Hey friends, I hope this finds you all well.

I don’t know about you but I enjoy a little mystery in my life. I also truly love history, so I thought why not add a little mystery to my history … (insert eye roll here) and check out the Murder Mystery event at historic Fort Malden in Amherstburg?

I heard there were prizes involved, so with the stakes high I decided I needed another set of eyes for this adventure. Naturally then, I dragged along my sister Janette.

As it turns out sleuthing is not inherent in our DNA, but that will soon become clear.

The weather was humid and the costumes wool, but the players didn’t let that dampen their portrayal of various historical figures, some real, some imagined.

On hand was one of my personal favourites Major General Issac Brock, whose statue I visit every time I’m in Niagara. Obviously then, I would not be accusing him.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let me set the scene … the year is 1812. The United States has declared war on Britain and amidst the hustle and bustle at Fort Malden, a murder has occurred.

An officer was found clinging to life, sadly to expire… but not before passing along a vital clue…  the word “Welsh” that Janette and I decided to completely ignore.

After the doctor’s  confirmation of  the death of the victim, Lieutenant McKee, I and my fellow detectives were left to wander the grounds of the Fort, and conduct our own interviews and investigations of the various suspects.

There were many clues and many lines of questioning.

A cast of characters from merchants, to soldiers to tavern keepers to doctors, to ferrymen, to fine ladies, to spies.  All portrayed by summer students working at the Fort.

I must admit the more of them I questioned, the more confused I got. Apparently Janette also felt likewise.

The players remained true to their characters, despite the heat, and being peppered by questions from a curious, albeit sweaty crowd.

In the end, we talked over all the possible motives, and decided … to hazard a guess. We both agreed, and we were both wrong.

Apparently, the culprit belonged to a Regiment that came from Wales … Duh.

To this day I’ve no idea what the motive for this murder was, (although it was revealed  to us at the conclusion and we both forgot) and despite pleas from my sister to call the Fort and have it all explained to me, I decided it was more fun not to know.

What was more important to me was that we had a fun night out, in a beautiful historic setting, and now we have something else to laugh about.

Or maybe it’s just me laughing, because not knowing  the motive, is far more likely to haunt my sister than me, and that’s a pretty good value for dollar on the sibling annoyance scale.

So, despite being thoroughly confused, we had a lot of fun along with a record- breaking crowd for this event. Even the heat and rain that threatened could not prevent my sister and I from not figuring this out.

Thank you to Fort Malden for this fun and cool event and thank you to my sister for being a good sport.
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~ Images by Jolene Carley