Case file – The Killing Hands

Confidential

For readers eyes only

Photos

The cast

The evidence

Photos

Below are some photos I took of the crime scene and LA area during a visit in October 2008. Just your typical LA tourist!

Crime-scene location

The car park that lies on the corner of 2nd Street and Los Angeles Street. This is where the victim is found in The Killing Hands.

car-park-3-10percent Comment: The car park was quite a bit smaller (like about one-third of the size) than I’d realized (found it on Google Maps originally), but the building site behind it worked really well with the narrative and crime-scene location.

FBI Building

This is the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard, which houses the FBI as well as Veteran Affairs, passport office, etc. Sophie works on the twelfth floor – floors 10-20 are all FBI or law enforcement related.

FBI-building-from-street-10percent Comment: When I was visiting the building, I was snapping away when a security guard appeared and informed me that I was not allowed to take photos of the Federal Building. I had to delete (in front of him) all the video footage and photos that showed the building in more detail (i.e. that were taken from closer in). He was an absolutely lovely guy though, and so nice about it! My Aussie accent may have helped!

Coroner’s Office

The Coroner’s Office is located on Mission Street, downtown LA.

Coroner-1-10percent Comment: This is taken from Mission Street and shows the main administrative building, and to the very right you can see another, white building (see below).
Coroner-7-10percent  Comment: This is where the autopsies actually take place.
Coroner-8-10percent Comment: The official cars of the Coroner’s Office.

The cast

Law enforcement

Special Agent Sophie Anderson, profiler, FBI LA

Detective Ramos, LAPD, Homicide

Special Agent Petrov, Organized Crime and Gangs SAC, FBI LA

Special Agent Joe Dimos, DEA, Gang Impact Team

Special Agent Ha Yeon Kim, DEA, Gang Impact Team

Special Agent Williams, ATF, Gang Impact Team

Special Agent Dan Young, DEA

Dr Lloyd Grove, forensic pathologist, Coroner’s Office

Detective Darren Carter, Arizona PD, Homicide

Organised crime

Tomi Moto, head of LA’s Yakuza

Takeshi Suzuki, second in charge LA’s Yakuza

Miki, Yakuza ‘thug’

Victim

Jun Saito, son of first Korean Yakuza godfather, Hisayuki Saito

Other cast members

Bob & Jan Anderson, Sophie’s parents

Mee Kim – knew victim somehow?

Sifu Lee, Sophie’s Kung Fu teacher

Chung Lee, Kung Fu teacher’s cousin, with Beijing Police

The evidence

Obviously I don’t want these case files to contain spoilers, so I can’t detail every single clue and how it plays out during the investigation. However, this is a summary of the starting point.

Crime scene

Cigarette butt left at crime scene

License plates from cars at crime scene

Debris at crime scene – finger prints?

Reconstruction of shot-out light

From the vic

Vic’s blood alcohol level

Vic’s clothes to trace – drugs?

Analysis of vic’s facial features to try to pinpoint race

Fingerprints to US State Department (for matches with people entering country) and Interpol

Once ID confirmed: Vic’s hotel room and laptop

Other

VICAP – any similar murders?

Mee Kim – relationship to vic?