Elena Miyano

Elena Miyano (宮野 エレーナ Miyano Erēna) was a biochemist in the Black Organization and apparently Shiho Miyano and Akemi Miyano's mother. Atsushi Miyano and Elena Miyano started the APTX 4869 research according to Vermouth. One or both of them worked on the project before Shiho Miyano took over. Both Elena and Atsushi died for some reason which Pisco called an accident while Shiho was young.

Background
Atsushi Miyano moved out of his father's house thirty years ago to go "somewhere" for his research, most likely the Black Organization. He got married in this time period to Elena, a foreigner of British origin. Vermouth may have hinted that there was an earlier project that the Miyanos assumed control over when they joined, perhaps the one Shiho implied was at least 50 years old. While they were researchers for the Organization, they worked on a project that they called Silver Bullet and one that Shiho calls APTX 4869.

Elena was known as “Hell’s Angel” in the Organization, which Haibara translates into Japanese as "the angel which fell into hell". Elena may have earned the nickname because of her apparently nice personality which set her apart from the darkness of the rest of the organization.

While she was in the Organization, Elena had two daughters, Akemi and Shiho. She and her husband also met Hiroshi Agasa at a science conference. Tooru Amuro revealed that he had met Elena some time before she died. Additionally, a woman resembling Elena appears in one of Bourbon's flashbacks in File 889, where she asked him not to pick fights anymore as she wouldn't be able to tend his wounds the next time he comes, because she will go to somewhere "very far away".

Later, the couple and a 4~5 year old Akemi visited Atsushi's father's house then occupied by Atsushi's childhood friend and playmate Souhei Degima. The visit occurred 20 years prior to the current timeline.

Elena's death was claimed to be an accident by Pisco, an executive agent who apparently was close with the couple, but several mysterious points remain. Most notably, Elena and Atsushi seemed to know that something was going to happen to them, which Elena alluded to in her conversation with a young Rei Furuya and the tapes left for Shiho. In the tapes, Elena implies the drug they were working on, Silver Bullet, was related to their needing to leave Shiho and Akemi behind.

Tapes left for Shiho
Despite her cause of death apparently being an accident, for some reason Elena took the time to leave four tapes for Shiho meaning that Elena might have known something would happen or she was about to do something that she might not survive. The four tapes are numbered 1-20 with the numbers split into groups of five. The numbers correspond to a message left by Elena for Shiho's same-numbered birthday; Conan listened to the beginning of the #11-15 tape and Elena’s recording was for 11-year-old Shiho. Conan mentioned that he moved to the 11 through 15 one because there were so many blank ones, presumably referring to the earlier two #1-5, #6-10 tapes. On the fourth tape's number 18 meant for Ai’s 18th birthday, Elena talks about if Shiho will regret what she is about to do. Later on the same tape something Elena said about herself surprised Ai, but what was said was not revealed to the reader at that time. ("You are old enough to hear this… Actually, mom…") During the Bell Tree Express arc almost 400 chapters later, Haibara reveals the continuation of what Elena had said to her was that she was working on a remarkable drug she called "Silver Bullet", which may be an early nickname for APTX 4869 or a closely related project. She added that it was "terrifying" and the research would require them to leave Shiho and Akemi behind.

Elena seemed to be somewhat close to Akemi. For instance, Akemi was taken with Atsushi and Elena to the Miyano's old home. It was also Akemi who got the tapes for Shiho from Elena.

Appearance and Personality
The British Elena is the foreign half of Ai’s parents and bears a strong resemblance to her younger daughter. She wears glasses and has long hair. Her eyes have not been shown to date.

Elena seems to have had a generally nice personality, although Agasa feels she came off as being more suspicious than her "mad scientist" husband, Atsushi. Given the tapes she left behind, Elena seems to have loved her daughters. That said, even though Elena knew that she was going to "disappear" in advance, she left her daughters at the mercy of the Black Organization.

Plot overview
===Hotel Party Murder Case (Manga: 242; Anime: 178)===

The Torn Friendship (Manga: 398; Anime: 329)
Agasa comments that he does know the scientist, Atsushi Miyano, and reveals that his wife was named Elena Miyano. He says that she was quiet and he could never tell what she was thinking. Rumor has it that she met Atsushi when she came from England to study in Japan.

Convenience Store Case (Manga: 427; Anime: 343)
===Halloween Party Case (Manga: 434; Anime: 345)===

Tea Poisoning Murder Case (Manga: 889; Anime: 771)
Tooru Amuro has a flashback to when he was a kid and his wounds were being treated by woman who looks strikingly similar to Elena. However she tells him that soon she may have to go far away.

Department Store Stabbing Case (Manga: 939-941, Anime: Unknown)
When a makeup counter sales associate asks Haibara where her mother was, she commented that her mother had died shortly after she was born.

Speculation
Elena Miyano and the Unknown child are sisters, they both come from England, the Unknown child is the elder sister.

Name origin
"Elena" comes from the German reading of the Irene of Irene Adler.