Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Mountain Dairy

Serra da Estrela, a February night · the eve of the cheese fair · the best wheel is ready, the cheesemaker is gone · Difficulty: Officer 4 · 8×8

A sheep farm on the granite slopes of the Serra da Estrela, a cold February night. The next day the cheese fair opened in the town, and Virgílio, the cheesemaker, was nowhere to be found around midnight. Eight people were on the farm: three family members, two farmhands, two guests of the fair and Virgílio himself. Virgílio was found dead. The cheese fair opened without him.

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 rocks, the tree, the water troughs, the barrels, the well, the cart, the dog, the tables, the cauldron, the scales, the shelves, the fireplace, the firewood and the wheelbarrow) cannot be occupied; the hay bales, the stool, the bench and the chair can.
  3. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a guest” = the person in the row directly above was a guest, in any column; “the northernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further up.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – his square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Afonso (the cheesemaker's son): He was the only man beside the chair. Exactly two rows north of him was a man.
  • Beatriz (the cheesemaker's wife): There was no barrel in her area.
  • Constança (the daughter-in-law, who sets the curd): She was the only one beside a table. She was the westernmost person in her area.
  • Diogo (shepherd): He was the only man beside the tree.
  • Estela (milker): She was the only one beside the stool.
  • Fábio (cheese merchant from Porto): He was right beside an area where nobody was.
  • Graça (judge of the cheese fair): A rock was somewhere in her row. The cart was somewhere in her column.
  • Virgílio (the master cheesemaker): The victim. He was alone with the murderer.

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