Killing Spring

Killing Spring is a case featured in Criminal Case as the one-hundred twenty-fourth case of the game. It is the ninth case of the game's World Edition (Season 3) and also the third case to take place in the Sahara Region.

Plot
Carmen Martinez and the player had been travelling through the desert, trying to find the town Ingrid Bjorn told them about in their previous investigation. The team recalled that the citizens of that town were protesting to overthrow Sultan Mahmoud, who they believed were causing misery and poverty. As Ingrid believed that the protest would cause the Sultan to “crack down” on the protesters, she also believed the town would be the perfect place for Chief Ripley’s killer, The Sword, to cause even more trouble. After they finished their recap, the player found an oasis, and they were prompted to look for clues.

The team instead stumbled upon a body of a man, who was identified as Hamza Boussefi, the leader of the protest movement. Carmen was prompted to investigate his murder, hoping that it would be linked to The Sword. While the team was collecting clues to put away Hamza’s killer, Ingrid reported that the Sultan had threatened to open fire on the protesters, who had organized a march in memory of the victim. Later on, she also reported that the Sultan was restricting access to the oasis, prompting the team to scoop out any final clues. With that in mind, they had collected enough evidence to incriminate an American journalist named Thomas Cox.

Carmen lambasted Thomas for killing Hamza, despite the journalist denying the evidence at first. When he confessed to killing the protest leader, Thomas also claimed that it was an accident. He had invited the victim for an interview about the protest movement and how far he would go to overthrowing the Sultan. During the interview, Hamza showed the journalist the rifle, which the latter took to get a feel for it; however, Thomas lost the feel when he accidentally discharged the rifle. The journalist took Hamza’s death as an advantage and had framed the Sultan in his news story. Carmen was disgusted that Thomas had used Hamza’s death for his own purposes, and she shipped him to trial.

Thomas pleaded guilty before Judge Adaku, but claimed to get “a killer story” out of it. The judge was shocked when the journalist turned it into a news story. However, he did believe that the murder was not premeditated and sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison.

Ingrid congratulated the team for putting Thomas behind bars and preventing the Sultan from carrying out a massacre of his own people. Now that the murder investigation came to a close, The Bureau would focus on Chief Ripley’s murder. Carmen suggested they would talk to Thomas due to his being a reporter. Thomas had an interview with a protester, who said that The Sword was “the blade who will cut down the foreigners.” The journalist had ignored it at first, but then heard The Sword being mentioned quite a few times from protesters whispering that they had given them orders. Carmen suggested that the player try to find some clues at the protest square to see if The Sword was really in contact with the protesters.

The team found a wad of cash along with a note written in Aramaic. Carmen was prompted to send the note to Armand Dupont for translating. Armand found out that the note was addressed to Hamza, and it was translated to “there’s more where this came from if you help SOMBRA!” As the message was written on a wad of cash, Armand concluded that it was sent as a bribe from The Sword. Unfortunately, the historian did not know who or what SOMBRA was. The player then suggested to talk to Fatima Baussefi, the victim’s wife.

Fatima blamed The Sword for having Hamza killed by the American journalist, but confessed that Hamza did everything they asked of him. Hamza tore the wad of cash to refuse the bribe at first, but then the money became a temptation. As a result, The Sword encouraged Hazma to be a protest leader in order to use any possible means to overthrow the Sultan. However, Fatima had never heard of SOMBRA and told the team that Hamza used to meet The Sword at the oasis, prompting the team to head there.

At the oasis, the team had found another bank note with The Sword’s symbol on it, and they were prompted to collect a sample of the gray substance on the note. The gray substance was revealed to be a sediment from a river. Seeing as there were no rivers surrounding the area, Carmen continued to read that the sediment was made of limestone, fine sand, silt, and clay, prompting Lars Douglas and Ingrid to confirm that the team needed to follow the Chief’s killer to Egypt.

Victim

 * Hamza Boussefi (found in an oasis, shot in the back of the head)

Murder Weapon

 * Service Rifle

Killer

 * Thomas Cox

Killer's Profile

 * The killer eats couscous.
 * The killer goes fishing.
 * The killer uses Buzzer.
 * The killer is 5’6’’.
 * The killer is male.

Trivia

 * This case is one of the cases in which the killer has to be interrogated once again during the Additional Investigation.