I'm currently running a Curse of the Crimson Throne 2e conversion. We're in Chapter 1, and I'm working through planning out tie-ins for character backstories. I have two players who both decided to have recently had their character's wives murdered - my fault for not thinking about how the suggested backstories include a dead loved one somehow related to Gaedren Lamm (the villain used to tie the characters together at the outset of the campaign.)
Gaedren is now dead, and both of the players had tracked back to Gaedren because an important item was taken from their dead spouse's corpse. In one case it was an amulet, while the other was a wedding ring. Neither backstory went into the details of how the murder occurred, just that it happened and they were able to learn of a connection to Gaedren Lamm through investigation.
However, I don't want to tie both murders to the same cause. With the ring spouse, the ring was stolen by one of Lamm's thieves. When it was fenced, the PC linked it back to Lamm through investigation.
I'm looking for ideas about how this second spouse was murdered that could make for a compelling story that the whole party can find some interest in. Bonus points if it can be tied back into the campaign as a whole.
There's a number of ways to link in some of the plot.
If you're still early in the AP (Chapter One), they could have run afoul of Devargo at Eel's End.
If you want to wait till later in the AP (Chapter Three), you have two options. One is that they were a performer at Exemplary Execrables who was killed in a particularly violent performance, and the death was covered up by Pilts Swastel.
Alternatively, they were a servant at Arkona Palace, who either came too close to discovering the Arkonas' secret or simply ran into one of them on a bad day, and was invited to join them for dinner.
That may help give your PC's some clues and/or motivation.