UNDER INVESTIGATION: NYPD
Christopher Provencher
Kim Kaye Rocamora
Miles Sandford
Madeline Zomer
INTRODUCTION
Our latest project in Multimedia Storytelling, was an investigative group story project. The purpose of the project was to introduce us to the key stylistic and storytelling elements that define the Hard Boiled Crime Fiction and Film Noir genres.
We were put into investigative groups and given a box of evidence. Inside the box, there were various objects such as a doll, photographs, an autograph book, and many more. These clues were the starting point in discovering who was apart of this story and why.
MIND MAP - Clues
After examining the contents of the box, we photographed the evidence and documented it in a Mind Map while discussing how these items related to each other. Through our investigation, these clues have become very important in the creation of our story.
Created by Kim Kaye Rocamora
NEW INFORMATION
One of the most important clues we were received was a photo showing a Person of Interest in the case. This clue came from outside of the box, after we had begun creating our case. The new information through a bit of a curve ball into our investigation, but it ended up creating a more interesting story.
We decided that Paige, the person of interest, would be important in why the murderer had motivation to kill.
Paige : Person of Interest
HYPOTHESIS
Using the evidence to prompt us, we discussed the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions that would help us create our story.
This story seeks to answer who did it and why the mysterious crime was committed while unraveling the secrets of a mysterious family.
TIME AND LOCATION
WHEN does the story take place? What time period?
- 1940s
WHERE is the story set?
- Kennebunkport, Maine, USA
- Beach front, small town
CHARACTER BIOS
WHO are the central characters in the story?
For this question, we were tasked with drawing and creating our own characters and bios for that character. Then we shared them with each other so they could be documented together as one.
Name: Nancy
Age: 26
Place of Birth : Kennebunkport, Maine, USA
Occupation: Nurse
Height: 5'8
Weight: 143 LBS
Eye Colour: Blue
Personality: family person, friendly, sentimental
Accessories: Modest pink dress, sales suitcase
Hobbies: Travel, collecting souvenirs, reading, socializing
Bio: Nancy Kowalski was born to Clarence Kowalski and Annabeth Lewis, three years after Peter was born. For most of her life, she lived a pretty happy life, mainly because her parents (especially Clarence) showered her with as much love as possible. This is especially in contrast to how her father treated Peter, but she never really showed that much concern to how Peter was treated. All she cared about was how well she and her family were doing. During her life, the family would go on travel around the world to many places, such as South Carolina. In addition, Clarence showered her and her younger sister, Agatha, with many gifts they would receive during their trips, mainly as souvenirs. Eventually, Nancy and Agatha remained with their father after he and Annabeth divorced. As life went on for Nancy, she met Stanley while attending University of South Maine, falling in love with her bad-boy personality and muscular frame. However, Clarence disapproved of their relationship, forbidding Nancy from seeing him. Nonetheless, Nancy still vowed to see him without her father’s knowledge. After graduating from university, Nancy became a saleswoman, going around houses to promote and sell products.
Name: Clarence
Age: 64
Place of Birth: Rutland, Vermont, USA
Occupation: Docter
Height : 6'1
Weight: 193 LBS
Eye Colour: Brown
Physical Traits: tall, thin man with glasses, bald with gray patches of hair, fair skin
Personality: strict, authoritative, self-absorbed
Name: Paige
Age: 59
Place of Birth: Portland, Maine, USA
Occupation: Secretary
Height: 5'5
Weight: 163 LBS
Eye Colour: Brown
Physical Traits: Short, brown hair, tan skin, think curvy figure
Personality: Quiet, timid, lonely
Drawing & Bio by Chris Provencher
Name: Peter Kowalski
Age: 29
Place of Birth: Portland, Maine, USA
Occupation: Unemployed
Height: 5'4
Weight: 218 LBS
Eye Colour: Brown
Personality: lonely, angry, vengeful
Accessories: Baggy clothes
Hobbies: Drinking, writing
Bio:
Peter was born to Paige Zielk and Clarence Kowalski when Clarence cheated on his wife, Annabeth. While Paige did give birth to Peter, Clarence took him from Paige and never returned to her, wanting to keep him so that he and Annabeth may finally have a child. However, while Annabeth welcomed Peter with open arms, Clarence saw Peter as a reminder of his past mistakes. Later, as life went on for Peter, he began to feel isolated and ignored as Clarence showed a bigger amount of affection for his daughters. Moreover, when Clarence and Nancy divorced, Clarence won custody of the two girls while Annabeth won custody of Peter. But Annabeth died, leaving Peter completely alone and isolated, as his father wanted nothing to do with him. In fact, he became unemployed due to father refusing to help him find a job. Eventually, the unemployed Peter lost the home he and mother lived due to the financial ruin he himself lived in. Peter spends his time writing all of his thoughts down in his notebook, but is never able to share it. Intense jealously and hate has been boiling inside Peter for years.
Bio & Drawing by Chris Provencher
Name: Agatha
Age: 18
Place of Birth: Kennebunkport, Maine, USA
Occupation: Student
Height: 5'6
Weight: 125 LBS
Eye Colour: Brown
Personality: positive, motivational, open to others
Accessories: Bright and frilly clothes, sketchbook
Hobbies: dancing, sketching, journaling
Bio:
Drawing & Bio by Kim Kaye Rocamora
Name: Annabeth Kowalski
Age: 48 (Deceased 1936)
Place of Birth: Maine, USA
Occupation: Mother
Height: 5'8
Weight: 150 LBS
Eye Colour : Blue
Personality: Loving heart, forgiving, gentle, reserved
Accessories: Modest blue dress
Hobbies: Cooking, baking, reading
Bio: Annabeth has lived in Kennebunkport, Maine all of her life. She married her husband, Clarence, at a young age. Clarence had difficulty having children at the beginning of their marriage. Annabeth is an exceptional, loving woman who loved Peter even when Clarence refused to. She is a gentle soul who strives to treat her children fairly. Annabeth spends her time faithfully cooking and baking for her family in the kitchen. In her few moments of free time, she is found reading in her rocking chair. Annabeth has always been faithful to Clarence, even through his downfalls. But, eventually, Annabeth and Clarence divorce because of Clarence's obsession to control and manipulate everything. Through their divorce, Annabeth lived with Peter afterwards. Falling ill to cancer at 47, she passes away a year later at 48. Annabeth leaves behind 17 year old Peter alone in a world that rejects him.
Bio & Drawing by Maddy Zomer
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CRIME
WHAT was the crime or mystery?
- Murder of Father by Peter
WHY was the crime committed (Motivation) or WHY did this mystery reveal itself?
- Clarence (father) loved Nancy and Agatha more than Peter and treated him like a mistake. This causes Peter to be full of jealousy through most of his life.
- Peter wanted to expose Nancy for her relationship with her boyfriend (a boyfriend Clarence disapproved of). This was in hopes that he could shatter his father’s perfect world.
- Peter finds out that he has a different birth mom - Paige. This angers Peter because he has been lied to and wants to kill his father, Clarence.
HOW was the crime executed or HOW did it unfold?
- Peter lured father to Nancy’s house, then hung father in tree in Nancy’s front yard and tried to frame Nancy
STORY OUTLINE
In the small town of Kennebunkport, Maine, on a cloudy Tuesday in 1946, a body hangs limp from a tree with a rope around his neck. It’s Clarence, the father of Peter, Nancy, and Agatha, and is a respected member of Kennebunkport’s community.
Clarence’s cold body hangs from a maple tree in front of his daughter, Nancy’s house. At first glance, the death appears to be suicide, but as one searches the scene, one might suspect Nancy.
In the first few years of their marriage, Clarence and Annabeth are unable to have children. After a fight, Clarence leaves for a few days. Out of his anger, Clarence looks for a remedy and falls into the arms of another woman, Paige. Clarence regrets his actions but now must deal with the consequences because Paige is pregnant. Paige gives birth but Clarence takes the boy, Peter, from her and threatens her to leave and never come back. Clarence wants to keep Peter because Annabeth has been unable to get pregnant and they have been longing for a child. Annabeth, a loving soul, lets Peter into her home and takes him as her own. From this moment on, Clarence vows to be righteous and make up for past mistakes. He seeks redemption through devotion to the church. In a religion that promotes freedom, Clarence instead delves into a life of strict, cult-like rules in hopes of forgetting his past.
Annabeth gives birth to two baby girls and Clarence's sees them as children out of love and now views Peter as a child out of mistakes. Peter has now become the reminder of Clarence’s past.
Going back into the children’s early years, Peter, Nancy, and Agatha live under the dark cloud of Clarence’s overpowering reputation. Clarence and his wife, Annabeth, uphold a high respect not only throughout the town, but specifically in the religious community.
Throughout all of his life, Peter is rejected by his father as Nancy and Agatha receive abounding love and affection from Clarence. Clarence brings his girls on many trips and showers them with gifts from all over the world. Annabeth begins to feel distanced from Clarence had he puts his own reputation and religious appearance over her well being. Clarence divorces her and fights for custody of the two girls, but wants leaves Peter to his mother out of rejection. Later, Annabeth falls ill to cancer at 48 and passes away at 49. Peter, now 17, experiences extreme loneliness as his mother was his only source of acceptance.
Fast forwarding through their early adulthood, Nancy is secretly seeing Stanley, because Clarence disapproves of him. To Clarence, Stanley is an unholy choice for Nancy, his perfect daughter. Peter learns that Nancy is still seeing Stanley behind Clarence’s back and sees this as an opportunity. Peter has lived a life of rejection from his father and has been jealous of his sisters since he was young. If Clarence was to find out that Nancy was still with Stanley, it would shatter his perfect world.
While searching in his parents’ house, Peter finds startling information. Peter’s intention was to find old pictures of Clarence, Nancy, and Agatha to destroy out of jealousy, but instead he comes across a piece of paper that matches the rips from Clarence’s autograph book. The paper contains a note written for someone named Paige, sharing information about her son and Clarence and her agreement for Paige to stay away from the family. Peter realizes that his name is on the note and that this reveals his real mother was not actually Annabeth, but Paige, the woman Clarence had an affair with years before. With this new knowledge, Peter is filled with rage. He has not only been rejected by his father all of his life, but has been lied to about who his mother is.
Upstairs, Peter explains to Clarence that there is something important he must share with him, but only at Nancy’s house. Peter thought that Nancy was at home this moment with Stanley, meaning he could expose them to his father. At Nancy’s Peter is distraught to realize that Nancy is no longer there. Clarence is confused with the purpose of the visit, so Peter attempts to tell him of Nancy’s secret relationship. Clarence refuses to except this news, calling Peter a lier and physically abusing him. Filled with anger, Peter questions Clarence about Paige, his real mom. When Clarence also refuses to admit to this, Peter explodes. He grabs a candlestick on the bookshelf and strikes Clarence across the head, knocking him out on the floor. In Nancy’s basement, Peter finds a rope and drags Clarence to the front yard. Clarence wakes up as Peter ties the rope around his neck and hoists him over a tree branch. Now awake, Clarence is strangled to death. Peter leaves him at Nancy’s house in hopes to frame her.
Hours later, Nancy arrives home to the scene of the crime, screaming in fear as she encounters her dead father. Rushing inside, she finds Peter, huddled in a corner, with blood on his hands. At the sight of her, Peter pounces on her, attempting to strangle Nancy. In their struggle, Nancy reaches on the floor to the bloody candlestick and repeatedly strikes Peter on the head until he is no longer breathing.
The police arrive on scene after a tip from a neighbour to find Clarence’s body still hanging outside and Peter’s body dead on the floor of the kitchen. Nancy has fled the scene.