CTI: Crime Team Investigation

[JackPutter]

This idea was staring me in the face, I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner... It's probably not right but maybe we can cross it off the list!

King's Plaza Shopping Centre is on the map. If we take "guv'nor" to mean someone who is in charge, no one is more of a "guv'nor" than a king, right? The only thing between JFK airport and King's Plaza Shopping Centre is the loose collection of islands with a road going through the middle called Broad Channel. The rules have been defined as the victim's location must be ON the map, but not necessarily a NAMED place on the map. That means it could be on one of those unnamed islands, since they are certainly visible on the map!

Which island though? I can't see anything that points to a particular island... I've tried looking at the structure of the poem for clues. There are 8 lines. The amount of words in each line goes 3-4-4-5-3-4-4-6. Convert that to letters and it's C-D-D-E-C-D-D-F. The rhyming scheme goes AABBCCDD, essentially just rhyming couplets. I don't see any particular pattern that is of any relevance. This is as far as I've gotten with this theory.

[Ian Aloser]

Interesing approach, JackPutter
But i don‘t see any usable pattern here
I was also thinking that i could get a clue
from the initial letters of the poem, but
to no avail
Yet: Troll is contained in Trolley, these
carts you put your shopping goods in
My god, this is a difficult one....
Why not make Broad Channel a potential solution ?

[JackPutter]

I'm afraid that Broad Channel might be too vast of an area to cover quickly enough to save our victim...

POTENTIAL SOLUTION: Chief, is there any chance we could fly a helicopter patrol around the islands adjacent to Broad Channel to scout for anything suspicious?

[Ian Aloser]

Please include Broad Channel when
they‘re already there :-))

[Cassiebsg]

This might be a shot in the dark, but I decided to google if by any chance NY has a bird sanctuary... and it HAS!  So maybe the birds on the poem are real birds?

The Riverside Park Bird Sanctuary  is located just slightly bellow Grants Tomb and the Riverside Church (seems to be named in the map as Cathedral of St. John the Divine, though)

Also "where she stayed" might just be referring to her home address. After all,  the previous victims were found at their own homes.

Maybe the clues point to a specific address (her home or "murder" site) at the intersection of 4 different locations (or 3 if it's an triangulation)?

[Ian Aloser]

Been thinking about that as well, but
the map doesn‘t contain a hint about a bird‘s sanctuary
and it is clear that googling is not required
I believe that the more victims we discover,
the more a pattern on the map will be visible,
but first we will have to solve this one since
we have only 2 crime scenes !
I could as well imagine that the „bush“ in Bushwick,
a crime site we already found, might be related
to President Bush, a guv‘nor indeed, is part of the
current puzzle, but i don‘t dare to make it a potential solution
A governor could also relate to the speed of a Diesel engine....
From our captain‘s  last post, however, i read
that the primary clue is found somewhere else,
maybe not even in the poem itself...
BINGO might as well mean GO BIN, so search every dust bin ?
I believe that for a non-native speaker , this one is impossible to solve
It’ s really hard, pheeew

[Mandle]

A trio of police helicopters and a few patrol boats head out and scour the Broad Channel area, including the canal itself, the islands, and around and under the north bridge to Howard Beach and the south bridge to Rockaway Park, for most of the available daylight hours, but nothing is found.

The search of the area is quite high-profile and is covered by several news channels, none of which seem yet aware that they have filmed part of the hunt for a serial killer.

The next day a new letter arrives from Justice Killer:

Hello,

... but no cigar.

Yours Sincerely,
Justice Killer.

(OFFICIAL UPDATE)

[heltenjon]

If we were close, then we may try Mill Basin (yeah, yeah: potential solution) with exactly the same reasoning.

[Mandle]

If we were close, then we may try Mill Basin (yeah, yeah: potential solution) with exactly the same reasoning.

The police chief sighs, and says it will be checked out, and then he asks again if anyone has looked back over earlier theories like he requested, starting back from right at the start of this phase of the case, to see if anything was overlooked, instead of coming up with new theories that go nowhere.

You are pleased to see a glimmer of anger in his eyes as he says this. Maybe the chief isn't down-and-out after all?

He growls "First instincts are more often right than not." and eats another Tums.

An hour or so later the units report back from Mill Basin that nothing was found.

(OFFICIAL UPDATE)

Also including the map here again for ease of reference:

Spoiler

[close]

[JackPutter]

Let's look back over the early theories like the chief asked. He said our "first instincts" are almost always right, so here's a breakdown of the very first theory, mostly work by Detective Hunt:

Our victim was a "troll" and trolls traditionally live under bridges. The mention of "guv'nor" pointed us towards Governors Island. The mention of a "nest" had us thinking that one of the airports was relevant and that the "birds" included in the poem were airplanes. (The Statue of Liberty was also brought up at this point, though it is located so close to Governors Island that it wouldn't really affect the paths of any "birds" flying to and from an airport. Is the Statue of Liberty the bit we overlooked?)

To that effect, we searched the George Washington Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge, especially considering the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges since they are directly on the path between Governors Island and LaGuardia Airport. These searches returned nothing that would help us.

What are we missing? The killer said we got no cigar when we searched the islands around Broad Channel, but that could mean a lot of things. Were we geographically near to the location? Was the concept of it being on an island the bit that we got nearly right? Is he pointing us towards a place with "Close" in the name?

[Ian Aloser]

Edit:
Could it be that the captain is refering to one of the first posts in this case?
I thought I had the solution , because the initial letters of the parks were all contained
in the letter matrix, except Van Cortlandt
If you look at the poem, you will see that the letters JFK and CMQZ don‘t appear therein.
JFK could be the airport, but I don‘t see a clue in CMQZ.
Just a theory ......
Edit: Overlooked the F , so it‘s obsolete. Thought I had it.This is driving me nuts ....
One more Edit:

The police chief sighs, and says it will be checked out, and then he asks again if anyone has looked back over earlier theories like he requested,
starting back from right at the start of this phase of the case, to see if anything was overlooked, instead of coming up with new theories that go nowhere.

You are pleased to see a glimmer of anger in his eyes as he says this. Maybe the chief isn't down-and-out after all?

He growls "First instincts are more often right than not." and eats another Tums.

From how I understand, the clue is hidden in the first posts of the first case
Or does it refer to the last letter containing the poem and a theory that was proposed immediately after ?

[JackPutter]

I am a loser - Looking closely at the poem, the following letters are the only ones that DON'T appear: C J K M Q Z. Nice thought, but I don't know how relevant that will be.

[Stupot]

I am a loser. The captain says to go back to “this phase” of the case. To me that means going back to the poem and everything posted after it. I guess that means you guys were on the right track before I came along and started talking about bells.

[Mandle]

I am a loser.

[heltenjon]

Which probably means that my thoughts now are completely wrong, but I'll share anyway.  The phrases "BINGO!" and "Close, but no cigar" made me
think of carnivals/amusement parks. And Coney Island is famous for that, right? They have even hosted plane shows, which might have been the birds flying over. But none of this has anything to do with a guv'nor, and none of it is touched upon in the first theories. I post this on the off chance that it may help someone to suddenly see the light and connect the dots. 

[Ian Aloser]

starting back from right at the start of this phase of the case

To me this means that Laura‘s post (first post after the letter was published)
must contain the clue. We exhausted all bridges, what‘s left is the statue

[heltenjon]

I went back and looked at the map Jack Putter put up. The lines from the airfields to Governor's Island crosses a few more bridges than we have searched. This is the Manhattan bridge and the bridges nearby JFK (which may or may not be searched already when we searched the bay area). BUT more interestingly, the one I thought was a bridge right next to Governor's Island is a tunnel. A tolled tunnel. The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, mostly called the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, connects Red Hook (marked on the map) to Battery Park on Manhattan (not marked on the map).

So it's between an airfield (nest) and Governor's Island (guv'nor), one pays toll and it's beneath the surface. A tunnel is sort of an underwater bridge. (That last one may be a stretch.)

Potential solution again, then...Chief, may we search the Red Hook area and the tunnel connected to it?

[Mandle]

Potential solution again, then...Chief, may we search the Red Hook area and the tunnel connected to it?

Nothing is found in Red Hook except a very ancient cemented-over underground entrance with the graffiti "THOMAS MALONE WAS RIGHT!!!" sprayed on it. This has no connection to this case though and must refer to something that happened a very long time ago.

I went back and looked at the map Jack Putter put up. The lines from the airfields to Governor's Island crosses a few more bridges than we have searched. This is the Manhattan bridge and the bridges nearby JFK (which may or may not be searched already when we searched the bay area).

The only bridges nearby JFK Airport that have been searched so far are the two that lead on and off the large island in Broad Channel north into Howard Beach and south into Rockaway Park.

(OFFICIAL UPDATE)

Also including the map here again for ease of reference:

Spoiler

[close]

[Ian Aloser]

Copyright: JackPutter
There is a rather short bridge connecting East New York with Howard beach (black circle)
The only other bridge i can detect is the one near Brooklyn Bridge
Using Laura's guess that the nest is an airport and the guv'nor refers to Governors Island
I suggest that we search the bridge marked with the black circle ( East New York to Howard Beach)

[Laura Hunt]

I went back and looked at the map Jack Putter put up. The lines from the airfields to Governor's Island crosses a few more bridges than we have searched. This is the Manhattan bridge and the bridges nearby JFK (which may or may not be searched already when we searched the bay area). BUT more interestingly, the one I thought was a bridge right next to Governor's Island is a tunnel. A tolled tunnel. The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, mostly called the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, connects Red Hook (marked on the map) to Battery Park on Manhattan (not marked on the map).

So it's between an airfield (nest) and Governor's Island (guv'nor), one pays toll and it's beneath the surface. A tunnel is sort of an underwater bridge. (That last one may be a stretch.)

Potential solution again, then...Chief, may we search the Red Hook area and the tunnel connected to it?

For a moment I thought you really had nailed it here