Brain Dead Brain Dead is a murder - mystery side quest in the " Fallout 4 " add - on " Far Harbor " . Detailed walkthrough . While roaming around Far Harbor , the Sole Survivor will be approached by a Miss Nanny named Pearl . She will then ask them if they ' re part of law enforcement , mentioning that there ' s been a terrible murder . Upon confirming , she will then ask the player character to follow her as the murder has taken place at Cliff ' s Edge Hotel . Upon reaching the location she will mention that the residents have been rowdy and that she ' s had to get physical with some of them as they were getting too " handsy . " She will then tell the Sole Survivor how the elevator is not working and thus they must take the long way around . She will then proceed to lead one through the hotel and back to an elevator , which is only to be used by the special guests . Through this path they will stumble upon several feral ghouls . Once out of the elevator , the Sole Survivor will be prompted to speak to a Mister Handy named Maxwell through an intercom which is revealed to be vault door controls . Once done speaking they will be ushered in and escorted to the crime scene . The victim of the murder is presented as Ezra Parker , the owner of the hotel . Upon investigation of the crime scene , a bat , red paint to represent blood and the broken brain incubator will be discovered . The Sole Survivor will then be asked by Maxwell to investigate the fellow robobrains living in the vault . The main characters that will be focused on are Julianna , Santiago and Keith , although one will eventually speak with everyone . Questioning Juliana is rather fruitless , although talking to her husband reveals that he was a lead designer on the robobrain project , and also the one who convinced everyone to put their brains into the robot bodies . If one keeps talking to him about his research , they can eventually learn about the voice modulators which allow them to recreate their original voices . Entering the McKinney residence will catch the couple apparently discussing the murder and a plan to run away , but it turns out they ' re just rehearsing lines from a script . Afterwards , Gilda will leave for the beach . Questioning Keith about the bat found at the murder scene will lead him to claim he ' s being framed , probably by the artist Santiago . Speaking with Santiago gives the player character some speech checks in which they can convince him they ' re a fellow art lover . He will reveal that Julianna and Ezra had some huge argument in the overseer ' s office , but he does not know what it was about since he was trying to ignore the commotion . He will refer the player character to Gilda , the local gossip . Gilda can be found on the vault ' s artificial beach behind the showers . Agree to hear one of her stories , and she ' ll be willing to tell the player character what Julianna and Ezra were arguing about . Apparently it was something regarding finances , and Julianna found something in the overseer ' s office that set her off . The argument started when Julianna accused Ezra of something , but Gilda isn ' t sure what . After learning this , one will then have the objective to investigate the overseer ' s office , only to find it ' s locked . Speaking to Maxwell reveals that Ezra Parker had the key , which one can find on a desk in his room . There ' s not much to see in the office , but using the terminal and listening to the holotape will reveal that Ezra was embezzling funds from the vault construction fund , which is the reason the lower - class wing wasn ' t finished in time . Talking with Bert , Julianna ' s husband , a speech check will be reveal that she ' s been acting very different - so much so that Bert is convinced that ' s not his wife . When confronted , Julianna will reveal that she is actually Ezra . Apparently Julianna discovered that Ezra had embezzled the money she gave him , and threatened to tell the others . On impulse , Ezra killed her , then moved the body downstairs , set up the crime scene and modified his voice modulator to impersonate her . The Sole Survivor will then be given the decision to either take a bribe or continue on with the accusation which will result in a fight between Ezra and them . If the Survivor takes the bribe they can turn around and continue with the accusation , if they don ' t ( the " let him go " option ) they will then begin Brain Dead Part 2 . Once beginning Brain Dead Part 2 , the Sole Survivor will be given two choices : return to Maxwell immediately and tell him about Ezra , causing the robots to attack the murderer , or wait for Ezra to leave the vault . Once he ' s gone , return to Maxwell and tell him Ezra is the killer . At that point , the Sole Survivor can then tell Maxwell one of three lies : Ezra got away , they killed him , or it ' s over . No matter which choice they make , Maxwell will pay the player character for their work . Behind the scenes . In July of 2016 , the mod author of a Fallout New Vegas mod called Autumn Leaves claimed that a lot of the quest Brain Dead was copied from his mod as both share a lot of similarity . Both are murder mysteries , both take place in a vault that is ran by robots and both share similar interior design .