Adelaide’s Killer is Finally Revealed in the 'Criminal Record' Finale, "Carla"

For seven episodes, we’ve been wondering who killed Adelaide Burrows. Was it Errol Mathis, who has been convicted of the crime? Were Hegarty, Kim, and Tony knowingly protecting the real perpetrator of the crime? Is Hegarty an evil mastermind or just a detective who had a bad day? Most but not all answers were revealed in “Carla,” the eighth and final episode of the season. And I have to admit it was a bit of a letdown. With a show like this, you want the real murderer to be someone we’ve seen the whole season but didn’t necessarily suspect. Alas, the killer turned out to be Stefan Ash, someone we saw briefly when he helped Hegarty find a new apartment for Patrick. There was no shock and awe with this reveal; it was more of a shrug.

The episode kicks off with Hegarty and June in a panic because the audio of Carla’s emergency phone call is going viral, and they know Carla is in immediate danger. Hegarty wants to shut it down. “That’s really not how Twitter works, actually,” June tells him. (Side note: I wonder if X will ever be referred to by name the way Twitter was. My guess going forward is that line would have changed to “That’s really not how social media works, actually.”)

June encourages Hegarty to think to himself, “What if I was wrong? What if it wasn’t Errol, and if not him, then who?” They go through Hegarty’s files on the case, specifically looking at all the DNA that was found in Adelaide and Errol’s flat. Errol cut hair in the kitchen, so there was lots of DNA. Did they clear everyone? Hegarty assures her that they did. But then he realizes that Stefan was not someone they had totally cleared. His alibi was shoddy. Now Stefan is an informant for Hegarty, but back then, he was an informant for Tony.