Murder Mystery Dinner: Who Killed Emma?

On Saturday, Oct. 28, the Frostburg State University (FSU) University Programming Council (UPC) and Alpha Phi Omega put on a murder mystery dinner. Upon entering the room, guests were told to help themselves to dinner, and then to have a seat wherever they wished. Once the show began, we met the characters, Emma, a drunk new widow; Dan, the retired detective that investigated Emma’s husband’s death; Penny, Emma’s sister; Father Back, a hip preacher who buried Emma’s husband; Tess, the surgeon who tried to save her husband; and Lacey, the accountant who helped run the business.

Emma has brought all these people together to discuss an anonymous letter she received threatening her life. After the letter is brought up everyone starts pointing fingers. After all the accusations, Emma had enough and stormed out. She locked herself in the study and wasn’t allowing anyone to come in. Throughout the failed attempt of trying to get Emma to unlock the door, each character, for a brief amount of time, had left for one reason or another. After nothing had worked they decided to break the door down, finding Emma with a knife coming out of her chest. Each person had motive. Dan had run into some financial issues, Father Back had accusations of doing things with the alter boys, Penny was angry that she was fifth in line for Emma’s money, Tess had a glass of wine before operating on Emma’s husband and didn’t want Emma to know, and Lacey was having an affair with the husband while he was married. Once again accusations started flying. Who was it? Who had the least to lose with Emma’s death?

It turned out that the accusations around Father Back weren’t true, he wasn’t misbehaving in the sheets, just in the streets. He was caught smoking with some of the older alter boys and Emma had caught him. He begged her not to say anything; he had been working hard in the community and didn’t want to lose his reputation. Although he had the opportunity and motive, he’s a man of the Lord and didn’t kill her.

Tess, a great surgeon, loved her job. The night of Emma’s husbands death she was at a charity event and had one glass of wine. It wasn’t enough to get her drunk, but while operating, the alcohol was still in her system. She was more upset with herself than with Emma and would have never killed anyone on purpose. She also did not kill Emma.

On to Penny; she always wanted to look out for her sister, she was all the family she had left. But after her divorce she couldn’t be there for Emma like she wanted to be. Emma had retaliated by putting her fifth in line for the money, which really hurt Penny. Penny was robbed of most of her money in her divorce. But although she needed the money… she didn’t kill her sister.

Lacey. She had known Emma’s husband for a long time, and they were even in love but timing was just never right. Once Emma’s husband had his business up and running, he hired Lacey as the chief accountant. They reconnected and started messing around. When he died, Lacey thought that Emma had a part in it. Although she had a motive… she wasn’t the killer.

Last but not least, Dan. He recently had run into some money problems after his retirement. After all his savings ran out, he didn’t want to go back to work, he was to lazy. He knew how emotional Emma was after her husband’s death, and the more alcohol she drank the easier it was to persuade her. It turned out he sent that anonymous letter, and then convinced Emma that someone else had. He planned to kill her once he got her alone in the study. And his plan worked.