The Mystery of Andrew Johnson’s Death

By Anita NwachukuMay 23, 2004

Engineering Foundation/Period 7B

IntroductionCharacters

Tasha Wilkins (Detective)Diego Jones (Tasha’s Fiancée)Andrew Johnson (Tasha’s

Gardener- Victim)Abigail Johnson (Andrew’s Wife)Blade Johnson (Andrew’s

Brother- Suspect #1)Marcus Wells (Andrew’s

Neighbor- Suspect #2)Kortney Mills (Andrew’s Co-

worker- Suspect #3)

Plot Tasha Wilkins has lived in her house

in Atlanta, Georgia for 3 years now. Her fiancée, Diego Jones lives with her in the house. They have been engaged for two months. Tasha’s friend and gardener, Andrew Johnson, has not come to her house in three days, when he usually comes every other day to check up on her garden. Tasha becomes worried and calls the house but gets no answer. The next day she receives a call from her work telling her to go to a crime scene that is in Andrew’s neighborhood. For some reason, the person that called didn’t tell her the exact address of the crime scene but just told her that she would know where the crime scene was.

Tasha and Diego are almost in Andrew’s neighborhood, when Tasha begins to feel that something is wrong. “Diego, I hope Andrew and Abigail are ok.” Diego just looked straight ahead. “ I hope so too. I just wish we could contact them somehow.” Diego said. By this time, they were in the neighborhood. Tasha was thinking about what her co-worker had said about her knowing where the crime scene was . She knew exactly what he was talking about when she spotted the ambulance and police cars scattered around Andrew’s house. “ Oh no!!!!!!!,” Tasha said. Diego quickly parked the car, and they both ran out of the car to the crime scene. When they got there, they saw a body being hauled away and Abigail Johnson crying. Tasha ran up to her and asked her, “ What happened, Abby?” Abigail said, “ I just came home and found Andrew’s body on the floor in the kitchen. Then I ran and called 911. When they got here they said it was to…..to late!!!!” Tasha wrote down what Abigail said and consoled her friend.

After Abigail calmed down, Tasha analyzed the whole house, and took a sample of blood from the blood that was on the kitchen floor and walls. She labeled the packet of blood- Crime Scene Blood. Then she looked around the house and also checked Abigail’s telephone and found that the plug was disconnected. After analyzing the phone more closely she discovered a fingerprint. She then proceeded to lift the fingerprint. First she dusted the fingerprint using the dust she brought with her. Then she took a piece of clear transparent tape and carefully placed it on the dusted fingerprint. Next she took out a white index card that she could place the fingerprint on. Then she lifted the tape from the counter and placed it on the index card. Tasha was very placed when she looked at the print. It came out perfectly. She knew that she would be able to identify whose fingerprint it was easily once she got all of her suspects. She instantly though to herself that Abigail would not be one of the suspects. She was aware of how badly Abby was taking it. Before the ambulance left with Andrew’s body, Tasha too a sample of blood from his body and labeled it- Victim Blood. Then she went back into the house to talk to Abigail. “Abby, did you know your phone was disconnected? I tried calling you many times these past two days.”

“ I didn’t know that. How could it have been disconnected? Andrew and I never disconnected our phone.” “ When I checked, the plug was out the socket.” “ That’s why we haven’t gotten any phone calls these past two days. I really wasn’t paying too much attention.” Tasha automatically thought about their neighbor, Marcus Wells, being a suspect. This is because Abigail always told her that Marcus would often come over to their house and ask for different items, like sugar or flour. Then she thought that the second suspect in this case would be Andrew’s brother, Blade Johnson. This is because he just started staying with Andrew and his wife and now all this commotion started to happen. Finally she got her last suspect who was Andrew’s co-worker, Kortney Mills. Kortney just started working with Andrew two months ago. She started helping at Tasha’s house one month ago. Tasha always had a bad feeling about the girl. She never really liked the fact that Kortney worked at her house. The only reason why Tasha let Kortney work with Andrew at her house was because Andrew convinced her that Kortney was harmless.

By this time, it was around 8 o’clock. Tasha felt that she got more than enough information that she needed and felt like going home. She asked Abigail if she wanted to stay with her that night, but Abigail let her know that she would be OK. Tasha decided that the next day, she would get to work finding out who killed Andrew. She let Abigail know that she would solve this mystery in the next three days. Walking out of the house, Tasha saw that Diego was already waiting for her in the car. She got in, and they drove home in silence. When they were home, Diego got out of the car and walked over to her side of the car and opened the door. Then he pulled her out of the car and hugged her. “ I am so sorry this happened. I never really got to talk to you at the house. How was Abby?” “She wasn’t doing to well. I hope she is OK. I really didn’t want to leave her by her self but she said she was going to be alright. I miss Andrew already.” “It’s OK. We’ll get through this together. Tomorrow, I will go with you to where ever you have to go. I know that if we work together, we can solve the case faster.” “But you have work tomorrow.” “I’ll take off.” “Thank you, Diego. You don’t know how much this means to me.” At that, they went into their house and went to sleep.

Next Day Tasha and Diego got up around 9 o’clock and left their house at 10. They were headed to the three suspects’ houses to get what they needed to started the analysis in the lab. They needed to ask each suspect questions like- “Where were you yesterday around 6:30 pm?” and “Who were you with yesterday at that time?”. They also needed to get a blood sample from each suspect and a fingerprint. Once she was at the first suspects’ house, she was a little nervous. But once she left the house with all her information she was feeling a lot more confident about the case. Marcus Wells was offended that he was a suspect in Andrew’s case, but was very cooperative. He was quick to clear his name from any negative information. The last two suspect’s, Blade Johnson and Kortney Mills, weren’t as eager to give Tasha the information she needed but she got it eventually. After leaving the last suspects’ house, Tasha and Diego went straight to the lab and started the analysis of the blood samples.

“OK, what do we do first?” Diego asked Tasha once they were in the lab. “First we have to complete DNA Extraction. That’s when you break open the cell and nucleus and remove the DNA.” Both Tasha and Diego washed their hands and put on gloves. While explaining the process, Tasha also performed it. After performing, DNA Extraction on all of the blood samples, Tasha explained the next step to Diego. “Next, we have to perform PCR or Polymerase Chain Reaction. This process is used to make copies of the DNA strands we extracted. “ “That let’s us do as many tests we need to do, right” “Right” Tasha and Diego performed this process on the DNA strands of the suspects. They had to be very careful not to mix anything up. Next, Tasha explained the third step.

“The next step is to cut the DNA strands into smaller fragment using Restriction Enzymes. The three enzymes we have are TIC3, SEP-6, and ACN15. I’ll show you how to do it.” Tasha showed Diego how to cut the DNA and he got it after the first try. It took them around 10 minutes to cut all the DNA strands. Their results came out like this:

Crime Scene DNA: Cut using TIC3A C G T G C A T G G C T A G T G G A T C G A T G C T A G C T G A A C G T G A G T G C A C G T A C C G A T C A C C T A G C T A C G A T C G A C T T G C A C T C

Victim DNA: Cut using ACN15 T T A G T G G G T C T T A G T T G C T G A T G C T C G T T A G C T C G C T A G A A T C A C C C A G A A T C A A C G A C T A C G A G C A A T C G A G C G A T C

Suspect #1(Marcus Wells): Cut using SEP-6A T C G T T C G T G A T C G A T G C T A G C T A T C G G A T C G T A G C T G A T A G C A A G C A C T A G C T A C G A T C G A T A G C C T A G C A T C G A C A

Suspect #2(Blade Johnson): Cut using ACN15A G T G A T G C T A G C T G A G C T G A T G C T G A T G C A G T G G A T G C TT C A C T A C G A T C G A C T C G A C T A G C A C T A G C T C A C C T A C G A

Suspect #3(Kortney Mills): Cut using TIC3A C G T G C A T G G C T A G T G G A T C G A T G C T A G C T G A A C G T G A GT G C A C G T A C C G A T C A C C T A G C T A G C A T C G A C T T G C A C T C

“That is weird.” Tasha said aloud.

“What is?” “Look, the DNA from the crime scene and Kortney Mills’ DNA match. She told us that she was out with a friend yesterday at a club. How could she be at the club but her DNA shows up at the crime scene. But let’s not make any conclusions. We’re almost finished with analyzing the DNA strands. The second to last step is to perform the Gel Electrophoresis. This allows you to separate the DNA so that you can analyze it.” Tasha showed Diego how to complete this process. These were her results:

Crime

SceneVictim

Suspect

#1

Suspect

#2

Suspect

#3

___

___

______

___

___

___

___

___

______

______

___

______

___

___

___

___

______

___

“I knew it, but I have to make sure.”

“What is it?” “See how the Crime Scene analysis matches Kortney Mill’s. She was the one who killed Andrew. I knew I didn’t like her.” “But why would she lie about it?” “To save herself. She obviously didn’t think we would be able to find out who killed Andrew this soon. She must have given us that story so that she would have time to leave town. But I’m not going to let that happen. Besides, I need to confirm this information. Let’s do the second to last step.” “What’s that?” “DNA Sequencing. It’s basically the same as Gel Electrophoresis, but this time we add a small proportion of fluorescently labeled nucleotides. This allows us to study specific genes. I’ll show you how to do it.” At that Tasha showed Diego how to perform the DNA Sequencing. These were their results:

Crime

SceneVictim

Suspect

#1

Suspect

#2

Suspect

#3

___

___

___

___

___

______

___

___

___

___

___

___

______

______

___

Red- A Nucleotide

Blue- G Nucleotide

Green- T Nucleotide

Purple- C Nucleotide

___

___

___

___

___

“I knew it, Diego. When I get my hands on that girl I’m going to………..” “Calm down Tasha.” “I’m sorry, its just that I don’t understand why she would do something like that. She had nothing against Andrew. I’m going to fire her and make sure she goes to jail for at least 20 years. That’s what she deserves after what she put Abigail and Blade and us through.” “Let’s go home, it’s late.” Tasha looked at her watch and saw that it was almost 7 o’ clock. Diego and her didn’t notice how late it was and decided to go home. Before leaving the lab they made sure everything was cleaned up and they took pictures of the DNA Sequencing and Gel Electrophoresis. This would make it easy to send Kortney Mills to jail. On the way home, Diego and Tasha stopped at Kitchen #1 and got Chinese food to take home and eat. Once they were home they ate, and got ready for sleep. Both went to sleep trying to figure out why Kortney Mills would kill Andrew.

The Next Day

Tasha and Diego both woke up and at 8 o’clock. They both got ready to go to the lab. They ate and also packed a lunch so that if they had to stay at the lab a long time, they had something to eat. By the time they left the house, it was around 10 o’clock. When they arrived at the lab Diego asked “What are we doing today?” “All we have left to do is analyze all the fingerprints, but I don’t think we really have to do that since we already know who killed Andrew. But we should do it to confirm our information.” “How do we do that?” “We have to put all the fingerprints under a microscope and match one of the suspects’ fingerprints to the crime scene fingerprint.” “Alright, let’s do it.” After 30 minutes of setting up, Diego and Tasha had the equipment they needed and all the fingerprints laid out. This is how it looked.

Crime Scene Fingerprint

Suspect #1

Suspect #2 Suspect #3

“I knew it. See how the crime scene fingerprint and Kortney Mills’ fingerprint match. She was the one who killed Andrew. We need to go to the police and have her arrested.” “We have to take all of the information to them, right?” “Right, let’s go.” After gathering all of their evidence that Kortney Mills was guilty, they headed to the police station. It didn’t take long before they had a squad team undercover at Kortneys’ house. They knew that they needed back up for this case because it seemed that Kortney was crazy. By 1 o’clock Diego and Tasha reached Kortneys’ house. When they knocked on her front door, they saw that it was open. Diego thought it would be safer for him to enter first and for Tasha to follow him. After checking the whole house they found nothing. Then they checked the backyard and saw Kortney sitting in a chair holding gun to her head. “Kortney, what are you doing!!!!!!” Tasha yelled “I’ve been a bad girl.” Kortney said. “Kortney don’t do this!!!” Diego said. By this time the police were coming out of the bushes. “I shouldn’t have killed Andrew, but I had to. I had to do it. He was in the way.” Kortney said.

“In the way of what, Kortney?” Tasha asked. “My money.” Kortney said

“I paid you well so what are you talking about?”

“But he got paid more and I needed the money for my drugs.” “What drugs?” “My drugs that I take. I haven’t been having a lot of money lately and I needed to get them soon before something bad happened. He wouldn’t give me my drugs until I gave him the………………………..” At that all the cops grabbed Kortney and the gun. She put up a fight but not to long after, they had her handcuffed. Tasha was exhausted she couldn’t believe that Kortney was a drug addicted. At that she talked to the cops and gave them the case to take over. She had done her part and was happy that it was almost over. The last thing she needed to do was talk to Abigail. Diego and Tasha drove to Abigail's’ house. Once they were there, they told her everything that happened and that Kortney Mills had killed Andrew. Abigail was happy that Kortney was off the streets and was relieved to know that her brother-in-law and neighbor had nothing to do with the murder of her husband. Abigail decided to invite Diego and Tasha for dinner. She wanted to show them how much she appreciated them. Both Tasha and Diego accepted because even though they packed a lunch, they had an appetite for some soul food. By the end the day, Diego and Tasha were back at their house, cuddled on their sofa watching a movie. Both were pleased at the fact that the mystery of Andrew Johnson's death was solved and now everyone that loved him could rest peacefully.