Murder on the Pines Express
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Contents
Overview
The Pines Express was a train that ran from Manchester to Bournemouth. In 1965, a tragic murder took place onboard. This resulted in a complicated and long-winded investigation. However, this case was closed when no major clues were found onboard the train.
Crime
In the summer of 1965, the Pines Express was making its regular journey to Bournemouth. Upon stopping at the station in Bath, two passengers entered, one holding a guitar. The train continued its journey as normal, both passengers being on opposite ends of the train. Near the end of the journey, the train started to slow to a stop. A thunderstorm had started, interrupting the train’s journey. In an instant, the lights flickered out, leaving only natural moonlight in its place.
Footsteps approached the man with the guitar. The musician, known as Hendrix Holmes, clutched his instrument tightly in hopes of not losing it. However, it was quickly snatched out of his hands with a force greater than his own. Before he could react, the guitar was smashed harshly against the side of his face. With a grunt, Hendrix slumped forward as his vision began to fade. The unnamed murderer carried on with his deeds, snapped the guitar in two, and fled out the emergency exit. The train driver carried on the journey, not noticing anything wrong. Little did the murderer know, the guitar had small balls of magic embedded into it to help track the last user of the instrument.
A few hours later, Unmagical inspectors entered the train to make sure it was fully emptied before starting the route again. Upon entering the last carriage, they stumbled across the body of Hendrix Holmes. Unfortunately, the detective on the case came from Unmagical roots. This meant that he was unable to use the magic embedded in the guitar.
For many years, the Unmagical detectives searched for an answer to the murder of Hendrix Holmes. However, they were largely unsuccessful. Instead, they decided to stop the train from running and end the investigation in 1967, leaving it as a cold case. All they hoped was for it to never happen to anyone else.
Reopened Case
In 1979, the Ministry of Magicians managed to get their hands on the guitar by convincing the guards with a few spells. Luckily, they were able to overpower them due to the guards being Unmagicals. In a matter of months, the Ministry figured out what had been embedded in the guitar. Using the murderer’s magical signature, they managed to track it down to a man named Bartholomew Passero. However, almost no information was found on him. There was no records of him after 1965. This confused them greatly but did not stop them from trying to track him down. Happy to have a lead, they continued the search until 1980, when they finally hit the jackpot.
Charges
Bartholomew was found hiding out in a small house on the edge of a farm. He was quickly put under arrest and handed over to the Unmagical authorities due to having no links to the magical world. At the time of the trial, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
In his testimony he stated: “Hendrix stole my job, my passion, my family. They hate me now, and they love him. He deserved it. He deserved everything he got. You have to understand. The gut-wrenching feeling you get when you lose your family. No one should ever feel that, and I’m glad he’s dead.”
Bartholomew’s charges were as follows:
First-Degree Murder Disturbing the Peace
Trivia
- You can learn about the murder on the Pines Express and other crimes in Magical Crime Studies classes taught by the Academics team.
