Looking for a creative way to kill/murder one of my characters

valerielynn · Jul 24, 2012

I'm trying to find a creative way to kill off one of my characters. This character is a female and she is a famous singer trying to make a come back after several stints in rehab. When she is murdered she is getting ready for a show so she is backstage/in her dressing room when this occurs.

Her boyfriend is the one that finds her dead and he is suspected of killing her (but her boyfriend didn't do it). She is murdered by a family friend of her boyfriend's family.

I've been racking my brain all day trying to think of ideas and ways this character could be murdered and I just can't think of any GOOD ideas. One idea that I did have was she could be strangled with a microphone wire but I'm not sure that would work cause I think these newer microphones are wireless? Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas, or ways my character could be murdered?

Maryn · Jul 24, 2012

Backstage murder of a singer on the comeback trail could go all sorts of ways.

She overdoses on "Just a little to calm my nerves, Boyfriend."
She's drinking something specific for her throat, as some singers do, and it's poisoned.
She's eating a small something for the boost in blood sugar, because she needs her energy--and her privacy as she gets her head into performance mode. Alas, this means nobody knows she's choking.
She has on the stage costume and some aspect of its over-the-top design kills her--she falls off her crazy high platform heels and lands badly, breaking her neck; her seven-foot scarf tangles in the ceiling fan and strangles her; the tight corset she bulges out of with such appeal, almost like she still had her former figure, doesn't let her get a breath, and that asthma she thought she'd outgrown returns...
She electrocutes herself warming up on her favorite old guitar, or drying her hair in the tub.

Maryn, who likes coming up with such stuff

onesecondglance · Jul 24, 2012

You still get wired mics - just as many as wireless. That said, no self-respecting sound engineer would let her have the mic in the dressing room, let alone with the cable attached!

Guitar strings make much better garrottes, too.

Ito · Jul 24, 2012

depends on the killer. Is he/she sane? If so, then the question becomes motive. A psychopath who seeks the girl's affection, but is rebuffed, may seek revenge and in doing so, implicate the boyfriend. The careful planning could afford him/her inside access to the facility, allowing the murderer to leave undetected. The murder itself depends upon the needs of the attacker. If they are sexual, then he/she may seek to mutilate the girl, and the method of killing is likely strangulation. If they are non-sexual, but still deviant, it may just take the form of poison or planned "accident."

cbenoi1 · Jul 24, 2012

The small room she's in is filled with argon gas. Same effect with Halon gas which used to be prevalent in old buildings for preventing fires. Or even a block of dry ice melting over a heat source (computer, heater, etc). The physics is the same; the gas replaces air from the bottom going up. It's difficult to detect at first and victims go sleepy and faint well before they react to apoxia (just ask any victim of carbon monoxyde poisonning), which is nice because falling unconcious on the floor only aggravates the problem.

By the time the police comes in to investigate, the murder weapon - and the murderer - have long vanished into thin air. Litterally...

The residual effects on the body would look the same as smothering the victim with a pillow.

The only drawback is the door must be sealed. Like a recording studio's isolation booth...

-cb

GailD · Jul 24, 2012

Castor beans!

Oh.

Wait.

That takes too long.

Oleander juice in the stage make-up?

Namatu · Jul 24, 2012

What's wrong with a strong whack to the back of the head?

Knife. Stabbed in the heart! (Crime of passion?)

I like the guitar-string garrotte onesecond suggested. Mangling the throat of a singer sends a particular message.

I agree it would help to know the motive for the murder.

lorna_w · Jul 25, 2012

onesecondglance said:
Guitar strings make much better garrottes, too.

+1

This made me shiver (as a guitarist, I stab myself on the ends enough to think of them as weaponlike anyway). Murder by a B string. (which would require gloves or you'd slice your own fingers). Or an A string. (which might not require gloves and would be less likely to snap.) You'd have to ask a bassist about his strings.

Torgo · Jul 25, 2012

Nicotine in her cold cream / makeup. Nicotine is amazingly toxic, relatively easy to prepare using cigarettes (no paper trail for the killer), and is absorbed through the skin. It's not incredibly fast-acting, though, but for someone in a weakened state (or locked in her dressing-room...?)

As far as poisons go, I also like the Amanita-style mushrooms - Destroying Angel, etc - as it's pretty much 100% fatal and symptoms don't present themselves for a long while (a week or so.) If you want a murder that's very tough to detect and doesn't need to cause death at a specific time, that's a good choice.

onesecondglance · Jul 25, 2012

lorna_w said:
+1

This made me shiver (as a guitarist, I stab myself on the ends enough to think of them as weaponlike anyway). Murder by a B string. (which would require gloves or you'd slice your own fingers). Or an A string. (which might not require gloves and would be less likely to snap.) You'd have to ask a bassist about his strings.

An unwound G string would do.

As would strangling her with her... er, "real" G-string.

Virgilante · Jul 26, 2012

creative way to kill a character

I've been lurking for about two years. I've been going to sign up forever.

Back in WW2, the British invented a joke so funny it killed. Tell her that, and walk away. (Monty Python reference)

heyjude · Jul 27, 2012

Virgilante! (And great user name!)

Shakesbear · Jul 27, 2012

Hallo Vigilante.

Someone sends her a bunch of poisonous flowers and she, not knowing they are poisonous, eats some of the berries of Atropa Belladona, aka Deadly Nightshade.

Poison in her throat spray.

onesecondglance · Jul 27, 2012

Contact poison on her guitar fretboard?

A small bomb linked to the vanity light on her dressing room mirror?

Her pocket chihuahua (sp?) is drugged so it goes crazy and rips her throat out?

happywritermom · Aug 1, 2012

I think you really have to understand your killer's motive before you decide on a method of murder. Why does this friend of the boyfriend's family want her dead?

Lawfire · Aug 5, 2012

happywritermom said:
I think you really have to understand your killer's motive before you decide on a method of murder. Why does this friend of the boyfriend's family want her dead?

Exactly. A crime of passion and a cold blooded execution are (usually) very different.

John342 · Aug 5, 2012

Ok,

Is this supposed to be a clever method of murder (hard to figure out)? or murder made to look like an accident, or creatively gruesome?

Two suggestions (one the first two paths).

- Hard to detect would be an icepick piercing the heart cavity. Very hard to see the entrance wound from the outside and may not be as easy to figure in an autopsy. The victim will bleed out internally but it may be hard to figure out for an inexperienced medical examiner.

- faked suicide could be gun, pills or hanging but with signs of a struggle or rope burns on wrists.

- Creatively Gruesome - omg... this is such a wide area of art(?) that I don't want to taint you. My only experience with one was a gay (man vs man) murder... and it is so gruesome that I wouldn't share it in a public forum... still makes me get the hebee jebees when I think about it.

Strangling someone with an obvious thing (like an electrical cord) speaks to a poorly planned murder... a crime of passion or by someone not too smart.

Hope this helps

PeterReynard · Aug 14, 2012

Singers often have pre-performance routines that they do superstitiously. Many also use throat relaxing/numbing sprays. For an especially involved pre-meditated murder, you could have the killer give her a sore throat (by exposing her to it somehow) and then replace her throat spray with poison.

Mark Thompson · Aug 16, 2012

Murdered by a blast of Lady Gaga at 1000 watts...

jaksen · Aug 23, 2012

The murderer selects the murder weapon, or means of murder. What is available to him or her? How angry/upset/jealous - whatever - is the murderer of the victim? Will he want her to suffer - or not? Does he want the quick, clean kill, or the slow, agonizingly brutal one? Will he carefully, methodically plan this, allowing for unexpected variables? Or is this a murder/crime of passion, done on the spot, quickly and spontaneously?

You have to see this part of the story through the murderer's eyes.

druid12000 · Aug 23, 2012

First, you need to assess how this fits into the story.
Second, take a breath, or a walk, smoke a cigarette, do pilates (whatever the hell that is)...something that relaxes you. Why, because when you stress out, your mind freezes and focuses on what you're stressing about (at least mine does). One of the best ointments I've found for a 'block' is going outside. For some reason, being inside can sometimes really impair my writing. When I go to my 'happy place' I get new inspiration.
Third, there are some wonderful and creative suggestions posted, but ultimately it comes down to not only how, but how badly do they die.

CherI311 · Aug 29, 2012

Why does the family friend what her dead? Is the suspect a jealous wanna be singer, a jealous ex-boyfriend, psychopath or what? Knowing might help determine some creative method of killing her.

Best of luck to you,
Cheryl

Al Stevens · Aug 29, 2012

A quick kill with a common item as a weapon? Come up behind her with a sharpened pencil. Shove it into the soft place on her jaw's underside. Push it up into her brain. Remove the pencil, wipe it down and toss it on her desk with the other pencils. (Do people still use pencils?)

Niniva · Aug 29, 2012

Just a fyi -- a pencil does not fit through the optic nerve opening in a skull. I'm not certain that it would be strong enough to go through the skin, the tongue, a tough mucus membrane, the palate and then the menegies that protect the brain, either. Even then, the middle of the brain in that area is less vital to survival than the area closer to the spinal column.

My fave for horrible is the single punch to the back of the head that severs the spinal column from the brain. It happened in a bullying case a few years ago and probably requires some minor genetic defect where the junction is weak. The charge would be man slaughter because the intent is "Hey, don't walk away from me!" Makes for a very different scenario for the perp than a lot of the other ones.

Al Stevens · Aug 29, 2012

Niniva said:
Just a fyi -- a pencil does not fit through the optic nerve opening in a skull. I'm not certain that it would be strong enough to go through the skin, the tongue, a tough mucus membrane, the palate and then the menegies that protect the brain, either. Even then, the middle of the brain in that area is less vital to survival than the area closer to the spinal column.

Beg to differ. The pencil technique was taught as an assassin's technique in the 1960s. You must insert the pencil into the flesh, aim it properly, and then strike it very hard with the heel of your hand. Maybe twice. You can read about the technique in this book, IIRC. If not this one, another one of his.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312119151/?tag=absowrit-20

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