The Origami Killer is the main antagonist and perpetrator of several kidnappings and murders in the Heavy Rain universe. The most recent case the killer is suspected to be involved in is the kidnapping of Shaun Mars, the son of Ethan and Grace Mars.
Character
Prior to Shaun's abduction, eight criminal kidnappings and homicides are suspected to have been committed by the Origami Killer between the years 2009 and 2011. All victims were young boys between 9 and 13 years of age, each killed in the same fashion: by being drowned in rainwater.
Each body is found on some type of wasteland, always adjacent to train tracks, 3-5 days after they are abducted, approximately six hours post-mortem, showing that the person who orchestrated these events did not kill his victims right after abduction. Instead, the killer waits until a set of specific criteria has been filled. Every victim was in a public place at the time of the abduction and was found with few or no defensive wounds on his body, implying that the victims knew or trusted the person that took them.
Like many serial killers, the Origami Killer has a certain trademark which he leaves upon his victims. Each victim is found with an origami figure in his right hand (from which the killer's title originates) and an orchid on his chest. The victims also have their faces completely covered in mud, which FBI profiler Norman Jayden suspects is evidence that the killer himself has no personal hostility towards the victims. He also interprets the orchid and origami figure to be gifts.
Trials
There are a number of trials the Origami Killer presents to the fathers of his victims. The killer sends each father an envelope containing a letter with a poem written on it, and the key to a train station locker. Inside the locker is a shoebox containing a handgun, a mobile telephone and compatible memory card, and five different origami figures detailing the trials he must undertake.
Once the memory card is placed into the phone, a message appears on the screen asking, "How far will you go to save someone you love?" (This echoes the game's tagline.) It then cuts to a video of the abducted son, trapped in a drywell that is gradually filling up with rainwater. Each origami figure inside the box has the address to one of the trials and a brief description of the assignment. In order for the father to save his son, he must complete each trial. Successful completion will reward him with letters hinting at the address of his son's whereabouts.
It is implied that most of the fathers either attempted the trials and gave up, or never attempted them. The police are not shown to be aware of a pattern involving the disappearance/death of the father shortly after that of the victim, and only two of the named fathers are implied to have died as a result of the trials.
Lauren Winter, whose son Johnny was the Origami Killer's sixth victim, will, if asked, tell Scott Shelby that Johnny's father Allan left just after receiving the letter and that she hasn't seen him since. A behind-the-scenes video implies that Allan began the trials, but it is unknown if he died or chose not to continue with the trials.
Hassan, whose son Reza was the Origami Killer's seventh victim, says that he received both the letter and the shoebox left behind by the killer; however, he seems not to have understood the purpose of its contents and was therefore unable to save Reza.
Mr. Bowles, whose son Jeremy was the Origami Killer's eighth victim, seems to have received the same contents as Ethan, yet is only confirmed to have received the mobile phone. He disappeared the day after Jeremy and left the mobile phone behind; his wife attempted to activate the phone to no avail. A behind-the-scenes video implies that he died while attempting the second trial, and that his body is the one Ethan can potentially discover in the tunnel leading to the room with the electrical capacitors in "The Butterfly." This is further supported by the relatively intact state of the corpse.
Identity
The identity of the Origami Killer is revealed toward the end of the game and can be discovered by up to three of the playable characters.
Trivia
- The Origami Killer and the trials he puts the fathers through is somewhat similar to the antagonist of the Saw films, Jigsaw.
- The Origami Killer is mentioned in a newspaper article by The American Tribune that can be found in a chapter of Beyond: Two Souls, another Quantic Dream game.