Louis Leroux

Louis Leroux (1985-2019) was a suspect in the murder investigations of three people in The Conspiracy, as well as making quasi-suspect appearances in three other cases, before being revealed to be the killer of former social worker Zoe Kusama in Head Case (Case #52 of The Conspiracy). He made his debut in a video appearance in Snake in the Grass (Case #1 of The Conspiracy). In Breaking News (Case #54 of The Conspiracy), he was found murdered.

Profile
Louis was a 33-year-old now-former CCN journalist with brown eyes and wavy brown hair. He wore a blue collared shirt with a black tie under a black suit with a CCN badge on his right lapel.

In his first suspect appearance, he was seen holding a CCN microphone.

In his second suspect appearance, it is known that Louis used dental floss, wore hiking boots and used insect repellent.

In his fourth suspect appearance, it is discovered that he used mouthwash, had a dust mite allergy and did crosswords.

In his third quasi-suspect appearance, he sported an orange prison uniform with a white shirt.

Snake in the Grass
Shortly after arresting Nathan Pandit's killer, the player accompanied Gloria in finding a birthday gift for her son Carter in the zoo shop. While there, they found a DVD of CCN's "Grimsborough: A Year in Review", where Louis recapped all the year's most exciting and biggest events, including a satellite falling from the sky. Having just found out about the incident, and shocked by it, Gloria turned to Jones, who clarified that a commercial satellite had suffered a technical difficulty and crashed into the empty forest. He also said that people had mostly forgotten about it by now.

Stonewalled
After arresting Stella Ziarati's killer, Louis came to the precinct and asked Gloria and the player for their help regarding a missing person's case. He presented them with a photo of Zoe Kusama, a social worker that had disappeared several months prior. After reporting her disappearance to the police, he decided to some detective work of his own and tracked Zoe's phone to Cooper Park. Gloria and the player then agreed to help Louis and decided to search the park.

Shooting Star
Louis became a suspect after Gloria and the player discovered that he had interviewed the victim. He revealed that interviewing celebrities was not the kind of journalism he expected when he joined CCN, but the murder was quite a scoop. He then excused himself to start digging for information elsewhere.

Louis was spoken to again about a viral video that showed him provoking the victim about his sexual inability. He told them that he wanted to make the interview go viral in order to get his bosses to notice him. However, the victim complained to his boss, which almost led to him being fired.

Louis was found to be innocent after the team incarcerated Yoshinobu Akagi for Ronald's murder.

Muddying the Waters
After arresting Jordan Coprolite's killer, Jones and the player questioned Louis about the fake satellite that he had recorded crash-landing into Grimsborough. He told them that he had seen people from DreamLife sealing off the area, claiming that their satellite had malfunctioned. However, he had never actually seen the satellite. He then remembered having an audio tape from his interviews, which had fallen out of his pocket by the West Bridge. Jones and the player then searched the bridge for the audio tape.

Death in My Hand
Louis became a suspect again after Jones and the player found his voice recorder in the DreamLife dome's security checkpoint and learnt that he was snooping around the dome. When being asked about this, Louis said that he was curious when the team raised doubts about whether or not there was a satellite in the dome, so he decided to investigate for weeks to discover the truth behind DreamLife. Then, after being informed of Dr Ernesto's murder, Louis was surprised as there was another murder and told the team that he would include the murder in his broadcast.

Later, the team heard a strange noise coming from the forest. After going there to see what happened, the team saw Louis with his friend, Zoe Kusama, who fainted while walking in the forest with him. After being asked what happened, Louis said that Zoe had phoned him, asking if he would walk through the forest with her to help jog her memory. However, when they were walking, Zoe started to faint. Luckily, she was then coming around.

After letting Zoe rest, the team came and interrogate Louis again after they found a cheque in the victim's satchel and learnt that Louis was paying $5,000 to the victim. When being asked about the reason why Louis did it, he said that Ernesto had promised to hand over highly classified information about DreamLife to him for the right price. However, Ernesto then took the money, but he changed his mind, not giving Louis the inside information about DreamLife anymore. In the end of the conversation, Louis angrily said that he had trudged out to the lake for nothing.

Louis was then found to be innocent after his friend Zoe was incarcerated for Ernesto's murder.

Dearly Departured
Louis became a suspect for the third time after Jones and the player learnt that he had been in the victim's hotel room. He explained that he had interviewed the victim for a series on safety in air travel and had accidentally left his keycard in her room. They had agreed to meet at the gate bar so that she could return his keycard to him, but when he arrived, it had been closed down.

Louis was spoken to again about his threatening message to the victim. He explained that the message he had sent her was not a threat, but a warning. He revealed that Dolores was a whistleblower and was exposing some uncomfortable truths about airline safety. He said that he felt responsible for her as she had taken a great risk by coming to him. He then left to interview some of the passengers.

Louis was found to be innocent for the third time after the team incarcerated Shane Redfern for Dolores's murder.

Head Case
Louis became a suspect yet again after Gloria and the player learned that he visited Zoe at the hospital before her murder. He told the team that Zoe had seemed fine when he had visited her and that she had improved so much.

Louis was spoken to again about why Zoe did not want Louis to visit her again. He explained that Zoe mistook his genial nature for flirtation and thought that he was trying to make a pass at her. He assured the team that he had no romantic feelings for Zoe, but she refused to believe him and yelled at him.

In the end, it was proven that Louis was Zoe's killer. Upon admitting to the murder, Louis explained that he had caught Zoe telekinetically levitating a teacup when he showed up in Zoe's room unannounced. Connecting her abilities to her time under the dome and realizing it was his duty to uncover the whole truth, Louis then asked to examine the extent of her condition. Zoe, freaking out at the prospect of more tests performed upon her, started screaming. In a panic over getting kicked out, Louis grabbed a fence post and smashed her head in to keep her quiet. Judge Powell sentenced an apologetic Louis to life in prison. Post-trial, the team rushed Jones to the hospital after he had attempted suicide via overdose on sedatives.

After the trial, Gloria and the player re-interrogated Louis about Zoe's alleged powers. He claimed that he had seen Zoe moving things with her mind. Wanting to record evidence of her powers, Louis hid a camera in her room, prompting the team to reinvestigate Zoe's room.

Playing Dead
After arresting Savannah Blake's killer, Gloria and the player discovered that Louis was actually the fifth member of Ad Astra. When questioned about his true intentions with Zoe, he told the team that he had to run more tests on her to learn more about the powers that the superhuman serum had gifted her. Louis then told the team that they had no idea what they were meddling in and warned them to keep out of his business if they wanted to stay alive.

After the investigation, Chief Parker ordered the team to interrogate Louis again. However, Cathy informed them that Louis had been found dead in his jail cell.

Killer and motives
The killer turned out to be former DreamLife scientist Shweta Noorani.

Upon confessing to the murder, Shweta said the real leader of Ad Astra, a "puppeteer" more powerful than the five members, had realized Ad Astra was outliving its usefulness and so was planning to kill each of the members one by one, starting with Louis. The "puppeteer" ordered Shweta to kill Louis, and so she filled the light bulb in Louis' cell with smuggled nitroglycerin and waited for Louis to turn it on and get blown up. Seeing that Shweta had only admitted to the "puppeteer" being a good friend of hers, Judge Powell sentenced her to 30 additional years in prison.

Trivia

 * Louis may have been based on British broadcaster Louis Theroux.
 * CCN is a parody of CNN. It could also be an abbreviation for Criminal Case News.
 * Louis is one of the characters to physically appear in four districts of The Conspiracy.
 * Louis is one of the characters to appear as a suspect four times.
 * Louis is one of the characters to appear as a quasi-suspect thrice.
 * Louis is one of the killers who was interrogated again in the Additional Investigation.
 * Louis is one of the characters to become a suspect, killer, and victim.
 * He, Vinnie Costa, Seamus O'Neill, Tony Marconi and Zoe Kusama are also the only characters to appear as a suspect, quasi-suspect, killer, and victim.

Case appearances

 * Snake in the Grass (Case #1 of The Conspiracy; video appearance)
 * Stonewalled (Case #8 of The Conspiracy)
 * Shooting Star (Case #9 of The Conspiracy)
 * Muddying the Waters (Case #25 of The Conspiracy)
 * Death in My Hand (Case #34 of The Conspiracy)
 * A Pointy End (Case #45 of The Conspiracy; mentioned)
 * Like a Pig to the Slaughter (Case #46 of The Conspiracy; mentioned)
 * In Vino Veritas (Case #47 of The Conspiracy; mentioned)
 * To Kingdom Come (Case #48 of The Conspiracy; mentioned)
 * Dearly Departured (Case #49 of The Conspiracy)
 * Lights Out (Case #50 of The Conspiracy; mentioned)
 * Out of Breath (Case #51 of The Conspiracy; mentioned)
 * Head Case (Case #52 of The Conspiracy)
 * Playing Dead (Case #53 of The Conspiracy)
 * Breaking News (Case #54 of The Conspiracy)