Murder Mystery Critical Thinking Samples

In their attempts to solve a murder case, detectives and forensic experts are forced to come up with various inductive and deductive arguments to eliminate the innocent among the suspects. Mr. Ebenezer Tightwad death was mysterious, and it has left forensic experts with a list of suspects who must be scrutinized to eliminate the innocent and the person who had the means and the motive.
The key inductive argument from the murder mystery is that the killer was an individual who stood to gain financial benefits or to evade consequences of a criminal activity by killing Mr. Ebenezer Tightwad. Further inductive arguments show that the killer was someone who resides in Tightwad estate. The killer must be someone who has recently had a quarrel with Mr. Tightwad or has been involved in some illegal activities that made Mr Tightwad suspicious. Deductive argument leaves us with four key suspects; the killer of Mr Tightwad must be Greenthumb, Tom Tracey, Robert Hartman and Jackson DeMille. The facts of the case show that by deductive reasoning the killer did not come from outside, he must be from within Tightwad estate. This eliminates Robert Harman as the likely killer since he does not reside in Tightwad estate. Greenthumb on the other hand according to the facts of the case does not have a convincing motive that would drive him to killer his employer. By eliminating the two, deductive argument leaves us with two key suspects; Tom Tracy and Jackson DeMille. Out of the two suspects, Tom Tracey had the means, the motive and the opportunity to kill Mr. Ebenezer Tightwad. DeMille had the motive, the means but he did not have the opportunity to murder Mr. Tightwad that night. Tom, on the other hand, stood to gain financially if the father of his wife died since he could use the wife’s inheritance to get a loan from the bank. They also had a rough relationship with the victim. Facts show that he had the means and the opportunity to perform the act that night; since he was among the last few people who saw Mr. Tightwad last and he had access to the victim’s bedroom where he could have tampered with the digitalis pills and the cup of cocoa. Tom could have purchased the pills from a pharmaceutical owned by a close friend of DeMille either to frame him for the murder or they conspired and planned to kill Mr. Tightwad. Facts also show Tom went to bed late that night, and he lied regarding making a call that night until he was pressured to admit.