Can You Solve This Murder Mystery? Who's the Real Culprit in This Case?

Dear friends, good evening. Now it's time for the second IQ question. Solve this case...

A man was found murdered on 26.1.2008 afternoon.
1. His wife called the police.
2. Police questioned everyone.
3. Wife: "Sir, I was sleeping when the murder took place."
4. Cook: "I was cooking."
5. Gardener: "I was picking vegetables."
6. Housemaid: "I went to the post office."
7. Children: "We went to play."
8. Neighbour: "We went to a marriage."

The police arrested the murderer immediately. Who is it?

It's the wife because she said she was sleeping, but she was the one that called the police. If it was in India, I can understand if it's a government holiday. Since the place was not specified, it is better to use general terms.

Hi all,

The right answer could be mail because the 26th is a holiday. However, you could also explore other options, like the maid being illiterate and the wife possibly instructing her to go to the post office. Furthermore, members of the family could have conspired and provided alibis for each other. Each member's statement should be backed by an alibi from somebody.

Regards,
Vinod Bidwaik

When you go for logical deductions, we can expect persons 4 to 8, including the maid who could be illiterate, to understand that the post office was on holiday. I suspect the wife. How could she be sure that the murder happened when she was sleeping? Logically, she sleeps with her husband, so she will definitely know the whereabouts of her husband on that day.

- Satyanarayana

She might have gone out to the post office to drop a letter. In that case, whom will the police suspect? The case is now reopened logically.

Oh yeah, the housemaid could be the murderer, but she can go to the post office to post a letter even when it is closed. She could put the letter in the postbox.

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This corrected text maintains the original meaning and tone while addressing the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

Hi,

I would go by suspecting the maid. As all said, the murder happened on January 26, 2008. The post office could not be working on that day.

Besides, instead of only focusing on the options given in the answer, we can also focus on the question. The question specifies the date as 26.1.2008. This means we need to focus on the date and get the link from the answer.

But guys, it is IIM's after all, you never know. It might just be a trick to focus on the wrong one by making the date so specific and miss the catch.

It can also be the wife!!!

Dear, from all the statements, it shows that either the wife or a housemaid is the culprit. Now, please disclose who was the murderer and how.

I think the murderer must be the gardener. Why would he go to buy vegetables? He should be gardening.

It should be the cook. As the cook said he was cooking and the gardener said he was picking vegetables. Now either of the two was lying since if the cook had started cooking, then why was the gardener picking vegetables? And if the gardener was picking vegetables, then what was the cook cooking? Also, as the wife was sleeping (generally, people take a nap post lunch), it means that she had taken lunch, and the cook had already cooked... Hence, the cook. But a lot of assumptions - family eating only garden-fresh, wife taking a nap post lunch, etc. Kavita

I suppose it's made. People may be illiterate, but they know that on 15th August and 26th January, government offices are closed.

Regards,
Vijay Upadhyay

It may be Gardner also. How possible he was picking veggies in the afternoon? If the cook was making food, then veggies were already there; if required for dinner, he could have picked in the evening also.

Vijay