At the Scene

The forest gets thicker and buildings less frequent the farther you drive along old Route 52. You see the sign for Tumbling Water Land Development Company and make the turn onto the gravel road cutting into the forest. Before long you see the other police vehicles, and Detective Murray is motioning you over to the side of the road. A small cabin, now surrounded by police tape is surrounded by trees here, and you see several other similar cabins further down the road. You hear the Blackrock River not too far off behind the cabin.

As you and your partner get out of the car, the hot July sun hits you. Detective Murray comes up, sweating in the heat. "Hey folks, welcome to the scene. Two bodies inside, both pretty bad off, and who knows how long they've been there. A girl scout found them about an hour and a half ago on a hiking trip. Gave her quite a fright; her troop leaders weren't much better off. Anyway, we've got a problem. We've ID'd the woman inside as Louise Mondelo, the same woman identified last weekend in that car that ran off Backbone Mountain during the storm. Neither body's in good shape and nothing positive can be made until we get DNA, but we need to figure this one out."

The smell of human decay assaults your nose as you go inside. Overturned chairs and tables announce the struggle that took place here. The smaller body, dressed in a blouse and jeans, lays near the phone that now dangles from its line. The larger is dressed in a man's polo shirt and slacks and lays in a corner to the left of a door; blood covers the walls and floor around him. Another investigator is already collecting maggots from the corpses to help establish a time of death. As you process the scene, you find flesh scraped on the stone of the fireplace, and you collect blood and skin from a piece of bloody firewood laying near the woman's body. The wounds on her head seem consistent with the firewood, but nothing is certain with her in this state of decay. Outside of the cabin, you notice a set of tire tracks deeply rutted in the mud and grass. None of the investigators had driven near that area, so you take plaster molds and pictures to preserve evidence.

As you finish processing the scene, you know that it is up to you now to determine the identity of Louise Mondelo and to discover what events led to the tragic end of all five victims.

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