Los Angeles Legendary Sleuth

Now the suspect in the case has recanted their testimony. To avoid suspicion, Reid handed the case over to Unit 1 to handle.

The case occurred in a villa in a suburb of Los Angeles. The suspect is the male owner of the villa, and the victim is the female owner. The witness is a boy they adopted, an eight-year-old child.

The deputy paused and continued, "At the time of the incident, the boy was asleep on the villa's second floor. He was awakened by noises downstairs, walked out of the bedroom to check, and witnessed a scene he could never forget.

The living room was in disarray, with blood everywhere. His mother lay on the floor, and his father was on top of her, choking her with his hands. The boy screamed and fainted from fright."

The surrounding neighbors also heard the disturbance in the villa, thought the couple was arguing, and called the police. When the police arrived, they saw traces of blood and struggle, but both the couple, except for the boy, were missing.

The next day, the police found the male owner fast asleep at the entrance of a bar. He admitted to having an argument with his wife but denied physically assaulting her, saying he left home in anger and went to a bar to drink.

However, surveillance footage showed he left home at 1 a.m. and was found by the police at 8 a.m., with no one able to account for his whereabouts during that time or what he did.

But the police found bloodstains on his clothes, which were identified as the victim's blood. Combined with the boy's testimony, the police arrested the male owner for intentional injury.

But the problem was, the police never found the female victim, couldn't examine her for injuries, and couldn't prove she had been violently attacked.

In the ensuing period, the police continued to search for the female victim but found no trace of her.

The investigators suspected the female victim had met with foul play, but they could not find a body.

The police could only gather evidence from other sources and found that the male owner had a violent tendency, having assaulted the female victim multiple times before, making it not the first instance of her being beaten.

Moreover, he had made multiple threats and intimidations to kill the female victim.

Based on the above clues and evidence, the police determined that the female victim might be dead, and the likely perpetrator was the male owner.

The male owner denied the charges, but his testimony was self-contradictory. The judge and jury found him guilty, and he had been serving a ten-year prison sentence.

During this time, the male owner kept in contact with the boy. Over the past two years, the boy frequently visited his adoptive father in prison, and their relationship became closer. This year, he even changed his statement, saying he didn't see his father committing any crime, just that he was too young back then and influenced by the interrogating officers, requesting the police to reinvestigate to clear his father's name.

As the only witness, the boy's recantation had a significant impact on the case, and the male owner firmly claimed he did not kill his wife.

Subsequently, many journalists began reporting on this case, and the prosecutor's office reopened the case investigation.

Under these circumstances, the case was transferred to the Robbery and Murder Department Unit 1 for further investigation.

Hearing this, Luke understood the difficulty of the case; it had already been ten years, and much evidence and clues had disappeared.

If no new evidence or witnesses can be found, this case will also become a cold case.

Luke asked, "What is the status of the case now?"

The deputy replied, "We are focusing the investigation on two areas: Firstly, revisiting the case to find new eyewitnesses and evidence, with the best outcome being finding the body of the female victim.

We re-searched the villa where the incident occurred, but found no body of the female owner.

We also began investigating the male owner's whereabouts after leaving home. Someone claimed to have seen him near Clinton Park, and we found soil on his shoes as well.

We suspect he might have buried the body in the park and began conducting a wide-scale search in the park.

The second area is to have the only witness, the suspect's son, recall the events of that year.

According to the boy's recollection, his adoptive parents did not have a good relationship, and the adoptive father had a very irritable temper, which was confirmed by the neighbors.

After the boy's adoptive father went to prison, he was adopted by a new family, who treated him well.

We obtained a new clue from him that every year, a kind person would send him gifts, but he had never seen this kind person.

Following this clue, we began an investigation and traced the mailing address, which led us to that kind person.

And that kind person was the female victim's mother.

She sent gifts to her daughter's adoptive son out of longing for her daughter."

The deputy, with a dry throat, took a sip of coffee and continued, "Through conversation, I found the woman a bit nervous but not as angry as expected.

Moreover, I found that the family of the female victim had not shown much reaction to the case from beginning to end, unlike typical families who would have actively demanded the police to investigate and search for their daughter's body.

I thought something was off.

I further investigated and discovered that the mother had been in contact with a mysterious individual.

We followed the trail and found this mysterious person. Can you guess who it was?"

Luke speculated, "The female victim is not dead?"

"Yes, although I already had this suspicion, seeing her in person was still surprising. I can't understand why she did this," the deputy shrugged and continued, "We only understood after further discussions.