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I Ruby Thorn
Mr. Bigelow
English B2
18 September 2015
The Case of Mr. Anton Karazais Death
Chief, when I entered Mr. Karazais piano room, it wasnt a pretty sight. The
old fellow was hanging from a chandelier by a cord taken from some curtain drapes,
dead as a doornail; oddly, his feet were two feet above an upright stool. There was a
thin line of blood around his neck, as though it was made by something much
thinner than the drapes. Several pieces of steel wire from his piano had been ripped
out; notably, there were of a size similar to the cut around the mans neck. On a
nearby table was an open wine bottle and a full glass (note: If the wine were poured
back in, it would have most likely filled the bottle full) and the mans journal, open
to the final entry. In the journal, Mr. Karazai said that he had been sad for weeks,
and his strength was diminishing with each passing day. He had difficulty playing
the piano and had kicked it the day before, but had failed to come close to
damaging it. He mentioned how lonely he was and wondered whether his son, the
only heir to his fortune, knew what he would be inheriting. He mentioned that he
would play some pretty melodies to attempt to cheer himself upunusual for man
who had come to the point of committing suicide. On May 16, the day of Mr.
Karazais death, his only son phoned us and reported his fathers alleged suicide by
hanging. However, the evidence points away from a simple suicide, and more

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toward assisted suicide or even murder. In fact, the son is a major suspect and
should most definitely be investigated further.
Based on the evidence in Mr. Karazais journal, there have been things done
that a frail 90-year-old man such as him could never do. The piano strings were
almost surely ripped out by somebody much stronger. Mr. Karazai could have used a
tool of some sort, but none was found. As I mentioned previously, the thin line
around his neck was roughly the size of the piano strings; blood rarely comes postmortem, so its likely that Karazai was strangled by the piano strings or other
instrument initially. Another thing that didnt look quite right was the stool; it was
upright, 24 inches underneath Mr. Karazais feet, as I mentioned. If he was really the
frail old man he seemed to be, a jump like this would be nigh impossible. As Im
sure you know, people who hang themselves usually die with their hands to their
sides; however, Mr. Karazais were together, and may have even been tied at some
point. Since he evidently hadnt drunk any of the wine, that was also most likely put
there for show. All in all, this points to a bad cover up of murder or assisted suicide.
A likely scenario goes as follows: The murderer attacked Mr. Karazai with the piano
strings; to make their job easier, they tied his hands together, but Karazai hadnt
been able to put up much resistance in the first place. When strangling him, the
strings created a thin line of blood; Mr. Karazai eventually died of asphyxiation. The
murderer then removed some curtain drapes and used them to tie the man to the
chandelier. To make it look even more like a suicide, they then put a stool
underneath Mr. Karazai, but they didnt make a very good choice of stools and
forgot to overturn it. They then untied the hands and poured a glass of wine, maybe
opening the diary to the last page, completing their rather clumsy cover up. The
laziness and clumsiness of this cover up points toward possible assisted suicide, but

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doesnt explain the piano strings, wine, or the fact that on his last day of life Mr.
Karazai attempted to cheer himself up by playing happy music, instead of
concluding that no option remained but to end his life, as most suicidal people do.
Much investigation will be necessary, of course, to confirm my suspicions, but
the number one step that should be taken, I believe, is to investigate Mr. Karazais
son. Being the sole heir to such a large fortune, the son may have been in a hurry to
get the money. In his journal, Karazai talked about how lonely he was; this means he
must not have been very well in contact with his son. Therefore, it was an
interesting coincidence that the son decided of all days to visit on the one that his
father died. He should be questioned on his reasons for visiting his father, what time
he got there, etcetera. We need to also know whether he knew about what he would
be inheriting, his relationship with Mr. Karazai, and his current financial state; I
suggest a polygraph test. Even more importantly, everything needs to be dusted for
fingerprints: the piano strings, the stool, the wine bottle, and everything else
involved in the crime. The handwriting in the journal must be checked to see
whether it matches with the rest of it. It can then be determined whether someone
else was involved in Mr. Karazais death.
I really dont think this could have possibly been ordinary suicide. Everything
points away from it because of how illogical everything would be in a suicide. Now,
obviously this was not caused by an animal attack or natural causes. If it was
natural causes, that would most likely mean that the son had taken it upon himself
to suspend his father from the chandelier and then lie about it, which is quite simply
ridiculous. As for suicide, there is no way Mr. Karazai could have hung himself that
high. It makes no sense for him to have poured wine and never drank it, especially
as alcohol is often used to deaden the pain of dying. It makes even less sense that

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he was planning on playing music to make himself happy. Very rarely does a suicide
go through without premeditation. And, most of all, there was no tool around for Mr.
Karazai to ruin his piano. As a rather sentimental person and a musician
empathizing with Karazai, I can understand him kicking his piano or doing any other
action that he knew wouldnt actually affect it. But for a man so devoted to his
music, truly harming his piano or downright ruining it would be tantamount to
assault and battery of ones best friend or young child. Overall, the evidence in
conjunction with the conclusion of suicide makes no sense. Any other humancaused method of death is possible, but suicide without help I can confidently rule
out.
So, overall, the facts of Mr. Karazais death do not match his sons testimony.
The damage and hanging are of the sort that only a much younger, stronger person
could have managedsuch as Karazais son, the sole heir to a great fortunes, who
coincidentally visited that day for what was presumably the first time in a long time.
The damage to the piano and the unusual distance between Karazais feet and the
ground are the biggest pieces of evidence for a bad cover up of a murder (or
possibly an assisted suicide). Besides asking Mr. Karazais son the questions I
mentioned earlier, Mr. Karazais body should be examined to determine time of
death, and the neighbors should be interviewed to get extra info on when the son or
any other person entered the house (Possibly even give the son an IQ test to judge
how likely he would be to botch up a murder this way). Every object of relevance
must be dusted for fingerprints, and examine the objects, particularly the strings,
for blood. I hope this gets the case solved, Chief. Ive got the evidence I think we
need to make a conviction; as long as nothing throws us for a loop, we should be
ready to move on to something else in the next day or two.