The Culprit Who Disappeared Into the Sleeping Town

Chronology
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Episode 1090 (Int. Episode 1148)
Information
Title:	The Culprit Who Disappeared Into the Sleeping Town
Japanese title:	眠れる街に消えた犯人 (Nemureru Machi ni Kieta Han'nin)
Original airdate:	July 15, 2023
Broadcast rating:	4.5%
Filler case:	#397
Season:	28
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Bouquet
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto Nobuharu Kamanaka
Screenplay:	Tatsuro Inamoto
Storyboard:	Mitsuko Kase
Episode director:	Yosuke Fujino
Animation director:	Kaoru Nagakawa Yukari Kamiaka Zi Dengjia Michitaka Yamamoto Joji Yanase
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Rei Masunaga (sub-character) Hiroshi Ogawa (design works)
Production cooperation:	Azeta Pictures
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi Atsuko Yuya as Miwako Sato Ryoko Shiraishi as Keiko Yuki Ryuichi Azuma as Kaoru Ichinose Mitsuru Ogata as Goro Nezu Yusuke Hoshino as Forensics officer
Music
Opening song:	RAISE INSIGHT
Closing song:	…and Rescue Me

The Culprit Who Disappeared Into the Sleeping Town (眠れる街に消えた犯人 ,Nemureru Machi ni Kieta Han'nin) is the 1090th episode of the Detective Conan anime.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato

Gadgets

Gadgets
Stun-Gun Wristwatch Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

After the dawn had faded and the jet-black had taken over the sky, Kogoro, Ran, and Conan were walking down a deserted street, grumbling that they had just completed a request concerning a lost cat. All of a sudden, they heard a high-pitched whistle out of nowhere, resonating around the entire street in Haido City. When they got there to examine the circumstances, they saw a security guard lying on the pavement, struggling with weak vitality but still alive. Apparently, he fell off the big staircase that was above him. The security guard uttered "white clothes" repeatedly using his last breath, while using his finger to point at the pavement, which leads towards the major avenue. Conan noticed that there were bloody footprints throughout the pavement that the security guard pointed at.

Murder
	Location: District avenue Victim: Goro Nezu Age: 52 years old Cause of death: Stab wound on the stomach Suspects: Keiko Yuki and Kaoru Ichinose The security guard pointed at the avenue direction and kept uttering "white clothes".

At the same time, Conan also heard a woman sobbing, which seemed to come from the top of the staircase. The police then arrived and found out that there was another person murdered on top of the staircase. The woman who was sobbing next to the corpse was the victim's wife, Keiko Yuki.

Murder
	Location: District avenue Victim: Hideto Yuki Age: 34 years old Cause of death: Stab wound on the chest Suspects: Keiko Yuki and Kaoru Ichinose

The crime scene situation.

Hideto Yuki was the president of an IT company, and his IT company building was situated right behind the crime scene. Therefore, Sato deduced that Hideto was most likely killed when he was exiting his IT company building, as there was a platform in front of the building, followed by a huge staircase that leads to the place where the IT company security guard Goro Nezu was murdered. Conan then scrutinized the crime scene meticulously and discovered that the blood stains ended abruptly and must have been splattered onto the culprit as well. Thus, he turned his sight towards the victim's wife, Keiko, who had precisely a lot of blood stains on her clothes due to her first contact with the corpse and was wearing white clothes, just as the security guard Goro said before his death. The police discovered a stun gun, always carried by Hideto for self-defense, ditched among the blood stains, and judging by its voltage, it must have been used on the culprit once. After checking the situation at the top, everyone began to investigate the dead Goro at the bottom of the staircase. It happened to be the same knife that took away their lives, and when they looked closely, there were numerous cut wounds on Goro's chest, and that might be the result of his battle with the culprit. With regards to the bloody footprints, they extended towards the avenue. Sato once again deduced that the culprit might have escaped in that direction, switched their shoes, or fled in a vehicle.

Keiko's recount of her witness.

The suspects were Keiko Yuki, Hideto's wife, and Kaoru Ichinose, Hideto's secretary. These two were around when the two murder cases got implemented. Keiko explained that she was talking to his husband in a third-floor meeting room, and she stayed behind, always at the back of the building. After hearing the alarm whistle, she went to the window to check it out. This made her see the corpse lying below the building and the security guard running and chasing the culprit. Then she heard a fatal scream from the security guard, Goro, who fell in the middle of the staircase. After giving out this information, she resumed sobbing. However, Conan realized that she wore a wedding ring, but the victim did not. So he deduced that they might be at odds and on the verge of divorcing. This offered her a plausible motive for the killings. Soon, Kogoro excluded the possibility of Keiko committing the crime, as if the culprit was really Keiko, Goro must have pointed at the top of the stairs but instead towards the avenue direction. And Keiko was wearing heels anyway, which did not match the two footprints at the crime scene. Yet, the suspicion fell on the victim's secretary, Kaoru Ichinose. Conan determined that Kaoru was smoking across the building by smelling his clothes, which were exactly where the security guard pointed. He also confessed, and explained that he was smoking on the opposite pavement, and the crime scene was entirely blocked by other buildings in that position. Although Kaoru was wearing a pink vest, the vest was reversible, and on the reverse side of the vest, the color was white, which matched Goro's testimony. Nevertheless, the police did not find any blood stains on it, but coffee stains. Now here comes the hard mystery: the police did not find anything off upon them, which proved their innocence. Then who else would the culprit be?

The smoking area (blue) and the IT company building (red) were separated by other buildings in between.

Conan did not understand why could not the culprit attack Hideto when he was alone, but instead, in front of the security guard. After some time, Sato found out that four years ago, Yuki's company was suspected of illegal activities, and the woman, named Sachi Shirai, who supposedly had the full responsibility killed herself by jumping off the IT company building. And the one giving the testimony which Sachi jumped off the building was he security guard, Goro.

After Goro gave his testimony, he immediately paid off all the debts he had accumulated. Hence, Kogoro deduced that he was bribed to give false testimony. Conan looked around the internet and found a life-time photo of Sachi Shirai, which, from the reflection of the wine glass, showed Kaoru. Kaoru had connections with Sachi, even though the incident happened before his arrival at this IT company. He admitted being Sachi's boy friend and revealed that he entered the company just to discover the truth of that incident. He also uncovered that the reason he was smoking across the building was actually to meet his president. As his president felt a sort of remorse and wanted to turn himself in regarding the incident happened four years ago. Today he also had confessed with his wife Keiko about his repent too. Since the president had never shown up, he decided to inspect what was going on nearby. He then noticed the bloody footprints caused by the culprit and followed him up the stairs. And found his president, Hideto, dead and the security guard performing chest compression for the president. Anyhow, Goro mistook him for the culprit, who intended to retire back to the crime scene. And wanted to catch him and hand him to the police. That was also what Keiko saw in the IT company building. The only thing he could do was reverse the vest and pretend that he had just passed by. Then, is Kaoru lying? If yes, what trick did he use?

People

Goro Nezu
	Victim (stabbed) 52 years old IT company security guard

Hideto Yuki
	Victim (stabbed) 34 years old IT company president

Keiko Yuki
	34 years old Hideto's wife IT company vice-president

Kaoru Ichinose
	25 years old Hideto's secretary

Sachi Shirai
	Deceased (fell) IT company employee Keiko's dearest friend Kaoru's girlfriend

Forensics officer A
	Tokyo MPD CSI officer

Forensics officer B
	Tokyo MPD CSI officer

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Conan tranquilised Kogoro and started giving out the deduction. Everyone was distracted by the visual obstacles and went through the two suspects, but in reality, the culprit X was not among the two of them. The true culprit X was actually Goro Nezu, the security guard who died earlier.

The devil's circuit

Goro commiting the crime.

Since Goro gave the false testimony four years ago, if Hideto decided to turn himself in, he would definitely be fired for his job, and his reputation would go down the drain. And at his age, it would be difficult for him to find another job. This was the motive for Goro's killing of the president. When Goro was found dead on the pavement, he had his nightstick still equipped on his hip, so he was not using it to fight off the culprit. But instead, he used a knife to kill the victim, as he was the actual culprit. Goro's shoes have two surfaces, if you uncover the sole on top, it would be another texture for it. By using the two textures, he was able to forge two bloody footprints. He first stabbed Hideto when he exited the building to meet Kaoru. Then he walked towards the avenue, making bloody footprints with flat textures. Then he stopped and put on the sole he had just bought for the crime, which had the other texture. And climbed up the staircase to reach the corpse once again. Now the soles are new, so no blood would be deposited on them. He also did the same thing with the new shoe sole texture and created his own footprints. He deliberately used a knife to condoct knife wounds to make people believe that they remained during his struggle with the culprit. The chest compressions were an illusion to conceal the blood that got onto him. He afterwards blew the whistle, calling Keiko to witness all of these. This plan would be completely perfect if no accidents had occurred.

Goro stabbing himself in front of the reflective glass.

He did not anticipate that the victim would have a stun gun with him. And indeed, Goro got struck by the stun gun. Therefore, to hide the burn on his side waist, he decided to do another injury to explain that. It was too difficult to make the wounds accurately just by looking, so he had to use a mirror. So Goro approached the reflective glass of the IT company building and forged the wound in front of it. This can be taken as evidence, as the blood would have been spattered onto the glass. Moreover, while he was performing chest compressions on the victim, he encountered Kaoru, who went to find the president. Goro thought Kaoru saw everything he did, thus wanted to murder Kaoru as well. When he was about to chase Kaoru, owing to the numerous wounds she inflicted on his body, in addition to the panic and the unease of the new shoe soles he was equipping, he stabbed himself accidentally while racing down the stairs with full speed. In the end, he thought that he would not die, and still intended to frame Kaoru, which he did by pointing towards the direction Kaoru fled and uttering the colour that Kaoru was wearing at that time (white clothes). And now, the devil's circuit is complete.

Aftermath

After the case had been solved, Kogoro sneakily ate Ran's kinako mochi in his detective agency and left a bunch of footprints. Kogoro joked that he was framed by the culprit X.

Trivia

• In this episode, the Sleeping Kogoro cited a famous classic quote among mystery novels: the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest (の葉を隠すなら森の中), this quote is also referred in The Flying Jack-o'-lantern.

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
French (Subbed)	L'Assassin disparu dans le quartier endormi	The Assassin Who Disappeared Into the Sleeping Town
Thai	คนร้ายที่หายไปในเมืองอันหลับไหล!	The Culprit Who Disappeared in the Sleeping Town!

See also

• Season 28