flowers on Mrs. Penn’s desk while swinging about. Which would suggest Lynch did not hang himself alone.

Additionally, from close inspection of the crime scene there is a peculiar bracelet on Lynch’s wrist and an empty box labeled EP. It is possible that these two items are closely correlated. EP could possibly stand for epipen which suggest some severe allergy, which would be supported by the bracelet on Lynch’s wrist if it were perhaps actually a medical bracelet of some sort. An individual with a severe allergy with a missing epipen is likely to succumb to some fatal accident. If this is related to the cookies on the desk, this may provide an alternate means of death as Anthony Lynch could have died from an allergic reaction.

Yet if this was a murder, there would need to be a motive. On Mrs. Penn’s desk is a Vase with flowers tagged with the letters S. This S could perhaps stand for Shephard and could perhaps be from Shephard. A vase of flowers from an individual to another individual would suggest a relationship of some sort. Mr. Shephard and Mrs. Penn could be linked in such a way, and if motivated to a certain degree, such as fearing for the stability of a spouse’s occupation, an individual might be compelled to take drastic action.

Could it be that Miss. Penn and Mr. Shephard aren’t telling the truth about what their sides to this tragic ending to a boy’s life really is? We need to delve deeper into the accounts and whereabouts of these two suspects before any conclusions can be made about Anthony Lynch.