DEATH and chaos have taken over Chester earlier this year after Rayne Royce was found dead in her swimming pool.
The Hollyoaks bombshell is at the core of an ongoing murder mystery and several villagers stand out from the many suspects involved.
Young, beautiful with a head full of ideas and a misguided sense of morality, Rayne Royce turned heads upon her first arrival in the eponymous Channel 4 village.
The once beloved character, portrayed by former Neighbours star Jemma Donovan, made quite an entrance in January, 2023, as she was first seen nearly running down Ste Hay, who was on Mikey’s scooter at the time.
She was initially introduced as a potential love interest for brothers Prince and Hunter McQueen (respectively played by Malique Thompson-Dwyer and Theo Graham) as the pair became instantly smitten with her when she first encountered them.
However, there was more to Rayne as she was also soon revealed to be Lacey Lloyd’s (Annabelle Davis) childhood best friend – the newcomer claimed she’d rocked up the village to support her in her job hunt.
With Lacey moving into No.65 Christleton Terrace, it only made sense for landlord Tom Cunningham (Ellis Hollins) to invite Rayne to move in as well, adding more fuel to her impending love drama with Hunter and Prince.
The siblings initially fought for Rayne’s attention but only one unexpected rival managed to catch her eye – Romeo Nightingale (Owen Warner).
Freshly healed from his devastating breakup with Theresa McQueen, the hunk jumped head first into the new relationship when he helped Rayne with some of her promotional videos.
Indeed, as mentioned above, Rayne was aspiring to become the next big star on social media and her romance with Romeo quickly came in handy.
Rayne’s 500k followers were over the moon to see Romeo declare his love for her during multiple livestreams.
Unfortunately, Rayne’s dark side was soon unveiled and she continued to make enemies all throughout Hollyoaks.
Legally known as Louise Rayner, Rayne hid her true self from her online following until the very end but she was both manipulative and abusive with Romeo.
Stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship, Romeo remained oblivious to his own turmoil and Rayne’s behaviour, despite warnings from his family who were trying to make him see sense.
When Romeo’s sister Juliet Nightingale drew her last breath after battling cancer, Rayne manipulated him into fearing for her by claiming she had found a lump and was undergoing tests on the day of her funeral.
Nurse Peri Lomax (Ruby O’Donnell) quickly became suspicious as she found no record of Rayne’s appointment – but this only made Romeo’s ordeal worse.
After succeeding in driving a wedge between Romeo and his family, Rayne moved on to his friendship circle and accused Prince of attempting to sexually assault her.
The manipulation worked a charm on Romeo, which then led to Rayne taking things up a notch.
Rayne’s abuse became physical as she would lash out against him whenever he did something she disapproved of.
A cautious Peri dug some dirt from Rayne’s past and found out that her ex-boyfriend Brent Taylor (Jesse Fox) was still alive
Brent resurfaced in an attempt to win her back in mid-September, 2023, as he obeyed Rayne’s command to kidnap Peri.
Despite her continued abusive behaviour, Rayne began focusing on her plans to win over the producers of Love Cave and her short stint in Hollyoaks immediately took a deadly turn.
Rayne was all the rage on social media, prompting her to believe she could finally become the next sensation in mainstream media.
Sadly, once all her lies were uncovered and her true self was revealed to all, Rayne hit the headlines posthumously.
The villainous character was found dead in the swimming pool of her luxury manor during a party she’d organised in dramatic scenes aired in late September, 2023.
Her body was discovered by a tearful and distraught Romeo alongside Peri, Zoe Anderson (Garcia Brown), Phoenix Hathaway (Tylan Grant), amongst others.
Although she’d seemingly drowned, detectives soon told Romeo that Rayne had actually suffered a blunt force trauma to the head before being dumped in her own pool.
Since then, many theories have circulated on and off-screen as the authorities and viewers try to figure out who could be responsible for the death as one of Rayne’s party attendees is thought to have killed her.
The mystery surrounding Rayne Royce’s death has since been going strong as most if not all villagers attending the late villain’s lavish party had a motive for wanting her dead.
Her ex-boyfriend Brent was the first to be suspected of foul play as he had been coercively controlled and manipulated into faking his own death to boost her social media career.
After showing up at her party in a last-ditch effort to win her back, Rayne told Brent their relationship had never been real, leading to him getting angry and swearing revenge – but he was soon cleared.
Romeo Nightingale was next in line and was interrogated by the police over his relationship with Rayne.
However, it was soon revealed he had an air-tight alibi which placed him with Peri Lomax at the time Rayne had been murdered.
Both Peri and Romeo have grown closer since the death of Juliet Nightingale, a connection Rayne was clearly jealous of.
Once Romeo was off the suspects list, Peri came under the fire but she was actually romping with the hunk at the time of the murder.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to convince anybody of Peri’s innocence as a video of her seemingly confessing to the crime surfaced online.
But this was quickly cleared up by DS Zoe Anderson who found Prince’s laptop which revealed a video editing software with a project containing the edited clip of Peri’s confession.
This seemed to confirm Prince was guilty and had been trying to frame Peri as the prime suspect.
Much like Peri, Romeo and Brent, Prince had every reason to want Rayne dead as she falsely accused him of trying to sexually assault her.
Yet in another twist, Prince vehemently and publicly declared his innocence, adding that he had never seen the video before.
In fact, the video was all down to his twin brother Hunter who had been trying to throw everyone off Prince’s (and his own) scent.
Recent scenes of the long-running program have since shown Prince in tatters, confessing he had a part in Rayne’s death – but there are still plenty of suspects left to investigate.
Hunter McQueen is at the top of the list due to Rayne secretly filming a conversation he’d had with his student Freya Calder and posting it online – which nearly cost him his job at Hollyoaks High.
Nadira Valli (Ashling O’Shea) is another suspect as Rayne manipulated her into securing a deposit for the house she used for her mansion party, using money from her boss Rafe Harcourt’s business before threatening to report the innocent Nadira for fraud.
Lizzie Chen-Williams (Lily Best) also found herself at the end of Rayne’s nasty streak when Faye Fuller picked her over the blonde bombshell for a promotion.
As a result, Rayne set up Lizzie’s half-brother Sam by framing him or sending vile texts to Zoe Anderson, which then led him to leave the village.
Speaking of Faye Fuller (Madelyn Smedley), the high-profile social media manager also has reason to want Rayne dead due to her antics severely damaging her reputation.
Phoenix Hathaway was publicly taunted by Rayne during a live stream at her mansion about him putting his son Thierry up for adoption, making him yet another suspect with a good motive.
Despite being her best friend for years, Lacey Lloyd has also been added to the list of suspects as she ended her friendship with Rayne, wishing she was dead, over her many lies.
However, it’s unlikely that Lacey will ever be revealed as the killer as she left Hollyoaks in late October, 2023, after severely struggling in the aftermath of the murder.
Finally, Zoe Anderson may be on the right side of the law but she is also a suspect in Rayne’s death due to her connections with Hunter and Sam, both of whom were targeted by the villain.
Hollyoaks airs on Channel 4.
