“Animal Instincts” is a Murdoku case from the Farm 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 Medium, with 4 rooms. Every person — 7 in all — takes a row and a column of their own.
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
C7
R1
H
Ho
T
R2
Ho
M
Ho
R3
M
T
M
R4
H
C
R5
M
C
P
M
R6
C
H
P
P
M
R7
C
M
P
Floor plan of “Animal Instincts”. Letters mark the objects; the key is below. A thick blue edge marks a window.
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 red hair
He was in the same column as a horse, in the same room
Bella — a woman with brown hair and glasses
She was beside a horse
Carol — a woman with red hair
She was south-east of every haystack, in a different room
Dylan — a man with a bald head and glasses
He was beside a pig. Another suspect was beside the same pig.
Edison — a man with white hair
He was on a mud puddle
Freya — a woman with black hair
She was beside a haystack and she was alone with a male suspect
The victim, Veronika, 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: 9 possible tiles
Bella: 7 possible tiles
Carol: 2 possible tiles
Dylan: 4 possible tiles
Edison: 7 possible tiles
Freya: 5 possible tiles
The first deductions after that, in the order the solver finds them:
Dylan must stand beside the same object (a pig) as another person – impossible cells removed.
Carol: only row 7 possible – blocked for others.
Dylan can only be in row 5 or column 7; so their intersection R5/C7 can hold no one (not a cell for Dylan, blocked for everyone else) – 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.