Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

Big Air, Small Alibi

Resort snowpark · Saturday night big air show · the floodlights stayed on · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 10×10

Saturday night at the resort's snowpark: a big air show, floodlights blazing, a loud DJ, a freshly shaped kicker. Then the music stopped. Verdaan, the event director, was found dead in the Snowpark beside a snowman – the only thing on the slope that had not moved all evening. Nine people were in the park: four riders, three crew members and two organisers. The final result was never announced.

Rules

  1. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  2. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the barrels, the boots, the campfire, the cones, the cooler box, the fir trees, the coat rack, the scoreboard, the snowmen, the loudspeakers, the spotlights, the tables, the DJ deck and the Christmas tree) cannot be occupied; the benches, the chairs, the crash mat, the deckchair, the sofa and the stool can. A deckchair is not a chair. A corner of an area is a square of that area that borders the outside (another area or the edge of the board) on one horizontal and one vertical side.
  3. Directions refer to rows, not to the same column: “north of Enola” = in a row further up, in any column; “exactly one row north of him was an organiser” = the person in the row directly above was an organiser, in any column.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Angela (rider, last year’s winner): She was alone in her area. A barrel was somewhere in her area.
  • Buddy (rider, the local favourite): He was beside the Christmas tree.
  • Chantal (rider, the rookie): She was the only one beside a chair. She was in the last column.
  • Damon (rider, best trick of the night): He was beside the stool.
  • Enola (crew, the shaper): She was in a corner of her area. A pair of boots was somewhere in her row.
  • Felician (crew, the lift operator): He was beside a fir tree. Exactly one row north of him was an organiser.
  • Gill (crew, the DJ): She was north of Enola.
  • Hendrix (organiser, the sponsor’s man): Made no statement.
  • Ivanna (organiser, the head judge): The deckchair was somewhere in her column. There was no barrel in her area.
  • Verdaan (the event director): The victim. He was found in the Snowpark, beside a snowman – alone with the murderer.

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