Ai Haibara Imprisonment Case

Chronology
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Episode 768 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	Ai Haibara Imprisonment Case
Japanese title:	灰原哀監禁事件 (Haibara Ai Kankin Jiken)
Original airdate:	February 21, 2015
Broadcast rating:	10,30%
Filler case:	#234
Season:	24
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Professor Agasa Detective Boys Inspector Megure Detective Takagi Detective Chiba
Case solved by:	Conan Edogawa
Next Conan's Hint:	Canned juice
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Screenplay:	Masaki Tsuji
Storyboard:	Shigenori Kageyama
Episode director:	Nobuharu Kamanaka
Animation director:	Seiji Muta (supervisor) Tomoko Fukunaga Chiemi Hironaka Kenichi Otomo
Music
Opening song:	DYNAMITE
Closing song:	Kimi e no Uso

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Professor Agasa Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Inspector Megure Detective Takagi Detective Chiba

Gadgets

Gadgets
Detective Boys Badge

Case

Situation

The Detective Boys are wandering the streets in the residential area around Professor Agasa's house, worrying about Ai Haibara, who has gone missing since she went shopping several hours ago. At first, Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi are wondering whether Ai has become the victim of a traffic accident, but then Conan finds a cat's shawl lying on the street. Seeing this, he remembers how he, Ai and the Professor recently met a friendly young woman named Mitsuru Higaki, along with her pet cat Chiro (who wore the shawl) and her Indian Star Tortoise.

Searching the vicinity for Chiro, they find the kitten inside a well in a park, but when they try to return it, Mrs. Higaki does not answer the doorbell, so they take the cat back to Agasa's house to feed it. After contacting Detective Chiba to learn whether there have been any accidents in the area (none have), Conan tries to contact Ai through her badge, but to no avail. And it's no small wonder, since at that very moment Haibara awakes to find both herself and Mrs. Higaki inside a darkened living room, solidly tied and gagged!

Robbery and Kidnapping

Location: the Higaki Residence Victims: Ai Haibara and Mitsuru Higaki As Mitsuri Higaki recounts later, she was assaulted in her home and left tied up to a post while the culprit robbed her house. And as the TV was running, she also helplessly witnessed the news about the murder of her husband. Ai was later brought into the living room as well and left tied to a chair, close to the post Mrs. Higaki was handcuffed to.

As soon as her situation becomes clear and she has realized that she has been out for five hours, Ai remembers how she came by after concluding her shopping and spotted Chiro struggling with his shawl, which was wrapped around the leg of a telephone table. When she attempted to free the kitten, she was suddenly grabbed from behind and chloroformed, never getting a chance to see her attacker's face. Then she notices that the TV set in the room is running on silent mode, in which a newsflash appears that announces the murder of Naoshi Higaki, Mrs. Higaki's husband!

Murder
	Location: Chitose, Hokkaido Victim: Naoshi Higaki Naoshi Higaki was travelling to Chitose on a business trip when he was murdered under unknown circumstances.

People

Mitsuru Higaki
	Victim (kidnapped) 35 years old Imprisoned with Ai Haibara

Naoshi Higaki
	Victim (murdered) 42 years old Businessman Mitsuru's husband Killed at New Chitose Airport

Chiro
	Mitsuru's pet cat

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Mitsuru Higaki committed the kidnapping in order to use Haibara as an alibi witness. She and Naoshi were about to get divorced, and she murdered him just to keep herself away from the bad side of the impending complications. She chose Ai because she had noticed how intelligent and strong-willed the girl was.

In order to facilitate the deception, Mitsuru purchased a new apartment house in the Airport Village and decorated it identically to her own living room, thus creating the illusion that she and Haibara were held captive in her home, which would be too far away for her to get to Hokkaido, commit the murder, and return in time. With the fake apartment close to the airport, Mitsuru was able to use the five hour interval in which Ai Haibara was unconscious to fly to Chitou, murder her husband and return to transport Haibara back to her own house. The terrarium with her Star Turtle served as the chief implement to make Haibara believe that she was actually imprisoned in Mitsuru's house.

The decisive pieces of evidence are:

• The fact that the wine delivery man rang the doorbell to Mitsuru's apartment six times in rapid succession, but Haibara heard the bell ringing (which actually originated from a prepared recording) only twice, and at a much slower pace;
• The floor in the fake apartment has a shifted floor, due to jerry-building (poorly executed construction). That fact was noted in a newspaper article featuring Airport Village. Conan stumbles upon that clue after Haibara remembers the odd way the soda can on the table rolled around as she was chloroformed the second time.

See also

• Season 24