influence as sheriff. Duncan broke up with Veronica and stopped talking to her with no explanation. Lilly refused to explain to Veronica what went wrong. Shortly afterwards, Lilly was found murdered at the side of her family's pool. Sheriff Keith Mars accused Lilly's father, Neptune beloved software entrepreneur Jake Kane, of involvement in the murder. The citizens of Neptune were horrified, and Keith quickly found himself voted out of office and turned into a pariah by the wealthy 09er community. Keith's credibility took another blow when his replacement as Sheriff, former Deputy Sheriff Don Lamb, arrested disgruntled former Kane Software employee Abel Koontz, who confessed to Lilly's murder. The shock and loss of income destroyed the Mars family. Veronica's mother started drinking heavily and abandoned the family several months later. Veronica sealed her fate as an outsider when she refused to denounce her father. Duncan stopped speaking to Veronica, and the rest of the 09ers followed suit. Veronica found herself banished from the exclusive 09er social scene and friends. Two months after Lilly's death, Veronica crashed an 09er party, thrown by Shelley Pomroy, to prove to her ex-friends that she did not care what they said about her. At the party, Veronica's drink is spiked with GHB and she awakens the next morning in a guest bedroom without any recollection of the night before and without any underwear. To her horror, she realizes she was raped. When she reports the crime to Sheriff Lamb, he calls her a liar and throws her out of his office. These events change Veronica. She became cynical, filled with contempt and disgust towards her classmates and Neptune's wealthy elite. A pariah like her father, she funneled her time and energy into helping him in his own detective agency. But when a chance encounter with new transfer student Wallace Fennel led to her gaining a new friend, she began to use her investigation talents to help her fellow students and to go head-to-head with the 09'ers. Veronica slowly begins to outgrow her cynicism, with the help of new friends Wallace Fennel, Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie, and Meg Manning. Prior to Lilly's death Veronica is portrayed as carefree, girly, sweet and young, with long hair. It is suggested that Veronica cut her hair because it reminded her too much of Lilly. The transition to a sharp-witted, cynical, edgy outcast was quick. Detective After being ousted from the