The Blue Moon Poisoning
|
| |||||||||
Overview
News travels fast—especially in a small town like Gnollberg Port. It seemed to be only a few hours before everyone had heard about the horrifying event that occurred in the Blue Moon Cafe. Citizens of the typically sleepy and peaceful oceanside town gathered in terrified curiosity outside of the cafe, watching as body after body was rolled out of the building. The date would be remembered for years to come: 3rd May 1993.
It did not take long for the story to come out: five were dead and three were deeply poisoned. Those still alive were immediately sent to Merlin’s Magical Hospital for intensive treatment, and it took two weeks before the first ones began to stir. When interviewing them, they all had extremely foggy memories of the hours before their poisoning, but each recalled ordering tea.
The only person working at the cafe was the owner, Evie Poole, and she was immediately arrested. The Auralock in charge of the investigation had an easy explanation for the crime: Evie, who had opened the cafe only a few months prior, was clearly brewing illegal potions in the basement of her shop. A patron at the cafe that day had somehow found out, and she decided she needed to get rid of every witness by poisoning their tea.
To back up this accusation, the Auralock procured two pieces of evidence: powder from a poisonous plant and a letter written by Evie, both found in the cafe’s basement. The letter, while relatively benign, had the specific phrase “taking care of business” at the bottom, which the Auralock pointed out as an obvious indicator that Evie was secretly partaking in illegal activity behind the guise of an innocent cafe.
Evie vehemently denied all of this, claiming she had no idea where the powder came from and that the letter was simply referring to her outsourcing ingredients from other towns. When presented with images of the victims, she said she remembered them being there and that she did recall serving them tea. However, she insisted that there was another person in the cafe at that time—a hooded figure, who had not ordered tea.
She had no evidence to back this up, so her protests were quickly silenced. Most of the townsfolk had already turned against her, and it was a short trial before she was sentenced to life in The Dark Prison for the murder of five citizens and the attempted murder of three.
But she never made it there. A few days after the trial, she was found dead in her holding cell; test results showed that there was a deadly dose of poison in her body—the same poison used to kill the townsfolk.
The guards said they had kept a close eye on her and made sure no one had been in or out of the cell. The only interaction she had was when the guards would bring her food three times a day. When asked which guards had been tasked with watching over her, two raised their hands. However, they seemed confused; looking around at the other guards, the two claimed there had been a third. Yet no one knew anything about this third guard other than the fact that they were the person to give Evie her last meal before she passed.
In horror, the Auralock in charge figured out that he had been led astray. He had been too sure of himself and had not taken the time to do a proper investigation; thinking back, he realised that the powder had been conveniently placed right next to the letter, where he would easily find it. Evie had been telling the truth after all, and his hubris had led to yet another death.
Dedicating himself to avenging her, the Auralock spent the next two years investigating the cafe, which had been left empty after the crime. Yet, there was nothing he could find; all he knew was that there had been a hooded figure the day of the initial crime and a mysterious guard the day of her death.
Eventually, the Auralock gave up, realising that there was no point in continuing the search. To this day, the true killer has not been found.
Trivia
- You can learn about The Blue Moon Poisoning incident and other crimes in Magical Crime Studies classes taught by the Academics team.
