Old Man Marley: A Crime Story

Crime Story

At 4:00 on December 19, 2016, Ginger Cook was found dead by the head cook of the Reindeer Cafe, Old Man Marley. Her body was shoved in a gift box with a bow on top of her head and a string of lights around her neck, which was found in the main freezer of the kitchen of Santa’s Goodies Store. The Christmas light string was found to be the cause of death due to the string of lights location around the neck and also bruises tracing back to the outline of the string. Since the body was in a freezer the blood flow was slower so the bruises were found later in the morgue when the body began to defrost. Found on the victim’s clothing were small pieces of brown hair that had been ripped out with partial follicles. These particles were
tested by Amy Thompson and were found to be a match to the fingerprints also found at the crime scene. Thus, finding that there is only one suspect in this crime. Also, there were traces of chocolate on her mouth and was found to be evident to the scene.

Found outside of the freezer was evidence of a struggle to grab Ginger Cook and bring her to her demise in the freezer.
The evidence of the struggle includes a flipped over grocery basket, spilled bag of chocolate chips, and a spilled carton of eggs. Also found at the scene was a left over water bottle a pencil and keys. This caused for other customers in the store to become concerned that something terrible had happened then someone asked the head cook, Old Man Marley, to see if anything was wrong. He checked all around the store to see if anyone was hurt and asked other employees if they had seen anything conspicuous. An important account came from the owner of the store, Kris Kringle, who had probative information from the scene. Ginger Cook had confided in him because of the family friendship that they shared. When she was walking around Ginger saw Kringle and said that she felt like she was being followed around the store. She said that when she was walking out of the baking aisle she saw a man wearing yellow tights and black boots. Ginger did not interject that the mysterious man had yelled when she took the last bag of chocolate chips and began to follow her. Kringle said that he saw the man I couple aisles behind her making sure to she would not leave his sight. However, Kringle did not want to make a scene, he was just getting off of his shift at this time and left a little early because he had a doctor’s appointment. Called to action, Old Man Marley checked
thoroughly throughout the store. When he reached the back freezer he saw a ginormous gift box, alarmed he opened the box and found it to contain the body of Ginger Cook. Mortified, he called the police at approximately 4:15 pm and the investigation began at 4:20 pm.

During questioning the police found witnesses and possible suspects of the crime.
Cindy Loo Who, Kris Kringle, and Old Man Marley, and Buddy the Elf. In Kris Kringle’s interview he said that he and Ginger were good friends and had asked him that certain day that she felt like she was being followed so he kept an eye out for her. He said that a man wearing yellow tights and black boots was said to be following Ginger. The store baker in the Reindeer Cafe was next to be interviewed and he said that he had never been so shook up in his entire life. He was just baking some Christmas breads and someone asked him what was going on and then he found Ginger’s body frozen and dead. He felt so terrible that he couldn’t act faster. CIndy Loo Who was one of Ginger’s friends but was not classified a suspect because her interview ws so innocent and none of the testing led to her at all. Buddy the elf however, was a bit shaky and was found with chocolate chips in his pockets and had scratches on him and a bald spot on his head. He was also wearing black boots and yellow tights just as Ginger and Kris had pointed out. The minutiae also matched him and the DNA from the hair follicles. His modus operandi was that he was in a rage that he could not get the last chocolate chips so he stole them from Ginger and then killed her because he decided that no one deserved chocolate chips as much as he did. He had been going to counseling for months because he found out that he really was not an elf
but a full on human and he became emotionally unstable, especially around Christmas time. His father Walter Hobbs, apologized for his son’s reaction to things, but he was not able to apologize enough.
Buddy the Elf was sentenced to life in prison for voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and theft. He was deemed to emotionally unstable to be around people. Chocolate is good, but not that good.