Demon Dog Case (734-740)

[Abs.]

I think Abs is the culprit and he's framing all these people.

Then pick the family dog option, that's probably the closest match.

D:

[Found]

Next file is up and it's another cliffhanger~ oh man, now I can't wait for the next one. Hachi is looking less and less like the demon dog.

And we have some new info on the four still-alive siblings too.

[sstimson]

Miyuki Inubushi to me seem like the prefect potential victim. She has a high risk hobby, prefect for an accident.

[James Rye]

oooookaaaayyy.... a burning puppy.... What a trick could be used here?

[mangaluva]

I'm going for the one with the perfect alibi, who therefore is clearly guilty.

As for the dog... maybe it's the same trick as in "Hound of the Baskervilles", though i'd hope that Aoyama would be a bit more inventive. I hope whoever it is isn't setting actual dogs on fire and setting them loose, that's horrible

[Abs.]

I'm going for the one with the perfect alibi, who therefore is clearly guilty.

The old woman, right?

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

Now that I've read the translation, I think it would make more sense for the bike somehow to leave the flaming spots, since I presume Saki riding it sped up at the end. It it was just ethanol/methanol poured into the the car tracks, the marks would get more closely spaced together as the car braked would be uniformly spaced, unless someone made new marks later.

[Akonyl]

miyuki cries too much. Thus, she is a murderer.

[Nyarl]

I'm guessing burning marionette for this dog. I wonder if Aoyama will draw a diagram of the estate, so we can see where that kind of puppetry might be possible. I don't think it's possible all the way to the cliff (though the dog demon might "go invisible" and just leave burning tracks by that point, from the perspective of the terrified victims).

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

I'm guessing burning marionette for this dog. I wonder if Aoyama will draw a diagram of the estate, so we can see where that kind of puppetry might be possible. I don't think it's possible all the way to the cliff (though the dog demon might "go invisible" and just leave burning tracks by that point, from the perspective of the terrified victims).

Which dog is this dog? While I'm against the marionette theory, I don't have evidence to rule it out either other than how the dog was drawn so far, which isn't convincing enough for me. In general, we need more clues. I'd like a look at the bike and the laundry with it, as well as a daylight view of the location of the burning pawprints after the fact. I imagine the phone call two hours before the fall from the cliff was important somehow. Hattori suggested that it was to delay Saki to make sure it was dark out. Some element of the trick then wouldn't work in the light. My primary assumption is that it was necessary to make sure that Saki went the wrong way down the road and over the cliff without realizing it. The signs indicating which way to go must have been switched to the opposite road. The second assumption might be that the trick would be too obvious and unrealistic when viewed in full light. Modding the dog would fall under this category.

In terms of manipulator potential, Miyuki is unrivaled. Miyuki was the first person to touch Saki's body which gives her the potential to quickly add or remove something from the body or the bike nearby. She also controlled how Conan and Hattori ascended the cliff. She was standing back from Hattori and Conan when they investigating the flaming tracks which also gives her an opportunity to remove something from the cliff related to the trick. Finally, she is the one who asked Ran and Kazuha to go to the garden where the burning dog appeared.

I assume the motive in this case is the illness and subsequent treatment of mother Satomi. It is strange the mother is being cared for at home instead of a nice hospital when she has all the money at her disposal. It's like the children want her to pass on to get the money faster, or so the murderer thinks. Also, perhaps the murderer is under the impression the mother was made ill from the stress of the adopted children and their vying for the inheritance. It would be fitting if Miyuki was the culprit because the kanji from her name contain some of the mother Satomi's name's radicals rearranged as shown by Abs. in an earlier post.

I don't want to forget about the possibility of an accomplice in this case...

[Schillok]

I am lost with this case...

I don't even have a solid suspicion who the murderer is, nor do I have any good idea about a motive or how the "burning dog" trick worked. Or how they made the last victim drive over the cliff and make her talk about a dog before she died...

About the footprints, I doubt it was ethanol/methanol. I don't know how many of you have been burning ethanol, but from my experience it burns only for a few seconds. I have no idea how the culprit could have arranged it that all "footsteps" were still burning when Heiji and Conan arrived and how he/she made it that all of them had been ignited at the same time.


I guess the culprit got nervous when he/she learned that Kogoro is the famous sleeping detective and not just a police officer and that this was the reason why he made the burning dog appear in front of Kazuha and Ran: To make them beg Kogoro to drive them back home and just forget about that case.


BTW, is it just me or does Miyuki look a lot like Akemi? (Or a grown-up version of Ayumi.)

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

About the footprints, I doubt it was ethanol/methanol. I don't know how many of you have been burning ethanol, but from my experience it burns only for a few seconds. I have no idea how the culprit could have arranged it that all "footsteps" were still burning when Heiji and Conan arrived and how he/she made it that all of them had been ignited at the same time.

Methanol at least could do it. I suggested it because you can get it to burn for a few minutes if you use a generous amount of it - like petri dish deep. I know because I've done chemistry demos involving methanol and various metal salts which color the fire.
What you could do in order to light a trail of methanol like this all at once is to use the tracks of the car which contains pockets of deeper areas caused by the tread. If you fill up the tracks with methanol so all the pockets of deeper areas are linked by methanol and light it, the fire will spread along the whole trail. As is burns down, the shallower areas will go out first, leaving just the deep regularly spaced pockets burning which look like footprints. Of course, you would have to light it remotely several minutes in advance somehow.
The contraindication for this idea is that the last person to use the road - Kogoro who braked at the end - wouldn't leave tire tracks where the spacing of the tread gets wider at the end - it should all be uniform. (*I think I said above the spacing would get closer above - that was a mistake, it should be uniform.) Of course whoever is responsible could have gone and manually dug the pockets themselves to space the prints however they liked. We need a daylight view of the road to be certain of what is going on.
The next candidate for leaving prints would be the bike Saki was riding which accelerated near the end. If it was somehow dropping something that left a flaming mark at intervals, it would leave marks that increased in spacing and freshness as the person accelerated off the cliff.

[Schillok]

Well, even with methanol there are some problems left. Especially the moment of preparation of the trail. Methanol is quite volatile and will ooze into the ground quickly so the methanol would have to be poured into the track very recently prior to using the trick. So it couldn't have been Miyuki since she was with Kogoro before the whole incident.

As I said, I have no idea about the trick used...

[caribou]

Well, even with methanol there are some problems left. Especially the moment of preparation of the trail. Methanol is quite volatile and will ooze into the ground quickly so the methanol would have to be poured into the track very recently prior to using the trick. So it couldn't have been Miyuki since she was with Kogoro before the whole incident.

As I said, I have no idea about the trick used...

I like Chekhov's idea of using the motorcycle tracks, but this is a pretty good point... methanol and ethanol both have low boiling points so they would evaporate quickly. and it might also seep into the ground. i thought the liquid would have to be more viscous, but Conan and Heiji noted that there was no oily smell. What did they mean by an oily smell though? If they meant the obvious strong smell of petrol/kerosene, what about e.g. vegetable oil/cooking oil? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammable_liquid) i don't know how flammable it is but it wouldn't have a strong smell, would not seep/evaporate so easily and would be easily found in the household.

[Misztina]

738 Naturally spoiler

Spoiler:

Okay, this chapter was more informative and I'm almost 100% sure that Tomoaki is our culprit.

Reasons:

1. The most suspicious case was that he was attacked by the dog. That's usually a sign of a culprit who is afraid that his identity might be revealed if the trick was revealed behind the flaming dog. I assume, that teh "rotten onion" must eb something that only doctors are allowed to use or they can buy it more easily than common people.
2. He was against showing that "strange cabin" as if he was the culprit who wanted to hide/destroy the evidence thee. But because the detectives insisted going there, he decidede, he'll make it look as if he was attacked by the dog to avoid suspicion.
3. It is said that he is scared of dogs and Hachi always barks at him. Maybe Hachi was barking because he could smell the other dog's smell on Tomoaki and in an earlier case Ai was barked at becasuse of teh same reason.

Other things: Since he is a doctor, maybe he hides the fact that the old lady is fine and they perhaps worked together, or the old lady asked him to this whole thing. Or he wanted to kill her to get the inheritance. Well, I'm not sure anymore.