#Make Lipstick killer cases solveable without brute forcing!

30 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

blissful ivy
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Currently I've tried 3 lipstick killer cases, where the message is "[victim] + [Killer Initial] forever!"

The problem is, every single one, the killer was not a work colleage or phone book connection.
All the victims were being followed. Their emails show they report this to the doctor and give info on the physical appearance. This info is useless as you can't pin it.
CCTV search doesnt show the killer.
Sales ledgers in the city do not show them buying lipstick or the knife (they take it with them so seems to be using the same weapon, hence not in ledgers).
Even if you ask neighbours, again, they can only give you physical appearance attributes, which is no good as it wont lead you to a location.

The only method to solve this kinda case is to take the [killer initial] go through the phone book, note each person, then go to city hall and use the gov database. Please make it so their is a way to solve these cases without such a tedious process.

midnight token
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You have a description.
You'll have to check multiple CCTV cams since more often than not the one on the floor the killing was will be sabotaged. Check floors above/below even the ground floor if you need to.

Talk to more neighbors about suspicious persons, maybe get more description. Get finger prints from the weapon, heck check to see if they left foot prints. Vic will probably have a email on their computer giving even more description.

Build a list of descriptions, find people who might have been near the place. Think someone might match? Find out who they are, track em down, check home.

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Ask around, see if people saw them in the area

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There are multiple other ways to do it than just brut forcing the name

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the name is a big hint though since if you think you have some people who's descriptions match, you could figure out their names to see if any match the initial

blissful ivy
# midnight token You have a description. You'll have to check multiple CCTV cams since more often...

Well you're saying get descriptions, but this is no use, you can't pin the descriptions, so you cannot ask anyone else if they have seen a person matching it. You have to have an ID picture to ask them, so it wont lead you anywhere.
Didn't know about the CCTV thing, but the one I had showed pictures from the murder time.
You can't search for peoples characteristics on the gov't database so they're pretty much useless.

midnight token
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manually fill in sticky notes to remind yourself of the info you're getting

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Than when you in see people on CCTV you can click on their portrait in the bottom of the PC screen and it'll pop up a bigger picture that you can get descriptions from inspecting

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cross reference that with the descriptions you are getting to see if they match

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if there's a match, pin that unknown person to the board. You now have a picture to show people to ask if they saw them

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track 'em down, see if you can get any dirt on them... shoe size can come in handy here if you break into their home and see what sizes of shoes they have.

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if you have finger prints even better, just scan their front door without even going in

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get a match? you got your perp... now just figure out all the info you need on them and turn it in.

No match... well you probably saw more than one person who fit the description

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next subject

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...TL;DR

Use descriptions to find people on camrea, note down people coming and going who match than you have a much narrower list of people.

Good hint here is check the floor above, and floor below, and than the ground floor. See the same matching person on multiple cams even better.

Like see a person who matches description showing up in the lobby before the urder, they follow them by jumping cam to cam to see if you can see them... do they disappear into the disabled cameras blind spot only to reappear after the murder on the floor below leaving? That's your perp.

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Checking the floors above is also prime as there is a chance the person just lives in the same tower

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gets sketchy if the person lives on the same floor but in that case you can just scan prints from doors and see if you randomly get a match on that floor

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but yah... there are ways to solve these kind of cases with out brut forcing your way though hte phone book

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probably takes just about the same time if your unlucky but you're actually having fun and playing the game and not just reading the phone book 😄

crimson bear
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I had a case like this where I had fingerprints, 3 strong descriptions: short, skinny, male. I even had CCTV showing some dude standing outside the victim's door for like 15 minutes at the time of the murder and didn't live there. He wasn't the killer. No one in their circle fit the description. Checking the previous night's CCTV footage produced nothing, despite a document saying they always stand outside their door and mess with their mail.

blissful ivy
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I think this type of case would be better if there was a low random chance at the scene that the message would have BOTH initials (like the killer slipping up a bit), this could mean that you can still brute force it, but it wouldn't be as tedious.

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could even also have them try and spray badly over the 2nd initial so it's still partially readable

timber zodiac
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I like these cases when they actually need proper work to solve.

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Not just scan house records scan work for prints and done.

crimson bear
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I kind of agree, but work =/= randomly faffing around or getting lucky. I had a case where my main leads were build, blood type, and partner job. The solution was pinning every muscular person to the board and getting their address whilst going to every office and finding the person with said job. That, I think, is right at the line of tedious and boring. The case I just mentioned was fun enough to do (especially since I didn't even get 4 offices in before finding the target), but the ones others talk about in here have even less to go off of.

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The rewards for these more insane cases aren't even that much higher anyway.

slim birch
unborn atlas
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I dunno, in a lot of noir stories and true-crime cases, there's moments where the detective work really IS going through a huge database of possibilities and sorting through it. I might be a little weird but it's one of the things that's really engaging to me in the game. especially once you've played the game for long enough to learn all the tricks to figure something out easily. (Disclaimer: I've only played on a small city so far, so my perception of the game's difficulty is probably skewed.)

digital socket