If bourbon was free for bands, Lemmy would have destroyed the world's economy long before the global financial crash.

The Blues Brothers wouldn't have been quite as good.

Hang on. Let me go take a collection.

[DRIVES THE HELL OUTTA HERE]

I guess we'll just add that to the bagel bill from last time...

*hears Cicadas in the distance*

I'll allow you to keep it if you promise to shoot Zeo.

Now that I've finally cleared up some real-life stuff, let's get to it.

*****RESULTS, PART 1*****
ZFR- Reason for Not Guilty verdict:
"In the case description the following is mentioned:
"It's a broken tibia," he said to the administrator as he showed her the X-rays.
Yet later the coroner's report mentioned the tibia was bruised and fractured but not broken.
So the X-rays were bogus. Zeolito could walk, he escaped through the fire escape went to (I'm thinking zeogoldilocks; she's within driving distance), got in a fight and was killed. Meanwhile an impostor got into his bed, which is why the defendant saw him alive and well after midnight. After that the killer attempted to break the tibia, so it would be consistent with the supposed broken one."

Analysis: You were the first and darn near the closest. You covered most of the major points, Zeolito was capable of walking, got killed, and had his body dumped in the dumpster. The only thing you were wrong on was the theory of the imposter. Since I was the only one besides the nurse who had access or reason to access the room, I simply lied about seeing him since I didn't want to lose my license. You caught on extremely fast, well done. I can't quite tell why you gave the "not guilty" verdict though if you thought the X-rays were bogus, unless you assumed I wasn't the one who had fudged them.
Overall, you got pretty much the solution I was looking for.

Bookwyrm627 - "Lindo was killed by Snowkatt, both to keep him quiet and to frame ZG. He was probably being blackmailed by Snowkatt into working against ZG, considering the hatred between Katt and ZG. A bonus (at first) was the dislike between Lindo and ZG. Katt had been starting to inflict some burn damage on Lindo to keep him in line, after he started getting antsy.

The fight between ZG and Lindo was staged, to get Lindo to the hospital. ZG threatens to kill Lindo, a fist fight occurs, during/after which ZG took a baseball bat to his leg, but fails to actually break it? Dodgy; shouldn't be very hard to actually break that leg if you are using a bat and are serious about causing damage. Lindo ends up in the hospital, where Zeo just happens to be his doctor (after all, Lindo only trusts Zeo). Zeo gets some x-rays of random person's leg, to back up the story about the broken leg, since Zeo is in on the plan to help Lindo escape.

Zeo specifically checks the window, and returns (against hospital orders) at 12:30 to decast Lindo and help cover his escape with the note about sleeping. Unfortunately, Lindo falls off the fire escape and fractures his leg in the fall. Katt gets there before Lindo can get to ZG's car.

How did Katt know when to move? Cecil Vensetti just so happened to be in the hospital with a hurt arm, right below the victim's room, with a cigar and vodka. Notice the name; I'm guessing Cecil might have a mafia connection here (or maybe Katt called in a favor from their mafia days). Cigar and vodka to help pass the time while Cecil keeps an eye out to make sure the victim doesn't leave via the window. Katt is probably nearby, maybe watching a back door. Lindo is supposed to be injured, so he isn't likely to leave through the front door.

Lindo goes out the window, planning to make for ZG's car and vanish (which ZG didn't pick up until 1am; why did she pick her car up at 1am if she's been working at the office all night?). He breaks his leg, Cecil hears the cry of pain and calls Katt, Katt shoots Lindo and walks away. The bagel munching Katt might have dropped some bagels when leaving the alley or when circling the building at some point; alternatively, this detail was just a lie by Cecil.

-Lindo wanted to escape Katt, after helping sabotage ZG for awhile. The Lindo/ZG fight might be because ZG had found out about Lindo helping Katt.
-ZG gets full control of the previously split business for helping Lindo escape.
-Zeo and Lindo may not be fond of each other, but family is family, and Lindo would owe Zeo a favor.
-Cecil repays a favor to Katt (or accepts a bribe) by playing lookout. He is subsequently bribed by ZG to testify in favor of Zeo, and he accepts since Katt is no longer mafia (or no longer bribing him).
-Katt wants to take some revenge on ZG, and had been blackmailing Lindo into it. She sees an opportunity to push serious legal trouble on ZG when Lindo apparently gets hurt and was threatening a law suit. A simple bribe/blackmail (dang, those mafia connections were handy) gets the time of death in the coronor's report pushed to 9-midnight, before the actual kill.
Snowkatt did it, in the alley, with the revolver!"

Analysis: Looks like you fell for the bait. Snowkatt was, for all intents and purposes, basically a red herring. The key here was the fact that the bags themselves were charred (although, to be fair, I think you gave this verdict before seeing that evidence) and that I held an apparent fear of her. She lit the fire for reasons basically unknown outside of pyromania or an attack on myself after the last trial. When you revised your theory, you were much closer.

Bookwyrm's revised theory: "I've taken another look at the evidence so far, and I'm going to stick with Zeogold should not be tried in a criminal court. He's likely to lose his medical license when the Medical Board reviews the case, but he shouldn't be sent to jail.
You want me to post such in the thread as well?

Also, Lindo was stripped naked?? o.O
I don't even know what to make of that.

ZG could have killed Lindo, picking up her car after 1am and then driving over to the hospital and shooting him before the nurse found the body at 2am. However, I'm sticking with my previous story.
I'm sticking with "Don't bring to trial" if you didn't mean for "Attempting to Resist/Escape Arrest" to be a charge.

Falsifying medical records may or may not be a crime, but I'm not inclined to indict someone who does it as part of an attempt to save the patient's life from an outside murder attempt."

Further analysis: Falsifying medical records actually would be reason enough to hold me to trial. I wasn't really attempting to save his life so much as I was attempting to get in on some of that lawsuit money (shown by the fact I didn't raise the alarm upon seeing how Lindo was gone).
The reason the body was stripped naked was because my sister's a clever girl. If Lindo had been found in his street clothes, anybody who'd seen him would know he left the hospital willingly. This move was to ensure that the scene of the crime looked like it was at the hospital.
All this being said, however, your theory is rather impressive and deserves a fair amount of merit. It's actually quite a plausible one. I'd put it in the ballpark of "correct, but not the answer we were looking for". That was very well done.

Sunshinecorp: "Alright, so it's pretty obvious that ████████ is the guilty party here. When ████████ ████████ the ████████ they ████████ your cousin. That only made it certain that ████████████████ and ████████ would be revealed as ████████. This solution has been classified TOP SECRET - EYES ONLY so certain things had to be redacted, but of course I am correct. I would like to put you on trial for conspiracy."

Analysis: Personally, I have to say that this theory is [REDACTED], truly the most [CLASSIFIED] theory I've seen yet. I agreed with you about the [CENSORED], but you were a little off-kilter when you attempted to throw in the [TOP SECRET]. Not bad, though.

Maxvorstadt: "I have reasonable doubts if you have done the murder. There are clues leading to your sister. Although it`s not impossible that you`ve done it, maybe by using some Puzzlebot 1.2, I do believe that there is someone else who have done the murder. So, I guess it would be an idea to hold up a trial for your insane sister."

Analysis: You didn't explain in much detail, but you seemed to get the gist of it. Yup, Zeogoldilocks was the killer.

Sanfueg: "The Puzzlemaster is not guilty, the nurse appears to be the most prominent suspect. First, she did not respect the rule of no disturbance of the patient, and second, she tries to divert us with a so called visitor (woman) during the night, which is very unlikely considering no one else heard or saw the woman. Also, in this case, the only woman after the life of Mr. Lindo would have to be Zeogoldilocks, however, she has a alibi for that night.
Therefore The Puzzlemaster is not guilty and should not be held for trial."

Analysis: Interesting idea, but I'm pretty sure the guard would have noticed something was up. I'm curious as to what you considered Zeogoldilocks' alibi to be, or the nurse's motive.

Have a bump

*****RESULTS, PART 2*****
Habanerose: "Well, quite the mess our Puzzlemaster got himself into ;)

But some things seem rather odd:

- His fractured leg: as later explained in the Puzzlemaster's thoughts, it seems rather odd
that the leg wasn't outright broken, seen Mrs. Goldilocks physical stature, as she would pass of easily as a burly man rather than a "woman" (more on this later), generally agrressive nature and tendency to use of excessive and gratitous violence.

- The burnmarks on his body: while very possible to be left by long ongoing (childhood?) abuse by his crazy cousin Zeogoldilocks, there also seems to be another rather "sadistically inclined" individual with a tendency for pyromaniac activity.

- The phone records: while indicating "someone" was calling from the Zeo Family Office, it can't exactly be determed who it was, thus not exactly disculpating Mrs. Goldilocks.
Also the rather close proximity of Mt.Oaks Hospital to the office makes it still possible for her to reach and commit said crime (with the possibility of using an employee as a strawman to cover up her absence)

- The bagels in the alley: now guess who has an unhealthy obsession with bagels... both Zeo's crazy sister (as seen on the bagel crumbs on her notebook, though she'd probably eat anything :P) and a certain pyromaniac prosecutor.

- The Nurse: she mentions having discovered the body at 2AM , and seen a mysterious "woman" in the corridors of the hospital about half an hour earlier, searching for a specific room, yet clearly
interested in doing so anonymously.
My Conclusion:

Most of the proof is sadly not enough to raise sufficient support to put the Puzzlemaster on trial, as the only proof possibly pointing towards him was the note on the register, noting Mr. lindo as "sleeping peacefully", when he technically was already dead. Which while suspicious, could still be attributed to the fact that he hadn't really thoroughfully checked on him and most likely only had a short look to see how he was doing (as noted on the register he seemed to only have entered for less than a minute).

Now there seem on the other hand quite a few things pointing towards Ms. Katt, mainly the burnmarks on the victim's body and the bagels found in the alley, and while both of these could be attributed to Zeogoldilocks as well, the nurse mentioned a suspicious "woman" half an hour before discovering the body, sneaking around the "dimlit" corridors of the hospital. And honestly, it seems rather difficult to identify Mrs. Goldilocks as a woman in such conditions, based on her stature and general demeanor. Also, the fact that his leg was merely fractured / bruised rather than shattered to pieces would indicate someone of lesser physical strenght.
Interesting Sidenote and personal conspiracy theory: Mr. Zeogold could have possibly even had a reason to commit said crime, a.k.a the inheritence of the Family Business, as given by his self-proclaimed status as Puzzlemaster, he might have certainly
had reasons to be displeased by the decision to not entrust him with the family business. There is also the ironic fact that he knew about both his sisters and Ms. Katt's tendencies towards violence and physical abuse (and their psychotic behaviors from earlier meetings / trials).
And oddly enough, given enough effort, he could make himself rather easily pass off as a woman, at least more likely than his sister...

Also the rather bad choice of security guard seems rather unexpected on someone who prides himself as such a smart individual. Unless obviously he had all of it planned out right beforehand... the murder of his cousin, the incrimination of his sister,
and ultimately, inheriting the family business as he intended to in the first place. And who else better suited to mislead a whole jury than a Master of Mystery, Deception and Puzzles. And while he could easily have crossed the line, as there is no bigger
motivation than personal gain / greed... sadly (possibly due to his experience), there is not enough proof to raise reasonable doubt among a jury to put him on trial, lest even considering pulling him before a judge, thus he might very well have commited the perfect crime."

Analysis: I'm not really sure what you were getting at with this other than "not enough evidence". You seem to somewhat understand the evidence and how it fits together, you just lack that final push to nail down the real killer.

Yezemin: "Lindo was shot in the chest somewhere between 9 and midnight, probably with a muffler. We really have no idea what happened in that timeframe because none of the witnesses saw fit to cover it in their reports. We can only assume whatever happened, happened quietly. Then he was propped up in his bed to look asleep. This was probably to purposely frame you. As cecil reported Lindo was not yet in the alley at 12:12. Then you checked on him at 12:30 and probably did not check his vitals. You just assumed he was sound asleep and decided not to disturb him. We know from the witness reports that nothing untoward happened during that visit. Then later the nurse sees a suspicious woman in the corridor and a little while after that Lindo's body is found in the alley. I think it's safe to assume that that woman was the murderer who dumped the body in the alley through the window at that time. A short while later the body is found. Now the question remains who that woman was. While zeogoldilocks could have been there for the dumping of the body, I think her alibi for the time of the murder checks out. The presence of bagels and burn marks on the scene however indicate snow katt who maybe hasn't severed her ties to organized crime as thoroughly as we thought. Maybe she conspired with zeogoldilocks in this who benefited from having her competition in the family business removed."

Analysis: I find it interesting how many people assume that the defendant, who is a potential murderer, is always telling the truth. You were correct about the woman being the killer, but the trick was that the hospital was not the crime scene and I lied about the tibia as well as the status of the patient. You have a pretty solid theory, however, so well done.

REDVWIN: "Not Guilty/Do Not Hold To Trial. Difficult to know but most evidence don't point at you, PM. I suspect more on Cecil than anyone else but still can't work a way in which to solve the puzzle without the security guard not noticing his presence... Cecil's fish throwing ability might hint about how he got Lindo's attention and also his cigar might be related with those "burns" on the deceased body... Probably, Cecil threw something from his window to make Lindo open it... later, Cecil climbed up to Lindo's via the fire escape and then, because of the vodka inside his veins, he acted erratically and threw Lindo to the floor, near the garbage bags... even with an hurt arm, he still has enough force to do that. As for the gunshot, I suppose it was there and not on Lindo's room where it happened. The gunner must have been somebody else as it is most sure that Cecil wouldn't be able to hide a gun inside his room. Who this person might be... a random individual just passing by? A bagels fan?"

Analysis: The bagels were just a ruse. Ignoring them is probably the best way to go. Interesting idea, however, implicating the fish seller. His hurt arm kind of stops him from doing anything, though.

ShadowPatriarch: I don't think the defendant is guilty. Firstly, he had not motive. Secondly, even if you take into consideration his odd behaviour in visiting the patient at 12:30, he probably panicked on seeing the patient dead, and wrote the wonderfully cryptic "resting peacefully" (Rest in peace?) message on the patients chart. Im guessing Zeo probably thought his sister was somehow involved in this and wanted to cover for her, and so in his haste he wrote the massage and left, because there was nothing more he could have done.
Also im guessing no one heard any gunshots because the assailant was probably using a silencer or some other sort of sound suppressor on their gun.
The evidence of burns on the victim and bagel remains found on the garbage bags would indicate that someone we know - a pyromaniac lawyer for instance -could have been involved in this incident. Probably moonlighting for Zeo's sister to make ends meet after the failure of her last job."

Analysis: You were fairly close. You were one of the few people to realize I lied about the "resting peacefully" bit. Like Habanerose, you just needed a little more of a push.

Got bigger than I expected.

*****RESULTS, PART 3*****

Ashwald - "At first glance this looks like a Not Guilty case. Specifically a There Wasn't A Killer In The First Place case. Lindo upped and died in his sleep between 9 and 12. The puzzlemaster checked the room at 12:30, saw him in bed and assumed he was sleeping. Since he had prescribed rest he didn't properly check the patient in order to let him... wait for it... rest in peace. Zeogoldilocks sneaked in to find her cousin at around 1:30 except he was dead already. ("Brother, dear? What are you doing??" and then "OBJECTION! I see no reason the defendant should be able to do this.", "this" being the defendant questioning the witness at that specific moment, means it really was zeogoldilocks doing the rounds and not a cross-dressing puzzlemaster.) She was... miffed and threw him out the window in his birthday suit. Clearly that would teach him to die before she could come by and kill him herself. Then she stole his stuff to go through at a late date in case some important company document/other desirable thingamajig could be found there. Apparently there was far too little blood to be found considering what kind of wounds there are on the body and the nurse thoroughly checked the patient's room, but didn't mention anything about seeing blood. If she had seen any she'd have raised a ruckus over it way before going to the window. So, what naturally follows is that ms. Katt (who doesn't get along with at least two members of the zeogold family and had been lurking around the hospital burninating the garbage area and terrorizing the puzzlemaster as evidenced by the bagel remains reported by witnesses -because practice makes perfect and if the hospital happened to get burninated to a crisp with the puzzlemaster inside it then all the better!-) popped up and shot at the corpse. Why? Because why not, he was dead already and a girl's gotta let some steam out SOMEHOW. Also, the falling corpse took out the fire she was trying to start that night. Anyway, blood starts to clot up after death so there wouldn't be as much of it if a corpse got shot. That's what that episode of CSI said anyway. Without any mention in the coroner's report of pharmaceuticals in the corpse I would normally assume that the coroner checked and found none, instead of simply not bothering to check because super-duper obvious gunshot wound.

Except. *puts on brand new tinfoil hat*

The coroner's report talks about the gunshot wound but completely overlooks the reduced blood loss and what would have caused it, even though that is evidence that could have potentially exonerated the puzzlemaster without any need for this trial we're all stuck in. TL;DR: the coroner did a shoddy half-assed job, which means I can't trust the lack of poisonous substances in the report. Personal experience tells me that fractures, even hairline ones, can hurt like a bitch. It would be very easy for the puzzlemaster to poison Lindo by pretending it's actually just painkillers to let him be comfortable during the night, check on him again at 12:30 to confirm his death then let the rest of the night unfold as previously stated. The motive for this would be to implicate either his sister zeogoldilocks or ms. Katt for the murder since both are thorns in his side. Add to this his numerous & ridiculous attempts to escape and the puzzlermaster starts to look incredibly guilty. Being afraid of the defence/prosecution doesn’t really cut it for me as an excuse. So I vote to hold him to trial."

Analysis: You basically covered the half of the case ZFR missed. You interpreted everything mostly correctly about Snowkatt's actions as well as the problem about the blood. The thing is, the bone was broken/bruised AFTER the crime, and the crime scene was not at the hospital.


omega64- "Right so he left the hospital, probably to kill Zeogoldilocks.
Got killed instead, and dumped into the garbage after she assured it was below the proper window.
Fractured his leg to make it seem like he fell while climbing down.
I think that covers it?"

Analysis: Right on the money. I can't find the rest of it, but you did mention something about a street lamp possibly causing the fire in the dumpster, which I actually like better as a theory than the "official" solution.

It gets hard when you have to scroll through our lengthy conversations about stuff. :P

Reading everyone's theories was great.

Sheeesh, I had no idea the X-rays were done by you, or in the hospital for that matter. For some reason I had assumed the victim had done them somewhere else and brought them to the hospital.
That would have cleared a lot.
Plus I had the preconceived idea that you'd be innocent because, come on, you wouldn't make a trial game and make yourself guilty.

I also liked my idea about the "imposter" whom you saw being Cecil who used the fire escape to go to the room above him to get a glass replacement, found the bed empty, and when he heard the door being opened, he quickly jumped into the deceased's bed, which accounted for why you'd see someone in bed and think the victim was alive at the time. Granted Cecil couldn't do it well with a broken arm.

Time to announce winners!

omega64 is our grand winner. Although ZFR sort of deserves this spot since he was faster with the correct solution, Omega was the first to give both the correct verdict and the proper reasoning behind it. On top of that, he also covered all the evidence properly.

That being said of course, there IS a first place winner chosen by me, so naturally, that shall be ZFR. It's sorta both him and Omega who've won, really.

Second place is the "random" choice one, and the only two who made the correct verdict outside of Omega are Sunshinecorp and Ashwald. After utilizing random.org, sunshinecorp springs up as the official second-place victor.


Congratulations, you guys!