Jerry McKenzie (1995–2020) was the victim in Dead Heat (Case #12 of Supernatural Investigations).
Profile
Jerry was a 25-year-old racer at Bonneville with blue eyes and brown hair swept to the left. At the time of his death, he was seen wearing a black racer's uniform with red and white details, including shoulder pads and a collar with a three flame symbol and "racer", both in white.
Murder details
Luke, Felix and the player witnessed Jerry's car barreling and bursting in an explosion with purple flames. Suspecting it was a supernatural related death, Luke and the player decided to investigate as accident investigators, despite the authorities barring them from accessing the body. They then found a jar of talismans in the wreckage of the racecar. Felix registered the jar as the murder weapon, deducing that the jar had been used to curse Jerry's car: the rat was meant to kill, the crow skull made the car fly and the monkshood flowers caused the purple flames. Due to this, Felix concluded that the killer knew how to cast spells.
Mid-investigation, FBI agent George Mathison informed the team that he had convinced the authorities to give the team access to Jerry's body. Ben's autopsy revealed that, despite there being little evidence on the Jerry's body aside the cause of death, the killer returned to the body at the crash site in order to leave a cut off whip-poor-will's head in his jacket. Felix informed the team that there was a legend that when a person died, whip-poor-wills could chase and catch their soul as it left the body. Ben then revealed that he had found sunscreen smeared on the head's feathers, most likely from the killer's hands. This allowed Ben to conclude that the killer wore sunscreen.
Relationship with suspects
Before his first race in Bonneville, Jerry had his car inspected by mechanic Maylin Park, who spotted no problems with his car. Meanwhile, Jerry broke up with his girlfriend, rival racer Lily Karam, causing her to drown her sorrows. Jerry also enraged Rocket Cow promoter Zander Stark when he backed out of Zander's sponsorship deal at the last minute. Jerry's uncle, former racer Ralph McKenzie, tried to persuade him to give up his racing profession due to its dangerous nature, to which Jerry refused. His Mormon friend, Flake Winningham, was also disappointed at Jerry after the latter decided to leave the Mormon church for good.
Killer and motives
The killer turned out to be Ralph.
Initially denying the murder, Ralph admitted that he had a deal with the Devil that he made in his youth, promising him success in racing on the condition that he be the last racer in his bloodline or he would suffer eternal hellfire. When Jerry thought of getting into racing, Ralph started seeing signs of the Devil coming for him. He then placed a cursed jar in Jerry's car to ensure that he would not be able to race again. The team presented Ralph to Chief Arrow, who informed him that the Devil was not real, and that he entirely owed his success at racing to his own skill. With the indirect nature of the murder, Ralph could not be properly indicted in a court of law, however, only being burdened by the thought of him pointlessly murdering his own nephew.
Trivia
- Jerry and Steve Wood are the only two victims in the game whose body was not found in Chapter 1.
- Jerry's death at the hands of his own uncle is thus far one of the instances of domestic homicide in Supernatural Investigations.
Case appearances
- Dead Heat (Case #12 of Supernatural Investigations)
Gallery
