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 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. His room was a total mess, which was chalked up to a struggle between Kohji and his assailant. However the cause of death remains unclear. On the same day in a different hotel room Amanda Hughes, a wealthy investor 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 his room. The sink sink in the bathroom was even left running. Several defensive wounds were found on Kohji's arms and his palm was bruised from gripping a pair of scissors very tightly.

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 a woman. As a bodyguard, it is thought that Asaka is skilled at bringing down opponents.

Gin comments that this case is a job in which Rum screwed up, clarifying that Rum was present.

Tsutomu Akai was either involved in the case or its aftermath. As a result, he had 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.

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!".

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 sink in the bathroom was even left running. It seems as if Kohji had turned the sink on to run water over the mirror to use the scissors to cut the mirror up. With the letters "P T O N" removed, the message remaining is "U MASCARA", which can be arranged to make "ASACA RUM"

Broken mirror dying message

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.

Partial list of APTX 4869 victims

See also

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