Recap / Criminal Case: Pacific Bay - Case 48: Blood in the Blender

Care for a drink?

Chief Marquez orders Amy and the player to check on renowned scientist Ruth Campbell on a juice bar, since she's been receiving death threats from a stalker and has asked for protection. Once they arrive there, though, they only find Ruth's almost entirely liquefied body stuffed into blenders.

Tropes:

• Artificial Human: The victim was working on creating these, including clones. One of her failed genetic experiments and even her own clone become suspects in this case.
• "Ass" in Ambassador: Downplayed. Ambassador Lee is uncooperative with your investigation, but that's mostly because he fears for his life (as his "beloved leader" would kill him if he says too much) rather than being a Jerkass.
• Awful Wedded Life: Between Ruth and Nigel, since she spent more time at the lab that with her husband. It's one of the reasons why he killed her.
  Nigel: I loved my wife, Your Honor! But she neglected me for the sake of science. I wanted someone who was around, who was loving and caring!
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Milo likes to eat fish heads.
• Body Horror: Milo, one of the victim's first genetic experiments, has a green skin full of blisters and an arm sticking out of his head. See for yourself.◊
• Born as an Adult: Despite being only a few years old, Clone!Ruth is listed as being 35.
• Chest of Medals: Ambassador Lee has a uniform decorated with medals.
• Clone Army: The People's Republic of North Freonia was financing Ruth to create a clone army for them.
  Amy: That sounds bonkers. A clone army?! This isn’t the movies!
• Clone Degeneration: Milo was one of Ruth's first attempts at making genetic experiments, which is why he suffers from a severe case of Body Horror.
• Clones Are People, Too: Clone!Ruth is treated like a normal suspect throughout the case, with Amy being amazed at the fact that they're interrogating a copy of the victim.
• Continuity Nod: One clue is a lunchbox featuring BunnyBot.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Ruth left you a message with her own blood whilst the murderer was killing her, circling a chromosome on a map of the human genome to tell you that her killer has red hair.
• Countrystan: The People's Republic of North Freonia, a North Korea-esque country from where Ambassador Lee comes from.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The victim is found cut to pieces and stuffed in three different blenders. What was used to cut her body up? A handsaw. While she was still alive. Jesus.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Clone!Ruth had been impersonating the real Ruth to replace her, even sleeping with her husband without him noticing.
• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Nigel killed Ruth because he fell in love with her clone, as the real Ruth was always working on her lab whilst Clone!Ruth spent time with him.
• Failed a Spot Check: In chapter 3, the player and Amy return to the crime scene to look for clues, this time checking behind the counter. Apparently in the process of gathering...what's left of Ruth's remains, they never noticed a piece of paper with a bloody circle on it or a large handsaw caked in blood.
  • Nigel also apparently failed to notice his wife circling a paper with her blood, not figuring it could identify him somehow. He isn't a scientist like her, mind you, but still.
• Faint in Shock: Amy faints when she sees Milo for the first time.
• Faux Horrific: The only thing Roxie finds disgusting about the victim being blended and liquefied is that the killer mixed her remains with beet juice.
• Gorn: This case easily rivals The Grim Butcher in terms of goriness, with the victim's body being graphically liquefied in what could only be described as blood smoothies, with severed parts of her body also sticking out of the blenders used to murder her. Yikes.
• Happily Adopted: Milo gets adopted by Sister Dolly at the end of the case.
• Hollywood Nuns: Sister Dolly dresses and acts like a stereotypical nun, sending threatening messages to Ruth about burning in Hell for her experiments and rejecting Milo at first for being one, though she has a change of mind later and Milo gets Happily Adopted.
• House Husband: Nigel, the victim's husband, was this.
  Nigel: She was such a brilliant scientist! I wanted her to focus on her career, to change people's lives! So I gave up my job to take care of the housework.
• I Am a Monster: Milo calls himself a monster for being a failed genetic experiment.
  Amy: So you were angry with Dr Campbell for “creating” you?
  Milo: Of course I was angry! Just look at me: I’m a monster! My body doesn’t work right! I can only drink smoothies, and if I don’t take hormones, my organs stop working! I shouldn’t be alive!
• Mad Scientist: The victim worked on creating clones and even had a business deal with the People's Republic of North Freonia, which is basically the Criminal Case equivalent of North Korea.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: One of the crime scenes is Ruth Campbell's lab, which is full of clones floating in vats.
• Modified Clone: Ruth and her clone are almost identical apart from the fact that the victim had black hair and the clone version is a redhead instead.
• Morally Superior Copy: Considering Clone!Ruth isn't interested in creating deformed clones and making deals with dictatorship countries, it's safe to say that she's much better than her creator.
• Only One Name: Both Milo and Clone!Ruth only have one name.
• People Jars: Ruth's lab contains clones and human experiments inside giant vats.
• Seeks Another's Resurrection: Ruth offered to "bring" Sister Dolly's back from the dead by making a clone of him, something that Dolly considered heresy.
• Science Is Bad: At the end of the case, Clone!Ruth stops her creator's dangerous research and leaves to become an actress in Ivywood.
• Shout-Out:
  • Sister Dolly is named after Dolly the cloned sheep, due to the case's plot centering on cloning.
    • Likewise, in the Research Lab scene, there is a plush sheep.
  • North Freonia is a parody of North Korea.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: Ruth got killed by her husband because he was in love with her clone.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Nigel, the victim's husband, cries and claims Ruth was the love of his life when you disclose her death to him. He's also the killer.
• You Are Too Late: By the time you arrive to the juice bar to protect Ruth, she's been already murdered.