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Jan-23-2012 10:08

If I have three pieces of physical evidence (which I believe is the limit for any case, please correct me if I am wrong) and a suspect doesn't have any of the three physical traits, does that mean I can eliminate that suspect?

For example. Let's suppose I have a thread from a male, a footprint from a heavy person and a curly hair. Now I have a female suspect with either no alibi or a false one, who is slim and has straight hair. Since none of the pieces of physical evidence can belong to her, can I eliminate her as a suspect? Or is it still possible that she could be the killer, and I would have get witness evidence against her to accuse her?

Thanks.

Jan-23-2012 11:22

There are cases with 4 PE and there are 4 types of PE anyway.

Sometimes you get more than one for the sam type of PE: a hair, a diff hair

Sometimes you get all four different (footprint, hair, handqriting, thread)

I haven't seen cases with 5 PE though.

I guess that means you haven't picked the skill that would lead you to the fourth evidence cause it's not possible that none of the PE is a match. That's all I know, being a newbie myself.

Jan-23-2012 11:52

I forgot to mention that if you have all the smart skills needed for PE evidence collecting and you found 3 PE at the crime scene, than that's it, you can eliminate the suspect.

But if you don't have a skill, you may be unable to find PE related to that so you might assume that the suspect is not a match for all 3 PE where in fact there is a a fourth PE you were unable to find, so you make the wrong assumption and eliminate the suspect but that very suspect turns out to be the killer due to that fourth PE. (I read this somewhere in the replies to another question) so this might also be the situation and my previous post is pretty much about this)

Jan-23-2012 12:46

Interesting. I have all of the smart skills, including the advanced smart skills, and my smarts adjustment is +10, so I would expect that I would always find all of the evidence when I search the crime scene. However, I have never gotten more than three pieces of PE in one case. Maybe it's because I haven't tried anything harder than a really, really hard case.

Also, I realize that sometimes there are two pieces of PE that are the same (e.g., there might be two pieces of hair found that are both curly). Also, I do still find pieces of PE that are not further described by a physical trait (e.g., I might find a footprint, but don't know if it's from a slim or heavy person).

Despite all of this, my point was, if I do find three pieces of PE, such as the situation I described in my initial post, and there is a suspect that doesn't match any of the physical traits of those pieces of PE, can I eliminate the suspect? I guess at this point, I can't because there's no way of knowing if I have found all of the evidence.

Jan-23-2012 13:35

Since you have all those skills, you have all the PE and the suspect is a match for none. of course, you can eliminate the suspect. (That's what I tried to say at the beginning of my 2nd post)

And yes, if you have all the smarts skills that must be it: Cases harder than "really really hard" cases give you either three or four PE.

Yes, having advanced smarts skills doesn't guarantee more specified PE. You have adv. hair analysis but all you get is hair. and a different hair. and yet another piece of hair. (this occasionally happens and imagine having 3 or 4 barber alibi in addition to 3 hairs, oh yes - that happens too)

Jan-23-2012 21:42

I remember that if you do not possess all the PE Skills, there is a chance that you won't be able to locate all the evidence at the crime scene. There was a list somewhere posted by turtledove that tells you how many evidences are present on the difficulty level. Let me see if I can dig it up.