This mystery is from a mini-series trending on Sundance Channel right now called "The Suspect".
Hubs and I binged everything except the final episode one night (this is reminding me I need to do the Tiger King and Making a Murderer charts), so I thought we would look at a couple charts before we see how this all turns out - which I won't give away here in case anyone wants to watch it.
Richard Oland was a hard-nosed/tough cookie type. A 69 year old wealthy (old money) Canadian businessman, sportsman and philanthropist. The father of three and long time married multi-millionaire was found by his assistant, on the early morning of July 7, 2011, dead in the office, having been (in what local police called the bloodiest crime scene they had ever witnessed) bludgeoned to death the previous evening.
His son Dennis, a softer sort and the last person known to have seen Richard alive, is arrested two years later. Although pleading his innocence he is tried and found guilty of his father's murder. He is sentenced to life in prison (which appears to mean 10 years in Canada?). His lawyers appeal and the verdict is overturned a few months later, due to, what was determined to be improper jury instruction. Dennis was freed, but scheduled for a retrial - this time with a judge and not a jury.
The evidence against Dennis is: he was a deeply in debt father of two, he was the last known person to see his father alive (Richard's assistant having left the two of them the evening of the murder pouring over family history charts), he told the police he was wearing a blue blazer the night his father was killed when later closed circuit camera footage showed him wearing a brown blazer, the blazer was shipped off to a dry cleaner the next day (his wife testified this was done by her with other laundries), but a very small amount of dried blood belonging to his father was later found on the jacket, his detached demeanor at a police interrogation (as determined by investigators), the father's missing cellphone - which has never been found - making its final ping off a cellphone tower near where the son went after he left his father's office. Did I miss something? I might have. But I think this is the gist.
Now, because there was closed camera footage of Dennis leaving his father's office (he claimed to have left, returned for the family history info he had forgotten and then left again), the time of the murder - if he is the perpetrator - can be narrowed down to a very small window. The first chart is for that time.
Let's unpack this chart and then we'll look at an interesting twist!
The chart is Sag rising - this rules the victim, Richard. He had just returned from a sailing trip/adventure and was a sort of larger than life character and this seems to fit. The Ascendant is exactly inconjunct Pluto (death, power, also big money situations, inheritances) with Pluto ruling the 5th house (children) and the 12th house (endings, endings in small spaces, karmic endings). The ruler of Sag is Jupiter shown here in the 5th house (children). The other significator for Richard is the Moon. In this itty bitty window of time we are working with, the Moon has just changed houses, is exactly conjunct the mid-heaven, is void of course, and in Virgo (work) and answering to Mercury in the 8th house (death). Saturn - the end of the matter and where the bones end up - in the 10th house (business/career/the public). So, our loop here is - 1st house, 5th house, 9th house (legal issues, larger than life story-lines, Jupiter's natural house and here the Moon is exactly conjunct the mid-heaven telling us this will become a very public story), 8th house.
The perpetrator is the descendent - here in Gemini. Someone who can be like more than one person (sometimes two actual people). Able to compartmentalize. A talker/thinker. A child can sometime show up as Gemini. With Mars conjunct suggesting the murder was likely brutal with injuries to the victim's head. The perpetrator is angry/passionate/acting somewhat impulsively. Maybe younger than the victim. The descendant is exactly inconjunct Jupiter (one of our stand-ins for the victim). A rock and a hard place. Feeling like the victim (in the perpetrator's head) is leaving the perpetrator no choice. Gemini answering to Mercury, so taking us back to that 8th house (death). So, our loop here is - 7th house, 8th house, 9th house.
With both victim and perpetrator connecting to the Moon exactly on the mid-heaven - we can see this story will become known, but will that same Void Moon in the 9th house obscure the truth?
We can look at what the significators for the perpetrator were doing and what they will do. Mercury (ruler of Gemini) was last in the 10th house (work, and we know the son is with his father in the office) will next move into Cancer (family, and we know the son meets up with his family for food/ice cream). Mars, because being conjunct the descendant he is speaking for the perpetrator, too, was last in that 8th house (death/big money/finance situations and almost certainly the son will have been thinking about his money troubles before visiting his father if the police theory of his asking his father for money and the father saying no and the son returning to the office to murder him, is accurate). Mars will next be in the 6th house of day-to-day stuff and the son, after leaving his father's office, appears to calmly carry on with his life, doing regular things that evening.
It looks a bit cut and dry astrologically with the only unusual thing catching my eye being that Venus lurking a distance behind Mars in the 7th house of the perpetrator. Now, this could be the "women"/love of family (Venus in Cancer)/and most likely family (Cancer) money (Venus) the perpetrator is doing this for, showing up and that could be exactly what it is and the son is guilty here, but the son's attorneys, who remember don't need to prove Dennis's innocence so much as to show his guilt is not proven beyond a reasonable doubt - toss in a monkey wrench which brings us to our 2nd chart.
The defense team introduce their "reasonable doubt".
Richard has a mistress. And she's angry.
And the "mistress" was quite pissed off at Richard the evening he was murdered, as evidenced by a slew of angry text messages including one threatening to call his wife. The texts stop right around the time one of the workers in the store downstairs (have I said Richard's offices are over a store?) hears a loud thump upstairs. This is quite some time after Dennis has left his father's office and been spotted on closed camera footage eating dessert with his family.
(now this "thump" is brought up at trial, with one person in the store claiming the "thump" was quite a bit earlier - right around the time Dennis would have been in the office - and the other remembering it being later in the evening, shortly after the angry texts stop)
Now, for the mistress to have murdered Richard, because remember his cellphone was pinging some distance away in between these differing murder times, Richard would have had to leave the office himself after his son left (that Moon into the 9th could be him traveling) and returned.
The mistress - whose relationship with the victim doesn't appear to be well-hidden - when asked by the police how she had found out Richard was dead, was vague. She said she might have heard from this person or maybe that person. We know she is lying here, because obviously finding out your lover is dead would be memorable enough that you would remember who told you! She has passed a lie detector test (the mini-series tosses some shade on this and we know she has lied, so who knows), but the police are surely keeping in mind, the murder was very brutal. Also, she claims to have been home with her husband and he corroborates her alibi.
So let's unpack that 2nd chart for the time one person claims to have heard the "thump" and the angry texts stop.
We can see now we have a Cappy rising chart. With the Ascendant ruling our victim and answering to Saturn in the 9th. A Cappy ascendant with Pluto conjunct seems to fit a powerful businessman. The Moon, being the other significator for the victim is now in the 8th house - so we know Richard has passed away by this time. But did he pass when the Moon moved out of the 10th and into the 9th (when Dennis was there) or into the 8th (this later time)? The Moon is still in Virgo, but now answering to Mercury in the 7th house (partners/the mistress). The descendant is Cancer now and ruled by that same Moon (still Void) and conjunct Venus in the 7th - a female partner now, being the perpetrator?
(of course there is the crime's brutality working against this theory, but maybe there is an accomplice involved with that Sun nearby, the Sun in a woman's chart can represent the husband, although no evidence supports this and it seems unlikely he would join her - maybe we are seeing the potential for authority to be looking at this and her via that lie detector test and alibi)
The police have ruled out robbery as a motive because Richard's wallet/watch are untouched. The only thing missing is his cellphone - although the police are able to recreate its contents and so see the angry texts from the mistress, which seem mostly about the fact he isn't replying (and of course if Dennis killed him, he would be dead by now, so there's that). So, did the mistress swipe the phone to cover her tracks? Did the son take the phone for some other reason? Is there another murderer - surely such a wealthy and hard nosed businessman might have some enemies - who wanted their tracks covered?
I think this case illustrates how without an exact time, this type of astrology can be very subjective - if we looked at that second timeline in isolation the story would shift (of course the facts and brutality of the crime are not so supportive of this chart). So, we have to be careful. I think this also illustrates - see that 2nd chart's North Node of Fate in the hidden 12th (where it was in the first house of the first chart) - that sometimes when someone appears to "get away with something" there are reasons we can't see/older story-lines playing out - an escape route placed for a reason.
I haven't watched the final episode, so can't give away the ending if I wanted to (which I don't!) but am guessing the judge finds the defense has shown reasonable doubt and the son isn't convicted this second time.
Of course, this doesn't actually mean he is innocent .....
xo all
