Machiko Yabuuchi (Case Closed)

Machiko Yabuuchi (Seiko Fujimoto) was a villainess from "The Cornered Famous Detective! Two Big Murder Cases", a 2-hour special from Season 4 of Case Closed (airdate March 23, 1998, manga volume 14: Files 1-8). She was the second wife of the late Yoshichika Yabuuchi and the stepmother to his children, Hiromi and Yoshiyuki.
Sometime before the episode, Yoshichika passed away from cancer and his brother, Yoshifusa, arrived at the Yabuuchi house for the reading of his will. But Machiko, along with the rest of her family, believed him to be an impostor, and Hiromi called Yukiko Kudo (her childhood friend and Conan Edogawa/Shinichi Kudo's mother) to investigate.
When a mysterious disguised man was found stalking the house (late identified as Yusaku Kudo, Yukiko's husband and Conan/Shinichi's father), the Yabuuchis were convinced it was the brother of Yoshichika's first wife, who had accused the Yabuuchis of killing her and staging her death as an accidental fall down their well. Despite this, however, Machiko brought up the possibility that he would be named in her husband's will and that they would have to follow his wishes out of respect before leaving for a friend's wedding reception.
But later on, it was revealed by Conan that Machiko used the wedding reception as a cover for an attempt on her brother-in-law's life, doing so in order to seize his share of her late husband's inheritance. After making a call at the wedding reception at 8 o'clock, Machiko drove back to the house, making a call from her car at 9 o'clock in the forest behind the house, playing a cassette tape of party sounds on the stereo to make it seem she were still at the reception. Then, armed with a knife, the evil Machiko attacked Yoshifusa in the bath house, intending to use it to wash herself off and use the furnace to destroy the cassette tape she'd used to falsify her alibi.
But unbeknownst to Machiko, Yoshifusa was actually Dickson Tanaka, a friend of the long deceased Yoshifusa's from Brazil who had come to the gathering in his place to find who had been sending his late friend death threats (There have been sent two threatening messages, one from Machiko and another from Keiko Yabuuchi, Yoshiyuki's wife). The real Yoshifusa left a son Carlos, who is among the heirs in Yoshichika's will, to nobody's knowledge. Fearing that the death threats would turn to Carlos, if the truth was made known, he impersonated Yoshifusa to protect Carlos until the will was read. When Machiko made her attack, Dickson (being a skilled jujustu fighter) fought against her and turned the knife on his would-be murderer, killing Machiko with a single stab to the chest before placing her body in the well to be discovered later.
== Trivia ==
* In the English dub, Machiko's name is translated as Marlena Xanderbilt and was voiced by Stephanie Nadolny.
==Gallery==
Machiko Yabuuchi corpse.jpg|Machiko's corpse after being pulled from the well
Category:1990s
Category:Anime Villainess
Category:Attempted Murder
Category:Brunette
Category:Callous
Category:Corpse
Category:Greedy
Category:Hero's Lover
Category:Knife
Category:Manga Villainess
Category:Man Kills Villainess
Category:Stepmother
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Fate: Deceased
Category:Demise: Stabbed