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We also include true crime trivia questions in our Thursday editions. Check out past questions and answers!
Stranger Danger
Sarah is relaxing in her hotel room when there is a loud knock on the door. She opens the door to a strange man. He says, “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought this was my room.” She replies, “It’s alright, it could happen to anyone.” The man responds, “Thanks, Sarah. Sorry again.” and walks away.
Sarah goes back into her room, latches all the door locks, and quickly calls security. What made her so afraid?
ANSWER: The stanger knew Sarah’s name, even though she had never met him before!
Smoking Gun
A man is shot in the heart. Nobody tries to save him, and the gunshot doesn’t kill him. How is all of this possible?
ANSWER: The man was already dead when he was shot in the chest!
DNA Evidence?
A man is arrested after his DNA is found on a murder weapon. Authorities identified him by comparing the DNA on the weapon, to DNA in CODIS. They’ve identified their killer with 99.99% certainty.
However, during the hours of the murder, the suspected killer was 300 miles away at a work event with time stamped cameras and countless witnesses.
How is it possible that his DNA was left at a crime scene while he was nowhere near the crime?
ANSWER: He had an identical twin! A DNA test of identical twins — formed from the same egg — would reveal that they have over 99.9% identical genetic material.
Unsealed Envelope
You arrive at a crime scene where a man is found dead, sitting at his desk in his office that was locked from the inside. No one else was around. There were no weapons in the room or visible wounds on the man. When you step closer to him, you see that he’s holding an unsealed envelope in one hand, with a fresh letter he just wrote inside.
This was not a suicide. How did he die?
ANSWER: The glue on the envelope was poisoned, When he licked the envelope to seal it, he ingested the poison!
But, don’t worry, envelope glue is non-toxic (unless you’re George Costanza’s fiancée)!
Bag It
While at a homicide investigation, a seasoned Crime Scene Investigation team starts to process the scene. They’re experts and rarely make mistakes.
Suddenly, a CSI member with visible scratches bags the victim’s hands with plastic. The homicide detectives immediately stop him, and pull him aside for questioning.
Why do they believe the CSI agent has something to hide?
ANSWER: They believe the he has something to hide because he tried to destroy evidence by using a plastic bag! Biological evidence, such as blood, saliva, semen, and other body fluids must be preserved in paper bags because air permeability is beneficial. Humidity can easily destroy biological evidence, so, when a member of the expert team nearly damaged possible evidence on the victim’s hands and under their fingernails, the police were suspicious. That, plus the visible scratches on the CSI agent could indicate he was responsible!
Melting Evidence
A man is found hanging in an empty room only a few inches off the floor. There is a small puddle of water below him. Investigators don’t know what happened, so they contact you to look at the scene.
When you arrive, you’re confident this is a suicide. The police disagree because they don’t see anything the man could have climbed on.
How do you explain the death to the police?
ANSWER: He stood on a block of ice and put the noose around his neck. Once the ice melted, he was hung, and all that was left was a puddle of water on the floor. 🧊
Developing Story
A man shot his wife, held her underwater for three minutes, and then hung her. Later that night, they enjoyed a nice meal together, conversed, and saw a movie.
How is all of this possible?
ANSWER: The man shot the woman with his camera, developed the film, and hung the picture to display it! 🎞️
That Tracks
The police find a dead body lying in the snow deep in the woods outside a small town. Evidence suggests the victim was killed elsewhere. Detectives are looking for clues about how the body could’ve been brought so far out. They notice tracks in the snow nearby that look like footprints in between two perfectly parallel lines.
Who should the police keep an eye out for?
ANSWER: A person with a wheelchair! The wheelchair was used to bring the body out into the woods.
You’ve Got Mail
On a Friday morning, a mailman delivering a daily newspaper noticed three unopened bottles of milk on the porch of a man’s home who is known to be a recluse. One of the bottles was already sour. The mailman looked through the window, saw the homeowner’s corpse, and called the police. When the police arrived, they noticed Tuesday’s newspaper beside the man’s body.
The police soon arrested the killer. Who was it, and how did they solve this crime?
ANSWER: The mailman killed the man because the police only found Tuesday’s newspaper. No newspapers for Thursday or Friday were found inside or outside the house, which meant that the mailman knew no one was alive to read them. The mailman tried to redirect the blame by reporting the murder himself.
Executioner
A man kills his wife. Many people watch him do so, yet no one will ever be able to criminally charge him with her death. Why?
ANSWER: The wife was previously found guilty of a crime and sentenced to death. Her husband was the executioner. Current U.S. state law protects their execution workers from criminal wrongdoing through qualified immunity.
Parisian Perspective
A serial killer in Paris wants to taunt the police, so they send a letter telling them that they plan to kill someone in the one place where you can’t see the Eiffel Tower from the city. When the killer arrives at the scene with their would-be victim, the police are waiting for them.
How — and where — did the police catch the killer?
ANSWER: The police catch the killer inside the Eiffel Tower — the one place in Paris where you can’t see the structure from the city.
Choose Carefully
A killer has kidnapped several people and offers them a deal. He offers them each two pills, and tells them to choose one – one pill is poisonous, and the other pill is harmless. Whichever pill the person chooses, the killer will take the other.
Each victim choses one pill and the killer takes the other pills. They swallow the pills with a glass of water. Every victim was poisoned, but the killer survived despite taking several pills. How did the killer manage to avoid being poisoned?
ANSWER: The poison was not in the pills, but in the water that the victims drank. The water the killer used to swallow the pills was safe, so he had no chance of being poisoned.
“I’ll be right there!”
Suddenly one night, a man receives an incoming phone call to his cell phone. Even though he’s driving and it’s a number he doesn’t recognize, he picks up. A police officer identifies himself on the other line and says that the man’s wife was found murdered and that he should get to the scene as quickly as possible. The man responds by saying, “I’ll be right there!”
He hangs up the phone, turns around, and drives the 10 minutes over to the crime scene. As soon as he gets there, the police arrest him for murder.
Why did the police have probable cause to arrest him?
ANSWER: The police didn’t get a chance to tell the man where the crime scene was, so the husband already knew where to drive, indicating that he did it!
Poisoned Night Out
Two women, Jenna and Sophia, sit down at a restaurant for dinner. Both women order unsweetened iced tea, with ice, a straw, and a lemon on the rim. They also order the same meal.
Jenna drinks her tea quickly before her meal arrives, butt Sophia drinks her tea slowly throughout the meal. Suddenly, Sophia dies from poisoning less than 10 minutes after finishing her meal, leaving an empty plate and an empty glass. Both women ate the same food and had the same drink; neither consumed the lemon, and both used a straw.
Why did Jenna live, while Sophia got poisoned?
ANSWER: Both girls had their drinks poisoned, but because Jenna drank her tea quickly, the ice didn’t have a chance to melt. The poison was in the ice!
Eyes Don’t Lie
A man is on trial for killing his wife. In the defense’s closing argument, the lawyer announces that the wife is still alive and is about to walk through the door! The jury turns to look at the door while the man stares blankly forward. After no one walks through, the lawyer says, “If you were positive this man killed his wife, you wouldn’t have watched the door!”
The jury leaves to deliberate and soon comes back with a guilty verdict, saying that a recent event confirmed for them that the man did kill his wife. What happened?
ANSWER: When the jury was looking at the door, the man was looking straight forward. He knew his wife was not going to walk through those doors because he knew she was dead, so he didn’t bother to turn around. He was guilty!
On the Record
Police discover a man dead in a room with a single gunshot wound to his head. There is a gun and a tape recorder next to him. One of the officers presses ‘play’ on the recorder. They hear the following message: “I don’t want to go on. Please don’t blame anyone,” followed by the sound of a gunshot.
The police quickly realize that this is a homicide instead of a suicide. Why?
ANSWER: The tape recorder was already rewound! If the man had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he could not have had the chance to rewind the tape and have it ready to play the message.
Muddied Truth
Police arrive at a home where the owners say someone must’ve broken into their house while they were away on a week-long vacation. Hidden valuables were the only thing missing. The house was a mess, with fresh muddy footprints everywhere. There were no other signs of a break-in.
How do police know the homeowners are lying?
ANSWER: Police know the homeowners are lying because even though they say the break-in must’ve happened while they were on vacation, the muddy footprints were fresh. Mud would’ve certainly dried by the time they got home! The vacation was the alibi for insurance money.