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I'm sure that this has been discussed before (This is a rather old arc)
but here is my theory:
Just for the sake of argument, lets assume that Chris and Sharon Vineyard are different people.
The person known today as Chris Vineyard (Vermouth) appereances:
- On Sharon Vineyard's husband (Vermouth's father?) funeral.
Vermouth appears disguised as the late man.
- New york case, disguised as a serial killer, in order to draw the attention of akai
She was saved by ran and shinichi. (Sharon Vineyard was still alive but her husband was already dead.)
- On Sharon Vineyard's Funeral
It was her first public appearance and when asked about private matters she answered "a secret makes a woman woman"
-Akai shoots Chris Vineyard, making a cut on her face, confirming her true young appearance.

The person known as Sharon Vineyard appearances:
-She studied disguising techniques along with yukiko
-20 years ago, she killed Jodie's father, leaving finger prints on his glasses.
-She teached Chris her disguising techniques
-On her husband funeral, she was shocked by Chris disguised as her husband
-On the new york case, she predicts that something bad was going to happen;
after Chris is saved, she said that finaly, god had smiled upon her.
She gives Ran her handkerchief, shinichi still has it.

My theory is then, that Sharon and her husband were involved with the BO. (She killed Jodie's father)
Her husband died (of illnes, but that is just what she told yukiko; she couldn't tell her he was murdered)
for some reason (treason?) and Chris is sent to pose as him and make sure he was dead,
just like bourbon did with akai.
According to Sharon, this broke the thin relationship between the two.
The fact that Sharon mentioned her daughter in the NY case (obviusly before her own death), means that either she's lying, or
Chris is actualy a diferent person..
But Sharon doesn't have any reason to lie.. it was a casual conversation with yukiko
(Why would she invent a whole new personality just for some small talk?)

Now, if they are really diferent people, why did jodie find proof that they are the same person?
I don't think that Sharon could have ever imagined that little Jodie would survive and became an FBI agent..
So planting the prints on the glasses wasn't on purpouse..
All we know is that the prints on the glasses match the prints of the corpse and the prints of Chris..
Maybe the FBI records were tempered, maybe the results of the prints investigation were..
But there is something there that went wrong, and my guess is that the handkerchief that shinichi has is the key to solving it all.
Also, one of the possible scenarios is that Sharon is still alive somewhere.. but that is just sheer speculation.
Just wanted to hear some opinions about it..

I'll try to respond to everything I'm thinking of. (By the way, I was completely lost at points in your post.)

1. Sharon and Chris have the same fingerprints. Jodie saw Chris at her house when her father was killed, not Sharon, so unless Chris is the disguise (which she isn't - Akai's shotgun blast scratched her face a bit), they aren't, at that point at least, separate people.
It is possible, and maybe even likely, that Sharon existed at some point, but probably only before Yukiko and Sharon were learning disguise techniques. I think it far more likely that it was Chris disguised as Sharon who trained with Yukiko.
2. When Sharon mentions her daughter to Yukiko, it actually makes sense. Both Sharon and Chris were famous actresses, and famously related to one another. As to the "Why would she invent a whole new personality just for some small talk?" bit, it's simple - she wasn't. Chris was already well known, and even though Sharon and Chris were almost certainly the same person at this point, it would be in Vermouth's interest to keep up the appearance of Sharon as a mother, including casual conversations with an old friend about her daughter.
3. If Sharon is somewhere still alive (and totally unconnected to Vermouth, apart from the Sharon-Chris connection), I'll be shocked. There's nothing really to support the theory, so I cannot put any stock into it.

Nobody has known who's Sharon's husband/Chris' father is, and thus there's no strong argument that assume he actually exist.

if anything, he can be just a made up character to explain about Chris' existence (which actually is Sharon in disguise, or Sharon become younger and disguise to be her own older version).

Commi-Ninja wrote:I'll try to respond to everything I'm thinking of. (By the way, I was completely lost at points in your post.)

1. Sharon and Chris have the same fingerprints. Jodie saw Chris at her house when her father was killed, not Sharon, so unless Chris is the disguise (which she isn't - Akai's shotgun blast scratched her face a bit), they aren't, at that point at least, separate people.
It is possible, and maybe even likely, that Sharon existed at some point, but probably only before Yukiko and Sharon were learning disguise techniques. I think it far more likely that it was Chris disguised as Sharon who trained with Yukiko.
2. When Sharon mentions her daughter to Yukiko, it actually makes sense. Both Sharon and Chris were famous actresses, and famously related to one another. As to the "Why would she invent a whole new personality just for some small talk?" bit, it's simple - she wasn't. Chris was already well known, and even though Sharon and Chris were almost certainly the same person at this point, it would be in Vermouth's interest to keep up the appearance of Sharon as a mother, including casual conversations with an old friend about her daughter.
3. If Sharon is somewhere still alive (and totally unconnected to Vermouth, apart from the Sharon-Chris connection), I'll be shocked. There's nothing really to support the theory, so I cannot put any stock into it.

This theory is based on Sharon and Yukiko's chat in the NY case, plus a few contradictions, and a loose end
it's really far from beeing rock solid.

1- The murder of Jodie's father was 20 years ago.. so it's natural for Sharon to look back then just like Chris looks now..
If Chris/Sharon already mastered the disguising technique, why would she go and train with yukiko?.. In case she was just perfecting it, why would she go disguised? she could just go like Chris..
I can only asume that it was really Sharon and that before then, she wasn't able to disguise.

2- About this point, it really is what you want to believe..
Yukiko didn't ask about her familiy; Sharon was the one that brought the whole thing up.
What i mean is, she didn't have the need to lie, and if it were me, i would try to avoid lying in front of the night baroness.

About the fingerprints, i still don't know what the trick was (IF there was a trick) but it wouldn't be impossible or unheard of that the FBI is wrong. And finaly, that handkerchief that Sharon gave to Ran in NY.. maybe i'm overthinking, but it's gotta have some relevance in this case.

Feb914 wrote:Nobody has known who's Sharon's husband/Chris' father is, and thus there's no strong argument that assume he actually exist.

if anything, he can be just a made up character to explain about Chris' existence (which actually is Sharon in disguise, or Sharon become younger and disguise to be her own older version).

There's no strong argument to assume that Sharon Vineyard was lying when she "made up" her family characters..
What i mean is, she could be lying, but she could also be telling the truth.
I think that not to lie in front of a detective when you don't need to is the smart safe option.
What is there for Sharon to win by lying to someone she now doesn't almost frequent any more? Nothing
What is there to lose? Getting exposed
By saying that she doesn't consider Chris her daughter anymore, all she does is draw attention..
Why would she draw attention to an unsustainable lie?

As far as I know, Yukiko wasn't known as the Night Baroness at the time she and Sharon spoke in NY. (It's been a while since I read the case, though, I could be wrong.) Don't forget - the NY case is set three years prior to the beginning of the current storyline. It's quite possible that Yukiko and Sharon were still close at the time.

All things considered, both Chris and Sharon could be aliases. One is the name she used to use and the other is the one she adopted to explain her youthful appearance. She could very well keep her real name a secret.

First, it's really sketchy to rely on anything Sharon Vineyard says about her family history as truth. We don't know how much of it is truth and lies.

dcfan01 wrote:I don't think that Sharon could have ever imagined that little Jodie would survive and became an FBI agent. So planting the prints on the glasses wasn't on purpose. All we know is that the prints on the glasses match the prints of the corpse and the prints of Chris.

This is the major issue here.

dcfan01 wrote:Maybe the FBI records were tempered, maybe the results of the prints investigation were.

Vermouth didn't know her prints were saved. That is because she had no idea that Jodie took her father's glasses. The house was burned down, so even if she went back to check on her handiwork, the missing glasses wouldn't raise any red flags: everything would have been collapsed, exploded and charred. Therefore she would have no idea that the FBI had her fingerprints and she was in their databases. She wouldn't have seen Jodie with the glasses either because she couldn't find Jodie: she had been put in witness protection.

Therefore it is impossible Vermouth compromised the FBI's databases. She cannot alter something that she did not know existed. It is highly likely then that Jodie's investigation was correct. Remember Akai also agreed with Jodie's conclusion here.

dcfan01 wrote:If Chris/Sharon already mastered the disguising technique, why would she go and train with yukiko?.. In case she was just perfecting it, why would she go disguised? she could just go like Chris..
I can only assume that it was really Sharon and that before then, she wasn't able to disguise.

There is a serious difference between Sharon and Chris's apparent life-histories that is relevant here and worth noting.

If you subscribe the theory Vermouth also was Sharon's mom read this. Otherwise skip to the next paragraph. Sharon's parents died right when Sharon became famous. (Unlike most of what Vermouth says, I assume this to be true because it is easily checked.) The parents were not actors either, so would not have had to face much public scrutiny. Vermouth could have used low-level disguise techniques to act as Sharon's mom, and then "killed" her right when Sharon became famous. This would have prevented anyone from noticing she wasn't really old. Vermouth not being as good a disguise artist back then explains why Vermouth had them killed so early (relative to Sharon's death) and before the media got a good look at them.

Before Vermouth trained with Toichi, Vermouth had been able to avoid disguising as anyone old with the public scrutiny associated with stardom. However, that would eventually become a problem: Sharon would age significantly past Vermouth's real appearance. By pretending Sharon is pregnant, Vermouth could have Chris to switch into before Sharon got too old, but there is 20 years of wait before the Chris alias gets old enough to appear in public. That means Sharon is going to get to at least upper forties or fifties.
Vermouth needed to learn better disguise to pull off old age and stand up to media. (It would also help with her BO missions) So she learned from Toichi. She eventually killed Sharon anyway, because the older she had to pretend to be, the more makeup it would require, which increased the chances of mistakes or accidents. (Lighter makeup will smudge less, masks could be torn by accident, especially if you have to wear one for years on end.)

dcfan01 wrote: 2- About this point, it really is what you want to believe..
Yukiko didn't ask about her family; Sharon was the one that brought the whole thing up.
What i mean is, she didn't have the need to lie, and if it were me, i would try to avoid lying in front of the night baroness.

Vermouth had plenty of reason to lie. I can't even of a good reason for Vermouth not to lie; she needs to be consistent with her life history story she has created for herself. It would be bad if Yukiko heard something contradictory from someone else. If you want to keep your cover, you have to be consistent with everyone you meet because you don’t know who is in contact with who.

dcfan01 wrote: There's no strong argument to assume that Sharon Vineyard was lying when she "made up" her family characters..

Her strong argument for lying is that she is no longer aging and is hiding that fact from the public and possibly some of her coworkers as well. She created this false family that conveniently makes a new daughter for her to become every generation.

dcfan01 wrote: What is there for Sharon to win by lying to someone she now doesn't almost frequent any more?

Keeping her true identity and her weird medical condition secret.

dcfan01 wrote: By saying that she doesn't consider Chris her daughter anymore, all she does is draw attention..
Why would she draw attention to an unsustainable lie?

She building the story behind her lie, using an excuse that a fall out between them is the reason why Sharon and Chris don't appear in the same places together. Yukiko and others might have found this weird and suspicious if there were no explanation. Of course, Vermouth also gives an unverifiable story about the graveyard where they appear together to both cement the story that they had a falling out, and to make people think about the two of them appearing at the same place together. It's a psychological manipulation tactic.

Chekhov MacGuffin wrote:

dcfan01 wrote:I don't think that Sharon could have ever imagined that little Jodie would survive and became an FBI agent. So planting the prints on the glasses wasn't on purpose. All we know is that the prints on the glasses match the prints of the corpse and the prints of Chris.

This is the major issue here.

dcfan01 wrote:Maybe the FBI records were tempered, maybe the results of the prints investigation were.

Vermouth didn't know her prints were saved. That is because she had no idea that Jodie took her father's glasses. The house was burned down, so even if she went back to check on her handiwork, the missing glasses wouldn't raise any red flags: everything would have been collapsed, exploded and charred. Therefore she would have no idea that the FBI had her fingerprints and she was in their databases. She wouldn't have seen Jodie with the glasses either because she couldn't find Jodie: she had been put in witness protection.

Therefore it is impossible Vermouth compromised the FBI's databases. She can't alter something that she didn't know existed. It is highly likely then that Jodie's investigation was correct. Remember Akai also agreed with Jodie's conclusion here.

I agree that the major issue here is the fingerprint test that Jodie managed to do.
I can't explain how would Sharon mess with Jodie's investigation IF she didn't know it existed.
But once again, any explanation I can think for this, is as far-fetched as any explanation I can think for the supposed non-aging.

dcfan01 wrote:I agree that the major issue here is the fingerprint test that Jodie managed to do.
I can't explain how would Sharon mess with Jodie's investigation IF she didn't know it existed.
But once again, any explanation I can think for this, is as far-fetched as any explanation I can think for the supposed non-aging.

But strange age-changing compounds are already canon. You don't need to appeal to realism here in light of APTX 4869, Silver Bullet, and whatever other weird substances existed in the Black Org's labs at one point. It's likely Vermouth took something that stopped her aging. Just like in Gosho's cases, if a scene/location/situation is important to a mystery, then we will be shown it. Gosho didn't show us Jodie's tests or the FBI labs or whatnot. That implies we should probably accept Jodie's discovery as the truth, especially since Mr. Always Right Conan also believes it.

If Yukiko and Sharon were as close as the Manga seem to suggest, then the "asking the friend over" for dinner would have happened. (Yes another off scene) And too many my husband can not make it would have raised red flags particular with Yusaku. The fact that did not happen suggest the husband did exist.

While I agree that Vermouth = Sharon = Cris, based on evidences in the manga, I thought of a counter-argument that would question the validity of the fingerprint test.

When was the fingerprint test done? I would assume it was after Sharon's alleged funeral. Jodie became aware of Cris that time as she stated the famous 'A secret makes a woman woman' line. She remembered that and began to investigate Cris. Getting her fingerprint would not be a big problem as she is still alive but..

How did Jodie get Sharon's fingerprint?
- Sharon should be gone by that time, assuming Sharon and Cris are the same.

Elixir wrote:How did Jodie get Sharon's fingerprint?

Jodie did check after the funeral. I would guess she used a prop Sharon touched while acting, or from a paper she signed, or a pen she used... There is no elaboration of Jodie's investigation method in the manga. All we know is Jodie matched the glasses print to Chris's and then Chris's print to Sharon's.

If I'm not mistaken, in the Two Mysteries case at the climax of the Vermouth arc, Jodie mentions that she compared the fingerprints on her father's glasses to FBI records, and that's how she found that Sharon and Chris were the same person.

Commi-Ninja wrote:If I'm not mistaken, in the Two Mysteries case at the climax of the Vermouth arc, Jodie mentions that she compared the fingerprints on her father's glasses to FBI records, and that's how she found that Sharon and Chris were the same person.

I checked that and didn't see her mention FBI records, at least in V42-09 pg 9

Ah, maybe that was an anime thing, or I'm confused. I watched 345 a few days ago and thought that's what she said, but I could be wrong.