Case 08: Queen Bea

Solution

To win, you must have:

  1. Named Ethel Kokaska as the killer.
  2. Explained her motive by stating that Ethel was furious when Jo Anne gave Al Marx all the credit for Ethel's highly successful membership-drive ad campaign.
  3. Given the following three sets of clues and matching evidence:
    • The murderer left brown hair in the shower. Ethel has brown hair.
    • The murderer is right-handed. Ethel is right-handed.
    • The display case frame had scratched the tool used to pry it open. The scratches would be parallel and 1½ inches apart. The tire iron found in Ethel's trunk had parallel scratches on it, 1½ inches apart.

The Story

After the awards dinner broke up at 8:30 P.M., Ethel overheard Jo Anne tell Al Marx that she was going to the Center in the Mall to relax in the hot tub and sauna. Ethel was seething over her humiliation at the dinner, when Marx was given "her" award, and after driving around for an hour, she decided to do something about it.

Ethel drove to the Mall, parked near the Center's rear door, took a tire iron from her trunk and entered the Center through the rear door. She jimmied open the display case, took the stiletto and undressed. Wrapping herself in a towel, Ethel tucked the stiletto out of sight in a fold of the towel and joined Jo Anne in the sauna.

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