Velma Bannister

Velma Bannister is a supporting character in Criminal Case, appearing as a suspect during the murder investigation of socialite Lindsay Bannister in Murdertown, and the killer of producer Tyler Snakes in Dead Carpet.

Profile
Velma is a 27-year-old femme fatale. She has blue eyes and long blonde hair, with one side lying over her right shoulder.

Speaking of her first case appearance, Velma wears red lipstick and nail polish, and a pair of small pearl earrings. She dons a white formal strapless dress accompanied by the badge of an infamous cult on the left. Besides that, she is discovered to be a smoker who also plays mahjong and drinks gimlets.

As of her second case appearance, Velma brings a bit of changes to her attire: she replaces her white dress and earrings with a fancy, gold-colored dress and earrings, respectively. Additionally, she sports a necklace of the same color, with a flying bird depicted in the middle. It is revealed that Velma has watched the movie A Puff of Death, is dependent on Nevrax, an antidepressant, and is a Capricorn

Murdertown
Inside the bar of the Ivywood Heights Hotel, the investigation team of Frank Knight and the player found a perfume bottle bearing an insulting note – by victim Lindsay Bannister – to a certain Velma. Since the team couldn't figure who the message was addressed to, the piece of evidence had to be shipped to tech expert Hannah Choi for digital analysis, much to her displeasure of analyzing perfume bottles. Hannah managed to identify the "Velma" to be Velma Bannister – grounds for Frank and the player to call her in for an interrogation.

Drooling over Velma's beauty, Frank assumed that she was an actress for the movie Murder by Moonlight and asked her if the victim came to see her on its set (given that Lindsay was found murdered there). Velma responded that she wasn't going to play in Murder by Moonlight, before making it clear that she was practically the same age as the victim – one of the reasons why Lindsay couldn't handle Velma as her step-mother. After the interrogation, Frank started to feel a sense of infatuation for the femme fatale.

Frank caused a fiasco in the Pacific Bay Police Department by leaving a note on his desk, saying that he opted to step down from the police ranks in order to pursue a romance with Velma. An infuriated Chief Marquez was then forced to call Amy Young back to duty to augment the player as the Chief was abhorrent of Velma. After doing a quick recap of the investigation, Amy and the player headed to the Ivywood Boardwalk for clues.

At the boardwalk, Frank – accompanied by Velma – stumbled upon Amy and the player, causing Amy to lambaste the senior detective for abandoning the player in the middle of a murder investigation. Amy and the player then dragged Velma to the police station for the sake of formality, much to Frank's disapproval.

Amy questioned Velma as to why she seduced Frank, but the femme fatale refused to answer honestly; however, when Amy informed her that Frank resigned from the police force to pursue a romance with her, Velma got furious as she realized that Frank couldn't protect her from the police anymore – even going far by calling him a "brain-dead halfwit" in the process. This proved that Velma seduced Frank just because she wanted to protect herself from the murder investigation.

Although Velma had a suspicious relationship with the victim, she was eventually proven innocent after Walter Fellows's indictment.

Following the case's closure, Frank would redeem himself from Velma's games when he helped the player incarcerate the femme fatale for seducing Rico Damascus into stealing an expensive diamond for her. During the moment of her arrest, Velma attempted to seduce Frank once again but failed as the latter made it clear that she was about to follow Rico into jail. Moments after Velma was impounded, however, she was released on bail by her husband.

Dead Carpet
Velma was flagged as a murder suspect for a second time when the player and Amy found a picture of her near the corpse of movie producer Tyler Snakes, who was found dead on the red carpet of Ivywood Film Awards. In a surprising plot twist, Velma was found guilty after evidence incriminated her as the killer.

Velma offered a smoke to the player as a condition to remain silent and have her rights read while she was waiting for her husband's lawyers to arrive, but Russell hated the idea of offering cigarettes given that they were the murder weapon used to poison Tyler. Velma believed that the team had nothing against her, but what she didn't like was that Tyler was mentally strong to resist a femme fatale like herself--although Russell admired Velma's persistence. Velma took Tyler's rejection personally, so she pleaded with Frank to meet her at the Utopian Temple to wash her sorrows away, but she had enough with Russell's manipulative demeanor, so she admitted to poisoning Tyler to death so that she could access the TV room. Velma believed that she saved Ivywood from the brainwashing plan even though she knows this would contradict what her cult wanted, but with good reason--she wanted to use her recording instead of the intended one the Utopians wanted. Russell had enough of Velma, so the player shipped the femme fatale to trial.

In court Velma had to use her charm all her life to seduce people to get what she wants, and the older she becomes, the more difficult it gets, and Ivywood is no exception. Ever since running into Tyler, Velma felt that there's going to be someone younger and more beautiful than herself, and her powers fade with age. Velma refused to be uglier than someone else, so she wanted to take the Utopians' brainwashing plan to her own hands by poisoning Tyler to death, replacing the Utopian standard brainwashing tape with a brainwashing tape of her own so that people would have to obey Velma, worship her as the most beautiful woman in Ivywood, and to love her forever. Fame is what Velma yearned for, although she knows that the brainwashing effect can be nullified by a cure not to mention that fame doesn't last forever. Judge Dante has heard enough, so he gives Velma 18 years of hard time for the premeditated murder of Tyler Snakes not to mention forcing the Judge and the court members miss the Ivywood Movie Awards.

Trivia

 * Velma is one of the many suspects who appeared in two cases.
 * Velma and Tony Marconi are the only killers of a final case of a district not to receive a lifetime jail sentence.
 * Velma, Veronica Blade and Peri Foreman are the tallest female killers in the game, standing at 6'0".

Case Appearances

 * Murdertown (Case #34 of Pacific Bay)
 * Dead Carpet (Case #38 of Pacific Bay)