80 Students spent Friday the 13th solving a murder at the Midnight at the Masquerade dinner party.

Coordinator of Student Involvement, LaPorcha Ellick, said, “The purpose of the event is to provide a fun interactive evening for students . . . similar to playing a live version of the game ‘Clue’.” 

San Diego’s The Murder Mystery Company helped Tukwut Life accomplish this goal. “We’ve worked with them since 2016,” said Ellick.

Social Media Associate for American Immersion Theater, Hannah Pikaart, added, “We have a great relationship with CSUSM . . . [and] are always more than happy to [come] because there is always a great crowd at the campus.”

At 6:30 p.m. on September 13, students entered the USU Ballroom, grabbed food and decorated white masks with paint pens, glitter, jewels and other items.

At 6:40 p.m., two women and a man began mingling with the attendees. The man wore a black and red bat mask, a red coat and tie and black slacks.

One of the ladies donned a red dress with a sheer black shawl and sparkly silver mask, the other a black ruffled maid’s uniform and plain gold mask.

While students ate and decorated masks, the three actors handed out props and binders to eight attendees, including freshman Cassidy Lovell.

“[The maid] came up to me and introduced herself to everyone around the table . . . She asked everyone’s name but mine and then said ‘Your name is Ella Vadar’ . . . She gave me a little name tag, a hat and some glasses and a binder on ‘How to Play a Suspect,’” said Lovell.

When asked how she felt about being “put into the game,” Lovell said, “I’m super excited. Clue is my favorite board game, so I’m thrilled.”

Tables without suspects received “How to Play as a Table Team” binders to help them solve the mystery.

At 7:40, the maid introduced herself as Main Luna Tick and the man as Sal Fee, President of the Billionaire’s Club.

“You are here to solve a murder,” said Tick. “Pay close attention to what you see and . . . hear.”

Tick then chose three participants and organized a game of “Rich, Marry, Kill.” Each volunteer said whether they would rather die, get rich or marry before the maid gave them drinks, one of which was poisoned. Fee also accepted a glass.

As the attendees waited to see which of the participants would perish, Fee collapsed and “died” within seconds.

The students spent the remainder of the evening trying to solve Fee’s murder by asking the suspects, including Tick and Jessica Fletcher (the red-dressed woman), questions that they had to answer truthfully.

At 8:20 p.m., a detective who looked suspiciously like Fee entered and started questioning Reginald Sawbucks, Reed Diculous and other suspects to discover which individual had the motive and opportunity to murder the former club president.

After a second student-led interrogation session, each team wrote down their team name, the killer and why and how he or she killed Fee.

Only one table solved the mystery, which the detective explained around 9:15 p.m. Ella Vadar killed Fee by poisoning his mask with Demerol to protect her TV show and reputation.

“It was really fun to get into [the event], talk to other students and try to figure out a murder,” said psychology major and “Rich, Marry, Kill” volunteer Daniel Velez. “It was a good time.”

One of Tukwut Life’s next events will be Skate Night on Sept. 27 and Legendary Bingo on Oct. 3, both taking place in the USU Ballroom.