Masuko Tsuchiya (Masako Isobe) was a villainess from "The Famous Potter Murder Case", episodes 4.16 and 4.17 of Case Closed (airdate April 20 and 27, manga volumes 16: File 10 ~ 17: File 2). She was the daughter-in-law of famed potter Mankichi Tsuchiya (better known by his alias "Kikuemon"), and had been living with him since her husband and Mankichi's wife were killed in a car accident.
The episode had Mankichi invite detective Kogoro Mouri (along with his daughter Ran and Conan Edogawa) to his house, as he was a fan of Kogoro's work. During the stay, however, Masuko accidentally broke one of Mankichi's valuable pots, for which she was deeply sorry for. The next day, Masuko was found hung in the storage house in what was initially ruled a suicide.
But thanks to Conan's deductions, it was ultimately found that Masuko had been murdered by Ryuichi Seto, one of Mankichi's three apprentices. Ryuichi then revealed that he had been making forgeries of Mankichi's artwork and Masuko had been selling them for a large profit. When Ryuichi found out and confronted her, the evil Masuko confessed to the forgeries, claiming that Ryuichi should be thankful that she was selling his "unoriginal" work and threatening to kick him out of the house if he didn't continue making forgeries for her to sell.
Enraged at Masuko's greedy and self-serving fraud, Ryuichi plotted to kill her during Kogoro's visit, doing so after everyone had gone to bed that night. Ryuichi carried Masuko (who had gotten drunk and passed out during the night) and placed her on a shelf in the storage room, a noose around her neck. The next morning, as everyone began to worry about Masuko, Ryuichi called his cell phone while feigning calling hers, having hidden his phone in a pot in the storage building. Thinking it was her phone's alarm to wake her up, Masuko reached over to turn it off, leading her to fall from the shelf and be hung to death.
Trivia[]
- In the English dub, Masuko's name is translated to Margery Wafulcot and is voiced by Wendy Powell. The English dub also altered the plot slightly; having it revealed that Ryuichi was conspiring with Margery to sell forgeries and him killing her when she decided to stop the scam for fear of being caught.
- Wendy Powell (Masuko's English dub actress) also voiced Case Closed villainess Takako Fujii.
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