Colleagues Under Suspicion

“Colleagues Under Suspicion” is a Murdoku case from the Precinct & Office category: a board of 6×6, 5 suspects and one victim. Read the clues, work out where everybody was standing, and name the suspect who was left alone with the body.

The Board

The floor plan as the case hands it to you: 6×6, rated Easy, with 4 rooms. Every person — 6 in all — takes a row and a column of their own.

C1C2C3C4C5C6
R1SCSSC
R2TTTCT
R3WCT
R4CCC
R5TTCaC+CaCa
R6SCCPCP
Floor plan of “Colleagues Under Suspicion”. Letters mark the objects; the key is below. A thick blue edge marks a window. A dashed edge marks a door.

Rooms

  • Open Office — 10 tiles: Chair, Table, Shelf
  • Meeting Room — 8 tiles: Shelf, Chair, Table
  • Boss's Office — 12 tiles: Shelf, Chair, Table, Wooden crate
  • Common Room — 6 tiles: Carpet, Chair, Plant

Objects on the board

  • C Chair (can be stood on)
  • T Table (blocks the tile)
  • S Shelf (blocks the tile)
  • Ca Carpet (can be stood on)
  • P Plant (blocks the tile)
  • W Wooden crate (blocks the tile)

The Suspects and Their Clues

Each suspect comes with what the witnesses remember. Read them all before placing anyone — a clue about one person is very often what pins down another.

Anna — a woman with brown hair and glasses

  • She was beside a shelf

Bernd — a man with a bald head

  • He was in the Boss's Office and he was on a chair

Cyrus — a man with brown hair and a beard

  • He was in row 3

Dylan — a man with white hair

  • He was in the Open Office

Elsa — a woman with brown hair

  • She was in the Boss's Office

The victim, Viraj, is a man. Nothing else about them is known, and no clue depends on it.

How Hard It Really Is

Deduction steps from the first clue to the verdict
17
Steps before anyone can be placed for certain
5
Reasoning the solve needs

How to Start — Without Spoilers

Before anything else, count where each suspect could be if you only read their own clues:

  • Anna: 6 possible tiles
  • Bernd: a single tile — their own clue settles it
  • Cyrus: 4 possible tiles
  • Dylan: 7 possible tiles
  • Elsa: 6 possible tiles

That is as far as this page goes. From here on it is yours — the in-game hint giver explains each next step if you get stuck, without giving the answer away.

This case has exactly one solution, and it can be reached by forward deduction alone — no guessing.

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