Case 1 (COMMUNICATIONS)

## Summary

A young man named Henry Elsner, living under the influence of Frances Elsner, his abusive mother, meets a woman named Nancy, who completely fascinates him. They become friends, and eventually Henry partially cuts ties with his mother to marry Nancy. However, Frances continues to harass Henry, calling him on the phone several times a day and complaining about Nancy nonstop. Eventually, Henry decides he’s had enough, and completely cuts Frances out of his life without hesitation.

Nancy, however, begins to fear that Henry might do the same to her, begins having emotional breakdowns & being more clingy towards Henry, and ends up murdering him as he attempts to sneak away in the dead of night (due to her behavior reminding him too much of his mother). She then begins experiencing hallucinations that he's still alive. Her color-sound synesthesia also causes her to hear the radio shows she listens to as black and white-- the same color she heard Henry’s voice as. As soon as she realizes the truth, she’s overcome with grief and commits suicide. Months go by until their neighbor, Patty Rosalind discovers their bodies since she and the neighbors were concerned for the couple since they hadn't seen them in months. Patty calls the authorities and the case is ruled as a murder-suicide. While all of this is happening Frances, who wanted them both dead anyway, learns about their deaths on the news and lives a significantly long, peaceful life.

## Revised Version Edition

Henry Elsner lived with his mother, Frances Elsner. Frances was verbally abusive to Henry, often saying that one day he will die and when he did she'll be happy. She had a lot of problems such as excessive drinking, smoking, undiagnosed achromatopsia, and being emotionally unstable. She would say bad things to Henry and when she was really drunk or in a bad mood, she would often hit Henry or rub lit cigarette buds onto his bare skin. While being terrible to Henry she also called Junior (Henry's father) on the phone a lot of times. Henry's school life wasn't good but it wasn't as terrible as his personal life. He was an outcast and often stayed alone with no friends., which was mainly because Frances was extremely possessive of him since he was the only person in her life. One day at school, he met another outcast whose name was Nancy O'connell. Nancy was a girl who had Chromesthesia (a type of Synesthesia) which she was ostracized at school for. He and Nancy became a support system for each other mainly because just like Henry, she didn't have a good home life either. Despite not getting verbally or physically abused like Henry, she often had trouble finding support from her parents. Her parents also couldn't really understand her synesthesia and often said that Nancy was making things up. She had siblings who were "perfect and normal", her sisters were straight A students. Her brother was perfectly well behaved. Nancy had average grades, she also often wanted to be creative and make stuff. When Nancy got into middle school, she began becoming insecure and often needed reassurance from her parents, but when she went to them, she was left in the dust to deal with her own problems. When Frances began noticing Nancy and Henry hanging out with each other, she tried to tear them apart by not letting Henry go out of the house except for when it was school. Despite her efforts, her attempts failed as Henry and Nancy continued seeing each other and becoming closer to each other each day. When Nancy and Henry got older, Nancy had an idea and asked Henry about them both getting married, she said that not only would they be great living with one another, they both could get away from their negative parents. Henry thought about it and agreed. When Henry told Frances about it, Frances was begging Henry to stay with her and she even guilt tripped him, saying that he was going to leave his "poor and disabled mother". He felt guilty but Nancy reassured him that when he gets away from Frances, his life will be much better than before. Nancy and Henry got married (platonically) and moved to Chicago, while Henry cut Frances out of his life and Nancy changed her name to Nancy Elsner. Henry became a journalist and Nancy became a housewife as well as pursuing her love of sewing and creation. When they moved into their new house, the neighbors loved the couple, mainly because of how shy and innocent they both were. Despite being on good terms with most of their neighbors, two people often talked to them a lot more. One of them was an elderly woman, named Patty Rosalind, Who often talked to them in the morning before Henry went to work. She often was busy in her garden planting flowers and such. The other person who often talked to Henry was a person named Ray Barnett. Ray was a person who lived alone and wanted to be known for something that would gather a lot of attention. They also smoked a lot and they tried to often start a conversation with Henry. Despite seemingly being a good person, Henry still often avoided them because of their smoking habit, which triggered traumatic memories. Everything seemed to be going swell, until a couple years after moving away, Frances called and Nancy picked up. Frances apologized to Nancy for how she treated her and asked her if she and Henry could be in touch as she wanted to fix their unhealthy relationship. Nancy though for a while and told Frances that she was going to ask Henry. Nancy told Henry about Frances and he was disturbed hearing that Frances wanted to keep in contact with them both. He thought about it and agreed, because he thought about not only their relationship getting better, but also about how maybe getting a better relationship could get rid of his traumatic flashbacks and nightmares. Things began to get better for Frances' relationship with her son and daughter in-law, until Frances began telling Nancy that Henry was thinking of getting a divorce because Nancy was becoming clingy and that the reason he didn't do it sooner was because he was afraid that Nancy was going to hurt him or herself because of it. Nancy was confused and didn't take it to heart but just thinking about it scared her, Nancy decided to not tell Henry about it. Frances also began telling Henry about how Nancy began telling Frances about her fears of Henry abandoning her and that if he did, she was going to hurt him. Henry was also confused but he kept his mouth shut for a week. Eventually, Henry and Nancy had a talk and concluded that Frances was making up stuff so they would eventually divorce. Henry was upset about it and called Frances and told her off on the phone and told her that he wasn't going to talk to her anymore. The whole neighborhood overheard the phone call because all of the phone were on a party line. Ray overheard the call and got an idea on how the neighborhood including them, could be known around the whole city, state, or even country. For a few days, Ray spied on Henry and Nancy, getting to know their daily routines. They noticed that Henry every night got up from his bed and went to get a glass of water. Ray eventually decided to act out, one night, they got out of their house and went to the Elsners' house, waiting until they were sure that Nancy and Henry were both asleep. They brought two items, gloves and a lockpick. Ray put on their gloves and picked the lock. They went into the home, took a knife from the Elsners' drawer, and waited in the shadows. After many hours, Henry got up from a nightmare and went downstairs to get a glass of water. He filled up the cup and drank it before putting it back on the counter. Ray crept up from behind and put their arms around Henry and slashed his throat. Henry felt pain, and smelt cigarettes, as his vision faded. He died and Ray took his body to the basement and continued stabbing him to make it seem like an emotionally driven crime. They left his body there and wandered around the house and found Nancy's radio which they knew she always used. Ray grabbed it and turned it on. They locked the house door before they left and disposed the evidence before they went to their house. In the morning, Nancy woke up and noticed that Henry was gone. She got dressed and went downstairs. Nancy saw a mysterious blood trail and followed it out of both curiosity and concern. It lead to the basement and eventually, Henry's dead body and her radio playing her usual station. She was stunned from shock and began panicking. She called Frances and told her about Henry being dead. Frances decided to tell Nancy "You seriously went through with that?! I thought you were just being dramatic! What, you don't remember? You told me you wanted him dead, how can you not remember that?" After Frances hung up, Nancy felt guilty and full of despair. She called the police while crying and they came to investigate what happened. They inspected the crime scene and immediately suspecting Nancy. The police asked her questions at the station but they couldn't seem to get the full picture of her killing Henry. They also brought the whole neighborhood in the station for questioning (including Ray) but they still didn't know who exactly did. That was until someone in the investigation team took note of the lingering cigarette smell and Nancy said that she nor Henry ever smoked mainly because not only did she not like smoking but also because Henry did not like anything relating to cigarettes because it reminded him of his mother so she was out of the picture for now. That was until an "anonymous" tip said that Nancy often said she wanted Henry dead after Henry threatening to divorce her. They brought her in for more questioning and she explained both her and Henry's problem with Frances. The police eventually brought Frances in for questioning and she acted innocent convincingly and the police still had no idea who killed Henry. The police were close to the truth because from the evidence they've gathered, they were sure that a stranger planned the murder and plotted evidence against Nancy. Yet they didn't know who killed Henry and they eventually concluded the case as "Unsolved". The public became interested in the murder, mainly because of how mysterious and well planned it was. Everyone in that specific neighborhood gained lots of attention from it (including Ray who felt good about the attention they were getting), Nancy got the most attention from it but unlike the others it was negative. Many of the public demonized her because mostly everyone was sure that she killed Henry. Nancy moved out of Chicago into another nearby state to stay with a friend from high school temporarily while she mourned and looked for a job. But no matter where she went, the murder lingered with her. Nancy thought to herself, what if she did kill Henry? Maybe since was in such a state of denial, she probably forgot about it. Henry's dead body, her radio playing near him, Frances' claims. It was all there to prove that she most likely committed the murder. Eventually after a few months, Nancy committed suicide by hanging herself. Frances was thrilled about Henry and Nancy being dead but after a year, she began living a lonely life (which she was trying to avoid the whole time). Ray Barnett never got caught and eventually moved out of the country so they could leave the police's radar in case they reviewed the case years later.

## Characters

Henry Elsner

Frances Elsner

Nancy Elsner

Ray Barnett

## Songs

Rotary Dial

Black and White

Housewife Radio