Helen Reid aka Sasha Moore (Helen Baxendale) is the villainess of "Death of a Detective", the Season 3 premiere of BBC's Death in Paradise (airdate January 14, 2014). Helen Reid was the sister of Sasha Moore, a former university classmate of DI Richard Poole.
Helen was implied to be envious of Sasha, who was the head of a successful software company, later selling the company for a small fortune, while Helen struggled financially. Sometime prior to the episode's events, Helen and Sasha were involved in a car accident, killing Sasha and leaving Helen injured. It was then that Helen took on Sasha's identity, allowing authorities to believe it was her that died in the accident and getting cosmetic surgery to look more like Sasha. Helen also began a relationship with Sasha's husband James, with implications being that he went along with Helen's plan to get control of his wife's money and that he and Helen had already been engaged in an affair prior to Sasha's death.
When Sasha's former college friend Angela Birkett decided to host a reunion, Helen decided to attend with James under the belief that she would be able to pass herself off as Sasha. But at the reunion, the group ran into Richard, who was quick to suspect that Helen wasn't who she claimed to be. Richard ultimately decided to test Helen by buying a copy of Le Rouge Et Le Noir, a book Richard knew Sasha had read, with Helen's inability to identify the book proving Richard's suspicions correct. Realizing that Richard was onto her and would expose her secret, Helen decided she had to kill Richard, informing James of her intentions.
Knowing Richard's disdain for playing gmaes, Helen suggested a game of charades to the group, leading Richard to instead go outside to read. During the charades game, the evil Helen went out to Richard under the pretense of bringing him crisps before stabbing him in the chest with an ice pick, killing him. Helen then went back inside with Richard's empty cup of tea, allowing James to go back outside with it to make it appear that Richard were still alive and give himself and Helen false alibis for the murder. While Helen and James' scheme initially worked, DI Humphrey Goodman was ultimately able to deduce the truth and confronted Helen and James after he and Camille Bordey returned to the group's villa as they were all preparing to leave. The exclusion fingerprints Helen gave to the police proved to be her undoing, as they were a match for the fingerprints she gave when she was arrested for shoplifting. After their guilt was proven, Helen was placed under arrest along with James.
Gallery[]
