CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder Hints

What evidence can I find in the alley?

  • 1 of 19: There are ten things to be found here, including four photos, two swabs, one fingerprint, one other item, and two items that will be found after the body has gone to the morgue. Read to the end of this hint for a list of the evidence to be found here.
  • 2 of 19: First off, let's tackle the SUV. It doesn't seem to have any license plates, so we'll need to find another way to trace it.
  • 3 of 19: The VIN (vehicle identification number) is found on a little metal plate on the top of the dashboard on the driver's side.
  • 4 of 19: Zoom in on the vehicle's windshield from the front and take a picture of the VIN plate.
  • 5 of 19: You can look around inside, but there's nothing in there you can use. Focus on the outside of the car --
  • 6 of 19: -- like that suspicious stain next to the gas cap. Use Luminol to see what it is, then swab it.
  • 7 of 19: Around the back, it looks like the cargo area is empty --
  • 8 of 19: -- and it is, except for some scratches that you can't record in any way and a fingerprint on the left side of what the game calls the "car gate."
  • 9 of 19: Finally, the keys weren't in the ignition. Where might they be, if the driver tried to throw them away and missed?
  • 10 of 19: Look at the lid to the dumpster to find the keys.
  • 11 of 19: Okay, now for the body, which is in a crate behind the SUV. Move back that way and stop to take a picture of the vehicle and the crate.
  • 12 of 19: And finally we come to the body itself. Snap a photo for posterity, then --
  • 13 of 19: -- notice that very handy blood stain. Take a swab to compare to the stain on the side of the car.
  • 14 of 19: Finally, look around the immediate area of the crate. See anything that might be significant?
  • 15 of 19: There are tire tracks in the dust to the right of the crate. They're almost certainly the tracks of this very SUV, but you'll want them for future reference, and this is as good a way to collect them as any; take a photo.
  • 16 of 19: And what interesting bit of strategy did we learn in the last case? Always come back to the scene of the crime after the body has been picked up by the morgue.
  • 17 of 19: After the body has been transported, come back and look inside the crate to see what there is to see.
  • 18 of 19: Use the flashlight to see some broken pottery with something odd on it.
  • 19 of 19: Use the adhesive specimen mount to collect some powdery substance on the surface of the pottery, then grab the pottery itself.