Delsin Peota (1985–2014) was a suspect in the murder investigation of his girlfriend, social worker Sandy Grimmes, in Burying the Hatchet (Case #53 of Grimsborough). He was later killed in There Will Be Blood (Case #56 of Grimsborough).
Profile
Delsin was a 29-year-old Aloki Indian with black hair wrapped with a brown bandanna. He sported some sort of birth mark on his left cheek. He wore a red plaid shirt and also a beaded necklace around his neck, blue jeans with a brown belt, and brown shoes. It is known that Delsin was a smoker, had bad breath and was in contact with turpentine.
| Height | 6'1" |
|---|---|
| Age | 29 |
| Weight | 180 lbs |
| Eyes | brown |
| Blood | O+ |
Events of Criminal Case
Delsin was an Aloki Indian who was the boyfriend of the victim, Sandy Grimmes. He also happened to be the ex-husband of Shanaya Peota, another resident of the Aloki trailer park.
The totem pole wing in question.
Delsin was called into the investigation when Jones and the player uncovered a faded engraving on the totem pole wing they found in the Aloki Settlement. The object read "Sandy + Delsin", carved by Sandy, who hoped to follow in the footsteps of her ancestor Solomon Grimmes. (After his arrival to America, Solomon started dating an Aloki Indian girl named Inaya, the ex-lover of Delsin's ancestor Keme Peota, and carved their names on the same totem pole wing.) Delsin told the team that he and Sandy were lovers, and he had even given her Keme's panther amulet, his precious family heirloom.
“Sandy, if you harm my family I'll kill you!”
—Delsin in his written threat message to the victim.
Delsin was interrogated a second time when the team found out that he had sent the victim a photo of his family with a threat note written on it. He explained to the team that he did it because Sandy had sent his kids to foster care—she had removed them from his ex-wife Shanaya's custody and instead of rehousing them with Delsin, she sent them to foster care.
In spite of his innocence at the end of the investigation, Delsin was spoken to again when the team decided to ask him about the arson at the Aloki Settlement which had occurred a decade ago. Delsin said that the arson had destroyed the Aloki Indians' future. He further said that the Aloki Settlement was targeted to prevent them from getting any more land, since there were old county documents proving that they were entitled to more land, but they were destroyed in the fire. He continued that there were no investigations, so they tried to file a complaint but nobody helped them.
The last thing Delsin mentioned was that they had salvaged everything that survived the fire and stored it away in a box which the team then found after searching for it in the Aloki trailer park. Inside the box was a police knife and the team immediately handed it to Alex for analysis. After analyzing it, Alex discovered that the police knife belonged to Chief King, who had never reported the loss. After further investigation, the team discovered that it was King who had started the arson (which explained why he ignored the Aloki Indians when they wanted to file a complaint) using the flammable products he stole from Ron Riggs's gas station (which explained why King's blood was found on a naphtha container scrap).
Murder details
Delsin's scalp.
Jones and the player found Delsin scalped at the construction site in the woods with the words "YOU ARE NEXT" carved into his chest. They sent his body to Nathan, who found traces of abietic acid and gold on the exposed bone in Delsin's skull. Nathan reasoned that the two substances were components of rosin, a substance used on bowed instruments. From the shade of the rosin, Nathan deduced that the killer played the violin. Later, Nathan found gold dust on Delsin's clothes, meaning that he was killed in an illicit gold mine in the city.
Later, in the excavation site, the team found the victim's scalp, which contained pink hairs coming from Cathy King, so the team arrested her as a serious suspect in the investigation. They then found a bloody dagger in the gold mine. Grace confirmed that the blood on the dagger was Delsin's (making it the murder weapon) and found that the hair on it was gray, meaning that the killer had gray hair.
Relationship with suspects
Delsin had also stolen Anakee's peace pipe as he wanted to investigate the Pilgrim feast that happened in 1643. Serena Johnson later revealed that his investigation had fruit, as Delsin had discovered a secret that made the Crimson Order leader kill him personally. Anakee later told the team to dig up the construction site as the spirits advised, where they found a mass grave of Aloki Indians. The team then deduced that the grave was the secret that Delsin had found. Because he had discovered the site was actually a mass grave, Delsin tried to convince architect Roman Harris out of using forest land as a construction site for luxury condominiums, claiming there were Aloki spirits on the land. Serena later told Roman to "stop Delsin" and that money was not an issue, most probably to cover up the mass grave quickly. Meanwhile, prison warden Milton Grimmes knew of Delsin due to the feud between their ancestors, Solomon and Keme, over Inaya.
Killer and motives
The killer and the Crimson Order leader were discovered to be Milton.
Milton immediately confessed to the murder, and detailed how Solomon seduced and married Inaya so he could organize a feast to gather all the Aloki Indians under one roof and kill them all (scalping Inaya in particular) in order to gain control over the gold mine in their territory, which would eventually be the birthplace of the Crimson Order. Declaring that he had the power to declare who lived and died in the town, Milton pointed his gun at the player, only for Ramirez to come in and knock him out with a frying pan. The team then handcuffed Milton, who despaired over how he was supposed to bring the player's head during their ceremony that night.
In court, Judge Hall profiled Milton and his family as Crimson Order leaders and mass murderers. She then sentenced him (and three other members of the Order) to life in prison in solitary confinement, ending their dark reign over the city for good.
Trivia
- On Delsin's mugshot image, his birthmark is smaller.
- Besides that, as a corpse in the "case preview" image, Delsin's birthmark is on the right cheek instead of the left. However, as confirmed by the developers, it was not an error but the image was just mirrored so that Delsin's birthmark would be more visible.
Case appearances
- Burying the Hatchet (Case #53 of Grimsborough)
- There Will Be Blood (Case #56 of Grimsborough)
Gallery
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