“Still Waters” is a Murdoku case from the Pool & Spa category: a board of 7×7, 6 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: 7×7, rated Hard, with 5 rooms. Every person — 7 in all — takes a row and a column of their own.
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
C7
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
Floor plan of “Still Waters”. Letters mark the objects; the key is below.
Rooms
Main Pool (outdoors) — 12 tiles
Paddling Pool (outdoors) — 8 tiles
Sunbathing Lawn (outdoors) — 19 tiles
Sauna — 6 tiles
Locker Room — 4 tiles
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.
Alex — a man with blond hair and a beard
He and Bella were in adjoining rooms
Bella — a woman with black hair
She was in the Sauna
Cyrus — a man with black hair and a beard
He was exactly 2 columns west of Alex
Dylan — a man with a bald head, a beard and glasses
He was in row 1
Elsa — a woman with red hair and glasses
She was not beside a wall and she was north of Alex
Freya — a woman with red hair and glasses
She was exactly 3 columns west of Alex and she was in a corner and she was east of Dylan
The victim, Victor, is a man. Nothing else about them is known, and no clue depends on it.
Clues About the Whole Scene
No room was empty.
How Hard It Really Is
Deduction steps from the first clue to the verdict
Before anything else, count where each suspect could be if you only read their own clues:
Alex: 49 possible tiles
Bella: 6 possible tiles
Cyrus: 49 possible tiles
Dylan: 7 possible tiles
Elsa: 6 possible tiles
Freya: 27 possible tiles
The first deductions after that, in the order the solver finds them:
Alex is in a room next to Bella – rooms adjoining none of the other one’s possible rooms are removed.
Cyrus was exactly 2 columns west of Alex
Elsa is north of Alex – impossible cells removed.
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.