New "Black Stories" Crime Riddles

[heltenjon]

Did her uncle deactivate the locks/alarm system (remotely)?
Did she call him to deactivate the system because she was staying the night?

[Cassiebsg]

Did the house have an alarm system?

[Riaise]

Did Gwen leave the door unlocked deliberately?
Was there an instruction in the journal to call the uncle?
Was part of the journal in code?

[Ian Aloser]

Did the murderer enter the house through the front door?
Was the door the murderer came in through wide open ?
Was the door the murderer came in through simply just unlocked?
Does the phone Gwen made the phonecall with have a certain unique feature?

[Stupot]

I just want to clarify a few points to help build the picture of what happened.

Did the burglar set out that day to targeting that particular house specifically because he knew that the occupant had recently died and was hoping to find some valuables?

Did the burglar enter that house speculatively, after noticing that the door was open or unlocked?

Regarding the part of the journal that caused Gwen to call her uncle: was it a code or password?

Was Gwen’s father known to be a wealthy man?

Did Gwen accidentally leave the door unlocked when she fell asleep, allowing the thief to enter easily?

[Mandle]

Case #67

Gwen was cleaning her father's house after he had passed away. She found his old journal from back before he was even married and started reading it. About halfway through she stopped reading and made a phone call. She continued reading the journal before falling asleep in her old bedroom. The next morning she was found murdered. What happened?


YES
Is the father's wife her mother?
Is the phone call related to Gwen reading the journal?
Did Gwen call a family member of hers? (aunt, uncle, cousins, etc)
Is the murderer male?
Is the murderer a human?
Is this set in present time?
Is it important exactly who she called?
Was the murderer looking for something else than the journal?
Is what's written in the journal relevant?
Is the person she called older than Gwen?
Was the murderer looking for something of monetary value?
Was the person that Gwen phoned a relative of her father's?
Did Gwen call her uncle?
Was the murderer present in the house at the time of the murder?
Was the murderer looking for money?
Was the murderer looking for jewel(s)?
Did the killer murder Gwen in her bedroom, I mean was he in the room ?
Was Gwen's uncle mentioned in the journal?
Is the murderer a random man with no connection to the family?
Was Gwen's body found in her bedroom?
Was the murderer a thief?
Did the murderer enter the house because he thought it was empty?
Did she call to ask her uncle about something? (Kind of. Enough on the "YES" side.)
Did she call to tell her uncle about something? (Again, kind of...)
Did she know about her uncle before reading the journal?
Was the door the murderer came in through simply just unlocked?
Did the burglar set out that day to target that particular house specifically because he knew that the occupant had recently died and was hoping to find some valuables?
Did Gwen accidentally leave the door unlocked when she fell asleep, allowing the thief to enter easily?


NO
Was Gwen murdered by the person she phoned?
Did she find out something about herself by reading the journal?
Was Gwen's father not her real father?
Is the father's wife still alive?
Does Gwen have brother(s) and/or sister(s)?
Did she find out that her father committed a crime? (unless maybe he admitted to smoking some weed in his journal)
Was Gwen poisoned?
Did Gwen call her partner? (husband, wife, boyfriend, whatever)
Did Gwen call a lawyer?
Did she find anything related to money in the journal?
Was the murderer expecting to find her in the house?
Did Gwen find a phone number in the journal?
Would she still be alive if she would have fallen asleep in another room?
Is the murder related to the phone call?
Would she had been murdered if she hadn't made the phone call?
Did the murderer break into the house?
Was the murderer already in the house when Gwen arrived?
Did the murderer overhear the phone call?
Did Gwen know she was going to get killed when she went to bed?
Did the journal reveal that her father had been murdered?
Did Gwen kill the father?
Did the journal reveal something about matters of inheritance?
Is the country/geographic location important? (For instance a dictatorship where surveillance listens in on phone calls.)
Did the murderer also take/hide/destroy the journal?
Is the murder method important?
Did Gwen call the police, i.e. one of her relatives is in the police?
Did the journal contain information about a crime someone else had committed?
Did the killer also read the journal?
Was the killer mentioned in the journal?
Are there more murders in this case than Gwen's?
Did the phone call go to voice mail?
Did the phone call alert the murderer that she's/there's someone in the house?
Did Gwen fall asleep with the journal covering her face?
Did the murderer have keys to the house?
Was the murderer a neighbour?
Did the murderer think Gwen was an intruder?
Did the murderer go to the house to retrieve the journal?
Is/was the journal relevant to why the murderer was in the house?
Did the murderer kill Gwen by accident?
Did she let her murderer into the house?
Did the phonecall come from a landline, i.e. not a mobile phone?
Does the person she called know the murderer?
Did Gwen know her murderer?
Was there something hidden in the journal?
Did the person she called tell anyone else about the conversation?
Is the father's cause of death important?
Did Gwen already know the murderer?
Did Gwen and the murderer enter the house together?
Is the phone itself the murder weapon?
Is the bed the murder weapon?
Was Gwen murdered in the same way her father died?
Was the murderer happy that Gwen died?
Did the murderer use a spare key?
Was the door locked?
Is it important where Gwen was when she called? (For instance near a window, where the reception was better.)
Did her uncle send the murderer?
Are any other relatives than her uncle involved?
Can anybody access the house without having a key? (No, it's usually all locked up)
Were there more persons in the house? (Except Gwen and probably her killer) ?
Did the murderer come into the house through a window?
Did the murderer take  money and/or jewellery from Gwen's body?
Is anything supernatural involved?
Did the murderer know that Gwen was in the house before he entered?
Did Gwen call her uncle to tell him she would be staying the night at the house?
Did the murderer know there were valuables in the house?
Did the murderer know the father?
Was the house a family home that Gwen's father and uncle had grown up in?
Did Gwen's uncle tell her something about the house?
Did Gwen's uncle tell her to leave the door unlocked?
Was there a power outage?
Did Gwen deactivate the alarm/locks?
Did her uncle deactivate the locks/alarm system (remotely)?
Did she call him to deactivate the system because she was staying the night?
Did the house have an alarm system?
Did Gwen leave the door unlocked deliberately?
Was there an instruction in the journal to call the uncle?
Was part of the journal in code?
Did the murderer enter the house through the front door?
Was the door the murderer came in through wide open ?
Does the phone Gwen made the phonecall with have a certain unique feature?
Did the burglar enter that house speculatively, after noticing that the door was open or unlocked?
Regarding the part of the journal that caused Gwen to call her uncle: was it a code or password?
Was Gwen’s father known to be a wealthy man?


IRRELEVANT OR CANNOT BE ANSWERED THE WAY THE QUESTION IS POSED
Was Gwen the intended target?
Was it a messy crime scene (as in lots of blood)?
If someone else had made the phonecall, would this someone have been killed instead of Gwen?
Was the murderer looking for a work of art?
Was the murderer looking for a stamp(s)?

[Mandle]

Hmmmm... I told myself this morning that I would put up a slight clue tonight (currently 6PM here) if nobody had asked the pertinent question(s) needed to solve the case.

I'm not so sure about that anymore. Maybe tomorrow night, if the pertinent question(s) hasn't been asked by then.

[heltenjon]

Did Gwen call to inform her uncle about her father's death?
Did her uncle do something to inform about the death in the family to the public? (ad, flag at half-mast, mourning bands, Facebook entry or similar)
Did her uncle sing her a lullaby mentioned in the journal?
Did Gwen call to tell her uncle she was in the house so that he didn't need to come this evening?

[Ian Aloser]

Did something in the journal make Gwen find something of high value in the house?
( Pretty clueless, since the case seems to be solved by maybe 80%)

[Riaise]

Did Gwen forget to lock the door because she was distracted by something specific (i.e. something she had read in the journal, or something her uncle had said as opposed to just generally being distracted by her father's death and having to clear the house)?
Did Gwen leave the house to make the phone call?
Did Gwen's father have a pet that needed access in or out of the house?
Did Gwen call her uncle to confirm or clarify something that was mentioned in the journal?
Had Gwen's uncle written in the journal?

[Stupot]

Just gotta clarify a few more things just to be super certain we’re not missing some sneaky trick.

Is the “father’s house” Gwen’s childhood home?
Is the “old bedroom” in which Gwen falls asleep in the same house as where she found the journal?
Had the father remarried?
Was Gwen’s body found by the Uncle?
Was Gwen stabbed?

[mkennedy]

Was a weapon used to kill Gwen?
Was she awake or asleep when she was killed?
Did  the killer have a criminal record?
Had he ever killed anybody before in his life?
Did the killer feel remorse for his actions?

[Stupot]

Possible solution.

Gwen went back to her childhood home to sort through some of her deceased father’s belongings. She came upon the old man’s journal from before he was married.  In the journal her father recounted the story of his friend’s relationship with a young lady from a prosperous family. They bore a child out of wedlock and the family refused to have anything to do with the child, but the young lady died giving birth and the family still refused to allow the bastard child into their home. The child’s father was a simple man, and didn’t have the means to bring up a baby alone, so he turned to his friend Bill. Bill agreed to adopt the child, and the young man would visit regularly as baby Gwen’s uncle.

As Gwen read these words she realised that her uncle was indeed her biological father. She called her uncle to tell him that she knew the truth and that she forgave him and that she always had an inkling that something wasn’t as it seemed.

She took the book and lay on the bed with the journal reading more stories about her father and uncle and remembered the times he visited and brought gifts and chocolate. It all made sense. She drifted to sleep feeling happy that her father, nay, fathers had put her well-being above all else, and she began to dream of the contents in the journal.

Meanwhile, a local burglar had been scoping the place out after learning of the old man’s death in the local obiituary. We went there with nothing but a backpack, a lockpick and a desire for money and jewellery. He was surprised to see the door was unlocked. Result. He went inside and made his way around the house. When he came to the old bedroom he was surprised to see a sleeping woman. He fell back in surprise, knocking over a vase and woke up the girl, who started screaming.

“Shh shh I’m not going to hurtâ€"“
Still screaming, she starts to attack him. He falls to the floor, and finds himself picking up the broken vase and slashing the young woman’s throat. In a panic, the burglar lays the girl on the bed and runs, leaving the door wide open. The next day a passer by checks the open door, finds Gwen’s body and immediately calls the police.

[Ian Aloser]

Great, Stupot !
Even if this is not the intended solution,
it‘s worth an applause ...

[heltenjon]

NO
Was Gwen's father not her real father?

Ufortunately, I think this rules out Stupot's solution. We already know who the killer is, and the murder method is irrelevant. What we need to do, is figure out what's written in the journal and why she called her uncle; and why this led to the door being left open.

[Stupot]

NO
Was Gwen's father not her real father?

Ufortunately, I think this rules out Stupot's solution.

This could have been Mandle being literal. 🤪

[Mandle]

Case #67

Gwen was cleaning her father's house after he had passed away. She found his old journal from back before he was even married and started reading it. About halfway through she stopped reading and made a phone call. She continued reading the journal before falling asleep in her old bedroom. The next morning she was found murdered. What happened?


YES
Is the father's wife her mother?
Is the phone call related to Gwen reading the journal?
Did Gwen call a family member of hers? (aunt, uncle, cousins, etc)
Is the murderer male?
Is the murderer a human?
Is this set in present time?
Is it important exactly who she called?
Was the murderer looking for something else than the journal?
Is what's written in the journal relevant?
Is the person she called older than Gwen?
Was the murderer looking for something of monetary value?
Was the person that Gwen phoned a relative of her father's?
Did Gwen call her uncle?
Was the murderer present in the house at the time of the murder?
Was the murderer looking for money?
Was the murderer looking for jewel(s)?
Did the killer murder Gwen in her bedroom, I mean was he in the room ?
Was Gwen's uncle mentioned in the journal?
Is the murderer a random man with no connection to the family?
Was Gwen's body found in her bedroom?
Was the murderer a thief?
Did the murderer enter the house because he thought it was empty?
Did she call to ask her uncle about something? (Kind of. Enough on the "YES" side.)
Did she call to tell her uncle about something? (Again, kind of...)
Did she know about her uncle before reading the journal?
Was the door the murderer came in through simply just unlocked?
Did the burglar set out that day to target that particular house specifically because he knew that the occupant had recently died and was hoping to find some valuables?
Did Gwen accidentally leave the door unlocked when she fell asleep, allowing the thief to enter easily?
Did her uncle do something to inform about the death in the family to the public? (ad, flag at half-mast, mourning bands, Facebook entry or similar)
Did Gwen forget to lock the door because she was distracted by something specific (i.e. something she had read in the journal, or something her uncle had said as opposed to just generally being distracted by her father's death and having to clear the house)?
Did Gwen call her uncle to confirm or clarify something that was mentioned in the journal?
Is the “father’s house” Gwen’s childhood home?
Is the “old bedroom” in which Gwen falls asleep in the same house as where she found the journal?


NO
Was Gwen murdered by the person she phoned?
Did she find out something about herself by reading the journal?
Was Gwen's father not her real father?
Is the father's wife still alive?
Does Gwen have brother(s) and/or sister(s)?
Did she find out that her father committed a crime? (unless maybe he admitted to smoking some weed in his journal)
Was Gwen poisoned?
Did Gwen call her partner? (husband, wife, boyfriend, whatever)
Did Gwen call a lawyer?
Did she find anything related to money in the journal?
Was the murderer expecting to find her in the house?
Did Gwen find a phone number in the journal?
Would she still be alive if she would have fallen asleep in another room?
Is the murder related to the phone call?
Would she had been murdered if she hadn't made the phone call?
Did the murderer break into the house?
Was the murderer already in the house when Gwen arrived?
Did the murderer overhear the phone call?
Did Gwen know she was going to get killed when she went to bed?
Did the journal reveal that her father had been murdered?
Did Gwen kill the father?
Did the journal reveal something about matters of inheritance?
Is the country/geographic location important? (For instance a dictatorship where surveillance listens in on phone calls.)
Did the murderer also take/hide/destroy the journal?
Is the murder method important?
Did Gwen call the police, i.e. one of her relatives is in the police?
Did the journal contain information about a crime someone else had committed?
Did the killer also read the journal?
Was the killer mentioned in the journal?
Are there more murders in this case than Gwen's?
Did the phone call go to voice mail?
Did the phone call alert the murderer that she's/there's someone in the house?
Did Gwen fall asleep with the journal covering her face?
Did the murderer have keys to the house?
Was the murderer a neighbour?
Did the murderer think Gwen was an intruder?
Did the murderer go to the house to retrieve the journal?
Is/was the journal relevant to why the murderer was in the house?
Did the murderer kill Gwen by accident?
Did she let her murderer into the house?
Did the phonecall come from a landline, i.e. not a mobile phone?
Does the person she called know the murderer?
Did Gwen know her murderer?
Was there something hidden in the journal?
Did the person she called tell anyone else about the conversation?
Is the father's cause of death important?
Did Gwen already know the murderer?
Did Gwen and the murderer enter the house together?
Is the phone itself the murder weapon?
Is the bed the murder weapon?
Was Gwen murdered in the same way her father died?
Was the murderer happy that Gwen died?
Did the murderer use a spare key?
Was the door locked?
Is it important where Gwen was when she called? (For instance near a window, where the reception was better.)
Did her uncle send the murderer?
Are any other relatives than her uncle involved?
Can anybody access the house without having a key? (No, it's usually all locked up)
Were there more persons in the house? (Except Gwen and probably her killer) ?
Did the murderer come into the house through a window?
Did the murderer take  money and/or jewellery from Gwen's body?
Is anything supernatural involved?
Did the murderer know that Gwen was in the house before he entered?
Did Gwen call her uncle to tell him she would be staying the night at the house?
Did the murderer know there were valuables in the house?
Did the murderer know the father?
Was the house a family home that Gwen's father and uncle had grown up in?
Did Gwen's uncle tell her something about the house?
Did Gwen's uncle tell her to leave the door unlocked?
Was there a power outage?
Did Gwen deactivate the alarm/locks?
Did her uncle deactivate the locks/alarm system (remotely)?
Did she call him to deactivate the system because she was staying the night?
Did the house have an alarm system?
Did Gwen leave the door unlocked deliberately?
Was there an instruction in the journal to call the uncle?
Was part of the journal in code?
Did the murderer enter the house through the front door?
Was the door the murderer came in through wide open ?
Does the phone Gwen made the phonecall with have a certain unique feature?
Did the burglar enter that house speculatively, after noticing that the door was open or unlocked?
Regarding the part of the journal that caused Gwen to call her uncle: was it a code or password?
Was Gwen’s father known to be a wealthy man?
Did Gwen call to inform her uncle about her father's death?
Did her uncle sing her a lullaby mentioned in the journal?
Did Gwen call to tell her uncle she was in the house so that he didn't need to come this evening?
Did something in the journal make Gwen find something of high value in the house?
Did Gwen leave the house to make the phone call?
Did Gwen's father have a pet that needed access in or out of the house?
Had Gwen's uncle written in the journal?
Had the father remarried?
Was Gwen’s body found by the Uncle?


IRRELEVANT OR CANNOT BE ANSWERED THE WAY THE QUESTION IS POSED
Was Gwen the intended target?
Was it a messy crime scene (as in lots of blood)?
If someone else had made the phonecall, would this someone have been killed instead of Gwen?
Was the murderer looking for a work of art?
Was the murderer looking for a stamp(s)?
Was Gwen stabbed? (maybe, but the method of murder has already been ruled out as being important)
Was a weapon used to kill Gwen?
Was she awake or asleep when she was killed? (Only yes or no questions are allowed)
Did  the killer have a criminal record?
Had he ever killed anybody before in his life?
Did the killer feel remorse for his actions?

[Mandle]

While Stupot's solution is a great read, and I wish I had put that much thought into the backstories of the characters, it is not the case, except for the later parts about the burglar which have already been established.

So, we know everything except why Gwen reading her father's journal, and then calling her uncle, is relevant to her ending up dead at the hands of the burglar who expected an empty house of a dead man to raid for valuables.

Some people have mentioned an apparent contradiction in the way two certain questions were answered, but there is no contradiction if you consider the wording of those two questions carefully.

[Riaise]

You know, this feels like that last werewolf game, where I was so close to working it out but my brain just wouldn't make that final leap.

Some people have mentioned an apparent contradiction in the way two certain questions were answered, but there is no contradiction if you consider the wording of those two questions carefully.

These two, I presume:

Is the murder related to the phone call?
Would she had been murdered if she hadn't made the phone call?

I assume this is because the burglar would have ended up at the house whether Gwen had made the call or not, so the murder is not actually related to it. Rather, it's something that Gwen (or possibly the uncle) did in relation to the phone call that led to her death. The phone call must have either led to Gwen leaving the door unlocked, allowing the burglar to enter the house silently, or it simply led to Gwen still being in the house, when ordinarily she would have left earlier.

Did the phone call lead to Gwen leaving the door unlocked?
Did Gwen only continue reading the journal because of the phone call?
Would Gwen have gone home before the burglar arrived if she hadn't made the phone call?

[Stupot]

Did Gwen call her uncle because there was something in the journal she wanted to show him?
Did Gwen call her uncle to ask him to come to the house?
Was Gwen waiting for the uncle when she fell asleep?
Was it the uncle who found her body?
Did Gwen leave the door open on purpose knowing that she might fall asleep and that her uncle didn’t have a key?