Darya Chernova (Rus: Дарья Чернова) was the victim in Moscow Mole (Case #13 of World Edition).
Profile
Darya was a government official working for COSMORUS. She was the head of project management, in charge of funding and implementing new projects. She had light brown hair and blue eyes. She donned a gray suit with a COSMORUS badge and a bead necklace, along with a white shirt underneath and tortoise shell-designed glasses.
Murder details
Darya was found in the Red Square with glass sticking out of her neck. According to Angela, the wound on her neck severed one of the two carotid arteries. Due to the wound's width and the jagged pattern where the skin was perforated, she determined that it was caused by broken glass. And due to traces of vodka in the wound, she ascertained that it was done with a vodka bottle, which meant the killer drank vodka.
After a second investigation of the Red Square, Jack and the player managed to find a broken vodka bottle with blood on it. A sample of the blood was sent to Lars, and he revealed that it was not just the victim's blood on it. The blood belonged to the killer, and he found out from DNA evidence that the killer had red hair.
Relationship with suspects
Darya was married to drunkard Oleg Chernov, who suspected that she was cheating on him. In fact, she was hiring the services of British expatriate and escort Liam Hall. COSMORUS head Natasha Romanova claimed she was a trusted member of COSMORUS. When evidence turned up that Darya was a mole leaking COSMORUS information to unknown sources, Natasha said that she did not know of Darya's betrayal. However, MGB agent Anya Ivanova, who was spying on the victim and everyone else was in COSMORUS, did not know of Darya's identity as the mole, but was going insane over trying to figure out what she was hiding. Darya had also been stealing checks meant to fund COSMORUS scientist Nikolai Sharapov's projects.
Killer and motives
The killer turned out to be Liam.
After denying involvement, Liam admitted to the crime. Liam remembered that he had dinner with Darya, where they drank a lot of vodka, and then walked with her through the Red Square before having an argument about a briefcase he was supposed to pick for her. Liam then blacked out and woke up with a cut in his hand, without any memory of stabbing Darya in the neck with a broken vodka bottle. Judge Adaku sentenced him to 5 years in jail.
Liam would later speculate that Darya had a lot of drop-off operations in the past with other people involved. The team would follow this lead and find that Darya was being paid huge amounts of money by Global Flux, Ltd. to leak COSMORUS information to them. The team would soon learn that Global Flux, Ltd. was a front for criminal organization SOMBRA.
Case appearances
- Moscow Mole (Case #13 of World Edition)
- Only Truth Remains (Case #14 of World Edition; mentioned)
- O Deadly Night (Case #15 of World Edition; mentioned)
- Fast Track to Murder (Case #16 of World Edition; mentioned)
- Horseback Mountain (Case #17 of World Edition; mentioned)
