Zoe Kusama

Zoe Kusama (1981-2019) (Jpn: 草間ゾエ) appeared as a quasi-suspect in four cases in The Conspiracy and had a minor appearance in Game Over (Case #18 of The Conspiracy), prior to which she was mentioned in four other cases. Later, she was revealed to be the killer of scientist Ernesto Vega in Death in My Hand (Case #34 of The Conspiracy). She was then murdered in Head Case (Case #52 of The Conspiracy).

Profile
Zoe was a 37-year-old former social worker of Japanese-American heritage. She had mid-length, wavy black hair and sports silver hoop earrings. She wore a green jacket over a yellow shirt and a white vest.

In her first quasi-suspect appearance, her face, hair, and clothes were disheveled and dirty. She also had glasses tucked into her shirt.

In her second quasi-suspect appearance onwards, her face, hair and clothes were clean.

In her suspect appearance, she had a blue stain on her jacket and it is known that Zoe used dental floss, wore hiking boots and used insect repellent.

At the time of her death, Zoe was seen wearing a standard white hospital gown with a diamond pattern.

Stonewalled
After arresting Stella Ziarati's killer, Louis Leroux approached Gloria and the player, stating that his friend, Zoe, had gone missing some months prior, last seen on August 19. He said that he had traced Zoe's phone to Cooper Park. Gloria and the player then took the case.

Gloria and the player found Zoe's phone in Cooper Park. According to Cathy, all the data on the phone had been wiped, but had Jones' fingerprints all over it. The two then talked to Jones, who said that he was put on Zoe's case, but the trail had turned cold after he found Zoe's phone in the library. After a while, Gloria and the player went to the library.

In the library, they found a poem entitled "The 19th of August", which was the day Zoe had disappeared. After finding out that the poem was written by poet Omar Al Hadawi, they talked to him. Omar said that he had seen a car with tinted black windows stop in front of her, and that she had gone inside and since then vanished.

After they chased the lead, Jones got angry, saying that everyone was doubting his detective skills.

Shooting Star
After arresting Ronald Rooney's killer, the team (per Cathy) learned that Zoe and Jones had been dating prior to her disappearance. Gloria and the player then asked Jones about his deception, where they promised that they would be there for him.

The Bloom of Doom
After arresting Valereea Valz's killer, Gloria and the player investigated JJJ Junkyard to get a lead on Zoe's disappearance, as they (per Jones) learned that she had been looking into the disappearance of Trey Warner, who had last been seen at the junkyard. Per Rupert, they also learned that Trey had been kidnapped, which highly suggested that Zoe had also been kidnapped for looking into Trey's case.

Hot Mess
After arresting Voodoo Vince's killer, Jones and the player searched Maylin Park's garage for Zoe's notebook, which had been left there by Maylin after picking it up after one of their meetings for the Grimsborough Asian Women's Association. Per Gabriel, they learned that Zoe had been investigating the disappearances of dozens of social outcasts over the span of six months. However, Zoe had been unable to prove that the disappearances were criminal, meaning that they still had no leads on finding Zoe.

The Art of Murder
After arresting Meera Kat's killer, Ramirez informed Gloria and the player that he had found Zoe by Meera's performance stage. Gloria and the player then recovered Zoe, who, per Gabriel, displayed signs of severe amnesia.

Some time later, Jones learned that Zoe had been found and demanded the player to take him to her. However, he was disappointed to learn that she didn't remember him. Later on, Zoe thanked the player for helping her and revealed that she recognized Tony Marconi's face from one of Gloria's files. This prompted Jones and the player to interrogate Tony about Zoe, who claimed that he didn't know who she was.

Downward-Facing Dead
After arresting Scott Morris's killer, Jones and the player convinced Zoe to try out yoga nidra to help her cope with the stress of recovering from amnesia with the help of Guruji and Gabriel.

Game Over
After the team closed the investigation into Juniper's murder and into DreamLife in general, Zoe rushed into the station and kissed Jones, telling him that she finally remembered him.

I Lost My Heart in Xerda
After arresting Kayla Markham's killer, Jones asked the player for help finding Zoe after she ran off during an argument. Per Cathy, they deduced that she had gone to confront Tony Marconi. They found her arguing with Tony, where they learned that she had remembered being strapped to a chair, surrounded by people. She confronted Tony to find answers as he was the only person she could remember.

Bone of Contention
After arresting Penny Farrell's killer, the player went with Rita and Zoe to the dog shelter to help Rita adopt a puppy. After finding a Doberman for Rita, Zoe told Jones that she had decided to volunteer at the dog shelter as being around the animals had cheered her up.

Death in My Hand
Zoe became a suspect for the first time when her boyfriend, Jones, and the player found her digital camera in a DreamLife dumpster in the dome's security checkpoint, meaning that she was near the dome. After being asked about this, Zoe told the team that she had been having strange dreams about the dome recently, so she decided to go to the dome and look at it herself to see if she could remember anything. However, Zoe then told the team that she remembered nothing at all.

Later, the team heard a strange noise coming from the forest. After going there to see what happened, the team saw Louis Leroux with Zoe, who fainted while walking in the forest with him. Zoe was then coming around, telling Louis and the team that she suddenly felt dizzy and faint. After that, Jones took Zoe home to let her rest.

Jones and the player came to talk to Zoe again after they (per Cathy) found out that the victim, Dr Ernesto, had her phone number. When being asked about this, Zoe admitted that she had given the victim her phone number. Zoe then explained that she was not allowed to go inside the dome so she had talked to Ernesto, who was seen coming out from the dome for research purposes. However, Zoe said that Ernesto had brushed her aside, but she had insisted Ernesto take her phone number so that the victim could call her if he thought of anything. In the end of the conversation, Zoe apologized to the team for not telling them about this.

However, it was proven that Zoe had lied about giving the victim her phone number, as Jones and the player found out that Zoe was the killer of Dr Ernesto. Much to Jones's disbelief, Zoe confessed straight away, saying that she encountered Vega while she was looking near the dome to try to jog her memories. Upon seeing him, she remembered being strapped down in the lab while Vega was injecting her with various substances, using her as a test subject. Upon confronting him however, Vega only laughed at Zoe, saying nobody would believe a crazy, amnesiac woman. Welling up with anger, Zoe took a nearby rock and bashed Vega in the head until he died. Judge Powell then remanded Zoe in custody, pending a psychiatric evaluation.

After Zoe was remanded in custody, she divulged her regained memories to Chief Parker and the player. She said that she was grabbed outside the library, shoved inside a black car, and sedated with chloroform before waking up under the dome with the people she was searching for when she was a social worker. All of them were subject to human experimentation, with everyone but her eventually dying. One day when she noticed her straps were loose, she pretended to be sedated then ran when Ernesto left her. She also told the team that when escaping, she had grabbed a box of papers about the experiment, but she had lost them in the sewer tunnel, prompting the team to go to the sewer tunnel for the papers.

Later, after all the events, Jones finally faced Zoe, he then assured her that he did not think of her as a monster for killing Ernesto. After saying that she did not know anything about Protozane, a drug which DreamLife was synthesizing, Zoe told the team that she did remember that the room where she and other people were experimented on was Lab 88-B. In the end of the conversation, Jones promised that he and the team would bring DreamLife to justice.

Up in Flames
During the investigation, the team found out that Jones had learned why Zoe remembered Marconi. Jones then told the rest of the team that when he had visited her in the asylum that morning, she said that she had seen Marconi hauling the dead bodies of her fellow test subjects past her cell under the dome.

Killer and motives
The killer turned out to be her friend, CCN journalist Louis Leroux.

Trivia

 * Zoe is one of the characters (aside from the victims) to have appeared as a clue in a crime scene.
 * Zoe is one of the characters to physically appear in six districts in The Conspiracy.
 * Zoe is one of the characters to appear as a quasi-suspect four times.
 * Zoe is one of the killers who are interrogated once more during the Additional Investigation.