Murder Mystery

[Imadori]

Here goes A:
There are five people. One of them shot and killed one of the other five. Which man is the murderer?

1. Dan ran in the NY City marathon yesterday with one of the innocent men.
2. Mike considered being a farmer before he moved to the city.
3. Jeff is a topnotch computer consultant and wants to install Ben's new computer next week.
4. The murderer had his leg amputated last month.
5. Ben met Jack for the first time six months ago.
6. Jack has been in seclusion since the crime.
7. Dan used to drink heavily.
8. Ben and Jeff built their last computers together.
9. The murderer is Jack's brother. They grew up together in Seattle.

Consider yourself to be a detective....So who is the killer ??

Here goes B:
One evening there was a murder in the home of married couple, their son and daughter. One of these four people murdered one of the others. One of the members of the family witnessed the crime an the other one helped the murderer.

These are the things we know for sure:

1. The witness and the one who helped the murderer were not of the same sex.

2. The oldest person and the witness were not of the same sex.

3. The youngest person and the victim were not of the same sex.

4. The one who helped the murderer was older than the victim.

5. The father was the oldest member of the family.

6. The murderer was not the youngest member of the family.

Who was the murderer?

 

[Zakamutt]

OpenOffice.org Calc to the rescue!

1.

Jeff

Dan ran marathon vs amputated murderer --> NOT M
Mike MOVED to Seattle, not grew up with M --> NOT M
Jack is not his brother VS M IS JACKS BROTHER --> NOT M
Ben met Jack first time 6 months ago vs GREW UP WITH M --> NOT M

JEFF M

Red herrings = 3, 6, 7

2.

Wife

Youngest == Witness, female
Next Youngest == Victim, male
Second Oldest == Murderer, Wife, female
Oldest == Helper, male

 

[trolman]

It was Dan because it was the NY city para marathon duh!

 

[The Wizard]

1. Just intuition and a bit of logic

I guess murderer is Jeff

2. Pure logic

In order from oldest to youngest:
1)Father - accomplice
2)Mother - murderer
3)Son - victim
4)Daughter - witness

That's rather simple to guess 'cause at first you can make a list of possible variants(from oldest to youngest):

1)Father - murderer or accomplice
2)Mother - victim, murderer or accomplice
3)*** - victim or murderer
4)*** - only witness

then just check all the variants and get the right answer

Thanks for attention.