The Killer in the Rice

The Killer in the Rice is a case featured in Criminal Case as the one-hundred fortieth case of the game. It is the twenty-fifth case of the game's World Edition (Season 3) and also the first case to take place in East Asia.

Plot
The Bureau headed to Yunnan to find Warren Goodfellow’s SOMBRA contact, The Head Hunter. Chief Ripley sent Carmen and the player to the Yuanyang rice terraces to survey the land. There, the cops found teenager Guo Han with his throat slashed.

Mid-investigation, June Douglas went missing but she was found soon after. Furthermore, the children and teens in town were organizing many harmful antics such as a book burning. Despite these, Carmen and the player were able to find 15-year-old Zhao Mei guilty of the murder.

Upon her arrest, Mei said that even though she loved Han, he was not "strong enough" to survive in nature as he never completed the challenges and antics she prepared for him. In trial, Mei only repeated her cryptic message to Judge Adaku and offered no further explanation. The judge ordered for her placement in a juvenile prison with psychological help from a criminologist.

Marina and the player tried to get more information from Mei in prison. Mei was only able to say that she gave a gift to Han in his house. The gift was found to be a horse statue containing SOMBRA's logo. The cops asked Aunty Hua to see if her nephew knew about SOMBRA. She claimed to not know about SOMBRA and she did not notice anything strange about Han.

Meanwhile, Jonah and the player found fingerprints on Warren's badge. Elliot said that the prints belonged to traveler Ronin Ozawa. Because Elliot said he knew how to cover his tracks, Ronin was interrogated. Ronin told the cops that he met Warren in one of his travels and that he thought the latter was a good man. He was surprised when the cops told him he was guilty of a murder.

Suspecting Ronin to be The Head Hunter, Chief Ripley sent Jonah and the player to the rice fields. There, they found a tracking device with skin cells from Mei and Ronan per Angela's analysis. Assuming Ronin was tracking Mei, the two interrogated Ronin again. He said that he was only tracking Mei down as she went missing from the Sichuan province.

Putting Ronin under surveillance, the cops set off to the Sichuan province of China to prevent any more teens and children to fall into SOMBRA's hands and to investigate Mei's disappearance.

Victim

 * Guo Han (found with his throat slashed in a rice field)

Murder Weapon

 * Sickle

Killer

 * Zhao Mei

Killer's Profile

 * The killer drinks baijiu.
 * The killer wears rubber boots.
 * The killer plays Mahjong.
 * The killer is a woman.
 * The killer has blood type A+.

Trivia

 * This case's title may be a reference to The Catcher in the Rye, a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger.
 * This case is one of the cases in which the killer has to be interrogated once again during the Additional Investigation.