In the summer of 2015, I hosted an online murder mystery for all my watchers on DeviantArt. By revealing visual clues one at a time, participants were asked to look into the circumstances surrounding the victim’s death and to come up with theories. Entries were judged on choice of suspect, weapon, location and motive. All images were created in Blender 3D and Gimp.
Back Story
The back story, which was published in advance:
Sophia opened the door of her apartment and sighed. On the clock adjacent to the front door she saw that it was already 4:20. If she’d just gone out to get groceries she would’ve been back an hour ago, but she had promised to drop off the kids at the rehab center so they could spent the day with their father. She kicked off her shoes and walked into the kitchen to stow away the groceries. It was freezing inside. She checked the thermostat. One of the kids must have played with it, because the heating had been turned off. She turned it back on and put the grocery bag on the counter next to the fridge.
Next she walked into the dining room. One of her freshly baked cupcakes was gone. “It must have been one of the kids. I should really get a better babysitter” she thought to herself. She didn’t have time to look after the children herself, but a good babysitter was actually too expensive. She’d gone over her finances for this month and they could barely make ends meet as it was. She hadn’t told Brian about it yet, but there were a lot of things he didn’t know about. For example, he didn’t know that as a lawyer, she hadn’t had a case in a couple of months, because there was one case that she was stuck on and she couldn’t let it go. Again she looked at the table she’d set that morning. Something seemed off. She wasn’t sure what it was, but there was a strange atmosphere in the house. She had a feeling she was not alone.
Sophia turned around and walked into the living room. Through the glass she saw that Lionel was still in his cage. She waved at him. Her pet chicken didn’t look well. He’d been ill for a while, and she wondered whether that was all her fault. Maybe it was out of guilt that she had hired him a private vet, who was one of the leading experts on chicken diseases. That was one more bill she still had to pay. A week ago her long awaited package from Snail Mail Deliveries had finally arrived, maybe that could be part of the solution of her problems. Suddendly she heard something behind her. It sounded like footsteps. She slowly turned around and looked at the silhouette in front of her before running into the hallway…
Visual Clues
Conclusion (spoiler alert!)
After the challenge ended on August 22, I revealed the conclusion of the story:
Sophia ran through the hallway. “I told you, I want my money!” the figure behind her said and he ran after her. She turned around and tried to reach the front door. He stopped her and reached for the gun in the pocket of his jacket. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he said.
“Please, not in front of Lionel! I’ll give you your money. I just don’t have it yet.” Sophia said while starting to panic. Nick had never ambushed her in her own house like this.
“You and your stupid chicken! That’s the reason you got in this mess in the first place. And now you’re telling me that you can’t pay?”
“Don’t talk about Lionel that way! He’s probably more educated than you are!” She shouldn’t have said that. Nick hadn’t finished high school and hadn’t had a real job since he was fired as a delivery guy a few years ago. He still had the uniform, which came in handy when he started delivering drugs. Now his most important business partner was making fun of him.
“Shut up!” Nick pulled out a gun from under his jacket and simultaniously Sophia punched him in the stomach and ran off. She went into her bedroom. She knew Brian had a gun lying around somewhere. It was easy to find, so she grabbed it and then ran back into the hallway. Nick had gotten back on his feet again and went after her. She looked at the gun in her hands. It took her a few seconds to realize that it was a fake one. She threw it in his direction and ran into the children’s room. It was the only way to get out without using the front door. It was possible to jump onto the balcony of the apartment donwstairs from one of the windows. She entered the room. The floor was scattered with toys. She threw some of it on the beds in order to reach the window. But before she could walk any further she heard that Nick had gotten close.
“Get out of my house! If you don’t, I’ll call the police!”. She got her phone out of her pocket and dialed 911. Nick was standing in the doorway with the gun she had thrown at him. He pointed the weapon at her and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
Sophia stepped towards the window and as she tried to turn around she tripped over one of the bikes. She kicked at the intruder as he came closer to her, but it was in vain. He picked up the closest weapon he could find, a wooden toy car, and hit her in the head with it repeatedly. Everything went black.
Nick dragged the body into the kitchen and left it there. Then he got a bottle of bleach out of the bathroom and walked back to the children’s room. He started cleaning the floor. When he’d just started cleaning the hallway he heard a siren. Panicking, he picked up the fake gun from the floor and put it on the kitchen floor next to the body. He then ran out the door just before the first police car arrived at the building.
Because of good work by the detectives he was arrested at the airport just two hours later, while he was trying to board a flight to Mexico.
THE END
In the end, it turned out that nobody picked the exact right combination of suspect, weapon, location and motive. The highest scoring entries were each awarded a virtual trophy: a 3D image created in Blender (of course).
Note: In December 2015, this murder mystery got a sequel when I launched a Christmas episode titled “An Orange Christmas”. Read more on DeviantArt.