Claire Hastings (Murder, She Wrote)

The evil Claire Hastings

Claire Hastings (Vicki Frederick) is the main villainess who appeared in the fifteenth episode of the sixth season of Murder, She Wrote, "Fixer-Upper". She, along with her husband Arnold Hastings, work as real estate agents employed by Alex Burton.

Alex has assigned to Claire and Arnold to sell the Tarkington estate, which was owned by his former fiancee and socialite Deborah Tarkington. Deborah held a grudge against Alex and refused to sell her estate to Claire and Arnold. But Claire had another thing in mind, to have the estate to her and Arnold, as she was tired of dealing with rich people while she was not rich herself.

The devious Hastings couple began their scandal by hiring Seymour Densch to put on the highest offer for the Tarkington estate to Jessica's niece and real estate agent Victoria Griffin. But Seymour was a big admirer of Deborah's father's movies and revealed the Hastings couple's plan, Deborah grew furious and took down her estate from the market, calling Victoria that the deal was off.

During a party, while Arnold was playing in the billiard room, the greedy Claire went to negotiate with Deborah to give the estate to them. But Deborah was drunk, she threatened to inform the police about Claire's scheme. While Deborah reached for the phone, the evil Claire reached for the fire poker and killed Deborah.

In the episode's end, Jessica revealed Arnold and Claire's scheme when she gave them an offer for the Tarkington estate, only for them to top her bid in order to claim the estate. Claire was deduced as the killer when she spilled diet pills near Deborah's body to claim that she died of an overdose with alcohol. But there were no traces of diet pills in Deborah's system. In fact, Deborah's maid forgot to refill the pill bottle. The pills in the crime scene can only be traced to Claire through the prescription. Claire surrendered the truth and was eventually placed under arrest.

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Claire revealed as Deborah’s murderer.