The case
Saturday, October 6, 1979. The Meridian Falls Grange Hall, Iowa, is full for the Harvest Ball: the choir on the stage, pie at one end, the bar at the other, four hundred farmers and their families on the floor. At 22:20 Walter Roemer, 61, owner of the grain elevator and chairman of the town council, gives the chairman's address. At 22:38 he sits down at the head table, picks up the drink waiting there, and drinks. At 22:41 he collapses on the dais, and before midnight he is dead.
The town doctor calls it his heart and signs the certificate that night. Four months later an anonymous letter and a widow who never believed a word of it get Walter Roemer exhumed, and the state laboratory finds nicotine in the dregs of his glass, and enough of it in the drink as poured to kill two men.
The Sheriff works it for a year and hits a wall that every witness helped build: the drink was poured at 22:25 and stood on a dais in front of the whole town until Walter picked it up, and nobody saw anyone touch it.
Six people. A wife on the stage. A son and a farmer in the parking lot being written up by a deputy. A bartender who poured the drink. A steward with the only key. A doctor who did not look.
What is in the file
- Police Reports — 1979 incident report, exhumation supplemental, hall reconstruction with diagram, the parking-lot citation, the 1981 inactive summary, 2022 review memo
- Forensics — exhumation autopsy, laboratory report on the glass and bottles, the original death certificate
- Witness Statements — eight, from the widow to the couple at table 1
- Photographs — six frames, persons-of-interest sheet
- Records — six, including the alibi verification sheet and the anonymous letter that reopened the case
- Personal Documents — two letters
- Press — 2022 feature
Persons of interest
Six people the Sheriff interviewed, with the part each had in the evening:
- Verna Roemerthe victim's wife
- Owen Roemerson, manages the grain elevator
- Cal Meyersfarmer
- Dolores TuttleGrange bartender
- June LockettGrange steward
- Dr. Emmett Dillardtown physician
A case for a crowd
The Harvest Ball is the most social case in the collection, which makes it the one we suggest for a murder mystery party. The setting is a packed community dance, the people in the file range from the choir on the stage to a deputy writing tickets in the parking lot, and the central problem takes ten seconds to explain: one glass stood in front of four hundred people for thirteen minutes. Everyone at the table grasps it straight away, which keeps a bigger group together.
The file has seven folders, so four to six players can divide them and still need each other at the end. Plan on two to three hours; difficulty is 4 out of 5. It works best in a room, with everyone reading on their own phone and talking it through in the chat. It deals with poisoning and some adult themes, so it is best for players 14 and older.
What you must decide
Name the person who poisoned the drink. One accusation. Every conclusion in the solution rests on at least two documents. There are no hints anywhere on this site.
