Valentine Murder Case

Chronology
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Episode 6 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	The Valentine Murder Case
Japanese title:	BARENTAIN satsujin jiken (バレンタイン殺人事件)
Original airdate:	February 12, 1996
Season:	1
Manga source:	TV Original
English version
English title:	Tragic Valentine
English airdate:	June 1, 2004
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Bar code
Staff
Director:	Kenji Kodama
Screenplay:	Toshiki Inoue
Storyboard:	Shigeru Morikawa
Episode director:	Yuji Yamaguchi
Animation director:	Takashi Hyoudo
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Akira Kamiya as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Inspector Megure Wataru Takagi as Genta Kojima, Next Conan's Hint Yukiko Iwai as Ayumi Yoshida Ryo Horikawa as Katsuhiko Minagawa Tomoyuki Dan as Toshihide Wakamatsu Nobuo Tobita as Naomichi Sakiko Tamagawa as Yoshimi Watanabe Naoko Matsui as Sonoko Suzuki Kazue Ikura as Kaori Sekiya Chiyoko Kawashima as Minagawa's Mother Chiaki Morita as Susumu Minagawa
Music
Opening song:	Mune ga Doki Doki
Closing song:	Step by Step

Characters introduced

Sonoko Suzuki
	17 years old Ran's best friend

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Inspector Megure Dr. Agasa Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Genta Kojima Ayumi Yoshida Shinichi Kudo (background)

Case

Situation

Murder
	Location: Minagawa household Victim: Katsuhiko Minagawa Suspects: Toshihide Wakamatsu, Kaori Sekiya, Yoshimi Watanabe, "Naomichi", Minagawa's Mother Katsuhiko collapsed dead onto the ground from poison outside his house after eating a piece of Yoshimi's chocolate.

People

Katsuhiko Minagawa
	Victim (poison) Captain of the Beika University tennis club

Toshihide Wakamatsu
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Kaori Sekiya
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Yoshimi Watanabe
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

"Naomichi"
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Minagawa's Mother
	Katsuhiko and Susumu's mother

Susumu Minagawa
	Katsuhiko's younger brother

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

• Evidence

Inspector Megure found that Katsuhiko died of poisoning due to agricultural chemicals. There were two objects in the crime scene:

1. The chocolate given by Yoshimi, which was eaten by Katsuhiko before he died.
2. The cigarette on Katsuhiko's hand given by Naomichi.

Inspector Kogoro concluded right away that Yoshimi was the culprit and that the chocolate was poisoned. He reasoned that it was a common case of love difficulties.

However, Conan was quite skeptical about this. While recollecting which of the foods that they have eaten (the sushi, the coffee, the cake) may have contained the poison, he was distracted by the clicks made by Naomichi's cigarette lighter. He immediately brought to Kogoro and Megure's attention that a smoked cigarette was also found at the crime scene.

Sonoko established the fact that she saw Naomichi gave it to Katsuhiko. Now that the table has been turned on him, Naomichi admitted that he, indeed, put poison on the cigarette's filter. Apparently, he had hated the victim all along. He claimed that Katsuhiko had constantly made fun of him and had hurt Kaori's feelings.

But something was still quite amissed. The cigarette butt didn't have a filter on it. And, inspite of everything that was happening, why was Katsuhiko's mom washing the coffee cups?

• Conclusion

With the aid of the tranquilizer gun disguised as a watch given by Dr. Agasa, Conan put Inspector Kogoro to sleep and used the voice-altering bowtie to state that Katsuhiko's killer was his mother!

He pointed out that Naomichi might have attempted the murder but failed when the victim took off the cigarette filter. He then proceeded to explain how the Minagawa matriarch had put the poison in one of the foods that she gave them, and that Katsuhiko did not die because of the food he ate, but, rather, of what he didn't.

She put the poison in the coffee, served it to everyone, and put the antidote in the food that Katsuhiko wouldn't most likely eat: sweets, i.e., the cake. And to make the plan foolproof, she framed Yoshimi.

Conan had inferred that even though she reprimanded Susumo when she saw him eating the chocolate, she instantly made him eat a piece of cake upon seeing him drink the coffee. She knew that Katsuhiko would eat Yoshimi's chocolate because of how he felt for her. She was also the first to get to his son's body, thus, was able to switch Yoshimi's chocolate to a poisoned one. In fact, there was melted chocolate on her clothes, stained when she made the switch. Plus, she was seen washing the evidence from the coffee cups before the cops could get to it.

• Motive

Katsuhiko was adopted by the Minagawas when his parents died seven years ago in a car accident. With the adoption comes his life insurance money. When the Minagawa business failed, the mother resorted to murdering her adopted son to get the money, therefore, be able to save the family and Susumo's happiness.

See also

• Season 1