Penning It Down

The Murder

The neighbour smelled an odd odour from the house next door, and knocked on the door. She found the smell to be a powerful, pungent, disgusting odour that she could only describe as a garbage can left to ferment in high heat for an extended period of time. No-one answered, so she called the owner, yielding the same result, no answer. However, she thought the owner must have been home, since she could hear the phone going off in the house. Not knowing what else to do, she decided to call the police, due to the nuisance she was facing. The police arrived at the scene and questioned the neighbour regarding the call she made. She told them of the foul smell. The policemen knocked on the door, but nobody answered. The door was opened with force. As they entered, the smell got stronger. They looked around for the source of the odour, and they found it in the bedroom. Upon entering, they found a body sprawled on the ground, the television turned on, and a plastic bag wrapped around the victim's head. The neighbour confirmed the victim to be the owner, Sarah. After a preliminary examination, the medical examiner concluded that the death must have occurred 24 to 72 hours earlier, due to asphyxiation. They declared it as a suspicious death.
The room was a mess, indicating signs of a struggle. The victim's phone was on the table, the last call made to her mother. They examined the apartment, and found all windows locked from the inside and no signs of forced entry. There was no evidence indicating the presence of another person. The officers canvassed the area, but no one saw anything suspicious. The last person to visit her, according to a neighbour, was her boyfriend, Mike, 3 to 4 days ago. The officers decided to call the boyfriend for questioning, and informed the victim's family of her death. The family told the police that the victim, Sarah, was supposed to go camping in the woods for a week and she had informed them that there would be no cell service which is why they weren't worried when she didn't call. During questioning, the boyfriend told them the same and it was confirmed that he was, indeed, the last person to see the Sarah alive. He added that Sarah was behaving weirdly, she was extremely moody, he'd often find her looking lost. She had spent a weekend with him and his family during the holidays and after returning home, she didn't remember about it. In fact, some days she seemed unlike her usual self. At the time of her death, he said he had gone home. Sarah's sister, Amaya, had an argument with her sister about her spending habits, and that this wasn't the first time they disagreed on things but this time their argument was extremely heated. However, it was common amongst siblings to fight, that didn't imply that she killed her sister. Her alibi was that she was in her dorm room. On further examination of the crime scene, a bag of drugs was found. Sarah's friends and family were asked whether they knew that Sarah did drugs, and they said that they did know, and that she was trying to get out of it, however, nobody knew her dealer. The police speculated that maybe the dealer killed her because she didn't pay for the drugs. Another speculation was that Sarah wanted to break up but Mike didn't and killed her because of that. Lastly, they speculated that it could be the sister, due to her dislike for her sister.
Each theory seemed viable but there was no evidence to prove that there was another person in the room. The crime scene was re-examined and a medical file was found, hidden, in the cupboard. The file had the name of a psychiatrist, and the police proceeded to ask her about the victim. The psychiatrist mentioned that the victim was suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder and that often her dominant personality had shown suicidal tendencies.
The officers were forced to re-examine the case with the new found information. In doing so, a lot of the clues began making sense and the victims' death was ruled as suicide.

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