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Crime-scene logic cases

The Polar Station

Aurora Base, Antarctica · the last week of the polar night · the drill had stopped · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

Aurora Base on the Antarctic coast, the last week of the polar night. For four months nine people had shared the huts, the hum of the generator and the howling of the huskies, and the newest ice core had just shown something that would make one career and ruin another. Vigdis, the station leader, wanted to radio the results home as soon as the sun returned. She never did: she was found in the laboratory, beside the ice-core drill. Nobody could have come from outside – everyone gives a statement, find out who was alone with her.

Rules

  1. Exactly one area was empty.
  2. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  3. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the penguins, the flagpole, the radio mast, the crate, the desks, the ice holes, the stove, the table, the switchboard, the ice-core drill, the cabinet, the huskies and the fuel drum) cannot be occupied; the snowmobiles, the bunks, the chair and the dog sleds can.
  4. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a woman” = the person in the row directly above is a woman, in any column.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Anneli (the glaciologist): She was in the first column.
  • Bjørn (the meteorologist): Somebody in his area was beside a dog sled.
  • Camila (the biologist): Exactly one row north of her was a member of the crew.
  • Dag (the geophysicist): The chair was somewhere in his row.
  • Eirik (the mechanic): The cabinet was somewhere in his row.
  • Fenna (the doctor): She was the only one beside the chair.
  • Galina (the radio operator): She was not in a corner of her area.
  • Hemi (the cook): A bunk was somewhere in his area.
  • Vigdis (the station leader): The victim. She was found in the Laboratory, beside the ice-core drill – alone with the murderer.

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