Monday, December 15, 2008

Monday Mystery Theater


THE CASE:

After a horrible plane crash, Roger Rector's remains are returned home. Soon afterward, Roger's wife Dodie remarries. A few weeks after her honeymoon, Dodie dies and is buried next to Roger. Then a flood devastates the graveyard and washes open many of the graves. In addition to Roger and Dodie, there is a third body in the Rectors' grave!

THE MYSTERY:

Who was the third person, and why was the body in the Rectors' grave?

THE CLUES:

1. The unidentified body had been there the longest.
2. Dodie's second husband was an undertaker.

THE ANSWER:

Think you know the answer? Fill in the comment box to submit your guess. Winner receives a free Heartsong Presents Mystery!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

The unidentified body was Dodie’s wife. Roger’s wife and Dodie were having an affair. Dodie’s wife found out about the affair and filed for divorce, but due to the divorce Dodie would lose everything. Dodie and Roger’s wife concocted a plan to dispose of them both. Dodie made his wife disappeared before the divorce was final and collected what he felt was rightfully his. Dodie and Roger’s wife poisoned Roger. The poison kicked in while Roger was flying and the plane crashed. And because Dodie was an undertaker he was able to falsify the autopsy reports and preserve his wife’s body. They decided to bury Dodie’s wife and Roger together. During the honeymoon, Dodie died of a heart attack.

Amanda

Stormi said...

Dodie's new husband who was the undertaker had a wife but she wouldn't divorce him so he killed her and buried her in the graveyard and when Roger's remains came home he decided to put his remains over the top of his wife so that nobody would ever think that another body was buried there. The undertake then married Roger's wife. The flood came and uncovered what the undertaker had done.

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Dodie and the unpleasant undertaker had been having an affair before poor ol' Roger kicked the bucket. Aforementioned undertaker was not a nice man. He had cozied up to Dodie because he thought she was set to inherit a bundle once Roger kicked the bucket. Just before Roger died it came to Mr. Unpleasant's attention that the Roger's son from his first marriage would actually inherit all the loot. This simply wouldn't do.

With lightning quick decisiveness he decided to off the importunate relative. That way the estate would revert to Dodie on Roger's death. Having helped Roger buy his burial plot, he of course knew where it was and because of his long time association with the "biz" knew how deep to bury the body so it wouldn't be discovered by the crew who came to bury poor ol' Roger.

It is well known that once a murderer kills once it is easier to do it again. While still on their honeymoon and celebrating with his new wife's moola he realized that he could have it all to himself if he simply bumped her off too.

Anonymous said...

haha...I just realized that Dodie is a women. Oh my goodness, I thought it was a man. I got this case befuddled. :o)

Amanda

Susan Page Davis said...

I think Stomi is right, but Lisa's idea is very entertaining, too.

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Yeah I think Stormi is right too, but she beat me to it so I had to come up with an alternative ;0)

Lisa

Elizabeth Ludwig said...

Sorry I've been too wrapped up to play, slueths, but I see you've carried on quite nicely without me! :-)

You're answers are all very entertaining...unfortunately, you haven't quite uncovered the truth.

Here's a hint: Roger survived the crash.

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Take 2:

Roger Rector aka The Rascal was Dodie's second husband and had a successful career as an undertaker.

He and Dodie married and together hatched a plot to defraud the life insurance company of a bundle by faking his death.

They took a nice fresh corpse (the closed casket kind) from their funeral home for a final whirl in their Cessna.

Roger parachuted out and let the plane crash. Everyone assumed the body inside was his and so it was buried in his plot at Whispering Pines Cemetery (which he had gotten a fabulous deal on during their Mother's Day sale).

As the grieving widow Dodie collected the loot and then promptly remarried Roger under a different name after his plastic surgery scars were healed.

Not one to pay for something twice, Roger removed the records of his first "burial" from Whispering Pines, he may have been a louse but he knew the undertaker's business. That way the plots were still in Dodie's name and reverted to him after her untimely death.

He duly kicked the bucket too and was buried on top of the fake Roger, until the day the floods came.

Elizabeth Ludwig said...

Lisa, I LOVE to read your scenarios. You're funny, gal! Wrong, but funny. :-)

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Well it's not the first time I've been wrong though it may be the first time I've been told I'm funny.

Hmmm now back to the drawing board.

Stormi said...

hmmm rogers alive that changes things a bit...

Roger faked his death because he suspected that his wife was having an affair. He made a deal with the undertaker not knowing that it was the undertaker that was having the affair with his wife.

The undertaker is also a serial killer and needed a place to put his latest victim so Roger wanting to cover up the fact that he is not dead was great for the undertaker.

The undertaker to his latest victim and put him in the ground claiming him to be Roger, while Roger investigated who was having a affair with his wife.

Two weeks later, Roger finds out that it was the undertaker who his wife was having a affair with and in a rage kills his wife and leaves since nobody would suspect a dead man of killing her. It just so happens that the flood that comes through shows that there are really two people in one grave.

Poor undertaker has some explaining to do..lol. :)

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Now back from the drawing board.

Roger Rector and his wife Dodie had concocted a plan to defraud their life insurance company. She would provide a body from the funeral home where she worked as a make-up artist until she got her big break in Hollywood, while he would crash his Cessna. The body was duly identified as his and buried in his grave.

BUT there was a double cross on. Dodie and the undertaker had been having an affair and they did in Roger to keep the insurance money. Since no one would question a grave size mound of fresh dirt at his burial site they buried him on top of the first casket.

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Now back from the drawing board.

Roger Rector and his wife Dodie had concocted a plan to defraud their life insurance company. She would provide a body from the funeral home where she worked as a make-up artist until she got her big break in Hollywood, while he would crash his Cessna. The body was duly identified as his and buried in his grave.

BUT there was a double cross on. Dodie and the undertaker had been having an affair and they did in Roger to keep the insurance money. Since no one would question a grave size mound of fresh dirt at his burial site they buried him on top of the first casket.

Alas poor Dodie had little time left in this world and yet she came to rue her evil deeds. The scent of formaldehyde no longer smelled so sweet and she began to fear that her new husband was regarding her with dollar signs in his eyes. She too had not long for this world.

Stormi said...

I am so curious as to see what the answer is and who hit it or got close. I love trying to figure these mysteries out.

Holiday season has us a bit busy this time of year..:)

Elizabeth Ludwig said...

(cracking my knuckles) Ah...so I win again! So sorry sleuths. The correct answer is Roger was unhappy in his marriage. He wanted out. So when the perfect opportunity arose in the form of a plane crash, he took it! As the only survivor, Roger planted his personal items on one of the other passengers, then walked away as the plane burned.

Months later, he heard his grieving widow had fallen in love with the undertaker who planned Roger's funeral. The two collected Roger's life insurance money, married, and planned a spectacular honeymoon, but unfortunately for Dodie, she abruptly died.

With his ex-wife out of the picture, Roger figured he could cash on his own life insurance policy! He approached the undertaker for his share of the money, all the while banking on the fact that if the undertaker revealed what Roger had done, or if he refused to pay, they would both lose the money. What Roger didn't count on was the wily undertaker being greedier than Roger. The undertaker had killed Dodie for her money. It was nothing for him to kill Roger, too, when he showed up asking for money. He promptly buried Roger in his own grave! His crimes weren't discovered until much later, when a flood revealed TWO bodies buried in Roger's plot.

Stormi said...

That was good, I totally didn't think of that plot..lol.

Lisa Karon Richardson said...

Yep you got us. Nice.