CASINO HINTS: How the night played out (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

DO NOT PROCEED unless you have read ALL of the other clues and found alibis for as many of the suspects as possible. The following hints will gradually reveal who the killer was!…

Use the text chain from the burner phone to start building a timeline for Charlie’s movements. You need to know who gave the burner phone to Charlie.

The “Burner Phone” conversation was between Charlie and Hadorag. Hadorag tells Charlie to ask the restroom attendant for “Strawberry Chewing Gum” (at this point the attendant would also hand Charlie a listening device). We know Charlie collected the device at 22:01 because Charlie confirms it on the text chain, and the Stakeout Report also caught the back of a middle-aged balding man asking for Strawberry Chewing Gum in the restrooms (we know Charlie has a slight bald patch from the CCTV footage at the poker table). Where did he go next?

At 22:02, Hadorag tells Charlie to go to the address and plant it immediately. You need to know what address he has been sent to.

The Strawberry gum found in Charlie Youngs pockets contains a gum wrapper displaying the address “7014 Valley Blvd”. This is the address the Pons twins live at (as mentioned in their criminal profile). According to the text chain, he arrives at the Pons address at 22:12. Hadorag confirms that he can hear the Ponses in the background at 22:13. The police force also confirmed that the Ponses were at the address on the night of the 31^st as they were able to spectrographically match their voice prints to the Ponses. Let’s now turn our attention to the times of death and where the body was found.

The Forensic Findings report says that he dies between 22:10 and 22:40, but the body wasn’t discovered until 10:55 by Zipes on his cigarette break at the magic mirror casino.  We know that the body wasn’t in the dumpster at 10:45 because that’s when Jack Shaw took the trash out, and those trash bags were found underneath Charlie’s body (See Joy O’Hara’s CSI Report). Therefore, the body was dumped after 10:45. We need to know where and when Charlie was killed. There was also no forensic evidence found around the dumpster, suggesting that Charlie was not killed at the dumpster, and that the body was transported to it from somewhere else (see CSI report).

Back to the Ponses…Charlie’s last outgoing text from the burner phone was at 22:21. Hadorag then mentions that the feed from the listening device had dropped (shortly after saying the device couldn’t be turned off manually). Turn your attention to the police report from office Ray Wood. What is that device Charlie is carrying and what has happened to it…

You will notice a black device with a bullet hole through it. This was found in the right breast pocket of the victim’s jacket, aligning with the bullet wound(s) found on Charlie’s body (see the Forensic Findings report). This would suggest that the last time Charlie spoke to anyone was when he was trapped at the Ponses. He was supposed to plant this device, but clearly didn’t get the chance to before being shot. But what about the parabolic microphones….wouldn’t they have picked up the shooting?

The ballistics report suggests that there was use of a silencer which is why no gunshots are heard on the parabolic microphones (there are no spikes in the soundwave). The soundwave also helps us build a timeline of what happened next…the apartment goes quiet between the times of 22:40 and just after 11pm, suggesting that the Ponses left their apartment and dumped the body between when the trash was taken out at the Casino, and when the body was found.