Mystery Plot Structures

      In a narrative constructed around a mystery, the central mystery, if anything, takes on an outsize importance, one that threatens to blot out everything else. On some level, the only thing that matters in a mystery story is the last chapter. You may think that's unfair, but it's just the way the genre works.

     One theory about the ideal structure of a mystery story holds that in a mystery there are essentially two kinds of plot: an apparent plot and a revealed plot. The apparent plot is everything that happens up to the final chapter of the story is immediately apparent, until the very end. The revealed plot is what really turns out to be the case after all the mysteries have been revealed.

     In a really good mystery the difference between these two kinds of plots isn't just mechanical, it is interpretive. It isn't just about who appears to have done it and who really did it. It's about what it all--the world, good and evil, women and men, family, justice, society, the truth at the heart of humanity--really means: what it seems to mean when we're wandering in the darkness, and what it means when we come into the light.

     Another theory holds that what the structure of a mystery is really about is story and discourse, signifier and signified. The mystery, in its opening chapters, posits the existence of a coherent, meaningful story: the body in the woods, the blood spatter, the knife in the grass, the partial footprint. But the story is hidden, its meaning obscured. The narrative that proceeds from this point is not, itself, the story--it is, rather, discourse, the system of talk and empty signification and endless deferment that surrounds the story, like planets orbiting a star that can be glimpsed only glancingly, never directly. The story, usually, is revealed in the final chapter, but the story that preceded the story--the story of the detectives finding clues, signifiers throbbing with a meaning that lay just outside their grasp--that wasn't the story.

Andrew De Young, "'True Detective': Just Another Murder Mystery, After All," The Stake, March 13, 2014 

Criminal Justice Quote: Self Inflicted Gunshot Wounds

     Gunshot deaths are relatively straightforward when compared to other deaths that can be easily masked.  [For example, drownings, poisonings, and falls.] The challenge in these fatalities is determining whether the one-shot deaths are suicides, and even those can be difficult because there have been cases of people firing multiple shots into themselves. [That is extremely rare.]

     There are two common characteristics to look for in gunshot wound cases: close contact between the muzzle [the business end of the barrel] and the skin will produce a scorching effect, depositing soot around the wound [tattooing]; and the entry wound wound will be smaller and more rounded than the exit wound, which will be much larger and jagged.

Jarrett Hallcox and Amy Welch, Bodies We've Buried, 2006 

Gary Dudek Charged With Stealing $357,000 Worth Of Human Skin

     Gary Dudek, a resident of Wallingford, a suburban community outside of Philadelphia, from September 2006 to September 2013, worked for a Massachusetts based company called Organogeness. As a sales representative and "tissue-regeneration specialist," Mr. Dudek had allegedly been given a so-called "open purchase order" that authorized him to acquire human skin grafts from Mercy Philadelphia Hospital.

     During the period November 2011 to July 2013, Gary Dudek ordered 219 human skin grafts from Mercy Philadelphia Hospital. According to hospital administrators, each graft is worth $1,700, money the medical facility has not been paid.

     On Monday, May 26, 2014, detectives with the Philadelphia Police Department took the 54-year-old suspected skin thief into custody. According to reports, Mr. Dudek had been caught twice on a surveillance camera taking skin grafts from Mercy Philadelphia Hospital to his car. Officers booked him into the city jail on charges of theft, receiving stolen property, and tampering with records. He quickly posted his $10,000 bond, and was released.

     Following the accusations in this unusual theft case, a spokesperson for the suspect's former employer, Organogeneness, told reporters that the firm is not in the business of buying or selling human skin grafts. (Skin grafts or patches are used mainly as replacements for serious infections, burns, or wounds.) According to this corporate spokesperson, the company has developed a product called Apligraf, an organic material made of collagen and skin cells that is designed to mimic human skin.

     Mr. Dudek's attorney, Eugene Tinari, in speaking to a television reporter with a local NBC affiliate, said, "If Mercy Hospital has suffered losses they deem to be a result of Mr. Dudek's actions, then perhaps a civil suit could have been initiated. But to take this case into the criminal arena against a man who has been nothing but hard working and law abiding his entire life is a bit draconian, in my view."

     A preliminary hearing in the Dudek case is scheduled for June 10, 2014. Law enforcement authorities have not revealed what the suspect did with the 219 skin grafts. Did he sell them? If so, to whom? And for how much? 

Criminal Justice Quote: Drunk Mother Recklessly Kills Her Infant

     A Maryland woman who killed her 2-month-old daughter by passing out drunk on top of her while breast-feeding is going to jail. Twenty-two-year-old Yadina Morales of Hagerstown was sentenced on June 3, 2014 to fifteen months after entering an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment that the state has enough evidence to convict.

     Prosecutors agreed to drop some charges, including child abuse and reckless endangerment, as a part of the plea deal. Morales was arrested in November 2013 after the girl's father came home and found her passed out on top of the unresponsive infant. Morales registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.256, more than three times the level needed for a drunken driving conviction. The judge says her actions were grossly negligent.

David Disheau, "Woman Who Drunkenly Smothered Baby Gets 15 Months," Associated Press, June 3, 2014 

Whackademia Quote: University of Alabama Coach Makes More Than 70 Professors

     The highest paid college football coach is about to get richer. The University of Alabama's Board of Trustees compensation committee collectively approved a contract raise for head football coach Nick Saban on June 3, 2014. Saban, who was already the highest paid college football coach in 2013 with a salary of $5.5 million, will now make $6.9 million a year….

     Since taking over the head coaching job at Alabama in 2007, Saban has guided the team to three national championships. Saban's contract cements his presence at Alabama until January 2022. The contract also includes a clause guaranteeing an increase of salary for Saban in certain circumstances if other football college coaches start making more than him….

Jane Bartless Pappas, "Highest Paid College Football Coach Gets $1.4 million More Than Last Year," The Daily Caller, June 3, 2014 

Whackademia Quote: High School Teacher with HIV Accused of Sexual Relations With Student, 16

     A Louisiana high school teacher is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old male student and intentionally exposing him to HIV….Sheriff deputies arrested Derrick Nesby, 37, on May 28, 2014 at H.L. Bourgeois High School in Terrebonne Parish, the school where he teaches.

     Nesby is charged with felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and intentional exposure of the AIDS virus….However, Nesby denies all the allegations. Investigators say a school resource officer [security guard] was the first to receive a complaint that Nesty and the 16-year-old were involved….It was during the investigation that detectives learned Nesby had HIV….Deputies say that despite knowing that he had HIV, Nesby exposed the student to the virus without the teen's knowledge.

     Nesby, who had been employed at the school for a year and also coached track, is being held on a one million dollar bond.

"Cops: Louisiana Teacher Had Sex With Student, Exposed Him to HIV," CBS News, June 2, 2014 

Criminal Justice Quote: Teen Violence

     At least fifteen million children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence each year….Imagine the confusion and fear in the mind of a young child who routinely watches his or her mother being battered by the other parent or another intimate partner. Imagine the long-standing confusion about what intimate relationships mean.

     Beyond the confines of the home, imagine the world through the eyes of a young child who grows up familiar with the sound of gunshots and where the funerals of young people killed in disputes and by stray bullets are common….In one community in Rochester, New York, the homicide rate for young black men fifteen to nineteen is sixty-five times the national homicide rate, while the rest of Rochester has a more typical homicide profile.

     According to a growing body of research…exposure to violence has a direct link to behavioral and emotional problems such as PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder], aggression, phobias, stress-related symptoms, insomnia, low self-esteem, and depression. We believe PTSD is closely linked to truancy and school dropouts. School performance usually drops precipitously when children are exposed to violence. These children are often unable to concentrate; they develop learning disabilities; they have poor problem-solving skills; they have low self-esteem; and they have difficulty forming attachments to others.

Kamala D. Harris, Smart on Crime, 2009

Whackademia Quote: School Cop Dumps Student Out of his Wheelchair

     The Oakland, California United School District has fired a high school resource officer [in the private sector we call these people security guards] who is also facing a felony charge after he slapped and dumped a student out of his wheelchair….The district announced the firing of Michael Mitchell Thursday, May 29, 2014, while also apologizing to the parents of the injured…student.

     Mitchell became angry when a group of students were lingering in the school's hallway earlier in the month. District spokesperson Troy Flint says Mitchell grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and began to push the student toward class. The student objected and began to slap the officer's hands.

     The school officer then responded in an extremely emotional manner, basically by...punching the student several times, and dumping him out of his wheelchair and onto the floor….Prosecutors have charged Mitchell with child abuse.

"Security Officer Fired After Alleged Attack on Student in Wheelchair," Fox News, May 30, 2014 

What Happened to College Students Hye Min Choi and Brogan Dulle? Two Unrelated Missing Persons Cases

     From Greensboro, North Carolina, 19-year-old Hye Min Choi attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a full-scholarship mechanical engineering major. The five-foot-six, 100 pound junior, who went by the first name Joseph, had earned high grades at the university.

     At three in the afternoon of Saturday, May 17, 2014, Choi checked his luggage at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in advance of a 7:40 PM United Airlines flight to Greensboro. Two hours later, the student called and spoke to his father from the airport. During their brief conversation, the father told his son to make sure he got something to eat before boarding the plane. At seven that evening, forty minutes before the flight's scheduled departure, someone swiped Hye Choi's Wells Fargo credit card at an airport McDonalds.

     Hye Min Choi did not board the plane or re-book another flight. His mother, waiting for him at the airport in Greensboro, went home without him.

     Three days later, on Tuesday, May 20, Chicago police superintendent Gary McCarthy announced that the college student had been found, safe and sound. "The young man," he said, "was apparently having some problem in school. It appears that he may not have wanted to go home." According to reports, Choi had been upset over his final exams. The police have not released information regarding what Choi was doing, or where he was, while the police in Chicago wasted their time looking for him. He is back in North Carolina with his family.

Brogan Dulle

     Brogan Dulle, a 21-year-old student at the University of Cincinnati, resided in an apartment building in the Mount Auburn Historic District of the city. At two in the morning of Sunday, May 18, 2014, Dulle walked out of his apartment carrying a flashlight in an effort to find his missing cell phone by retracing his steps. He believed he had left the phone at the St. Clair, a bar, or at Mac's Pizza near campus. He left behind his keys, wallet, and jacket. He did not return to his apartment.

     Over the next eight days, hundreds of volunteers searched for the missing student. Dulle's friends and family posted missing persons posters around the city, and a $30,000 reward was offered for information regarding his whereabouts.

     At 9:00 PM on Monday, May 26, 2014, the landlord of the building adjacent to Dulle's apartment, called 911 to report a possible break-in. At the time, the building was under renovation. Police officers investigating the landlord's complaint found Brogan Dulle's body hanging from a cord in the basement. Dulle had apparently gained entry by climbing up a fire escape and using a crowbar to break an upper floor window. The building was unoccupied at the time.

     The Hamilton County Coroner listed Brogan Dulle's cause of death as "asphyxiation by strangulation," and his manner of death as suicide. A police spokesperson told reporters that the student had not left a suicide note. Near his body officers found a wine bottle. The police official said there is no suspicion of foul play in this case.

     In the social media, there are some who disagree with the coroner's ruling of suicide in Brogan Dulle's death.
     

Criminal Justice Quote: Most Violent Criminals Aren't Deterred by Punishment

Most of the rapes and murders, and other crimes of high emotion or specific motivation…are perpetrated by people who fit one or more of the following profiles: They are emotionally out of control; they are convinced that they are so justified in the act they are committing that it is not even a crime; and/or they believe that they won't be caught…. Put more simply, they are so angry, delusional, arrogant, or lacking in moral conscience that they don't care about the punishment. They don't connect the dots between behavior and consequence until after the act is committed.

Kamala D. Harris, Smart on Crime, 2009