“The Deep End” 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 Easy, 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
L
P
R2
D
Sl
R3
L
P
R4
P
D
T
R5
Di
D
R6
W
S
C
R7
P
S
Ch
Floor plan of “The Deep End”. Letters mark the objects; the key is below.
Rooms
Main Pool (outdoors) — 12 tiles: Diving board, Water lily, Parasol
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 brown hair
He was beside a slide
Bella — a woman with blond hair
She was in the same row as a locker, in the same room
Carol — a woman with red hair
She was south-east of a water lily, in the same room
Dylan — a man with grey hair and a beard
He was beside a water lily
Elsa — a woman with black hair
She was north of every deck chair, in the same room
Floyd — a man with white hair and a beard
He was in the same row as a tent, in a different room
The victim, Valerie, is a woman. 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
Before anything else, count where each suspect could be if you only read their own clues:
Alex: 3 possible tiles
Bella: 2 possible tiles
Carol: 2 possible tiles
Dylan: 4 possible tiles
Elsa: 3 possible tiles
Floyd: 2 possible tiles
The first deductions after that, in the order the solver finds them:
Carol: only row 7 possible – blocked for others.
Elsa: only row 1 possible – blocked for others.
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.