StarStruck Episode 2

Since I was previously a member of the Hunt-a-Killer team since April 2020, I am in a small group of people who get StarStruck as part of the Subscription series. This box series is now partially “retired” and only available as a Premium Box Set available here: https://store.huntakiller.com/starstruck-complete-season-box-set

Since I will be getting this set as a 6 month series, It might be awhile in between box reviews. There is always the Facebooks groups if you need help immediately: https://www.facebook.com/huntakillerinc

Here is the link to the Full box with all information linked within this summary and this is the direct link to Episode 1 Summary.

Starstruck

Summary:

On October 5, 2019, Jake Morgan was found dead on the concert stage of Bowman Grove Amusement Park. Jake Morgan was a successful solo artist rehearsing for a 1-time reunion concert he was going to perform with his former boy band members Gabriel Fontes, Marcus Tate and Oliver Stuart. Since his death occurred in the middle of a rehearsal break during the day without any witnesses, suspicious circumstances, and without any clear motive, the Police ruled it accidental on site. Case Closed, right?

Shortly after, the President of the local fan club for the boy band, Just4Fun, & manager of the ticket booth of the concert venue at Bowman Grove Amusement Park, Shannon Murphy reached out to Private Investigator Michelle Gray with her suspicion that Jake Morgan’s death was not accidental. Despite that this is a high-profile case, Michelle Gray passed the case to us with her blessing to investigate.

Due to the high-profile nature of the case, Michelle created a private website for Shannon to share documents and information with us. This is also where we will send our answer at the end of each episode:

Website: just4funcase.com

Username: “Your personal email” (Mine-nejardin@yahoo.com)

Password: PORTER

Case Folder: JUST4FUN

Password: NUMBR1FAN

So we did figure out that Jake was in fact murdered in the first box but now to find a clue to the murderer or a motive. This goal of Box 2 is to find out if any of the rumors about the band were actually true. To figure this out, Shannon sent us some more evidence to go through…

Spoiler! A Blacklight was included in this box so you should scan every piece of evidence with a blacklight!

Evidence included in Box 2:

• Letter from Shannon
  • Biggest Fan aka Shannon speculates on some motives of the people closest to the band. This leads her to believe that some of the rumors about the band could be a true motive prompting us to figure out if it’s true.
• Tabloid Page
  • November 2002- “Spill the Beanz”
    • Headline: “Just4Fun Shocks Fans with Wild Rumors”
      • Has 5 rumors about the band
    • Backside Headline: “WatYR Fest Sinks”
      • Article about a failed concert
• Jake Interview
  • July 15, 2003
    • A year after the band broke up
  • From fan site: “Fresh15”
• Band Contract
  • Dated July 24, 2000
  • 1 page, double sided
  • Page 3 & 4
  • Covers the band’s payment, insurance & ownership rights
  • “Signed” by the 4 band members & Peter Bowman
    • Looks suspicious
• Handwritten Letter
  • Single page, 1 sided
  • Dated October 15, 2002
  • Not signed, no recipient
• Hidden Contract
  • Dated July 24, 2000
  • 1 page, double sided
  • Page 3 & 4
  • Covers the band’s payment, insurance & ownership rights
  • “Signed” by the 4 band members only
    • Looks almost the same as the “original” one with Peter Bowman included
• Physical Evidence:
  • Band Poster
  • Photobooth Photo
  • Framed Group Photo
  • Band Merch Blacklight
    • Remember to scan all documents with the blacklight.
• Virtual Evidence: (Items sent to us from the website)
  • Band Website

Letter from Shannon

1 page, single sided. Shannon Murphy tells us her suspicions about the band’s former management team. Then she mentions that there were a few popular rumors surrounding the band and that these could be good motives for Jake’s murder. She sent a few things from her own collection including an Article from a Tabloid, a band poster, and the blacklight that came with the poster. The rest of the documents came from her snooping around the theme park’s offices.

Tabloid Page

1 page, double sided, dated November 2002: Front Side “Just4Fun Shocks Fans with Wild Rumors” Back Side “ Watyr Fest Sinks!”

Key facts: This is from Shannon’s personal collection. The goal of this box is to figure out which rumor was true incase it is the motive for murdering Jake Morgan. This tabloid article was mainly about rumors surrounding the band:

1. Jake Morgan burns his fan mail
2. Star Sign Entertainment doesn’t pay J4F
3. One of the guys is in a Taboo Relationship
4. J4F’s Vocal Star is a Opera Star
5. J4F’s Manager had J4F arrested.

Using the other items and this article we can figure out which rumor is true. Solution here.

Jake Interview

From fan site: “Fresh15”, 1 page- single sided, dated July 15th, 2003

Released a week after Jake Morgan’s first solo album was released and a year after J4F broke up. The Title of the Interview is: Jake Morgan Tackles J4F’s Split, Launches First Solo Album

Summary:

Jake mentioned the band fondly and one of the questions asked about his favorite moment from the band. He said it was a day the band played hooky and their manager, “Sarge” was extremely mad and made their rehearsals were like boot camps after this. 

This could help us solve the goal of this box.

Band Contract

Dated July 24, 2000, 1 page, double sided, Page 3-4 out of 15

Covers the band’s payment, insurance & ownership rights

“Signed” by the 4 band members & Peter Bowman, Looks suspicious

Handwritten Letter

Single page, 1 sided, Dated October 15, 2002

Not signed, no recipient,

 **Look at the bottom of the letter with the blacklight to reveal a secret symbol (possible signature)**

Does connect to the Interview and the Tabloid page. Key to figuring out the goal to the box.

Hidden Contract

Dated July 24, 2000, 1 page, double sided, Page 3-4 out of 15

Covers the band’s payment, insurance & ownership rights

“Signed” by the 4 band members only, Looks almost the same as the “original” one with Peter Bowman included1 page, double-sided

Summary: I found this contract hidden in the back of the picture frame. (pictures here) Different than the “original” contract sent to us by Shannon. Solved here. Full decode if you click the link in the title.

Physical Evidence:

• Band Poster
  • Just4Fun band poster for their album, UltraViolet
  • Has fun invisible symbols that can be revealed with the blacklight
  • On the back is a small bio for each member and a fun fangirl quiz
• Photobooth Photo
  • Also found inside the Photo Frame
  • 3 Pictures of Jake Morgan and Gabriel Fontes
    • Looks like a picture or two are missing
  • On the back: “2gether”
• Framed Group Photo
  • Original photo is of all 4 band members, Peter Bowman and Dean Castillo
  • Looks like the owner of the picture folded over the part with Dean in the photo
  • No obvious owner of the picture frame
• Band Merch Blacklight
  • Remember to scan all documents with the blacklight.

Virtual Evidence: (Items sent to us from the website)

• J4F Site
  • Opens to the Main page with a picture of the 4 band members. Offers 3 sections: About, Merch & Forums. Details about the website here
  • Again check out the new entries in the forum for clues to help with the goal.
    • Conclusions: Entries provide Dean Castillo was not an opera singer before working fo J4F
• Boy Band Playlist- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1RALoiiL0250VA2vzBBn05
  • A playlist listing popular boy band songs created by Michelle Gray
• Email Screenshot (Same email from episode 1)
  • Email exchange between Peter Bowman (CEO of Star Sign Entertainment) and Jake Morgan
    • Looks like Peter was trying to step back into his role as the band’s manager and organize a meet & greet between the band and some fans. Jake didn’t like this idea and (probably not the best way) told him that this is a job for his actual manager not for Peter. 

Conclusions: 

The Goal of this box is to see which rumor is true:

1. Let’s re-examine the Tabloid Page:

This article is the main subject of the box since it covers the 5 most popular rumors surrounding the band.

1. Jake Morgan burns his fan mail
2. Star Sign Entertainment doesn’t pay J4F
3. One of the guys is in a Taboo Relationship
4. J4F’s Vocal Star is a Opera Star
5. J4F’s Manager had J4F arrested. 
6. Re-examine 3 pieces of evidence:

So mainly you should focus on Jake’s Interview which disproves the 1st and 5th rumors, either contract disproves the 2nd rumor and the Fanmail forum disproves the 4th rumor.

Therefore:

The 3rd rumor must be true. One of the band members was in a taboo relationship. 

• Based on the Handwritten Letter, we know a person close to the band was possibly in a relationship with a member of the band.
  • On the bottom of the letter, the writer of the letter drew a symbol in invisible ink. The symbol was a military insignia for Sergeant. According to Jake’s Interview, the band’s manager’s nickname was Sarge. We can assume that Rachel Day was the person that was in a relationship with one of the band members.

Of course the last step is to send our answer to Michelle:

I sent Michelle this email- 

Taboo relationship

This is her reply-

mgray@grayinvestigations.com

6:05pm

Oh my god, you’re so right! That handwritten letter confirms it. It’s not just that one of the guys was hiding their relationship from the public. It’s the fact that it was their manager! Isn’t there kind of a big age difference there? My younger self would’ve freaked out hearing about this. I’m impressed they were able to keep it under wraps, for the most part.

So who did Rachel write that letter for? And what other secrets were J4F and Star Sign keeping? THis can’t be the only scandalous thing they had to hide from the public. In fact, the guys were probably keeping a lot hidden about their personal lives.

To find out more, I think I’m going to have to do something a little…risky. I’ll be in touch.

Shannon