“In a high society tale of fashion, betrayal, intrigue and murder prominent businessman and seafaring adventurer Thomas Youngman has been arrested and charged with murder in the first degree for the brutal slaying of rising model star Polly M.

Police believe Mister Youngman, a minor celebrity for his round-the-world solo races and husband of Lithuanian fashion designer Milda Kazluaskiene, was having an affair with the young model and that she threatened to tell his spouse. Inspectors were called to the Great Eastern Hotel in the early hours of the 11th of November to witness a bloody and violent scene. Polly M. was found tied to the bed, though evidence suggests she willingly submitted to this, and stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Though suspicion initially fell on a Mister Edmundas Butkus, a nightporter at the hotel, he has since been released and cleared of all charges.

Despite overwhelming evidence against Mister Youngman police were initially misled by evidence tampering. It seems Mrs.Youngman (Kazluaskiene), unbeknownst to her husband, had rented a separate room in the hotel. Arrested and treated as a suspect in the investigation it has been subsequently established that Mrs. Youngman, notoriously protective and litigious of her designs, far from trailing her husband out of amourous jealousy, was in fact enraged by her husband’s unwise choice of gift to his mistress. Following her husband’s arrest Mrs. Youngman confessed that he was a serial philanderer and that his affair with Polly M. was simply the latest in a long line of indiscretions. This was a fact she had come to accept but when she discovered he had swiped one of her latest designs to offer the young ‘tramp’ she became enraged and set in motion a plan that would ultimately confuse the police investigation.

Exhibiting the most remarkable ’sang froid’, Mrs Youngman apparently gained access to Mr. Youngman’s room once he had fled the scene and removed her dress from the still warm body of Polly M. Police are still shocked and appalled by her behaviour and are considering charging Mrs.Youngman with ‘evidence tampering’ and ‘willfully corrupting the course of justice’ though they cannot pin any murder charge on her as forensics have shown that she attended the scene after Polly’s demise. Asked to comment on her actions, Mrs.Youngman chillingly remarked:
‘People would kill for one of my designs’ ”

AGANOVICH WINNERS

Well after a great deal of deliberation we have decided to award two dresses to Zia and Sarah Nir who were the only two to correctly use the evidence to figure out the sequence of events.

Namely that the husband was the killer (CCTV, casting lines on his clothing indicating actual presence at the time of stabbing, Spanish bowline knots, left-body stab wounds indicating right-handed assailant, door-key activity, and flight from the scene) but importantly (this is fashion after all…!) that Mrs. Youngman gained access to the room (failed attempt with her own key followed by immediate access with the maid’s key and 20 pounds in maid’s pocket) and that this had to be after the crime was committed (not a single casting mark on her skirt making it unlikely she was present at time of murder but presence of smudged blood indicating she came into contact with the body after the stabbing) and that her motive was the dress (”funny thing is Polly was wearing a very expensive looking dress (in CCTV footage) but we’ve not recovered it”)

Zia and Sarah Nir will receive all three parts of the outfit: the pleated satin bib with silken neck and waist sashes, the muslin belt and the muslin and silk dress.

Three runners up , Nastassja Lusengo, Mervi Autio (apologies if this is a misspelling I can’t read the handwriting..) and Electra Dimitriadou will receive the satin pleated bib section of the outfit as they all correctly guessed the husband as the killer but did not ascertain the wife’s involvement.

Thanks to everyone for taking part. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we look forward to seeing everyone at our next event. If you have any questions please conatct me at reception@aganovich.com. All the best
Brooke