CRIMINAL CASE THEORY: Could Michelle Zuria still be alive?

By The Criminal Case Theorists

Hello internet! Welcome to Criminal Case Theory, setting cases straight, one fact at a time. And Here’s a fact for ya: I love criminal case, to death! It’s by far my favorite game out there, and I don’t think many games can get so highly into detail as this one does. I mean, seriously! You’ve got undercover Agents, sexual relationships, and, best of all, underaged hackers crying about people 3 times younger than them. But really tho, why is that the only scene where Elliot even shows physical emotion about another person? Maybe those 2 had more than just that associate status.

But that my friends is a theory for another day. Nope, today's theory has to do with a sombra lawyer gone good. Michelle Zuria. I really liked this character a lot, a character turning to the bright side after the other one turned to the dark side, what an ironic case of arresting your own. But this character hit everyone in the feels when it turns out she ended up getting murdered in case 48 of the game. Crushed to death by a bell. Let me just say something here, Arsenio: out of all things you could have used to kill someone, why a giant bell? You could have done something more sadistic or more your style, like a-a…..Spinning wheel of death! Really Kian, a spinning wheel of death? That’s the best you could come up with? Ugh, no wonder I don’t have any friends… Anyways, after this happened, it got me thinking: would pretty simple really just end a character like that? Is that the finale to this Fan Favorite? Well I’ve done the research, and, according to my data, It’s not.

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Before You Say It:

Now before I get into any of the evidence, let me get some questions out of the way first. “But Kian, michelle was very dead on the crime scene, can’t you see?” While A lot of this will get explained later, let's start with the fact that just because you look dead on a crime scene doesn’t mean you are. A few cases have had 2 people on the crime scene, one dead and one very injured. In case 18 in the AI, Leopold Rochester looked poisoned or knocked out, but he was just fine.

“But Kian, Michelle was listed as a victim, she has to be dead!” That’s not true either. Michelle isn’t the only character listed dead but alive. So was Randolph. I’m not saying Michelle is an alien, but it proves you can be displayed as dead but be the exact opposite.

Now when ensuring this theory, there were a lot of things to consider here:

The weight difference

How the bell landed

The positioning of her body

The positioning of the bell

The response time

Let's start with the weight difference.

The Weight Difference

According to the criminal case wiki, Michelle weighs in at about 130 pounds, which (say in sassy girl voice) is kinda fat, just sayin. Now seeing I can’t go to the crime scene to see how much the bell weighs for myself, I’m gonna go on a limb and say because of the random crack at the front of the bell is a reference to the liberty bell which is currently in Philly, PA. And, get ready for this:

That bell weighs 2080 pounds. Wow! I think that is more than enough to kill a human being by crushing. Well that would be, if it weren't for the next point:

How the Bell Landed

Now you would just think the bell must have just landed straight down, right? WRONG!

You see, at the angle the bell was placed in, there would be no way where the bell went straight down on Michelle. And if it had, well, this would be an open-shut case. Michelle would have easily been squashed by the bell and most likely would have killed her. But luckily, the bell’s angle shows it couldn’t have landed flat down. But if so, how was the bell angled like that then?

My theory is that Michelle’s head hit the bell before it made contact with the ground, curving the bell’s position and pushing more weight onto the ground with the angle seen in the game other than just plainly going flat on her. One person actually thought there was a clapper inside of the bell, but that simple can’t be true, as in the case teaser it would have been very obvious to see. Take it like this:

A penny falling from a 1000ft tower is obviously going to fall town extremely fast, but when that penny hits something else just before landing or slightly in that range (ex. a bird, a person, you get the idea) that motion stops , and then keeps going. that motion will be dramatically affected by whatever it hit, causing it to relapse and still hit the ground, but slower than what the general impact would have been. In that case, the weight of anything doesn’t matter, it’s the change in motion. Now the next part of this is where things get tricky:

The Positioning of Michelle's Body

Now Michelle is shown under the bell, her legs folded in this position and her arm over her chest. But one thing we have to figure out here is where michelle’s legs are. Most people actually think Her legs were cut off by the bell. That can’t be true, because if they were they would extend outward and would be visibly outside of the bell. Because they aren’t, my guess is that her legs actually fold back behind her, just unseen when picking up the body.. Also, her arm being in that exact place actually proves that she couldn’t have been crushed to death, because if she was, it most likely would have cut right through michelle’s arm, and the rest of her body. But this is where a lot of you are probably looking at your screens right now thinking: “But Kian, what about all the blood over Michelle’s clothes and on the ground?” Well this is where I am go to add a new rule into play: Developer effect. “What’s that?” Let me explain:

Developer effect is when an unnecessary attribute is added into the game only for the purpose to prove something in that case is true. Confused? Let me dial it down for you. Whenever something happens in the game, but you don’t believe it really happened, the developers may add a keen detail to ensure you that it really happened. For example, when Asal (Who I can’t believe we didn't see in case 56) shot Nick Kringle, the developers added him being frozen only to show the fact that something cold killed him. Matter of the point, he didn't need to be in a block of ice for Asal to have killed him. This is what I think the developers did to make you think Michelle died. The way she was, she didn't have any open wounds so unless it was something unseen, or it was just that time of the month again…….. this is a clear sign of developer effect. Which leads me onto the 3rd point:

The Position of the Bell

As you can see here, most of the bell isn't even on the ground. It’s only about the bottom half of the bell that made contact with the concrete. Which is a huge factor, meaning that most of the weight was actually on the floor than it was on Michelle. Once again adding to the fact that she couldn't have been crushed by the bell. Which makes me think that Michelle wasn't dead when she was under the bell, she was just knocked out unconscious. Now onto the final point: the amount of time for response. If Michelle were sitting there for over an hour or so, she may have even woken up just realizing she’s just chillin in a bell. But the response time is immediate.

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Carmen replies:



This shows that almost IMMEDIATELY the other agents were onto the case, finding Michelle unconscious. This shows that everything, how the bell landed, the positioning of the bell, the weight difference, her positioning, and the response time proves that Michelle could DEFINITELY still be alive! But of course, there is still a problem at hand: Now there is one huuuuuuge question that are on some of your minds: If Michelle is alive, where is she? Ok, it’s obviously not that simple. There is no source of where she could be…. Accept there is. From Chief Ripley, and I quote:

I've notified Michelle's family of her death. Her body will be taken back to the US to be buried.

Theory….. Busted.

Or, is it?





While, yes, this is where most people would draw the line. But here’s a question for ya: Why would they bury Michelle in the US, and not Singapore?

Were, most likely, Her family would be. What if I said there is one person, one source, who changes this entire story around: Grace.

You see, if anybody were to have blood on their hands and If michelle really was dead, Grace would be the one with bloody hands. By opening her for clues, she would KILL her in the process. But, her being a professional, I think she might be able to tell the difference between unconsciousness and DEATH. Also, she barely told us anything about the autopsy at all, other than the fact that the bell was a good weapon of choice and the paper in her pocket. This is the biggest difference to me between life and death for michelle’s part. If Grace had said something about her bones being crushed or her heart failing, I would have believed it. But she didn’t. That being said, this is where we kinda have to rely on Grace here. Grace was sent the body, realized Michelle wasn’t dead, and kept it hidden.

Why? To make sure Sombra’s trap worked, in their perspective. As long as they see michelle carried away in a body bag, they would be satisfied. They think they won. Grace would have the full ability to tell the team that she sent the body to the US because she is the Coroner, it would give her the perfect opportunity to put her somewhere SOMBRA would never look for her. This isn’t even the only time where grace does this either. Back all they way in case 6 of the game, she takes a stray dog from a dog fighting shelter to give it a better home.

A better life. A life it deservers. It would make perfect sense for her to give Michelle the same fate. But, in short, there is such a huge opportunity for Michelle to be alive. With the evidence of the bell not crushing her, to the response time, to even Grace making sure she keeps living, it could be CERTAIN that Michelle Zuria still lives among us.

But hey...

That's just a theory...

A Criminal Case Theory!

Case Closed.