Curtain Call episode 4…

Curtain Call…..

If you want to purchase Curtain Call follow this link: https://www.huntakiller.com/tf

So here is my review…This link will take you to the full summary while this link will take you to the folder in my Google Drive which has all the documents, pictures and spreadsheets to connect to the summaries…

Missing Starlet

Summary: 

On the night of November 6, 1934, a famous starlet from the Broadway stage went missing, Viola Vane. The authorities interviewed her former fiancé Hector Roland and the Starlet’s mother Olga Gina, however they were unable to find any connections or Viola`s body therefore the case went cold. 

80 years later, Julia Alder, owner of the Cadence theater in New York, found Miss Viola Vane’s body in the attic of her theater. Unfortunately for Mis Julia, her theater was also that last place Viola was seen before her disappearance. After seeing the cops disregard the cold case and being harassed by her board of directors, she has hired us to solve the cold case.

Location: Cadence theater, New York US

Once again we are working with Michelle Gray, PI, and she has asked our help on her friend’s case. To access the virtual desktop:

• Website: https://www.michellegrayinvestigations.com/
  • Username(First initial, last name) :NJARDIN
  • Password for box 1: PORTER

Please refer to the previous summaries: box 1 & box 2 & Box 3 as it will give you information of the case so far.

In the previous boxes, we confirmed Julia’s theory about Viola’s murder and the victim was in fact the missing Starlet Viola Vane. Using the evidence provided in the previous boxes we confirmed the murder weapon was a jewel-encrusted cane that once belonged to Viola’s mother and we eliminated two suspects: Joe Sampson & Ruth Erickson. Now the point of the fourth box is to go through all the provided evidence and see if we can eliminate another suspect…

When accessing the virtual desktop Julia can’t change the main password into the desktop but with Michelle’s help she added all information for Curtain Call into one folder locked with a password that will change via box. This box’s password:

• Website: https://www.michellegrayinvestigations.com/
  • Username(First initial, last name) :NJARDIN
  • Password for box 1: PORTER
    • Case password: COOLIDGE

Located her is currently three unlocked folders:

• Staten
  • All electronic evidence from box 1
• Delancey
  • All electronic evidence from box 2
• MOTT
  • All electronic evidence from box 3
• CHILIES
  • All electronic evidence from box 4

We have access to new physical and electronic evidence:

• Item: Police Letter
  • Dated Nov. 13, 1934
  • Written by a Detective Shannon originally dated November 7, 1934.
  • Containing the missing page from the original report pertaining to the disappearance of Viola Vane as well as the Detective thoughts on the case.
• Item: Interlude NYC Article
  • Two sided article describing Cinema and Restaurant openings during the week of November 4-10, 1934
• Item: Magazine Article
  • Dated Nov 2, 1937
    • One side was an article describing Hector Roland’s success with his first motion picture. Also includes a small section about Viola’s disappearance and a where-are-they-now section about Alders, Ericksons, and Viola’s mother.
    • Second side was a ad for smoking
• Item: Song Lyrics
  • Two sets of lyrics written by the same person and dated months apart. 
    • Seem a bit suspicious
• Item: Return to Sender Letter
  • Sealed Envelope with writing on the front:
    • Writing leads us to believe that someone wanted Joe to give the letter to Olga.
• Physical Item: Ring
  • Hidden inside the sealed envelope
  • Has the date 1903 engraved on the inside
• Physical Item: Cigarette Case
  • Simple design
  • Has a bundle of strips of paper
    • Turns out to be a bundle of blueprint
• Physical Item: Blueprint Pieces
  • 36 perfectly cut blueprint pieces. 
  • Have to be assembled and taped back into place.
• Digital item: Transcripts
  • A folder with 2 transcripts of physical items and 1 transcript of virtual evidence:
    • Song Lyrics
    • Theater Blueprint
• Digital item: Board Letter
  • Sent to Julia from the President of the Board of the Theatre. 
  • An extremely expensive offer was made on the theatre and at the end of the wait period the theatre will be sold.
• Digital Item: Newspaper photo
  • Taken on Nov 6, 1934.
  • Quote: “Hector Roland was one of several stars in attendance at the restaurant’s Nov 6 opening.

Police Report: 

Dated November 13, 1934,

The missing page from the original report. Contents:

• Detective Shannon finally reached Ruth at the country house in Pennsylvania. Ruth let the Detective know that she left the theatre before the confrontation between Viola and Olga and arrived at the Train station at 5:20pm. Caught a train to Pennsylvania. Ruth also admitted that she wasn’t sad that Viola was missing.
• Detective Shannon also reinterviewed Evelyn as a person of interest. Evelyn stuck to her story but then admitted that Viola’s disappearance caused more problems for production and the play. Evelyn also mentioned how Viola didn’t appreciate her starring role at the play and didn’t seem to even try to work on her role. Evelyn wasn’t too fazed by Viola’s disappearance since it left her with the starring role which she (Evelyn) believed that she (Evelyn) was better suited for the role.
• The doorman from Olga’s building confirmed that Viola never returned home. 

Conclusions: Ruth and Evelyn weren’t unhappy about the disappearance but Detective Shannon didn’t believe there isn’t any evidence to keep the case open.

Song Lyrics: Broken down here

Song Lyrics: two sets of song lyrics written by the same person, months apart to two different unknown recipects. 

Conclusion: Ira wrote two poems for two women in his life: A goodbye poem for Viola ending their secret relationship and admitting his feelings for another woman and A love poem for Evelyn with a secret message asking her to marry him. 

***Remember the second poem is dated just 3 days before Viola “disappeared”**

Return to Sender:

Sealed Envelope with writing on the front:

• “Return to Sender. Joe could you pass this on to Olga. She hasn’t been taking my calls since our last conversation.”

Inside is a letter & wedding ring.

• Ring is engraved with “1903”
• Letter is Dated March 2, 1934 & Written by Hector Roland. 
  • Addressed to Viola’s mother Olga
  • The letter mentions the Engraved wedding band which was given to Hector by Olga in the purpose of Hector giving it to Viola on their wedding day. Hector was returning the ring since Viola broke up the engagement.
    • Hector also apologies to Olga after agreeing with Viola breaking up the engagement. Hector wants Viola to be happy even if it is with another person. 
    • Hector finishes the letter with saying that Viola will get multiple offers for jobs and marriage and that Olga should let her daughter go to grow on her on. 

Conclusion: Since this letter states how happy Hector is for Viola, it might eliminate Hector as a suspect.

Interlude NYC Article: Broken down here

Two sided article describing Cinema and Restaurant openings during the week of November 4-10, 1934.

Conclusions: With the information from the article and the photo, we can assume that Hector was at a new restaurant opening during the time that Viola was killed. This eliminates Hector as a suspect.

Magazine Article:

Dated Nov 2, 1937

• One side was an article describing Hector Roland’s success with his first motion picture. Also includes a small section about Viola’s disappearance and a where-are-they-now section about Alders, Ericksons, and Viola’s mother.
• Second side was a ad for smoking

Conclusion: Apparently a lot of fans believed Hector was involved with Viola’s disappearance. The article also provided more information on the rest of the suspect pool:

• Ira and Evelyn got married shortly after Viola’s disappearance and then shortly after that Evelyn gave birth to a child.
• Ruth and George got a divorce. Ruth refused to give a comment but George expressed sadness about Viola’s disappearance. He stuck to his story that he was in his office when she disappeared and wouldn’t even notice if she had walked right pass her. Viola’s mother Olga is still upset about her daughter’s disappearance but wouldn’t give anything else to the writer.

Cigarette Case:

Metal & has a simple design. Inside contains a bundle of strips of paper that turn out to be a bundle of 36 pieces of blueprint. 

To figure out the location of the blueprints is to solve it like a puzzle. In the end we find out that the Blueprints are for The Cadence Theatre. You can see the solution here: Blueprint Pieces 

Some of the places in the blueprint are circled. There is also code that is similar to the Stage notes in Box 1, Delivery Slip in Box 2 & the poster proof in box 3. Solving it is quite easy since we have done it before.

Conclusion: So the coded words say “Some hiding places for the Sentinel” which combined with the circled rooms on the blueprints:

• Bar- XIV
• Storage Room- XI
• Storage Room- VII
• Dressing Room 1- IV
• Dressing Room 2- V

Could lead us to believe that Joe made a list of places to hide the Sentinel lockbox from Box 3. While this doesn’t help eliminate a suspect it does provide some interesting information that might come in handy in the later boxes. 

Virtual Evidence:

Transcripts: The transcripts are clean copies of some of the evidence we were sent. A lot of the evidence is handwritten in cursive and might be hard to read, hence the transcripts.

• Song Lyrics
• Theater Blueprint

Suspects:

Ira Alder: Play Director/owner of Cadence Theater 

Hector Roland: Viola’s Ex-Fiancé 

Melvin Kahane: actor, was not at rehearsal

George Erikson: former owner

Ruth Erikson: George’s wife Was in Pennsylvania

Josefina Almonte: Actress Was not at rehearsal

Evelyn Kittridge: Ira’s future wife and understudy for the play

Olga Gaina: Viola’s elderly mother. 

Joseph Sampson: Stage Manager, alibi confirmed

So the point of this box was to eliminate another suspect. However before we make that conclusion, we have to consider the police report, The NYC article, and the newspaper photo…

So first:

• Police Report:
  • Written by a Detective Shannon originally dated November 7, 1934.
  • Containing 5 pages of witness reports pertaining to the disappearance of Viola Vane as well as the Detective thoughts on the case.

From the police interviews we can determine that while Hector left for an event around 5:30pm from a side entrance and arrived at his event at 6pm.

•  NYC Article
  • Two sided article describing Cinema and Restaurant openings during the week of November 4-10, 1934
• Newspaper Photo
  • Taken on Nov 6, 1934.
  • Quote: “Hector Roland was one of several stars in attendance at the restaurant’s Nov 6 opening.

With all of this information, we can determine that Hector was at a new restaurant opening during the time that Viola was killed. This eliminates Hector as a suspect.

Conclusions: 

• Viola was killed with a jewel-encrusted cane.
  • Evidence to confirm: Blunt Force Trauma to the skull, fracture was 8cm in diameter and a single cabochon-cut ruby (3cm in length, 3cm in width, 2cm in height) was found in the wound.
  • According to inventory: one cane was found in the attic: Wooden Shaft measuring 3ft. Circular metal head, 3in diameter. Cabochon gem inserts, measuring 3cm in length, 3cm in width, 2cm in height, with a gem missing
• Motive? Personal or Crime of Passion
  • Evidence to confirm: According to the Forensic Report all of her cash and cards were still in her purse which was found on the body.
• Joe Sampson is not the killer:
  • Alibi confirmed in the previous box
• Ruth Erickson is not the killer:
  • Alibi confirmed in the previous box
• Hector Roland is not the killer:
  • Alibi created from evidence in this box

I sent our guess on the suspect eliminated and we received this reply…

You’re right, I don’t think it was Hector who killed Viola. That picture of him at The Cancio just doesn’t add up with the timeline of the murder.

As relieved as I am to have one less suspect to deal with, that means we’re down to George, Olga, and my grandparents: Ira and Evelyn. God, two of the people left are my _grandparents_. Why haven’t we been able to clear them yet? They couldn’t have done something like this. Could they? I don’t think I’ll be able to face the rest of my family until I know for sure.

We’re getting closer, I can feel it, but we need to keep digging. With the Board’s new offer on the table, we don’t have a lot of time. The crowdfunding is helping, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough.

They say a bad dress rehearsal means you’ll have a great opening night, so here’s hoping that all the trouble we’ve dealt with recently means we’re in for some good luck soon.

Julia