Tear Jerker / Criminal Case

Unmarked spoilers abound. Read at your own risk.

Sorrow-inducing moments in Criminal Case:

Grimsborough

• The ending to Good Cop Dead Cop, specifically the moment when you have to arrest the not-corrupt cop.
  Jones: ...(player's name), can you handle the arrest, please? I don't have the heart to read him his rights.
  • It's even worse when it's revealed that the cop had killed his partner in the heat of the moment, and he was extremely upset for doing so. He regretted leaving his partner's children without a father, and having to spend time in jail meant that he'd also be away from his family. Since he pleaded guilty to the crime, though, he only has a four-year sentence with parole eligibility in two years, but he likely would never have a job as an officer again.
• The revelation of One-Tooth Sam's back-story in Into the Viper's Nest, especially the death of his wife which led him to renounce his former wealth.
  One-Tooth Sam: My wife got sick, and even all the money in the world couldn't save her.
• In the Dead of Night becomes this when you have to arrest a young boy who killed his friend by accident. The boy is in tears over what he's done, and Jones gets upset as well.
• In The Secret Experiments, Rachel Priest died standing up for truth and justice moments before her death, all while scattering clues for you to find knowing that she's not long on this earth. Jones is upset and goes It's Personal the entire case, knowing that despite Rachel being incredibly nosy, stubborn, troublesome, and a little callous to her co-workers in several previous cases, he knows that she's a loyal and diligent defender of justice whose death is largely because of her cameraman sold her life work to her murderer. When a later case reveals her murderer gets out of jail with $5,000 because of "procedure violation", Jones quickly asks Chief King why the murderer is free once again, but the Chief says the police are powerless against judicial bureaucracy.
• The victim in The Final Journey was one of the few victims in this series to completely avert Asshole Victim. His only "fault" was his desire to leave Grimsborough and travel, yet someone still finds a reason to kill him. This is Lampshaded by Jones and a few other characters as well.
  Jones: I don't know about you, <player>, but this case's quite bummed me out. All Daniel ever wanted was to go explore the world, not restrict himself to our little town. But Lily was so attached to her roots that she couldn't bear the thought of Daniel not wanting the same life as she did.
• The Motive Rant in The Haunting of Elm Manor, when you arrest the killer. Her husband, the victim, had caused their infant child's death by negligence and then tried to cover it up by saying the house was haunted and that that was what killed the child.
  Killer: Whatever punishment you give me cannot be worse than the cruel fate of losing your child!
• The reaction of James Savage, the local Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold, when his dog is killed in Dog Eat Dog.
  James: I met that dog when it was just a puppy. It'd been thrown in a ditch. I saved his life, and it rewarded me by staying by my side for 10 years. It never bit anyone, never growled at people. And now... now my best friend is dead!
  • The rest of the case is heartbreaking as it involves the deaths of three dogs.
• Considering how much of a Lovable Alpha Bitch Madison Springer was, it can be sad in Case 41 where you have to solve her murder.
• The ending of ''It All Ends Here'', in which Chief King gives the player character a tearful farewell before shooting himself after being outed as the killer, despite Jones begging him to put the gun down.
  King: Goodbye, (player's name). Working with you has been a great honor. BANG!
  • Jones's face after the shot can also be considered one. His look is just lost, shocked, unable to react anymore.
• The ending of There Will Be Blood brings quite a lot of tears in the fans' eyes as they are to part with the Grimsborough team because the Player Character is moving to Pacific Bay.

Pacific Bay

• The White Peaks Project. Not only does the victim, unusually for Criminal Case, completely averts being an Asshole Victim, but her death was a horrible accident, and her last words are directed at the player character, pleading with them to find her killer. On top of it all, she was a close friend of Amy.
• In The End of the Night, Amy remarks that the killer couldn't be her mother, because she loves her and Duncan. Then she revises it and says her mother only loves Duncan.
  • In the climax of that very same case, during the confrontation with the killer, Amy is so deep in denial that she almost concedes when the killer tries to convince her that this is a false arrest until Hannah arrives with video footage of the murder itself. Note that when her high school sweetheart tried to pull the same trick two Cases before, she angrily rebuffs his attempts to lie by saying that the [Player Character] is never wrong.
• Case 56 of Pacific Bay is entitled "A Killer Among Us". As the case name implies, there's unrest in the PBPD as someone from the team is hinted to be a traitor. 4 team members are flagged as suspects in Danny Moto's murder and Frank Knight was ultimately revealed as the killer.
• All three cases of The Wastes are tearjerkers. The first one's victim was just trying to stop the killer from doing experiments that could destroy the city. Secondly, Karen Knight is murdered, and while we hated her, she was good all along and helped us. And the last case has our beloved partner Frank Knight as the victim. And it is the last case as well, so say your goodbyes to Pacific Bay.
• Three words. The Final Countdown. The victim was Frank Knight, who in the end, realized his mistakes and gave his life for Pacific Bay. More so, we found a recording of him addressed to us, where he said he tried very hard to fix his mistakes. Amy remarked that it was as bad as seeing Frank being murdered on the camera. Also, one of the clues was Frank's police badge. He kept it all the time with him. Amy remarked that he was a cop at heart all that time.
• Frank's funeral is guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye, especially after everything that happened in The Wastes. After everything that's happened within the last cases, Chief Marquez still takes care of his funeral arrangements, and the team comes together one last time to lay him to rest and share their sentiments.

World Edition

• The resolution of God Save the Prince. Prince Albert’s killer was his lover, chambermaid Enid Grimshaw, who was threatened and tricked into poisoning him.
  • On the bright side, Enid was sentenced to only 10 years in prison. An incredibly lenient sentence for the murderess of a Prince.
• Chief Ripley's supposed death in The Impossible Dream, is not made any easier by Jack being in denial about it.
• Treacherous Waters. Not only was the victim a goodhearted cop, but the killer turned out to be his beloved sister, who shot him by accident when she thought she was going to get mugged by a stranger. When she realized what she'd done, she broke down in tears and tried to avoid going to jail because that wasn't what her brother would've wanted. Judge Adaku gives her a lenient sentence, but the guilt of the crime would stay with her for life.
  Killer: I'm used to hardship, Your Honor, I'll get through a prison sentence, too. The guilt for what I've done will stay with me forever.
• Plagued by Death opens with Jack complaining that he feels utterly useless against the plague and how worried he is for Angela and Lars. Lars coming in utterly sleep-deprived doesn't help.
  • And in the same case, it's heartbreaking to see Lars infected by the virus and he only has a few hours at best. The reactions of Angela and Jack make it worse; both of them are crying.
• The entirety of Sanjay's appearance in Insides Out. The player finds him in Tibet, where he ran off to after his pet elephant was killed in an accident. He is penniless and all alone and gets caught in an avalanche when trying to find a job. He is taken to the Bureau to recover, but in the AI, it's never revealed where he went afterwards. ^note  (It's eventually revealed that he went to Beijing, China in A Twist of Fate. But still)
• The "Shaggy Dog" Story of the Tsukeda siblings. Chieko moves heaven and earth to find her brother Hiroshi, only for him to be killed before they could meet.
• At the end of A Stab in the Dark, Elliot is kidnapped by a SOMBRA agent. The entire team is frantic to get him back and both Lars and Carmen look literally sick at the idea that he's dead, with Carmen outright cutting Lars off before he can finish his assessment of why the kidnapper would have discarded the gag he was using.
  • There's also Marina asking Sanjay about his memories with SOMBRA to help find Elliot's kidnapper. Sanjay is upset at having to relive those times, and worries about Elliot and whether he'll be taken away too. Marina tries to be as comforting as possible, but it's clear that she doesn't want to trigger his bad memories either.
• The entire district of Africa is one since the Bureau finds out that a member of their own team had given SOMBRA the coordinates of their plane to Kenya, which allowed a hitman to make it crash, essentially revealing that there's a traitor among them. Naturally, a good bulk of the district's Story Arc focuses on finding out who is it while the traitor keeps sabotaging The Bureau's equipment and security, to the point the Additional Investigations of Africa are aptly titled "The Enemy Within". Seeing your friends and teammates becoming increasingly paranoid and distrustful of each other as the district goes on is just heartbreaking to see.
  • What makes this even more saddening is the fact that the entire Bureau (especially the player) has formed strong bonds with each other through fighting SOMBRA and going through hell in the previous cases, and someone from the team still betrayed them. Elliot, who had been the one to discover this, is outright depressed when he breaks the news to the rest of the team.
• In Plain Sight. All of it. Being the district's finale of Africa and having the victim killed inside the team's headquarters, it was expected that this case would focus on finally uncovering who the traitor was, something that was bound to bring bitter moments. A good portion of the team, including Jack, Carmen, and even Chief Ripley, end up becoming suspects. As the case goes on, you can feel the tension and despair beginning to arise among the team, with people starting to accuse each other either in anger, fear, or in the culprit's case, desperation of being caught, which is quite sad to see considering how united the Bureau has been for the rest of the season.
  Dupont: I hope you'll solve this case soon! Office morale has never been so low!
  • When Carmen is suspected of being the mole, Sanjay bursts in afterwards and tearfully begs the player to not take her away from him, insisting that there is no way she could be part of SOMBRA, the very same organization that made him suffer through East Asia. It takes Marina's assistance to calm him down.
    Sanjay: Tell me it's not true!
    Michelle: You're Ms Martinez's adopted son, right?
    Sanjay: You can't arrest Carmen! You have to let her go! She's not the mole! She's not SOMBRA! You can't take Carmen away! You can't, you-
    Marina: Sanjay! There you are! Come with me, sweetheart.
    • This ends up happening again after Carmen is rescued from her kidnapper and put in custody.
      Sanjay: Jonah says Carmen was kidnapped! I want to see her!
      Ingrid: Sanjay, I told you: Carmen can't have visitors in custody. It's against regulations.
      Sanjay: BUT I WANT TO SEE HER! I want my mom!
  • Elliot does not take being flagged as a suspect and interrogated by Michelle very well. He gets upset that the lawyer who defended his kidnapper back in Singapore is the one accusing him of murder, and he is legitimately hurt by the player's refusal to help him, to the point where he confines himself in the library and refuses to speak to anyone]]. Dupont notices and worries about him.
  • Despite her composed demeanor, Chief Ripley is shown to be very upset and distraught after she becomes a suspect. Not because of being suspected, mind you (she even congratulates both the player and Michelle for considering her an option despite being their boss), but due to the fact that she's been working for The Bureau her entire life to the point she considers it a part of her identity, and the existence of a traitor among her team is bound to hit her the hardest.
    Ripley: But it's not what you think. The Bureau is my life. I've always been loyal to it.
    Ripley: I'm tired to the bone. If I could end this nightmare by confessing, I would.
  • Even Jack gets this after he becomes a suspect due to his gun being used as the murder weapon. Not only he's still hurt after his break-up with Asal (to the point he reveals Lavinia manipulated him to have sex with her back in Kenya), but, like Elliot, he doesn't take very well being flagged as a suspect and traitor not only by a former member of SOMBRA but by his best friend as well.
    Jack: [holding a bottle of whiskey] Helloooooo, everyone! Enjoy your freedom while you can! <Player's name> will soon handcuff y'all, while that SOMBRA lawyer looks on and laughs!
  • Then in the end, is Angela of all people who ends up revealed as the SOMBRA agent, leaving everyone pretty much shocked and Lars completely devastated.
    • During her arrest, Angela reveals that, while she did provide the plane's coordinates in the first case of Africa to SOMBRA, she didn't actually expect them to make their plane crash at all. Realizing that SOMBRA wanted her dead due to probably becoming too attached to the Bureau, she ended up making a last-ditch effort to prove her loyalty by arranging the diamond smuggling operation the team had been investigating across the continent in the first place. Then during the AI, Angela says that she regrets nothing and still believes in SOMBRA despite their horrible actions. It's just saddening to see that even when being almost killed by the very same organization she had been willing to commit crimes for, Angela continued being loyal to them until the end despite already having a loving family and group of friends in the Bureau.
    • Angela and Lars's conversations in the AI. Lars is forced to accept that his wife is the mole, and when he talks to her in jail he questions whether she ever cared about him or their children. Angela explains that while she had loyalty to SOMBRA since she was 8 years old, she loved Lars so much that she disobeyed SOMBRA by marrying him, and created the Spring Angels because she was disgusted with what the organization did to children. After leading him to a video of the day their children were born, she sadly says that she doesn't think they'll ever see each other again. Lars is understandably upset and decides to go on leave, wondering how he'll break the truth to their daughters.
      Lars: Angela, tell me it's not true!
      Angela: You shouldn't have come here, Lars. It's true: I'm SOMBRA. I was before I met you.
      Lars: [Trying Not to Cry] No! That's impossible! We were happy, we had a family! You could've chosen us! You could've left SOMBRA, we'd have protected you!
      Angela: I don't expect you to understand, Lars. I didn't want to leave SOMBRA! I believe in them, even if I disagree with some of their methods.
      Lars: You can't be serious! SOMBRA must've brainwashed you!
      Angela: They didn't brainwash me! They gave me a life! SOMBRA took me in when I became an orphan at age 8! They taught me everything I knew! I wasn't going to question them!
    • Then when speaking with Angela after you find the tracking chip she told you about...
      Lars: Angela, the chip you took from a dead assassin was a tracker. Elliot can now locate all the SOMBRA recruits in Africa. But I'm still as confused as ever! If you believe in SOMBRA, why'd you help us?
      Angela: Lars, I told you not to seek answers-
      Lars: But I want answers! I deserve to know!
      Angela: Fine! There's one thing I never approved of: SOMBRA's increasing use of children! When <Player's name> discovered SOMBRA was now brainwashing children and experimenting on teenagers, I was sick with fear for our girls! I set up the Spring Angels foundation out of guilt, too... and I put your name on everything, Lars, to keep it safe from SOMBRA.
      Lars: How can you pretend to care about children when you lied to our little girls?!
      Angela: Don't you understand?! I lied to keep you safe!
      Lars: You only married me because SOMBRA told you to! I was just a part of your cover!!
      Angela: SOMBRA didn't want me to marry you! It was the first time I disobeyed their orders! I married you because I fell in love with you! I always loved our family! You've got to believe me!
• After one of the clues is found in Ice Rage, Jack tells the player to send it to Lars, only to sadly remember that Lars had gone home to deal with the aftermath of the SOMBRA mole. He then laments about Lars's emotional state and decides to call him.
• In Murder, He Wrote, Lars returns but he's still in a very bad way after Angela's betrayal. And at the end of the second chapter, he threatens suicide.
• The death of Michelle Zuria in The King's Shadow. Even in the end, the characters are devastated.
• Ice Queen Ingrid used to be married, and the end of it was so devastating she couldn't compose herself. When her ex-husband is trying to contact her because of some serious problems the Bureau needs to be aware of, she breaks down and runs away.
  • The revelation of what happened to them is also sad. They were once a Happily Married couple and even had a child together but their son was premature and ended up dying. The grief tore them apart as they didn't know how to deal with it. Ingrid withdrew herself and her husband started drinking and sleeping around. And yet he still mourned their son every year and hoped they would do it together someday.
• All of The Darkest Hour, the finale of World Edition.
  • The player finds the body of Natasha Romanova, leading to some conflicting emotions from her daughter, Marina. While she had helped arrest Natasha for treachery and still believes that she's evil, it's clear that she still wants to grieve for her mother. However, she doesn't get much time to grieve, as she's immediately arrested for being related to Natasha (who had kidnapped the US President).
  • One of the suspects in the President's kidnapping is Baxter Fraser, who is still as stressed as the last time we saw him and panics at the mere sight of the player. He claims to have mental breakdowns, and later on, not only is he revealed to be telling the truth, but they were caused by the Vice President taking advantage of his previous brainwashing, leading him to believe that he'll always be a monster.^note  (He gets better at the end, but still.)
  • Angela also returns as a suspect, and her presence stirs up emotions in both Jack and Lars. Both are angry that she would show her face at the Bureau after all she did to them, and are fiercely protective of each other in her presence. When she detonates a bomb that nearly kills Jonah and Jack, Lars confronts her while she states that all she wants is to see her family again. She is later proven innocent of kidnapping and murder, but she shares one last conversation with Lars. Lars admits that after she was arrested, all he wanted was for her to have a change of heart and be in love with him again, and while she confirms that she still loves him, Lars coldly remarks that he knows who she really is and only loves the woman he thought he knew. After he denies Angela's request to see their daughters again, she tearfully bids him and the player goodbye.
  • When it's time to arrest the killer, Armand Dupont asks if he could help Jack and the player do the honors. They corner the Vice President, and she takes a shot at Jack. When it doesn't kill him, she takes another shot at him...only for Armand to jump in front of Jack and take the bullet. Jack then shoots the VP dead in retaliation, and Armand is rushed to the hospital, where he only has a few more hours to live. Jack tearfully apologizes for not being able to protect him, but Armand reassures him that he had great adventures with the Bureau and made peace with the fact that he would die saving the world. He gives the player his ancestor's notebook (the key to Season 4), and thanks them for always listening to his ramblings. After seeing the UN Peace Award they won, he passed away peacefully, and the entire Bureau had heartfelt things to say to him during his funeral.
  • Chief Ripley's last appearance. The only time she appears in this case is at Dupont's grave, after everyone has left. She apologizes to him for his life having ended this way and bids farewell to her old friend.
  • Unlike the previous two seasons, where the player merely leaves the police force they worked with, The Bureau is disbanded after they fulfilled their purpose of putting an end to SOMBRA. Everyone is shocked at this, especially since the Bureau had been the most close-knit of the three police forces seen, and states that they'll miss each other. The season ends with everyone reflecting on the adventures and relationships forged during the player's tenure, then Jack opens Dupont's journal and reads it out loud to everyone.

Mysteries of the Past

• Let Me Down Gently features Lucrezia Capecchi, who was dismissed and disparaged by just about everyone, including her sister for her facial burns, had some painful Enforced Method Acting from a bitch of a movie director, and ultimately died when she was to meet her correspondence partner, who didn't want to be involved with her, at a lighthouse party. When she grabbed him to stay, he reacted and she fell out of the lighthouse to her death. Poor judgment, but still a tragic end to an even more tragic story.
• Last Stand for Justice sees Charles Dupont shot and killed by none other than Diego Del Lobo. Maddie's reaction and everybody else's is just heartbreaking.
  • Coupled with the fact that since the events take place in the late 19th century, all the characters of the season, the player character included, are of course long dead.

The Conspiracy

• Snake in the Grass has Jones and the player character investigate the murder of Nathan Pandit, who was the coroner of the first season. It's tearjerking, as it's the first case in which the death of a friend has already occurred.
• Brad Price, the victim of Cross My Heart, strung along two people who adored him and are clearly heartbroken. Not to mention killing his best friend's service dog, the only thing that was helping the poor guy's depression, and didn't feel remotely sorry. AND he ruined the life of his killer and didn't even remember her.
• Too Cruel for School sees the return of Julian Ramis from the first Grimsborough arc. He is ostracized due to accidentally killing his friend five years ago and has untreated depression as a result. When he first sees the player character again, he thinks they've come back to ruin his life.
  • The very next case, Hear My Cry, has Edward Ramis, Julian's dad as the victim of the Rocket Cow Killer. Not only is Julian devastated when the player breaks the news to him, but he reveals that he had an argument with his dad right before he died, which prompted the killer to target him in the first place. Not helping matters is the fact that Edward was mostly a loving and supportive father to Julian, and he was implied to be the only support he had left after the Accidental Murder five years ago.
• A missing person's case for a social worker named Zoe comes through the department, and, surprisingly, the data on it is missing. It's revealed that for some reason, Jones was the last person to talk to it. When Gloria and the player confront him, he's evasive, chalking it up to a failure on his part. However, digging deeper, the truth is realized: Zoe is Jones's girlfriend, his first serious encounter after his flirting with Rachel Priest^note Who died horrifically, not to mention Jones blames himself for the death. The player tracks down the disappearances throughout the Additional investigation. She's found in the penultimate case, but she has amnesia to the point where she no longer remembers Jones.
• Murder on the Dance Floor: the culprit turns out to be Robyn Ash, who initially appeared to be a vapid Valley Girl stereotype. But it's through her motivation that her true self is shown; she killed DJ Kalua Kaboom due to the fact that her sister died of a seizure when Kalua was performing at Robyn's birthday party. She had earlier promised not to use flashing lights that could cause her sister to have a seizure, only to ignore her and do as she wished. Even worse: in the end, taking revenge against her sister's indirect killer didn't help her, but instead made her feel even worse.
• Things Fall Apart has lab chief Rupert, one of the nicest characters in the season, as the victim. Despite all the planning the team did to disguise him as Mortimer Pickering before entering Dreamlife's dome before, it didn't stop Rupert's identity from being compromised and him from being killed. The killer turns out to be the Dome's local therapist, who, having dated the real Pickering back in Oxford, saw past Rupert's identity when he couldn't remember who she was.
  • What hurts the most is seeing everyone's reaction to his death, especially Amir's. He has to analyze the stuff we give him, but he is way too distressed, thinking he may have messed up the samples. And it doesn't help him that one of the suspects, is his own boyfriend, who lied to him by having an interview at Dreamlife. It got to the point that he got heavily drunk at the end of the second chapter.
    • Jones also fits here. He is our companion during the case, and he clearly tries to hold it together... until we get the killer. As soon as that is over, he breaks down.
  • The funeral is also a big tearjerker. They start to tell stories about him and how much he will be missed in the office with his antics and do promise to bring Dreamlife down, but it doesn't hurt any less.
    • Also, from this whole episode until the next one, Amir refuses to see Jasper. Jasper is not even at the funeral for the same reason.
• Death in My Hand, Zoe is revealed to be the killer, having remembered that the victim performed horrible experiments on her.
  • It doesn't get any prettier during the additional chapter, given that Jones enters in a moment of pure anger and grief, storming out of the room, trying to solve this situation with his own hands. He tries to make Marconi of all people to make him free Zoe from jail illegally, and when he refuses to help, Jones decides to draw his gun at him, to which Marconi responds by tackling him. After that, Jones runs away to the entrance of Dreamlife, only to be captured by the security guards, locking him in a cell. It's clear that he regrets all of these decisions, given that he only can apologize, realizing how his brain wasn't acting straight.
• Barb Bellamy and Wendy Stokes are killed off two cases apart, which doubles as Heartwarming, as the lovers are now back together in death.
• In Up in Flames, the death of Tony Marconi is incredibly depressing for many fans, especially since he had been an important character since the second case of the game, and a character many held dear to their hearts. It doesn't help that he died trying to stop Protozane from being shipped out to the public, which would've turned the entirety of Grimsborough into mindless sheep. Throughout the case, it is mentioned that Marconi wanted to reconnect with his son, Emilio Fuller, and he would do anything to protect him, even doing dirty work for Rozetta after she blackmailed him with Emilio. Unfortunately for him, Emilio despised his father and refused to listen to him, even killing him because he genuinely believed that Dreamlife would make the world better and couldn't stand it when Marconi was trying to stop its work.
  • At the end of the case, Jones, after having been flagged as a suspect in the murder of Marconi, is ashamed of his mental state and behavior during Misty Grove and decides to resign from the Grimsborough PD. Everyone else on the team is against it, even putting together a video montage of Jones's best moments to remind him why he was on the force in the first place. Jones ends up staying, but the moment does still tug at the heartstrings.
    • This gets somehow worse when, by putting this in reality, this act was just a Placebo effect, given that chapters later, he attempts suicide.
• In Pain in the Neck, we see Julian Ramis for the first time since his father's death, where he is aspiring to attend Grimsborough University. While he is initially cold towards both the player and the investigation, he later reveals that he had told the victim that he wanted to apply to the University, but the victim laughed at Julian, saying that a criminal like him has no future. Julian bursts into tears as he tells the player about this, then says that his life is cursed anyway.
• In Lashing Out, the circumstances behind Kevin Charles's murder are quite saddening. While grouchy at times, he did not deserve being brutally whipped to death by five students who reveled in the gruesome murder, and his death was implied to be slow and painful. Worse still, his execution had been ordered by Rozetta Pierre, his own student whom he had inspired to create the Ad Astra group in the first place.
• In Like a Pig to the Slaughter, the victim is Roy Loukas, Mia's father. When the team breaks the news to her, she breaks down crying and later recalls the argument they had right before he died. In court, she also has to hear the killer accuse her dad of ruining his life, which causes her to run away from the police station.
• To Kingdom Come has rookie cop Mia Loukas killed in a car bombing. Not only does the team openly grieve her death during the investigation, but the circumstances of the murder make things even worse. Mia is one of the very few victims in the series to completely avert Asshole Victim, and the killer actually loved Mia and never intended to hurt her, but he was given an order by Ad Astra to kill the player by rigging their patrol car with a bomb. Unfortunately for him, Mia was the one who triggered the explosion by borrowing the player's car yet again, resulting in her death.
• Out of Breath becomes this after you arrest the killer of Doris Black. It turns out to be Doris's brother, whose chances of being promoted to S.A.R.A. were ruined by Doris since she didn't want him going near the meteorite. He didn't believe her when she said it was dangerous, leading to the fight that killed her. During the trial, Clyde realizes that Doris was right about the meteorite and laments about their ruined lives as he goes to jail.
• Head Case is a giant Downer Ending for the Zoe and Jones plotline, as it involves Zoe's death. When Jones sees the corpse, he ends up having such a Heroic BSoD that Gloria has to replace him for the duration of the case.
  • What seals the case's status is that the killer turns out to be Louis Leroux, of all people. And you're told that he murdered her simply because she refused to let him get a scoop on her story, which had involved her accidentally gaining telekinetic powers.
  • To make things worse, when you interview the other suspects, all of them had a grudge against Zoe for one reason or another. Kai Gruber mistakenly thought Rozetta had sent her to kill him, Rosamund Wilcox tormented her to spite the Grimsborough PD, Dr. Russo tried to force her to take sedatives because she didn't believe Zoe was getting better, and Tobias Randall thought she was a cold-blooded murderer despite her sympathetic circumstances. This is in spite of Zoe having done nothing to warrant these responses.
  • It gets even worse at the end of the case when Jones downs a lethal dose of sedatives after saying goodbye to the player and is unable to cope with Zoe's death, alongside feeling like a failure as a cop. Thankfully he is saved in time, though it takes finding Zoe's therapy letters to Jones for him to regain the will to live and recover.
    • And even realistically that (once again) only works as a placebo effect. It's clear that he needs time off, so he is given an undefined leave until he truly recovers mentally to come back.
• While the murder in Playing Dead is rather gruesome and petty, it's hard not to feel bad for the killer, whose victim ended up giving her the flu when she was pregnant, causing her to suffer a miscarriage.
• In the AI of Breaking News, Ad Astra uses their new superpowers to take Jake and Carter Hayes hostage, taking them to Newmark while Gloria is helpless to stop them.
• The victim in Running Scared is Jake Hayes, Gloria's ex-husband. On top of having to solve his murder, the team is worried about Carter's safety as the killer still has him hostage. To top it all off, Jake did almost nothing wrong to any of the suspects but got killed for a petty reason he had no real involvement in any way.
  • It becomes more saddening when you realize that most of the suspects didn't even have any ill will towards Jake, not even the killer. The only suspect who had remotely any was his uncle who was peeved that Jake fired him (albeit for a justified reason) despite needing the financial help. Despite this, he still never even wished harm upon his nephew.
  • And to add to the sensation, this is the time Jones comes back after his undefined leave. Another person who knows EXACTLY what Gloria is feeling, therefore he may be one of the few people, if not the only person, in the group who genuinely gets her.
    • And even with that, while we see him participate later on in some cases after an undefined leave, we see him pretty affected by it, still choking up every time Zoe is mentioned.
• The revelation in To Eternity and Beyond that Denise Daniels is really Ad Astra's leader also reveals that Rozetta is really Denise Daniels' disowned daughter. Essentially, Rozetta was very much a test-tube baby created by Denise as an experiment in the hopes that she would turn out as a superhuman. But Rozetta was the same as any other baby besides being taught a superiority complex and was completely disowned by the time she turned ten. While it doesn't justify Rozetta's actions, it does make you feel bad for the fact that not only was most of Rozetta's sheeple plot of her mother's teachings, but her estrangement, her fear of her mother, and her loneliness ended up in her creating Ad Astra.
• In Reap What You Sow, the motive behind Joe Warren's murder of Christian Bateman is surprisingly tragic and makes you feel bad for the Ad Astrans in spite of their status as a menace to the Grimsborough PD. It turns out that the Ad Astrans' superpowers were wreaking havoc on their bodies, and when Christian became sick and incoherent from overusing them, Joe shot Christian to put him out of his misery, as he couldn't bear to watch his friend suffer anymore.
• Despite being the Arc Villain for most of the season, Rozetta Pierre being killed by Denise in Eve of Disaster is rather emotional, considering she and the Ad Astrans agreed to help the player stop Denise. What makes it worse is the fact that not only did Denise never really care for her, but she had used her and the Ad Astrans as pawns for her dirty work in the span of a year. Before that, the player finds a bracelet belonging to Rozetta with the initials of the Ad Astrans carved into the charms. Rozetta angrily demands it back, saying it's all she has left of her friends (two of whom are dead, and the other two of whom were arrested). After that, she says that the Ad Astrans were the only family she'd ever had after Denise abandoned her.
• In Blaze of Glory
  • Rita sacrificing herself to save Grimsborough, with Martine calling Rita her best friend and her sister.
  • Despite Joe Warren being one of the main antagonists, his death is very difficult to watch given that he looks sickly and pale, feels remorse for the crimes Ad Astra has committed, and begs for the Player Character to forgive him.

Travel In Time

• In A Greek Tragedy, the killer of Pelagios turns out to be his wife Zosime, who is one of the nicest people the player ever encounters over the course of the game. The motive behind the murder makes it hard not to feel bad for her because not only did the victim cause her unmanageable stress during her pregnancy, but he also tried to force her to have an abortion because he wanted a baby boy but the baby would be a girl. Luckily for Zosime, she is allowed to avoid punishment because of her pregnancy, and the chapter ends on a high note.
• Cleopatra's suicide in Egypt is Burning, especially considering that in the case, she had killed Mark Antony knowing the two would never survive the destruction of Egypt.
• In Summer of Death, the victim's murder was completely accidental - A military major suffering from undiagnosed PTSD accidentally slammed his skull on the ground trying to protect him from what she thought was bullets firing. One of the clues in the case is a genuine letter of remorse from the killer buried under a pile of flowers.
• In Crime and Punishment, Marina becomes a suspect in the death of her grandfather Lev Romanov. When she pretends to be the press to gain some information, she witnesses Lev rudely scold his daughter, who is none other than Natasha. Marina easily recognized the tone, which is the same as how Natasha treated her when Marina was still a child. When she tried to defend Natasha, Lev furiously sent her out of his room and ended their interview.

  Marina: At one point, my grandfather's daughter walked in. .. my mother, who is only a child in this time period. And my grandfather flew off the handle! I recognized his tone instantly! It was the same kind of verbal abuse my mother would hurl at me! I just snapped! I wanted Romanov to stop mistreating his daughter the way she would one day mistreat me!

• In Pride Comes Before the Fall, when Penelope has to break up with Alexandre to return to her duties in T.I.M.E. She is so heartbroken that she spends the rest of the case in her room.
• In Back to the Future, Chief Scott ends up being the first victim of the Altered Present. While the player never really knew him, the other team members are all visibly distraught over his death, with Amy bursting into tears. Also, since 2029 is vastly different from the one the rest of the team came from, everyone is worried about their loved ones back home and hoping they're okay.
• In Rebel Without a Pulse, the killer of Storm Huxley was his girlfriend, who saw no choice but to commit the murder after he refused to stop putting his son's life at risk by forcing him to do the Resistance's dirty work. Before accepting her punishment, she asks Isabelle Huxley (the child's grandmother) to take care of her son.
  • There's also Orlando's reaction upon seeing his husband is still alive but doesn't recognise him (hence they never met in the altered timeline). This resulted in Orlando leaving his duties earlier and Penelope taking over and trying to help him.
• Out of all the members of T.I.M.E, Jack took Nebet's betrayal the hardest due to how close he was to her. He struggles to get over what happened and doesn't want to think about her.
  • Nebet's betrayal in general hits everyone hard, but one can only imagine just how devastated Amy, Jack, and Marina feel because they've already been betrayed by someone they considered a dear friend in previous seasons, and now they have to watch it happen again.
• After solving the murder in Fake News, Orlando disappears from the resistance's headquarters due to being unable to deal with his grief over his husband not recognizing him in this timeline. When Amy and the player find him, he reveals that he had written a letter to Sirius telling him just what they were to each other in the original timeline, which is luckily intercepted before anyone gets to read it. This isn't helped by the fact that in the previous two cases, Sirius is clearly worried about Orlando and wonders if he'd offended him somehow.
  • Made worse by the fact that this is the second-to-last case of the district, and while the rest of the team is more than thrilled to fix the timeline, Orlando is heartbroken because leaving the Altered Present means that his beloved Sirius will be taken from him again, and his attempts at finding closure had been futile.
• In Fool's Gold, while the team has escaped the Altered Present, they don't get to say goodbye to the Resistance (especially Isabelle and Sirius), who are now running for their lives to avoid execution by the Ptolemy guards.
• In Shipwrecked!, you can't help but feel bad for Miranda Rousseau, having to grow up on the island she got shipwrecked on and being forced to marry against her will.
• In Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered, the killer of Agwe turns out to be Jorge de la Cruz, who not only helped rescue the team just the previous episode but didn't even mean to kill the victim. He had fallen in love with the victim while the crew was waiting for Priestess Mabayo to awaken from her meditative sleep but became frightened when the victim tried to kiss him (as homosexuality is seen as forbidden in the Age of Sail) and hit him with a bottle to scare him, only to end up killing him instead. In spite of feeling remorse for the murder, he is exiled to Skull Island as punishment.
• In Going Once, Going Twice, Dead!, Henri Pelletier's killer turns out to be plantation owner Simone Severine. As a child, Simone and her family were slaves working for the victim's plantation, but after her parents were separated and sold off, she and her sister attempted to escape. Unfortunately, Simone's sister was caught by Pelletier, who whipped her to death. Simone would then learn how to handle explosives from her late husband and kill Pelletier in revenge.
• The Additional Investigation of Time's Up has Nebet start fading out of existence after confessing she learned during her time of exile how cruel her family had become after she altered history and her happiest moments were working for T.I.M.E. She went back to stop her past self and Ammon from altering the course of history in the first place. Also, much like the finale of The Conspiracy, there's an extra tearjerker, and it's the ending to this case since you have to leave your old friends Jack, Marina, and Amy for the second time before going back to 2019.

Supernatural Investigations

• The backstory of Jacob Arrow having his wife Lily killed by a vampire which led to the creation of the Supernatural Hunters. When the team visits the town in Saguaro National Park they honeymooned in, he becomes noticeably upset, especially since one of the suspects predicted Lily would die.
  • Felix and the player find a tape of the chief and his wife. It can be saddening to see a young and happy Chief Arrow confidently saying that nothing will happen to them.
• In Hour of the Wolf, Priya does not handle things well after she recovers from being a werewolf, only to find a dead werewolf on Ben's autopsy table. To make things worse, she is held at gunpoint by Ruth Wu later on.
• Gwen's sadness as she announces her official breakup with Pierce in Immortal Combat, especially due to the two being on good terms despite Pierce being a vampire.
• In Mad World, shortly after the killer Adam Enstrom is caught, he commits suicide due to his guilt over taking a human life. The circumstances behind this make it even sadder since in spite of Adam having been an Artificial Human, he had far more empathy than his creator did and cared for the other patients, and had never intended to murder Dr. Stein, only fix her sense of empathy. The team feels sorry for Adam and holds a proper funeral with him, fulfilling his eulogy wish.
• In The Ghost of Murders Past, we see Justine Bankston again after making peace with Abigail Riley's ghost. It is heavily implied that as the five years went by after she and her five friends sacrificed Abigail to a demon in a ritual, Justine matured into a Token Good Teammate and has been living with her guilt about it ever since. However, Gwen still breaks up with her, and the two part in tears.
• A One-Wolf Open Slay has several sad moments:
  • Priya goes missing just before the player discovers Ruth Wu's body, and throughout the case, she insists that she had killed Ruth while transformed, and she isn't having it when Gwen vows to prove her innocence.
  • When it comes time to arrest the killer, werewolf Sam Ellis, he reveals that he held a grudge against Ruth for killing his son years ago, when he was just a pup and too young to harm anyone. When the alpha of his pack finds out what he'd done, he is banished from the pack.
  • In the Additional Investigation, Hope and the player help the real Santa fix his GPS so he can deliver toys to children. However, when they return it to him, Hope suddenly asks if Santa knows who her real parents are since she'd been raised by a guardian all her life. Santa admits that even he isn't sure, causing Hope to be dejected until Gwen gives her her Christmas present.
• In Weirder Stuff, Ruby Rees (really Rubarae) had fallen for Rex Logan in the hopes of conceiving an heir before she passes away. Instead, he had freaked out upon seeing her and vowed to kill her, resulting in her murdering him in retaliation. Luckily, Felix gives her an enchanted necklace allowing conception.
• Priya doesn't take it well when she is banished from the pack after they discover she joined them as a spy. She works to make amends to earn Zander's forgiveness during the Additional Investigation.
• Everything that Alice Kelly goes through in This American Death is heartbreaking. The team sees her being abused by the victim, her controlling husband, on camera, and Luke remarks that there's something off about her cheery attitude towards everything. She turns out to be her husband's killer and reveals that she's actually a golem created by Dan Kelly to replace his wife, whom he had murdered after she disobeyed him. When she confronted him after finding photos of her and Dan that she didn't remember, he threatened to kill her as well, which prompted the murder. She then asks the team to deactivate her since she had taken a life, and thanks the team for helping her before she turns back into inanimate clay.
• Gwen comforting Danny Burnett after hearing that his younger brother was taken by a supernatural being. When she asks him the story, he explains up to a point before breaking down and refusing to talk further.
• The killer's arrest in Scry for Help, where it's revealed that Morgana Blackhawk took advantage of Heather Night and her desire to be accepted somewhere to coax her into killing Belinda. Although Heather feels guilty over what she's done, she is turned over to the authorities.
• In Death at a Funeral, Jacob is an inconsolable wreck after the events of the previous case, where the Demon Queen had taken the form of his thought-dead wife and Hope was left in a coma, which he blames himself for. He later sees a woman who looks like Lily from the back, and when he realizes his mistake, he breaks down in tears.
• Bucky Johnson's death in To the Lighthouse is this for many players, who remembered him from Travel In Time as someone who helped the team achieve many of their goals in the 60s and even helped them stop WWIII. The worst part is that he manages to avert Asshole Victim and doesn't deserve his fate.
  • Later, Jacob finds out why the Demon Queen had possessed his wife's body: in order to seal away the Queen, Falcon had helped Rathimael mastermind Lily's murder to create an appropriate vessel for her. Jacob does not take this revelation well at all, and feels betrayed by his old mentor. This is enough for him to drive away from the team to the last place he and Lily vacationed before her death.
• Despite Gwen's bad relationship with her mother Dolores, she is truly heartbroken when the latter becomes the victim of The Hunted Hunter. During the investigation, it was discovered that Dolores had attempted to extend an olive branch to her daughters. Even Ben admits that despite her nature, she died a rather cruel death.
• To Hell and Back has a very sobering vibe throughout the main investigation. Arthur is found dead after going missing in the previous case, leaving the team distraught and unprotected in the depths of the Underworld. We also discover that Arthur had been dealing with a lot even when working with the Hunters-there was a bounty on his head, he had been trying to evade capture from the Queen's faithful and since he was trying to protect the hunters, he didn't tell them about any of this and had been very much alone in all of it.
  • The stinger is that the killer killed Arthur because he had a change of heart about Earth's destruction and tried to stop it from happening by draining his blood and giving it to Chief Arrow to stop the Queen's rising. However, he didn't know that Chief Arrow had turned it over to the Queen under the impression that his late wife was still there, resulting in Chief Arrow giving Arthur's blood to the Queen anyway. Arthur died for nothing.
  • The discovery that Mathison, our friend from the FBI, was the Queen's faithful demon in disguise the entire time, tasked to keep an eye on them after they had made contact with Arthur all the way back in One Bigfoot in the Grace was quite upsetting for both the team and players.

City Of Romance

• The backstory of Carrie's brother disappearing at a young age and her desperation to find him.
• Hugo completely breaking down as he files for divorce from Clementine to the point he needs the player by his side to comfort him.
• Party Like It's 1699. Aside from being extremely gruesome and gory, and the fact that the victim is killed for a very petty reason by her own son (which is that she disagreed with his decision to turn the château into a bed and breakfast), what really makes it absolutely heartbreaking is High Commissioner Delacroix's reaction to her death, as he completely breaks down and is so brokenhearted that he must take the day off, but that's not all. It gets worse when in Chapter 3, the player eventually stumbles across Delacroix in the midst of the investigation, mourning the victim's death by singing while heavily drunk. He does get better at the end though, but the fact that the victim is Delacroix's ex-girlfriend and that she totally averts being an Asshole Victim despite her being a bit stubborn, is more than enough for players to really feel like giving poor Delacroix a hug.
• Enzo's heartbreak over the death of Lola du Maurier. Nadia has to help comfort him when you go to get an analysis from him.
• While it's not a heartbreaking tearjerker, is kind of sad to find out that Jones retired early from the Police Force, especially when you remember that this was his dream job ever since he was a kid.
  • Also gets a bit worse when you put in mind that any kind of Police Job in the USA tends to retire at the age of 60 (65 if you're a chief), and he retires as soon as the events of The Conspiracy happens, therefore he retired at the age of 38. That means that all of this affected him more than one realize, to the point that the spark he found in the Force was possibly, completely gone.
• The reason Jones becomes a suspect in the first place is because of a harsh message he sent to the victim. When he explains why this happened to you, all the sadness comes in: He was trying to move on from Zoe and try to find love again. He encountered the victim through an app and went on a date with this person, but the results were futile after the victim mocked him pretty badly, making him feel like an idiot.
• You can't but feel bad for Noemie Leprince after she learns she killed Celeste. Worse still, she had no choice because Antoine threatened her to do so or he'd make sure she couldn't model again.
• The breakup between Cody and Eleonora is really distressing, especially because of how badly Cody handles it.

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