Polly O'Brien is a villainess from "Lashing Out", case #42 of Criminal Case: The Conspiracy, the 5th season of the crime solving game Criminal Case (release date October 31, 2018). She was a student at Grimsborough University who was introduced in the preceding case, "Trick or Treat" (the victim being her boyfriend, Gregory Lynn), before being revealed as a villainess in "Lashing Out".
The case had the detectives investigating the murder of philosophy professor Kevin Charles, with the player and David Jones questioning Polly after finding one of the flyers she was handing out for her Student President campaign. Upon being informed about Charles' death, Polly appeared horrified by his death, and additionally expressed complete ignorance of Ad Astra, a mysterious student group being investigated by the police.
However, it was later discovered that Polly's flighty and innocent demeanor was really a cover for her true nature as a ruthless member of Ad Astra, as well as a conspirator in Kevin Charles' murder. Polly and her fellow Ad Astra members (Dorothy Kix, Courtney Guerra, Azeeb Patel, and Lucius Roth) idolized former Ad Astra leader and recurring villainess Rozetta Pierre, and were sent a Halloween card from her instructing them to kill Charles, as it was later revealed that he possessed a list of the names of Rozetta's former Ad Astra cohorts. Working alongside her co-conspirators, the evil Polly killed Charles with the rest of Ad Astra by tying his wrists to two trees in the Grimsborough University forest grounds before whipping him to death.
A receipt for rope in Polly's name was discovered during the investigation, and while Polly claimed the rope was for a knot tighting class she was taking, it would later serve as a piece of evidence pointing to Polly as Charles' killer. When confronted by the player and David, Polly initially continued to feign innocence before finally confessing to the murder, claiming she had killed Charles on her own and boasting of how she had been selected by Rozetta to kill him, even callously disregarding Gregory's recent murder. After being arrested, Polly was put on trial, where she continued to show no remorse for her actions, claiming that Charles had "outlived his usefulness" and telling judge Judith Powell she wouldn't understand when she expressed shock in Polly's devotion to Rozetta. Polly was ultimately sentenced to thirty-five years in prison, a sentence Polly expressed surprising contentment with. It was ultimately Polly's behavior during court that led the player and David to realize she had help in her crime, leading to the rest of Ad Astra being arrested as well.
Polly re-appeared in case #54, "Breaking News" (release date January 24, 2019) as a suspect in the murder of imprisoned Ad Astra member Louis Leroux, after an escape plan was found by the player and Gloria Hayes written out by Louis and Polly. When questioned by the detectives about her escape plan and Louis' murder, Polly shrewdly stated she had no idea who killed Louis and proclaimed that Ad Astra was still a force to be reckoned with despite being imprisoned. Polly was later questioned again when a drawing was found that showed Polly felt Louis had betrayed her, with Polly revealing that after all the work she put into her and Louis' escape plan, Louis told her he never intended to take her with him. The enraged villainess referred to Louis as a "snake" and stated she was happy someone killed him, with Gloria coming to suspect Polly may have killed Louis in revenge for his betrayal. Polly was ultimately proven innocent in Louis' murder, and she later gave assistance to the detectives after Rozetta and Julia Brine were broken out of prison by their Ad Astra cohorts Christian Bateman and Joe Warren; namely motivated by anger at being left out of the prison break.
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