Holly Hopper

Holly Hopper was one of the suspects during the murder investigations of actress Felicia Steppingstone in The Young and the Lifeless (Case #87, or Case #31 of Pacific Bay), actor Rex Logan in Star Crime (Case #91, or Case #35 of Pacific Bay), and artist Fabrizio Gallardo in The Ship of Dreams (Case #93, or Case #37 of Pacific Bay).

In the aforementioned case, Holly "committed suicide" just moments after being accused of brainwashing a total of six individuals, not to mention the planning of a terrorist attack.

However, in the following case, Holly's suicide was discovered to be a fake demonstration after she was caught and flagged as a suspect during the murder investigation of movie producer Tyler Snakes.

Profile
Holly is a 38-year-old gossip columnist primarily operating in Ivywood Hills. She has blue eyes and a long blonde ponytail that goes over her left shoulder, wears red lipstick and green nail polish, and often carries a pen and notepad along with her.

In her first case appearance, Holly dons a purplish-pink shirt with a pair of golden sunglasses tucked in and the badge of an infamous cult on the right side. Given her profession, she is seen wearing a phone earpiece on her right ear, completing her look with a white bracelet. In the very case, Holly is discovered to drive a convertible, utilize teeth whitener, and drink protein shakes.

Holly has the same attire during her second case appearance, but also wears blue makeup and sports a blue ribbon tied to her ponytail. In addition, she has a visible acid burn on her neck.

Speaking of her third case appearance, Holly wears a green top accompanied by a black bowtie in the middle – also getting rid of the blue makeup and ribbon, not to mention the acid burn, from the previous case, as well as her signature sunglasses and phone earpiece. Furthermore, it is discovered that she consumes caviar, knows Morse code, and suffers from a cold.

As of her fourth case appearance, Holly puts on her signature sunglasses – also donning a fancy, black and gold dress along with a golden necklace and a black woman's hat.

The Young and the Lifeless
Holly got herself in serious trouble after Frank Knight and the player found a pair of sunglasses (repaired by the player) on the primary crime scene, although she admitted that those sunglasses were hers. Frank wanted to know as to why those glasses were on the scene of Felicia's murder, to which Holly replied that she wanted to write about the crime scene before anyone else. Frank didn't like Holly's counter-productivity for reasons confidential to him. Holly admitted that she is a gossip columnist specializing in scandal stories, concluding that she doesn't have time to talk to the police.

Frank demanded Holly spill the beans as to why she saw the murder, but she refused to do so – claiming that it's her job to cover scandals as much as she can. In addition, Holly stated that she was currently working on a scandal story, but Frank told her she needed full permission from the Chief before doing so since the police didn't know anything about the victim. This prompted the gossip columnist to identify the murder victim as being Felicia Steppingstone, a star of a reality TV show called "Pretty Simple Life." Furthermore, Holly suggested the team to investigate the Imperial Theater as she believed that was where she last saw the victim.

During a recap of the murder investigation, Amy Young waltzed in only to attract Holly, which garnered negative attention from Frank – who then told Amy to retreat for the shift, and in turn told Holly to wait in the interrogation room for additional questioning, but the gossip columnist suggested the team to investigate the nearby pool party scene in claims that she had seen Felicia there for a premiere of her TV show.

Frank told Holly that it's a felony to exploit a police officer for the tabloids, but the columnist assured that she was just doing her job in spite of Frank's reservations. Holly had to come up with reasonable stories since her reader base drastically declined and among them was that the magazine company she worked for wanted someone younger to replace her in spite of her claims that experience is what that magazine company requires.

Holly was found innocent after an ulterior motive was exposed to be the cause of the murder.

Star Crime
Holly found herself in trouble when the team found a Rex Logan's retrospective flyer inside a Utopian merchandising box, which mentioned that a certain "Sister Alpaga" was going to be in charge of the presentation. After tedious hours of analysis, Hannah Choi deduced that "Sister Alpaga" was Holly's Utopian nickname. This prompted Amy and the player to grill the gossip columnist.

During the conversation, Holly claimed that the Utopians were obviously involved in Rex's retrospective since the late actor was a Utopian success story. She expressed her sadness towards Rex's absence to a speech he was going to give about how being a Utopian changed his life, but then erased her wince to ask the player to join the Utopian faith.

The team needed to quiz Holly again after finding negatives inside a metal box with her name. After Hannah's careful analysis, it turned out that the negatives contained very graphic photos of Rex partying hard and that the photos were supposedly taken from afar, behind bushes, meaning spying work.

As Amy and the player intercepted Holly, she stated the photos were for the retrospective and not for an article the team suspected she was going to write; just moments later, however, the gossip columnist admitted that the Utopian leaders had asked her to buy the photos for the paparazzi to avoid having a Utopian success story being shown as a common party freak – which would ruin the Utopians' reputation as well as Rex's career. She then continued by stating that confiscating the photos caused Rex to become more confident and lose control of his behavior. Alas, Holly expressed happiness towards Rex's death due to beliefs that she couldn't have kept the actor's behavior a secret any longer, making her more suspicious by the minute.

Holly was ultimately found innocent after a wanton need to shine in fame turned out to be the reason for Rex's murder. However, her troubles were still far from over: after Russell Crane and the player discovered a flyer announcing a planned brainwashing attack at the upcoming Ivywood Film Awards, also bearing a note by the Utopians to have Holly replace Rex as the ceremony's host, the duo had to confront the gossip columnist for a serious talk. Holly denied the brainwashing attack right away but admitted she was asked to be the ceremony host, an honor she wouldn't turn down, even though the police remained suspicious given that Russell had reliable proof of the Utopian's brainwashing fiasco.

The Ship of Dreams
Holly was flagged as a murder suspect once again after the player found an initially torn Girly Gossips magazine showcasing her story about the movie set of Gigantic, amongst the painting tools of victim Fabrizio Gallardo.

Holly was ultimately found innocent of the murder. However, things would not end there: after the police found Maggie O'Mally and Chief Marquez in a brainwashed state over a period of minutes, Russell and the player had to ensue an enquiry. The duo found a picture of Chief Marquez which the player forensically dusted to reveal a plan to brainwash the top police official. Russell then had to spend hours analyzing the writing on the picture, thus revealing that it was was too neatly written even though the message was meant to be a threat – meaning this was the doing of a control freak, someone used to writing quickly and efficiently. This discovery made by Russell left him and the player with just one thing in mind: Holly.

Cornering Holly, Russell and the player accused her of brainwashing at least six people (including Maggie and the Chief) and also held her responsible for the planning of a terrorist attack scheduled to take place at the the Ivywood Awards. Holly, in a rather quick and suspicious manner, admitted her brainwashing fiasco and took a moment to claim that she'd succeeded to her predecessor as the Utopian leader seven years prior to the present day, before finally "shooting herself to death" in a bold attempt to resist arrest and to protect her cult.

Moments after the disastrous event, Russell insisted that the player keep an eye on the imminent Ivywood Awards ceremony just in case the Utopians still had something in mind – though he would find a cure to heal Chief Marquez from the brainwashing effects in due course.

Dead Carpet
Hannah, during her analysis of victim Tyler Snakes's phone, discovered a text message – not to mention a call – from Holly's number, which caught Amy and the player's attention since the journalist "was seen blowing her brain up" in the previous case.

Holly was not indicted for the murder of Tyler Snakes, but she was eventually arrested once and for all after she was found guilty of the brainwashing scheme that ensued since Once Upon a Crime.

Trivia

 * Holly's appearance, particularly her interesting hairstyle and choice of makeup, seems to have been inspired by Lady Gaga – an American singer, songwriter, and actress.
 * Holly is one of the many suspects who appeared in four cases.
 * In addition, she is the only Pacific Bay character to have made four case appearances.
 * Holly is one of the characters who animate (or move) during at least one cutscene in the game.
 * Holly is one of the suspects in Pacific Bay who appeared in two cases consecutively.

Case Appearances

 * The Young and the Lifeless (Case #87, or Case #31 of Pacific Bay)
 * Star Crime (Case #91, or Case #35 of Pacific Bay)
 * The Ship of Dreams (Case #93, or Case #37 of Pacific Bay)
 * Dead Carpet (Case #94, or Case #38 of Pacific Bay)