Brain Teasers
Death by Suicide
Cryptography
In Cryptography teasers, a phrase or expressions has been encoded in some way (frequently by replacing letters with other letters). You need to figure out the encoding method and then decode the message to find the answer.Cryptography
There was a death on Treebark Ln. The victim was identified as Mark Oswalt, who recently was married. The police went to the crime scene and they reported the death as a suicide.
Later that day, after the police left, a private detective, hired by the victim's friend who thought it was a murder, searched the crime scene and found a note the police missed.
It read,
"4,3: 8,1:_: 9,1: 2,1: 7,4:_: 6,1:9,3:_: 9,1: 4,3: 3,3: 3,2: !"
The detective took out his cell phone and started dialing the police to tell them about his findings. Once the detective opened the phone to dial, he immediately screamed out, "I SOLVED IT!"
Who was the murderer and how did the detective find out?
Later that day, after the police left, a private detective, hired by the victim's friend who thought it was a murder, searched the crime scene and found a note the police missed.
It read,
"4,3: 8,1:_: 9,1: 2,1: 7,4:_: 6,1:9,3:_: 9,1: 4,3: 3,3: 3,2: !"
The detective took out his cell phone and started dialing the police to tell them about his findings. Once the detective opened the phone to dial, he immediately screamed out, "I SOLVED IT!"
Who was the murderer and how did the detective find out?
Hint
Mark Oswalt used his cell phone for business calls many times a day.Answer
The note said, "It was my wife!"The detective looked at the keypad on his phone and saw the letters next to the numbers.
2,1 would be A
2,2 would be B
9,4 would be Z
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Comments
That was really simple.
I've seen many like that b4
I've seen many like that b4
Good one--I got "wife", but didn't figure out the code completely. But shouldn't the third coded word be 6,1:9,3 for M,Y? I'd like to see more.
Great idea for a teaser! It does need a slight correction to 6,1:9,3 for the third word. I felt the answer was a little too noticeable in the actual teaser and made it too easy, but it was very cute and fun.
it should be 2,1=a
2,2=b
2,2=b
if i'd ac2ali go10 a fone 2 c wher all the numbrs wer w/ wut lettrs, i'd'v go10 the answr... i mean, i new how 2 solv it, but i got lazy... haha...
nys job...
nys job...
Same w/ that^ person.I'm not lazy enough to make people's brain's hurt trying to figure out what they typed. No offense.
I loved it - I got far enough with the translation that I figured it out. Good one. More please?
um...how did the guy know his wife would murder him with enough notice to write that note?
UMMMMMM How the Heck could the VICTIM hire his friend to investigate his DEATH....He is dead. Do dead people often hire detectives.....I thought this was going to be significant, but I guess not.
Opps I misread who hired the detective. NEVERMIND :_(
Good one.
I'm thinking the wife probably didn't murder him. First, as Rukia, points out so well, the time factor,"how did the guy know his wife would murder him with enough notice to write that note?" The note could simply been a red herring pointing away from the killer. Secondly, people who use cell phones a lot used speed dial and SMS. They know the keys by touch, so the don't have to read it. Third, not all keypad are the same. And fourthly, if he had the phone he would 911 not 114 about his killer. But chances are the real killer's number is in the victim's cell phone memory chip.
All of this aside, a nicely written teaser, and a good mystery even if this solution would hard to prove in court.
All of this aside, a nicely written teaser, and a good mystery even if this solution would hard to prove in court.
that was a good one had to think on it for a few..
Ingenius teaser.
ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON.
PRETTY EASY.
ANYONE NOT GET THIS ONE?
PRETTY EASY.
ANYONE NOT GET THIS ONE?
This was easy if you know how to text message
Not much left to say. Imurray said it all.
Kindergarden quality. :
Why is it always the wife who gets the blame???
Easy and fun teaser!
Easy and fun teaser!
Lots of fun but too much before my coffee, good teaser
Well thought out teaser, just not my cup of tea.
Good job, though!!
Good job, though!!
Wow, this guy knows how to pick 'em...
Kinda easy, but nice nonetheless
Kinda easy, but nice nonetheless
An Ingenious teaser! As for some of the circumstances, relax everyone, it did get you to think about the teaser On the easy side, but very creative. And who knows?!? Maybe the next scenario will have the butler or the husband committing the fowl act! Keep up the good work!
Quite simply, the person who hired the detective is the killer. Who else could have planted the message pointing the finger at the wife? Obviously this was a murder/set-up perpetrated by said friend.
The investigator was hired by a
friend - not the victim & possibly the victim had a slow death. Plus, the spouse is always 1st suspect
friend - not the victim & possibly the victim had a slow death. Plus, the spouse is always 1st suspect
Very easy the way it was written. The comment about the phone could have been a little more subtle.
Cute. I enjoyed it even though it was easy. Good teaser for the children to work on their skills. Hope to see more. Thank you
excellent!
Clever!
I LIKED IT IT WAS ALOT OF FUN. GIVE US SOME MORE.
I liked the teaser a lot. Thank you very much.
I do have to agree with Old ChinaHand. HE's got a point.
I do have to agree with Old ChinaHand. HE's got a point.
I think some of you misread the teaser completely.
Tht being said, I would why a man that is dying takes the time to write a coded message. Why not just write "my wife killed me"?
Tht being said, I would why a man that is dying takes the time to write a coded message. Why not just write "my wife killed me"?
haha i got this one cuz i text waaaayyyy 2 much
It was fun, but certainly easy!
shouldnt it be "7,3" not 7,4? at least on my phone they only have 3 letters per #. of course im not a texter i might be wrong.
I understand the answer with the key spelled out, but I couldn't get it on my own.
Can someone please explain the hint to me? I sure don't understand that!
(Forgive me if this has already been covered; I haven't read the other comments yet.)
Can someone please explain the hint to me? I sure don't understand that!
(Forgive me if this has already been covered; I haven't read the other comments yet.)
Now I've read.
A question for OCH: What is 114?
A question for OCH: What is 114?
Its impossible! The note may claim the wife's guilt, but who is to say that the note is to be trusted! It could have been planted, or the husband could have written it to throw off the investigation, perhaps because he wanted revenge on his wife for some reason? The note needs to be examined further!
Also, to the other poster who also doubted the conculsion of this teaser (don't want to look up name right now), 411, not 114...
Dibs on the movie rights
Jan 24, 2007
Nice teaser!!
But to all u peeps who treat this teaser like reality: IT"S NOT! It's JUST a teaser!
But to all u peeps who treat this teaser like reality: IT"S NOT! It's JUST a teaser!
I get that the first number of each 2-number group represents the letters IT WAS MY WIFE on a telephone key pad, but I don't get what the second letter of each pair means or the significance of the commas, colons and underscores. Several other comments mention text messaging, about which I know nothing, and I assume there are others out there who do not have a clue how to text message, so I would have liked a more elaborate explanation of the solution. Then again, maybe not, as I hope to get through my whole life without ever knowing how to text message ;~}
~Luca
~Luca
Well, I have to say that I didn't get the code, but I did get the answer using the usual cryptographic tricks.
The words had 2, 3, 2, 4 letters. If the note was supposed to say who did it, I guessed that the first two words were "IT WAS". The third word, having only two letters, couldn't be "THE" and so I thought a bit more and guessed "MY". The fourth word's first two letters were already deciphered: W-I-?-?. It was easy from there! (Fun, too.)
As I was figuring it out, my dad was reading over my shoulder, and I made the offhand comment that I knew the message but didn't get the code. He whipped out his cell phone and showed me -- I'm so ashamed that I didn't see it myself!!
The words had 2, 3, 2, 4 letters. If the note was supposed to say who did it, I guessed that the first two words were "IT WAS". The third word, having only two letters, couldn't be "THE" and so I thought a bit more and guessed "MY". The fourth word's first two letters were already deciphered: W-I-?-?. It was easy from there! (Fun, too.)
As I was figuring it out, my dad was reading over my shoulder, and I made the offhand comment that I knew the message but didn't get the code. He whipped out his cell phone and showed me -- I'm so ashamed that I didn't see it myself!!
Cool. I think this is the only cryptography teaser I've ever solved! (I'm too intimidated to try those complex ones)
Nov 01, 2007
Not so difficult
very nice....but it was pretty easy...although i could solve it but i was little confused wid the semi colons b4
I had a feeling it was his wife from the time I read that someone thought it was a murder instead of a suicide XD
Nice!!!
Ugh, I got it, but I had to search for an old phone pad style to decipher. I have a qwerty smartphone so this doesn't work for me. I also struggle with those phones numbers that are spelled out, or if I'm on a answering system that wants me to type in the name of the person I am trying to reach. The pains of progress I guess.
It's obvious this is a forged note.
No person would be able to write something like that before they die, and if they did the murderer would surely suspect something and would hide it.
So, since it's forged it can't tell us anything. This is impossible.
No person would be able to write something like that before they die, and if they did the murderer would surely suspect something and would hide it.
So, since it's forged it can't tell us anything. This is impossible.
I, too, was too lazy to decipher the whole thing; but I did figure it out.
whew. I got it.
xD
The first number represents the keypad on the phone, while the second represents the term of the first number.. right?
xD
The first number represents the keypad on the phone, while the second represents the term of the first number.. right?
I do not own a cell phone so did not even try on my regular phone as it seemed too long to bother with.
It took me way too long to figure that one out. Loved the comments!
I thought the butler did it.
Since everybody sends text messages today,this was quite easy.
I agree with cutebug, didn't even have to look at my phone to solve it. Though chances are, even in 2007 when the teaser was written, that if he had a phone for business purposes, it would most likely be a blackberry (or similar phone) and would have had a keyboard so there would be no need to use the numpad to type the message.
Clever old concept but very badly converted into a story here. I'm pretty sure one of my ancient Encyclopedia Brown Mystery books had this one in it back in the seventies(?). Based on the word lengths I knew what the note said (there was only one possible suspect anyway) but I had a hard time making sense of the number string and what the punctuation meant to get the letters to match.
So this guy lays dying and concocts a ridiculous cipher to ID his killer? Then he hides the note so well the cops can't find it?
The story was unnecessarily clumsy.
So this guy lays dying and concocts a ridiculous cipher to ID his killer? Then he hides the note so well the cops can't find it?
The story was unnecessarily clumsy.
Fun but very easy.
Solved in less than a minute.
The bigger mystery: how did a dying man come up with a code on the spot like that?
I'm with, "Immuray" on this teaser; another 4 the kiddies me thinks?
kinda obvious but every one works a their own level
thanks for taking the time to make an awesome teaser anyway
It was pretty easy after I looked at the hint and I have a cell phone at home too which helped
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