8th Annual Murder Mystery Weekend
“Maid for Murder”
April 8-9, 2017
A mysterious and beautiful young woman comes to town and takes a job as a maid in a local hotel. She rents a cottage on the outskirts of town and keeps to herself though many of the men try to flirt with her. When she is found dead people figure it had to be someone from her past (a hotel guest?) but was it?
SOLUTION– Maid for Murder 2017
We’d like to present our findings regarding the suspicious death of Sharon Deidra Verdad. Sharon Verdad was a sweet and giving mysterious young woman who recently joined our community. I hope that her untimely death will not tarnish the reputation of our wonderful community.
At the request of the police and coroner’s office several interested parties were asked to join us at Jean’s Playhouse to revel the results of the investigation into the death of Ms. Verdad. Suspects in attendance were Kelly Promus, Gino Noir, Guy Le Clare, Anna Le Clare, Todd Sterling, Marion Livre and the Tellar Sisters, Emily & Kaylee.
According to the Coroner’s Report the cause of death appears to be blunt force trauma to the front of the head but the Coroner noted what looks like a puncture wound on the left thigh. There were no defensive wounds on the hands or arms. Stomach contents indicated the deceased had a meal of macaroni and cheese shortly before death. Blood was drawn and we are still awaiting the results of the toxicology test.
Investigation of the crime scene found blood on the side of one wine vat and pooled under the head of the deceased. The deceased was fully clothed in black slacks, a white blouse, athletic shoes, and a light gray wool coat. Her hair appeared to have recently been dyed as there was still dye residue on her scalp.
Under the body the crime scene investigators found a bag containing latex balloons, a banner printed, “Happy Birthday Kelly,” and some packaged party invitations. A cell phone was found under one of the vats.
Gossip can be a dangerous thing, and this murder has been accompanied by some of the most outlandish gossip we have ever heard. People have called the police with tips ranging from “Big Foot did it” to “She was killed by aliens,” and the tipsters have accused any number of local people of the crime for some very outlandish reasons. For instance one cranky old man called to say he thought Emily Teller killed the victim because, “People with delusional beliefs can become violent when their beliefs are challenged!” Since the police recognized the caller’s voice they questioned if he also had delusions which were better unchallenged and just thanked him. But, as in most murder investigations, police need to deal with probabilities and provable facts.
First of all, let me say that neither Emily, nor Kaylee Tellar had anything to do with this murder. Both girls were asleep in their beds at the time of the murder according to their father, and their big brother, who was late getting home on a school night and was confronted by his father.
Librarian, Marion Livre said she was at home reading a book and had no alibi for the time of the murder but, when her neighbors were questioned, it turns out one gentleman, who lives across the street from Marion’s living room window, said he had been watching her read, as he did many nights and could vouch for her being home alone.
With the whole B.F.F “Big Foot Friends” Club is eliminated and the police turned the investigation to other suspects.
The victim’s best friend, Kelly Promus seemed genuinely upset when told of her murder and no neighbors saw her leave her young children after she returned from her restaurant job and Sharon, who had been babysitting for Kelly, left Kelly’s house. Police eliminated Kelly as a suspect.
That left police with four suspects, Guy and Anna Le Clare, Gino Noir, and one other unusual suspect who investigators found had been asking a lot of questions about the victim in the past week, Todd Sterling.
According to local gossip, Anna Le Clare thought her husband had an unacceptable interest in Sharon Verdad and Anna had made threatening remarks about Sharon. However, Anna told police that Guy Le Clare was coming into some money in a few weeks so, though she was keeping a close eye on her husband’s behavior. She said she had no reason to make a move on either him or Sharon until she got her hands on the money. She had also contacted several of Guy’s old employers in Las Vegas and was in the process of convincing them to rehire Guy. She assured the police she would not easily give up all that hard work she was doing to get herself back to what she called “real civilization.”
Police eliminated her when it was proven that she had been on the phone to The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas between midnight and three Thursday night.
That seemed to leave Guy without an alibi until Anna assured the police that she would not let her husband out of her sight after work. She had kept the bedroom door open so she could keep an eye on him as she made a follow up call to The Luxor Hotel. She said Guy was asleep in their bed the whole time she was on the phone. Police decided to take her word for it while they continued their investigation into their other two suspects.
The people who discover a body are often the primary suspects of the police investigation. Todd Sterling had been in town only about a week before the murder was committed, and he supposedly worked doing government research, so he seemed an unlikely suspect.
Gino Noir, on the other hand………. had been very involved in the victim’s life.
He became the boyfriend of Kelly Promus almost from the first minute he moved to the area and he always invited Sharon to join them on dates. He even bought Sharon a GPS device and he was heard assuring someone that he was keeping an eye on her. He was quite upset when he lost his phone because it had the tracking app on it and he could no longer see where Sharon was. He also had no alibi for the time of the murder, in fact he was seen all over town asking if anyone had seen Sharon.
However, when the police picked him up for questioning after the discovery of the body he was released almost immediately.
Why was that?
Well I now know that Gino Noir is an undercover U.S. Marshal who was assigned to protect Sharon Verdad. Sharon was in the witness protection program because she had seen a Mob murder while she worked at a small hotel in Roswell, New Mexico.
So who killed Sharon Verdad? ………
It was the same person who stole Gino’s phone and lured Sharon to the winery pretending to be Gino needing help with the birthday party for Kelly.
The same person who poked Sharon Verdad in the thigh with a lethal poison pellet as he led her into the winery where he had picked the lock earlier.
The same person who push Sharon into the wine vat hard enough to cause a head wound which he hoped would be the cause of death and hide his quarantined plan of poison.
The same person whose finger prints were found on the lock mechanism.
That person was a sloppy Mob hit man named Todd Sterling!
Police were on the scene to arrest Mr. Todd Sterling and removed him from Jean’s Playhouse.
We hope that you can join us next April for another fun weekend of sleuthing!