Case from 17 years ago

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Conan reads about the case online.

17 years ago Kohji Haneda and Amanda Hughes were found dead in their hotel rooms. Kohji had managed to leave a mysterious dying message that may indicate that a member of the Black Organization was involved.

Cast

Characters
Kohji Haneda Amanda Hughes Asaka Rum Tsutomu Akai

Description

Kohji's body

Kohji Haneda, a shogi player, went to the US to participate in a chess competition, however the day before the match he was found murdered in his hotel room. According to a website with numerous photos of the crime scene, his room was a total mess which was chalked up to a struggle between Kohji and his assailant. The website reported that the cause of his death remains unclear, but Haibara recalls his name was on the APTX 4869 victims list. On the same day in a different hotel room Amanda Hughes, a wealthy person who has contacts with both the FBI and CIA, was found murdered and the cause of her death is also unclear.

Amanda had been a fan of Kohji's and had been in contact with him in the past. She had visited his hotel room some time before the murder, her fingerprints were found on the door handle, sofa, tea cups, knife, and fork. After the murder there were tea cups, plates, and a hand mirror found smashed on the floor of Kohji's room. Several defensive wounds were found on Kohji's arms and his palm was bruised from gripping a pair of scissors very tightly. There were some bruises on his face as well. On the other hand, Amanda's own room was still orderly as if nothing had happened there, the sink in the bathroom was even left running. It is not known who of them was murdered first.

On the day of the murders Amanda's bodyguard, who she called "Asaka", disappeared. Currently Asaka is the prime suspect in both murders. Neither relatives or acquaintances of Amanda know when Asaka was hired on as her bodyguard. It is currently unknown whether Asaka is a given name or a surname. If it were a given name then it would be likely that Asaka would be female, however if it were a surname then it would not be possible to determine the gender. At some point Asaka was seen holding a hand mirror, which leads Gaito Hotta to believe that Asaka is a woman. As a bodyguard, it is thought that Asaka is skilled at bringing down opponents.

The information about the case has been uploaded to the internet, even when it gets taken down the person tries to re-upload it. Conan thinks that its almost if they are saying "Please help me solve this mystery!".

Gin comments that this case is a job in which Rum screwed up, clarifying that Rum was present, or at least involved some way or another, and that things did not happen according to plan back then.

Tsutomu Akai was either involved in the case or its aftermath. As a result, he made enemies with some really bad people and sent a message to his family telling them to move to the safety of Japan. Since then Tsutomu has not been seen, leading many to believe that he is dead. However, a body has never been found.

Currently the list of people who know about the case are as follows: Conan, Haibara, Agasa, Shuichi, Masumi, Mary, Kogoro, Gin, Vodka, Bourbon, Vermouth, and Kuroda. It is presumed that since Rumi's name bares resemblance to the dying message that she may know as well. Shukichi seems to be aware of Kohji's death, but it is unclear what he knows, or what his connection to Kohji is, since he is called a 'non-biological brother'.

Dying Message

After the murder there were tea cups, plates, and a hand mirror found smashed on the floor of Kohji's room. The mirror had writing on it that Haibara recognized as saying "PUT ON MASCARA", however it had been broken so that only "P T O N" remained. Kohji's palm was bruised from gripping a pair of scissors very tightly. The sink in Amanda's bathroom was even left running. It seems as if Kohji had gone to her room and turned the sink on, then ran water over the mirror to use the scissors to cut the mirror up, although it's unclear how he managed to do that during such circumstances. With the letters "P T O N" removed, the message remaining is "U MASCARA", which can be arranged to make "ASACA RUM". The Black Organization is aware of the dying message.

Broken mirror dying message

Gripping the scissors tightly

APTX Connection

Even though the cause of death is unclear in both cases, only Kohji's name appeared on the APTX 4869 victims list. However it is interesting to note that Kohji's name appeared two names below Shinichi's name on the list. Haibara thinks that the person who compiled the victims list may not have compiled it chronologically, but rather in some other fashion, like blood type.

Since Haibara states that the drug she worked on was created from the burnt remains from the data left behind by her parents, she says that its possible that Kohji was made to ingest an early prototype made by her parents. Haibara hasn't mentioned whether Amanda Hughes' name is on the list or not.

Partial list of APTX 4869 victims

Motive

The motive for the murders is unknown. In Kohji Haneda's case, Haibara suggest it might have been because he was close to Amanda Hughes. If that's true, then that means that Amanda was the main target, possibly because of her connections to the FBI and the CIA.

Anime Changes

• Given that the Romanized spelling of Asaca and Rum in the dying message is important, it seems relevant to note that the Romanized spelling of "Kohji" was changed for the anime version to "Kouji".

Speculation

The one putting the case online

A mysterious individual, the uploader, is in possession of detailed crime scene photographs and case information. This includes pictures of Kohji's dying message hand mirror broken on the ground prior to Asaka removing a hand mirror from the scene. This unknown uploader posts this information online, seemingly asking for the case to be solved.

Information about the case was online at the time Okiya and Conan solved the "The Clenched Scissors and the Clipped Letters" case, but was removed by the beginning of the "Soul Detective Murder Case". The reason why the information was deleted and the identity of the one doing the takedowns --perhaps the uploader themselves or another force who wishes to scrub the essential details of Kohji's case from the internet-- is still uncertain.

It should be noted that current Police Superintendent Hyoue Kuroda has access to the information on the website and seems to see some sort of connection to Elementary teacher Rumi Wakasa. Some fans speculate that it is possible that Rumi is the one uploading the information to the site due to her name being a close letter scramble of the dying message ASAKA RUM and her method of approaching Conan.

Rum

Conan suspects that Asaka is Rum, based on that the missing letters from the mirror spells out ASACA RUM.

See also

• Rum
• Kohji Haneda
• List of Black Organization related characters