14 replies to this topic

[Ploper]

(this takes a lot of outside knowledge, just thought I'd let you know.)
This is from an episode of Sledge Hammer, and old TV show.

There is a woman who marries car dealers,
the day after the marriage she kills her husband, inherents all the money, then moves on to the next victim.
The autopsy shows they have no traces of poison, or alcohol, they did not have heart attacks, cancer, were not murdered with any sharp or blunt objects. did not fall to their death, or strangled or smothered.
in other words, there is no trace of how the victims were killed.
This is a really tough one. I won't put the answer up yet but I will give a couple o' hints.

Spoiler for Solution

they were killed with poison. (How?)
In order for poison to be completely undetectable. large amounts must be placed on the skin for over 6 hours. So, how did she put poison on him for over 6 hours without him noticing? (it was not done while the car dealers slept either.

[savagegamer90]

Does she soak his clothes in poison so that the next day when he goes to work he wears his shirt all day and dies or something like that.

[KamZhiYhi]

Umm she made him take a REALLY long bath in which contained poison.......or if they had their own swimming pool she could have put a signifigant amount of poison in there and made him stay there for a while. Well thats my guess

[GmEiNnIdUS]

She takes him to the pool and insists that he reapply sunscreen every couple hours, which is a perfect cover -- the sun is dangerous and she doesn't want him to die of skin cancer. Little does he know there is poison in the sunscreen.

[Riddari]

While it might be a red herrings, I think the fact that they are all car dealers must have something to do with it. This at first made me think that she must have killed them with carbon monoxide(?) from the exhaust. I am pretty sure that this would show up in a standard autopsy, though. Also, the hints suggest something topical. I simply don't know enough about poisons to know what could be used that would not be detectable. I also don't know enough about car dealers to know why they would be particularly susceptible. I am interested to see the answer to this and hope not to be too disappointed.

[Writersblock]

This is impossible to figure out as set up without a lucky guess. "A lot of outside knowledge" shouldn't mean a knowledge of the source or a lucky guess are the only ways to figure it out. You should have set it up differently so that the given information and a little common knowledge gives all you need to solve the puzzle. I just happen to know the source, so here's a hint that is crucial to solving the puzzle:

All of the dead men are bald and wear wigs and toupees.

And here's the answer:
She puts poison on the wigs.

*Cheers*

[mwh]

Why wouldn't a topical poison show up in an autopsy? Wouldn't it be absorbed into the system? If not, how could it be lethal? If yes, how could it go undetected?

[Martini]

Why wouldn't a topical poison show up in an autopsy? Wouldn't it be absorbed into the system? If not, how could it be lethal? If yes, how could it go undetected?

Some poisons are almost (if not totally) impossible to detect.

[Ploper]

writersblock had it.
it's true, without the source it is next to impossible to get it without guessing. Since not many people know that much about poison.
but every answer on here makes perfect sense too.
Just so people know, the car dealers are bald because their occupation is very stressful which causes them to lose hair.
hope your sattisfied Riddari

I'm also suprised,
I don't know many people out there that have seen Sledge Hammer

[Riddari]

I am happy with that answer. I think the puzzle should be tweaked to somehow hint that the men were all bald, but I am not sure how to do that without making the solution too easy.