A Strange Case

Of all the homicide cases investigated by Detectives Michael Styx and Rudolph Stone, none was more bizarre than the death of Elijah Banks. A case that was considered a murder and a suicide; what follows is an account of the facts surrounding this most unusual crime.

Elijah Banks, aged 24, was killed at 2:30 PM, on June 16th 2011, after jumping off of an eight storey apartment building block, but the jump didn’t kill him. He left behind a suicide note confirming that he was in a despondent state-of-mind and intended to take his own life. As he fell past the seventh floor, his suicide was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Further adding to the strange nature of this case, was that neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the sixth floor level to protect some window-washers and that Elijah Banks would never have been able to complete his suicide because of this.

“Ordinarily”, Detective Styx commented, “a person who sets out to commit suicide eventually succeeds, even though the manner might not be what they originally intended.”

The fact that Elijah Banks was shot on the way down to certain death probably wouldn’t have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide; however, because his attempt at suicide would not have been successful due to the safety net, prompted the Medical Examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands.

The plot thickens.

The gunshot that emanated from the room on the seventh floor was owned by a married couple in their 50’s; George and Rose Gower. The two had been married for fifteen years, George was Rose’s second husband; her first husband having died of lung cancer. At the time of Elijah Banks death, George and Rose were arguing, what the argument was about isn’t important, as the couple were notorious for fighting all the time, over anything and nothing, but mostly money. The quarrel had reached the point where George had grabbed his shotgun and was threatening to shoot his wife.  He was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking Elijah Banks as he fell passed the seventh floor.

“When one intends to kill subject A,” Detective Stone commented, “but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B.”

When confronted with this charge, the husband and his wife were adamant that neither knew the shotgun was loaded.

“It was my long standing habit,” George Gower admitted to authorities, “to threaten Rose with the shotgun but it was never, ever loaded. She drives me mad all the time, with her constant complaints about money, but I swear I had no intention to murder her.”

It began to appear more and more likely that the killing of Elijah Banks was an accident, that is, the gun had been accidently loaded. It seemed now that the case was an open and shut one, even with the strange circumstances surrounding it. But before it could be put to rest further revelations were revealed.

Detective Styx and Stone found an eye witness who saw Rose Gower’s son, from her first marriage, loading his stepfather’s shotgun approximately four weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that Rose had cut off her son’s financial support, and the son, knowing the propensity of his stepfather, George, to use the gun threateningly, loaded the weapon with the expectation that his stepfather would shoot his mother during one of their arguments. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Elijah Banks.

The only problem was that the son was nowhere to be found.

But he wasn’t a fugitive. It turns out there was one final wrinkle, one final twist left.

“Further investigation,” Detective Styx and Stone said, “revealed that the son was actually Elijah Banks. Banks of course was the surname of Rose Gower’s first husband.”

It turns out that Elijah Banks had become increasingly despondent over the failure to engineer the demise of his mother and claim the inheritance. So much so that this led him to jump off the eight-storey building on June 16th only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a seventh story window. The same gun he loaded hoping his stepfather would murder his mother with.

“Irony is an apt word to describe the death of Elijah Banks,” Detective Stone said in conclusion.

The Medical Examiner ruled the case as suicide.

Peter Jessop © November 2017