Claire Godwin was the victim in The Wollcrafts' Creature (Case #30 of Grimsborough).
Profile
Claire worked as one of the guides in the Grimsborough Museum and was an animal rights activist. At the time of her death, Claire sported blonde hair, green eyes, a nature headband on her head, and wore a white shirt, orange trousers, and white sandals.
Murder details
After a blackout hit the station, Ramirez reported that the blackout was district-wide and that it was traced to 301 Shelly Street. Jones and the player then went to the house's garage and found Claire's body, fried alive from an electric shock delivered by the electrical machine connected to her.
Nathan confirmed that the cause of death was electrocution and that the electric voltage was so high that it was guaranteed the machine would be sending a lot of sparks and so the killer would have sustained burn marks. Per Alex's analysis of the electrical machine, the machine was overly complicated to activate, involving changing wires and turbines, as well as bypassing security measures, all of which necessitated serious engineering knowledge from the killer.
Relationship with suspects
Claire had been in a relationship with Percy Wollcraft, her fellow museum guide. Percy said that they had met while she was hosting a rally against animal testing in University. He never told his parents (Victor and Fran) about her, however, as they were too busy with their work or with Elphaba, the family dog, who had died of a heart attack. However, Percy and Claire both knew of their parents' efforts to reanimate Elphaba with electricity and parts of other cadavers. Claire tried to convince Percy to denounce them, but he could not due to still being their son.
Constance Bell, the museum curator, had decided to fire Claire just shortly before the murder as she was too opposed to the idea of opening a taxidermy exhibit due to its cruelty to animals.
Killer and motives
The killer turned out to be Percy.
Weeks after finding out about the illegal experiments Percy's parents were performing, Claire went to the laboratory to take pictures as evidence to take to the police and to bring the family down. Not wanting his family's reputation to be destroyed, Percy knocked her out, placed her on the table, and hooked her up to the machine, putting it on the highest setting, killing her. Judge Hall sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
Trivia
- Claire's first name is a reference to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, while her last name is Shelley's maiden name.
Case appearances
- The Wollcrafts' Creature (Case #30 of Grimsborough)