Hi Have a potential murder plot where the victim is doing a charity abseil down a building. How realistic would it be for the murderer to set up camp in a nearby building with an air rifle aimed at the victim's main rope (and the safety)? All advice (or alternative methods) gratefully received. Thanks in advance Rich
that'd be a hell of a shot - to the point of improbability, and there's no way a single air rifle pellet would sever a climbing rope anyway. A bow with a broadhead arrow would be more plausible but it would still be a hell of a shot sabotaging the gear would be more likely
Thanks. Thanks...I did consider sabotage though quite challenging to arrange...what about a drone with something mounted to it perhaps?
A RPA would not work because it couldn't hold its place in the air. The force it would have to exert to cut there would be more than the forward acceleration and thus push it away every time. But you could strap a mini pipe bomb that looks like a camera with a timer on it to the RPA. Detonate next to rope, while deceptively looking like a RPA/GoPro combo.
Thanks for this. Might be tricky as two ropes...what about something stealthy like a magnifying glass that concentrates the sun's rays onto each nylon rope...?
You would need a telescope with an eye piece angled straight from the sun and something to slow down time for that to be possible. So in other word, it's not. Grease the middle of the ropes? Wouldn't know until they got there and lost grip midway?
Thanks again. Not sure how greasing the ropes would work... Maybe the pipe bomb idea could work if the two ropes are quite close together...fill it with razor blades...? For added suspense one of the ropes might not break fully and the instructor starts a race against time to pull him back up?
As stated think this could work if close to both ropes and filled with the right stuff, any suggestions? Thanks. Could add suspense as the instructor abseils down to rescue him dangling on heavily frayed rope...which gives just as he arrives. Victim frantically grabs instructor's trouser leg which unfortunately starts to tear...
if you have acess to bombs and so forth wouldnt you just blow the victim up instead of messing about with the abseiling
Repeated shots with the air rifle, plus a constant switch of perspectives would heighten the tension. The pellet ricocheted from the plaster walls severing the safety harness and Theodore Charity tumbled to the car park below.
Thanks. I would suggest because it is difficult to get access to victim generally. His abseil puts him in a vulnerable and potentially dangerous situation if things go wrong...
but if you can get in to the building oposite you could just shoot him with a rifle or a bow or a bomb laden drone, or whatever rather than titting about trying to hit his ropes... the only reasons to make it happen through abseiling are a) if its symbolic and important to the plot , or b) if you want it to look like an accident (which rules out all of the above as methods)
Thanks. Was really trying to go for the "accidental" angle...which I admit is difficult in the context. Will think of something else. Thanks again.
If you want accidental you've pretty much got to tamper with the equipment before the event...shooting, drones and so forth remove any possibility of it being considered an accident
It's been a looooong time since I've rappelled/abseiled, so I don't totally remember how the rope runs. I can tell you that the first time I tried it, I fell, only about seven feet into a bush, because I wasn't on belay and the rope ran out. If your assassin can substitute a shorter rope or cut it so it frays at a crucial point . . . Is anyone at the top of the building playing out the rope, making sure it's tied on, doesn't get fouled, whatever? Something to think about.
[mobile slow-tap] If the setting is New Zealand the murderer would/could set up an adventure school as a background ‘cover story.’ ‘I send 1000s of tourists over the ridge year on year...but just this one time it had to be Betty. I am so sorry for your loss. Please accept these white rapids rafting tokens as a testament of my sincerity.’ (Needs draft/ gotta go to work)
