Блог учителя англійської мови Скорнякової М.Є.

SHERLOCK HOLMES CLUB: Criminal Report


Criminal Report
Investigated by Julia Kolchik, 11b

  Brief crux of the matter:
13 February 2018 in the Department of Internal Affairs of the Central District of Birmingham Mrs. N. appealed with a statement of the murder, explaining that in the morning she had come to her husband, Mr. Smith and saw him killed. The police arrived immediately, a criminal case was opened.

Crime investigation plan:
1) Investigation of the crime scene
As police detectives we arrived to examine the crime scene. The victim had bruises around his neck. He was holding a knife in his hand. The knife was clean. Death had come about 7 hours ago. Examining/having examined his bruises, we understood that he had been strangled. No murder weapons and footprints were found. However there were handprints, which are hard to recognize. We consider that the murderer was in gloves, but he/she took them off for some reason later. We noticed the victim’s phone, which was broken .

2) Interrogation of suspects
After the inspection we were questioning the four suspects. All of them are connected with the victim. We started with his wife. Mrs. Smith and the victim had been separated for 9 months. She wasn’t living in his house, although she still had a key. However, last 2 months Mr. and Mrs. Smith secretly tried to renew their relationship. Moreover, she had an unquestioned alibi - she was with her mother in hospital and doctors and nurses could prove this fact.

The next was his colleague. Betty Sangster was believed to be good friend and was ready to help him every second. Nevertheless, some other colleges said that Betty had notifications of all Mr. Smiths’ posts. Jenny Dooglas, Betty’s ex-friend, added that Sangster always blushed and tried to look like a star. “She was too happy when she found out that soon he would divorce. Later, when we were in club (I, Betty, Smith and others), Betty noticed him texting his ex-wife, that he loved her. I tried to talk with her, but she pushed me.” Her love to Mr. Smith could be a motive. What interested us in her is her suspicious alibi. She was nervous and said that she was at home. When we asked about witnesses, who could prove this fact, she just said “I’m too busy, bye!”

Veronika didn’t have really good relationships with her dad. She had been warned by her father to change her lifestyle and become more responsible. She said that she hadn’t killed him, but she wanted to shake hands with the person, who had committed it. What about her alibi, she was trying to steal the jewelry when the murder was committed. We asked jewelry shop’s security about this incident and they showed us video from surveillance cameras.

Roy Cooper, the janitor, had been working in this house for ten years. He argued with Mr. Smith a lot, because 5 years ago Mr. Smith hadn’t given a lift to a Cooper’s wife, who had problems with pregnancy and died later. Nevertheless Roy Cooper was considered by all to be a loyal employee and helped Mr. Smith’s little daughter, when she fell and hurt her leg. He said at the time of the murder he was watching a movie in cinema with his little daughter.

Conclusion:
After thinking for an hour with my colleague, we made a conclusion. The victim must have keys and the only person, who had keys, was janitor Roy Cooper who didn’t have any daughter. His wife had died with his child. After searching Cooper’s house we noticed many toys. We found letters, he wrote them to his wife about revenge. The last letter was written 13 February. In this letter he wrote that now he was free and thanked for help Betty. After that we understood why it’s hard to find the personality with such fingerprints – there were two fingerprints for two different people. When we asked about this letter he told us, with smile, that Mr. Smith had ruined his life and confessed in murdering. After that we arrived to Betty’s house to arrest her. When we entered her house, we saw hanged woman – Betty and the note “Now we will be together. Forever”.

Punishment:
Roy Cooper, as a criminal, was accused of the murder. He didn’t hire a defence lawyer and didn’t answer questions, which were raised by the judge. The only answer he got was “My daughter will come for me and you will die. Ha-Ha-Ha” So the trial didn’t last long and the judge reached a verdict: Roy Cooper would be sentenced to 15 years in prison with a psychological examination every 3 months.