Night Road Murder Case

Chronology
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Episode 66 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	Night Road Murder Case
Japanese title:	暗闇の道殺人事件 (Kurayami no Michi Satsujin Jiken)
Original airdate:	July 7, 1997
Season:	3
Manga source:	TV Original
English version
English title:	Moonless Murder
Dubbed episode:	Episode 68
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Ran Mouri Inspector Megure Wataru Takagi Jun Omura
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Vinyl tape
Staff
Director:	Kenji Kodama
Screenplay:	Yutaka Yamada
Storyboard:	Hirohito Ochi
Episode director:	Kazuo Nogami
Animation director:	Izumi Shimura
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Akira Kamiya as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Inspector Megure Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi, Next Conan's Hint Takaya Hashi as Jun Omura Gou Aoba as Yoshiro Ikuta Fumiya Yazaki as Masami Kusaka Shigeru Sakano as Yoichi Shimizu Mitsuru Miyamoto as Kouji Takeno Seiji Sasaki as Hidenori Nakamura Isshin Chiba as Forensics officer
Music
Opening song:	Nazo
Closing song:	Hikari to Kage no Roman

Cast

Characters

Conan Edogawa

Kogoro Mouri

Ran Mouri

Inspector Megure

Wataru Takagi

Jun Omura

Gadgets

Gadgets

Voice-Changing Bowtie

Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Case

Situation

Kogoro, Conan, and Ran ate at the restaurant until they met an old friend, Jun Omura.

Murder

Location: Street

Victim: Yoshiro Ikuta

Cause of death: Blunt head trauma

Suspects: Masami Kusaka, Yoichi Shimizu, Kouji Takeno, and Hidenori Nakamura

How can blood from one victim, murdered on the street, wind up on the wall of an abandoned building, the railing of a rooftop, and broken glass of an upper apartment window? This is the question Conan must answer if he is to catch a crafty killer entrenched in a seemingly innocent mountain-climbing fraternity, which hides a deadly secret!

Accident? (Past)

Location: Snow Mountain

Victim: Keiko Togawa

Cause of death: Frozen to Death

Suspects: Yoshiro Ikuta, Masami Kusaka, Yoichi Shimizu, Kouji Takeno, and Hidenori Nakamura

Ikuta left Keiko, whose foot was injured, and walked down the mountain. Ikuta survived. When they finally reached Keiko, she had already frozen to death. Takeno was Keiko's boyfriend.

People

Yoshiro Ikuta
File:Yoshirou Ikuta.jpg	Victim (bludgeoned) 20 years old Beika University student, Second Year

Masami Kusaka
	20 years old Beika University student, Second Year

Yoichi Shimizu
	20 years old Beika University student, Second Year

Kouji Takeno
	20 years old Beika University student, Second Year

Hidenori Nakamura
	21 years old Beika University student, Second Year

Keiko Togawa
	Deceased (froze) Kouji Takeno's girlfriend

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Kouji Takeno was the killer. His reason was that both he and Ikuta were in love with the same woman, Keiko Togawa, but she died in a hiking incident where the group had to leave her in the mountains to search for help and couldn't return in time to save her from freezing to death. Later, Takeno found out that Ikuta messed up with the group in purpose to have the unfortunate Keiko dead since she rejected his affections in favor of Takeno's; Ikuta was actually bragging about it while drunkenly rambling to the also drunk Kusaka.

The weapon of choice was actually Takeno's socks, which are very resistent special socks used by sportsmen and specially by hikers. He easily filled them with lots of small rocks he got from an aquarium, since they wouldn't break; once he built a VERY hard and heavy "weapon", which would easily kill a person if used to hit them, Takeno put the used some fishing rope to tie everything up, and then launch it towards Ikuta, who was merely standing in the street while smoking.

Ikuta was a heavy smoker, so Takeno could easily see his lit cigarette and pinpoint his improvised "sock full of rocks" towards him; the blood in the different buildings came from the "sack" bouncing on them due to the full strenght of the impact. The proof came when some strands of wool coming from the socks were found in the aquarium: Takeno returned the rocks to their original place but the tiny strands remained, and they had Ikuta's DNA on them.

Dub changes

• The names of the characters in the Funimation Dub are:

• Yoshiro Ikuta - Zachery Byers
• Masami Kusaka - Shane Vanderburg
• Yoichi Shimizu - Buford Pulmer
• Kouji Takeno - Torman Lloyd
• Hidenori Nakamura - Ned Armstrong
• Keiko Togawa - Pamela Harding

• In the Funimation Dub Kouji and Keiko had secretly eloped three weeks prior to the mountain trip, and he had taken a life insurance policy on her. When Yoshiro caught wind of his plan, Kouji had to cut him in. They worked together to kill Keiko for the money, however, when Kouji came to her, she was still alive, and he was the one that killed her, taking the chance as he was the first one in the group to reach her. His reason for killing Yoshiro in the dub was because Yoshiro was bragging about the plan while he was drunk.

Gallery

• Yoshiro Ikuta
  Yoshiro Ikuta
• Masami Kusaka
  Masami Kusaka
• Yoichi Shimizu
  Yoichi Shimizu
• Kouji Takeno
  Kouji Takeno
• Hidenori Nakamura
  Hidenori Nakamura

See also

• Season 3