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Jul-10-2014 05:26

How do you generally work a case? Alibis first, asking suspects for more suspects/ motives, or maybe checking with your contacts for what they know? What are the considerations that make you switch it up? I'm starting to think my process could use a little work, so I decided to consult with my fellow gumshoes!

Jul-19-2014 13:34

To follow on from the point SS/PA has made, I wrote this out for someone a while back detailing specific examples that use physical evidence and innocents to solve a case.

Jul-19-2014 13:34

"In Almost Impossible cases there's always ten or eleven suspects. In ten suspects cases, three suspects have real alibis, and in eleven suspect cases four do. All your pieces of physical evidence, except the one piece that matches your murderer, will match those few suspects with real alibis. So if for example you have a heavy footprint, but all of your real alibis are slim, you know that heavy footprint is the one that will match to the murderer.

This is particularly useful to know in the ten suspect cases, where you've examined the crime scene and found four pieces of evidence. With three real alibis, each of them must match with a piece of physical evidence. If you're looking at one of your three real alibis and you discover they could only possibly match one piece of evidence, then that evidence matches them and you can rule it out of your investigations.

Now this is where it gets interesting. Let's say you've got two right handed notes, and you've got such a situation that you know one of your real alibis must match one of those notes, and the other must match the murderer. You can ask the writing expert to check one of the notes against your real alibi. If it matches then you know the other note is the evidence that'll nab your murderer. If it doesn't match then you know that note is the one that'll get your murderer. With only one note to worry about you can eliminate an extra suspect from the running.

Following on further still from this, let's say you've got a case with a straight hair, and a curly hair, and an equal split of three suspects in both the straight and curly haired camps. You've only got one real alibi who could match the straight hair, but they could also potentially match another piece of evidence. So you ask the barber about the real alibi's straight hair. If it's a match, then you don't need to ask about any person's straight hair. If it isn't a match, then you can eliminate every curly haired person from your investigation."