Kazue Ichikawa (Kei Hayami) is the main villainess of "The Farewell Wine Murder Case", episode 4.15 of Case Closed (airdate April 13, 1998). Kazue was the eldest daughter of wealthy company president Kotaro Ichikawa and the older sister of his other daughter, Mizue Ichikawa.
Private investigator Kogoro Mouri was called to the Ichikawa estate by Kotaro, who was allegedly dying of a rare cardio vascular disease and had been tipped off to the fact that one of his daughters was plotting to kill him. When Kogoro met Mizue and Kazue, it was quickly shown that the sisters had bitter animosity between each other, with Kazue blaming Mizue for their mother leaving them and Mizue accusing Kazue of only caring about money and that she was in need of huge amount in order to cover up the case of her art gallery being sued for selling forgeries.
Later in the evening, Conan Edogawa spotted Kazue in the wine cellar and watched her as she injected a poison (later identified as a muscle relaxer) into a bottle of wine, revealing that Kazue was plotting to kill her father to get her inheritance. Before Conan could warn Kotaro, however, he was chloroformed and locked in the basement by an unidentified person--later revealed to be Kotaro himself, who had been tipped off by his private physician, Hitoshi Okano, to the fact that one of his daughters was plotting to kill him and was planning to fake his own murder to find out who it was.
But later that evening, after faking that he had taken a drink of the poisoned wine given to him by Kazue, Kotaro died and Kazue was immediately fingered as the killer by Mizue. Inspector Juzo Megure had Kazue empty her purse, revealing the syringe she'd used to dose the wine. Kazue was arrested, but it was later revealed that her attempt on her father's life was unsuccessful, and that his true killer was Hitoshi, who did so in revenge for Kotaro destroying his family by driving his former business partner (Hitoshi's father) into bankruptcy. It can be assumed, however, that Kazue still faced charges of attempted murder.
Trivia[]
- In the English dub, Kazue's name is translated as Autumn Alexander and she is voiced by Lauren Goode.
Gallery[]
