One afternoon, Shigemi Terakado and Ryuji Matsuo were planning to rid Motoko Kawaguchi from existence. Their plan was to murder her and bury her in the mountains.
After that, Haruki Toriumi hired Kogoro Mouri to investigate his missing fiancée, Motoko. Toriumi feels that she must have gotten in an incident. Kogoro and Conan investigated. Three nights ago, Motoko said that she suddenly decided to move. She had movers to pick up her stuff. On the same night, she also suddenly decided to quit her job. Motoko suddenly disappeared from her home and workplace. Suda Kumi appeared and asked where is Motoko. She said that they ran into each other in the city at that evening. Motoko was in her usual self and said that she was going to Shigemi Terakado. Kogoro and Conan went and asked Terakado about Motoko. Terakado owed Motoko much for looking after her. But she haven't seen Motoko for a month.
But her neighbor, Mitsue Uno, said that Terakado met Motoko three days ago. She also said that Motoko was causing trouble to Terakado for extorting her money. This made Kogoro and Conan believe that Terakado was lying and killed Motoko Kawaguchi with the help of Ryuji Matsuo, who moved her stuff.
Murder
Location:Shigemi Terakado's room
Victim:Motoko Kawaguchi
Age:25 years old
Cause of death:Blunt force trauma
Suspects:Shigemi Terakado
Mitsue Uno said that Terakado met Motoko three days ago. She said that Motoko was causing trouble to Terakado. This made Kogoro and Conan believe that Terakado was lying and killed Motoko Kawaguchi.
Kogoro and Conan find out that Kawaguchi's disappearance was originally a planned fake murder by Terakado, Matsuo, Kumi and Mitsue to save Kawaguchi from her fiancée Toriumi, who is extremely self-centered and arrogant. Kawaguchi therefore asked to break off the engagement, but Toriumi refused in order to preserve his public face. In her desperation, Kawaguchi contacted her friends, and they worked together to create a fake murder scenario and enable Motoko to start a new life somewhere else. But Haruki Toriumi learned about the plan, and unwilling to marry a woman who loathed him, he turned Kawaguchi's scheme against her.
Toriumi confronted Kawaguchi, who confessed everything. Kawaguchi thought he would understand her desperation, but instead he dragged her into his car and strangled her to death, then hid her body in the mountains. The cuff link, a special-order item which Toriumi had received just before the deed and fell off when he kidnapped Kawaguchi (with his and Kawaguchi's fingerprints on it), is evidence that they met at that evening.
Murder
Victim:Motoko Kawaguchi
Cause of death:Strangulation
Culprit:Haruki Toriumi
Toriumi knew about the "fake murder" plan, so he confronted Motoko, dragged her into his car and killed her by strangulation.
After killing her, Toriumi hired Kogoro to expose Kawaguchi's friends and their fake plan so that Toriumi could scapegoat them as Motoko's "murderers" and throw suspicion off himself. The decisive edivence is a witness account describing how Toriumi had steered his car towards a mountain road to hide Kawaguchi's corpse. Toriumi tries to make a run for it, but Terakado, Matsuo, Kumi and Mitsue stop him. They also are on scene when Kawaguchi's body is recovered on Yamanashi Prefecture, paying their final respects to their dear departed friend. Kogoro, in the meantime, jubilates about another successfully resolved case - until he remembers that he didn't get paid for it!
Season 25 (2020)