Matt,+Jacob,+Emily,+Zach,+Atsi,+David

One particular dusky Saturday evening the air was crisp, and the sounds of Yellow Warblers and Chipping Sparrows filled the slumbering homes of Porter’s Town. Lizzy James felt a dark sense of foreboding creeping up in her chest. Her trepid hands shook as she picked up the phone, with each button slipping her fingertips as she tried to call the cops. She counted down the minutes; the second hand on the clock slowed down as she stared at it. Her foot seemed to find a comfortable rhythm on the hardwood floor, each and every moment greeted by a //tap tap tap//. A photograph of Lizzy and Henry stood on the mantle by the fireplace. Lizzy took a liking to that photograph, it had been when the two had gone skiing in Hiemensburg a few months back. A few minutes after Lizzy got off the phone with the cops, the doorbell rang, breaking her fixation on the clock. She walked towards the door, where she was greeted by two cops who came to further question her about the reported disappearance of her husband, Henry. As she tried to elucidate Henry’s situation to the two gruff yet eerily genial gentleman, that he had not come home from work, she immediately felt as if the two men did not believe her. Lizzy once again felt comfort in the tapping of her feet on the cool floor, //tap tap tap//. They continued to question where Lizzy was on the night of the kidnapping and found that her alibi had holes in it. It was not only the pulsation in her voice. She contradicted herself in her retelling and would have to be considered as a possible suspect, but they thanked her for her information on Henry’s disappearance and left her home. Over the course of the next few days the cops continued to search for Henry, but while they were searching for him they found that every possible lead came to a loose end. While they stood discussing what could have possibly happened, they came to the conclusion that they would need to question Lizzy more on her alibi. Knowing they would have a limited amount of time, they went straight to the James’s home. The interior of the James’ home seemed destitute with ripped furniture, old carpeting, and unhinged doors. There were also footsteps throughout the house, but they were so dim that it was impossible to see them clearly. Surprisingly many of the cabinets were completely desolate, and some of the lights, especially in the dining room would flicker from time to time. While they stood outside her home they thought they heard sounds coming from inside, but while they continued to listen one of the sounds died out, so the cops assumed it had been the television. They knocked on her door and asked Lizzy if they could talk more about what had happened. While they questioned Lizzy more, they realized how after they asked a question she would answer automatically, as if it had been rehearsed. This made them even more suspicious about the disappearance. But the strangest concept, the disappearance of Henry, seemed the most suspicious after Lizzie’s questioning Could there have been someone else involved in this whole shenanigan? The police continued to speculate. That Tuesday morning at around 11:00 a.m. Lizzy heard a knock on her door. As she approached the door her heart began to race. //Tap tap tap.// When she opened the door she found the two cops from the previous day standing before her. She knew an issue was at hand with the inquisitive countenance that was stricken on their faces. So when they came in she took a seat to hear what they had to say. They explained to her that a body had been found about 10 miles south of her home, and from the description she gave them of Henry, they thought the body could be his. They told her she would need to come down to the morgue to ID the body just to be sure. Later that day Lizzy, malcontented and irreverently broken, went to the morgue. When she entered the the room and saw the body, a feeling of sickness and dizziness overtook her. As she examined the corpse she saw her husband’s short blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and beautiful face vandalized with his own blood. Distraught with the thought of losing her husband, she made the final statement that the man lying dead by a gunshot was her husband. While standing in the homicide department she overheard the cops speaking of evidence that had been found on the body. She heard them say that a gun was found next to the body with fingerprints on the gun that matched Henry’s, so they concluded that it was likely to be a suicide. Regardless after standing there for so long the cops knew that Lizzy could not have been involved in the murder, which opened even more possibilities of what could have happened. What had caused Henry to pull the trigger? Throughout the day as the cops continued to discuss the situation, Lizzy sat in her home wondering what could have happened to cause something this horrible. The next day when Lizzy woke up around noon she went to her kitchen table where she sat and let her mind wander on the events that occurred the previous day. She was soon awakened when she heard a car approach her home, she moved quietly and slowly to her window to see who was there. With a nervous emotion on her face she soon realized that it was only the mailman dropping off her mail. As her emotions dropped she went to the mailbox to find a large envelope, which was a letter from the bank. When she opened the envelope she found that she was holding something they needed, her husband’s life insurance money. As she embraced the check she felt relieved, until she remembered that her husband was dead. Regardless of her current emotional status she took the check to the bank to find the money was just enough to clear the debt on the James’ name, but it was not enough to bring Henry back. That evening when Lizzy arrived home from the bank she felt as if her life was over, since the only thing that had kept her going was her husband. She wanted so badly to see him again, and she knew that now there was only one way to do it. Around midnight that evening not even a whisper rang through the James’s home. A man with short blonde hair and deep blue eyes walked through the house to find Lizzy lying in her bed. He ran to the body, but alas, it was too late, she had died. He searched the room to see what had happened and found an open bottle of pills next to the bed. Overcome with emotion he approached the bottle and only saw one solution. He grabbed a handful of the pills and swallowed them. He laid down in the bed next to Lizzy. A sudden iron bolt ripped through his stomach. The last thing he would remember would be the warm embrace of her hand.

So, dear reader. Riddle me this... Who was this man that came to the house, and what circumstances led to his death? Hired Or Fired Report

Captain Barra:

Today, we’re faced with an interesting case of a dead husband and wife as well as a dead sibling. The question is, who killed whom? Why were they killed? In what manner were the victims killed? The evidence states one thing, however, my gut says another. Based on the interviews with Lizzy, it seemed originally that she had caused the disappearance of her husband because of her automatic and seemingly rehearsed answers to various questions. After evan James’s body was discovered, my initial suspicion was that it was her who had killed him, or at least arranged for it. However, after the conversation and subsequent examination of that day, it was clear she was not guilty of murder. In examining the evidence, we have three dead bodies, two of which look exactly alike. These two bodies are twin brothers; Henry and Evan James. The third body was Henry’s wife Lizzy. Now, from Lizzy’s emotional reaction during the examination, it is likely that when Lizzy first saw evan’s dead body, she thought it was her husband Henry because it looked very much like him. Someone who knows a person has a twin brother is likely to make an effort to distinguish the two, especially in this case. Because of this, I think she was not able to distinguish one twin from another because Lizzy never knew that Henry had a twin brother, and she mistakenly took the death of the twin to be her husband’s. Now, since she never knew that Henry had a twin, she believed that Evan was in fact Henry and she believed that she had lost her husband. As is sometimes the case with disappearances such as Henry’s, my first thought was insurance fraud. Looking into their financial situation, I discovered that the James’ were deeply in debt, and Henry’s life insurance payment, sitting on the table, was just enough to cover it. Another thing that led me to believe this was the fact that Lizzy and Henry were both found in the same room, with moderate intervals between their times of death. A couple who becomes separated are likely to have agreed on a location (and date in this case) to meet back up. If Lizzy and Henry had planned to stage Henry’s disappearance, it is likely they had agreed to meet on a specified date and location, but Lizzy did not show up and Henry went home to check on her. When he found her lying dead in the bed, it is probable that he killed himself as well because a person who loses his/her spouse to suicide it likely to become extremely depressed, and attempt to commit suicide as well. Due to the given information, it is safe to assume that Lizzy had a plan set in motion with her husband about collecting the life insurance money, after which they would clear their debts and flee. However, after Evan’s body was discovered, Lizzy thought that it was her husband’s body instead and went into shock, realizing that her intentions had gone awry. She didn’t know how he could have died, or who had done it, but she knew one thing for certain. She knew that she couldn’t live without him. Lizzy knew that she needed to do something so in the end, she killed herself so she could be with her husband, not knowing that he was not really dead. When Henry later came home that night, and saw Lizzy laying there with a bottle of pills that were open, he realized what had happened and took the pills to, quite precisely, be with her.