The "Black Stories" crime riddles thread

[CaptainD]

Did the daughter live in the same house as the father?

[Mandle]

Did the man used to be a miner?
Was the man paranoid about gas leaks?
Was the parrot dead?
Did the killer kill the parrot to make the man think there was a gas leak?
Did the man jump from an upstairs window/balcony/etc. thinking the house was about to explode?

[CaptainD]

Did the man used to be a miner?
Was the man paranoid about gas leaks?
Was the parrot dead?
Did the killer kill the parrot to make the man think there was a gas leak?
Did the man jump from an upstairs window/balcony/etc. thinking the house was about to explode?

Is this the same Mandle that introduced the no-more-than-3-questions rule?

[Mandle]

Did the man used to be a miner?
Was the man paranoid about gas leaks?
Was the parrot dead?
Did the killer kill the parrot to make the man think there was a gas leak?
Did the man jump from an upstairs window/balcony/etc. thinking the house was about to explode?

Is this the same Mandle that introduced the no-more-than-3-questions rule?

Are you trying to say what's good for the goose something-something? Sorry, you mumbled, and I couldn't catch the rest...

[Riaise]

Case #36

A woman comes home one night to find her elderly father laying dead outside their home. Beside him is his beloved pet parrot, still in it's cage. What happened and why?


Yes
is the bird alive?
Did the father die outside?
Was another person responsible for his death?*
Has he been murdered?*
Did the killer know the father?
would any bird give the same results?
was it the father that took the bird cage outside?
was the killer a human?
is the father human?
Was the killer male?
Was the killer female?
Would the killer face criminal charges? (I don't know for certain, actually, but I'm fairly sure they would.)
Is the parrot actually a natural bird, and not some sort of robot?
Is more than one person responsible for the death?
Did the killer(s) trick the man into believing that staying inside was unsafe?
Did the killers go with the intention of committing murder? (Kind of. It's difficult to answer this one directly.)
did the killers tricked the father into leaving the house with the bird?
Did the father think he was saving their pet bird because he thought it was unsafe inside?
Were the killers' intent solely to kill the man?*
Did he die from blunt force trauma?
Did the killers used smoke to pretend there was a fire? (Not in the original story, but this works just as well.)
Was the man's house higher up than a second floor apartment? (Not really, but he was above the ground floor, so this is close enough)
Did the man fall to his death?
Was the man blind?
Were the killers his relatives?
Were the killers trying to inherit the man's estate?
Was the daughter who found him the intended recipient of the inheritance?
Was the man rich?
Did the daughter live in the same house as the father?
Did the man jump from an upstairs window/balcony/etc. thinking the house was about to explode? (Maybe not explode, but near enough)


No

Spoiler

Is the parrot relevant to the case? (It is relevant in that it may help to work out what happened, but is not actually a part of the case itself)
Did he die of natural causes?
Was he in for an accident?
Did the parrot do it?
Were burglars in the house?
Did the parrot say something that made the father go outside while carrying the bird with him?
Did the bird repeat something it had heard when the man died? (Theoretically this could have happened afterwards, but it's not part of the case as it is)
Did the bird repeat the killer's name?
Did the bird repeat something that was incriminating to the killer?
Did they die of carbon monoxide?
Did the father die inside?
Was another person responsible for his death?*
Did the parrot speak (or make some other noise) that caused the man's death?
Did he die of a heart attack?
Did the parrot say something that caused another person to react in some way?
Did someone hear something the parrot said and take it the wrong way?
Was a neighbor involved?
Has he been murdered?*
Had the house been set on fire?
Did he die from smoke inhalation by rescuing the pet parrot?
Is it relevant that the bird was a parrot?
Did he die outside because of the cold?
Did he die outside because of some poison / pollutant in the air?
Was schizophrenia involved?
Was Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder) involved?
Was dementia involved? (Not dementia specifically, but an elderly man could become easily confused)
Was poison used?
is the killer an animal?
Was there any damage done to the home?
Did the murder take place during the day?
Did the man die from exposure from being outside?
Did the man think he was inside his house?
Did the "killer" do something to trick the man into thinking he was inside?
Was this a robbery gone wrong?
Was there a fake gas leak involved?
Was their home a boat of some kind?
Did the father think the house was haunted?
Were the killers' intent solely to kill the man?*
Were they robbing him?
Was the man killed using a weapon of sorts?
Did he fall down the stairs?
Was a greedy land developer wanting the home for a project he was working on and the guy wouldn't sell so he hired some guys to make him evacuate the home.
Was tear gas used?

[close]

Was the father punched?
did he die of shock?
Did the killers rearrange his furniture so that he mistook a different door for his front door?
Did the man think he was leaving through the ground floor door but actually was exiting higher up?
Was the parrot itself the inheritance?
Was the house he was found outside a long way from his own residence?
Were the killers his grandchildren?
Did the man had more than one child?
Did the man used to be a miner?
Was the man paranoid about gas leaks?
Was the parrot dead?
Did the killer kill the parrot to make the man think there was a gas leak?


* Yes and no.

OK, Mandle's got the cause of death, so I'll just clarify something for those who want to see how it fits with my previous answers.

Spoiler

The man was partly responsible for his own death by jumping out of the window, so while many of you assumed that there was more than one killer, one of them was actually the man himself. I hope that wasn't too confusing, but I thought that was the best way to answer.

[close]

You're so close now. Just put all the previous 'yes' answers together and you're there!

[Mandle]

Solution:

The man's child wanted his inheritence and so tricked him into thinking the house was on fire. This made the man jump from the upper floor which killed him. The child wanted it to look like a suicide but a clever detective figured it out. Why would the man commit suicide while carrying his pet bird? He must have been trying to save himself and the bird from a perceived threat to their lives.

EDIT: I think that's about it. I was so focused on what the bird was all about, and then realised it was the clue that would show the police that "fowl" play ( ) was involved... WHich I know we were already told, but I was a dumb

[Riaise]

Yes! Mandle Holmes solves the case!

The original version was that the daughter had made a recording of the sound of a fire, with her own voice telling her father that he couldn't get out, he would have to jump but that they would catch him. I hope the answers I gave weren't too misleading, as I said before, because technically the man caused his own death, but his daughter was the one responsible for it.

Over to you, Mandle!

[Snarky]

Cool mystery, Riaise! You say it's from a TV show; do you remember which?

[Riaise]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it, for a while there I thought it might be a bit too contrived to guess. The show was Jonathan Creek, and this mystery was from the episode The Tailor's Dummy.

[Mandle]

Yeah, that was fun! Good choice!

I'll put on my thinking cap...

[Mandle]

Case #37

Many letters were sent to try to halt the execution, but were in vain. The execution went ahead. Why was the man executed?


Yes



No

[CaptainD]

Had he blown up the post office?

[Riaise]

Had the man committed a crime?
Were the letters all sent from different people?
Does this case take place more than 100 years ago?

[Mandle]

Case #37

Many letters were sent to try to halt the execution, but were in vain. The execution went ahead. Why was the man executed?


Yes
Were the letters all sent from different people?


No
Had he blown up the post office? (No, but how ironic would that be?!)
Had the man committed a crime?
Does this case take place more than 100 years ago?

[CaptainD]

Was the man a political prisoner?

[Cassiebsg]

Did the letters reach the intended destination?
Was this a real execution, as in a man was killed?
Was the execution ordered by the legal system?

[Mandle]

Case #37

Many letters were sent to try to halt the execution, but were in vain. The execution went ahead. Why was the man executed?


Yes
Were the letters all sent from different people?
Did the letters reach the intended destination?


No
Had he blown up the post office? (No, but how ironic would that be?!)
Had the man committed a crime?
Does this case take place more than 100 years ago?
Was the man a political prisoner?
Was this a real execution, as in a man was killed?
Was the execution ordered by the legal system?

[dayowlron]

Was the man human?
Was the letters "Email"?
Was "the man" a name of a computer program that was executed on a computer?

[Mandle]

Case #37

Many letters were sent to try to halt the execution, but were in vain. The execution went ahead. Why was the man executed?


YES
Were the letters all sent from different people?
Did the letters reach the intended destination?
Was the man human? *


NO
Had he blown up the post office? (No, but how ironic would that be?!)
Had the man committed a crime?
Does this case take place more than 100 years ago?
Was the man a political prisoner?
Was this a real execution, as in a man was killed?
Was the execution ordered by the legal system?
Was the man human? *
Was the letters "Email"?
Was "the man" a name of a computer program that was executed on a computer?


* YES and NO

[CaptainD]

Hmm... a thought... was this man playing a character on a TV show?