A bridge, a body, what happened? (see details)

What happened is that I continued home and poured myself a nice single malt. There hasn’t been a body lying in snow yet that has more appeal than a good single malt.

That’ll more than likely be those bloody trolls again.

@ucme With wings? Because they would still have to leave footprints and the only ones were your’s and his. :-)

Oh these resourceful little devils don’t walk they hover over their prey menacingly.

@ucme And what did they use or how did they do the guy in?

A toffee hammer perhaps?

@ucme Do they leave small holes in the head when it is struck by them?

@Hypocrisy_Central Oh absolutely,as for the basketball sized hole, hmmm the plot thickens.

My money is on an icicle falling from a tree. or an ice bullet wielding assassin

“T3h Sn1p@r” rifle, but with a bullet that explodes upon contact with water, fired from behind and very high above. If the ammunition was actually scientifically possible, explain how this would not work.

Two Harley riders, going in opposite directions, met each other on top of the bridge. on one cycle was the other riders ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend. a fight broke out between the new and ex-boyfriends. new boyfriend lost the battle and was shot in the face by the ex. not wanting to leave a witness behind, ex-girlfriend also shot in the face and dumped overboard off the bridge and cracked the frozen water below, leaving a small hole. this explains the the body, the scratch on the railing and the hole in the frozen water below. there is just one thing missing in my story. can you find it?

The man was walking across the bridge completely unaware of the bird hunter in the woods some hundred yards away. As he reached the crest of the bridge, he stood completely still and watched as a covy of ducks flew his direction. As he leaned on the railing he inadvertently brushed away the snow. One of the ducks, no doubt entranced with something along the water’s edge, dropped to a lower flight path than his brethren.

The hunter, hearing the commotion of the ducks, took careful aim on the lowest bird, his distance vision, useless to him as he sighted on the bird. He neither saw nor heard the man on the bridge. BAM! The single shot pierced the duck. The projectile moved with a velocity to transit the duck and exit the feathery carcass. The bullet grazed the wooden support railing and hit the man in the head, causing his body to drop to the surface of the bridge. The duck’s body hit the ice, cracking the surface and creating a hole. The man lay on the bridge for nearly 10 minutes, blood pouring onto the falling snow. The hunter sent his faithful Labrador retriever to bring back his kill, completely unaware of the double murder he had just committed.

Kayak8. not bad. i am just wondering how much this dead duck weighed in order to break the frozen ice below?

@john65pennington Velocity my friend, velocity! Thought about making it a swan, but couldn’t remember if they could fly or not. Then thought Canada Goose, which probably would be able to break the ice (I don’t know how high the bridge it above the water below) and it would be a dead drop . . .

Depending on the height of the bridge over the river, I think I could make it work . . .

He confused fact from fiction, and someone similar to me pushed him over.

He shot himself and falling he dropped the gun and it went over the side into the frozen water! The only logical explanation I could come up with that seemed to explain everything!

Sounds like the return of the Great Nordic tree penguins. Those evil bastards can fly, y’know.

@Fred931 “*“T3h Sn1p@r” rifle, but with a bullet that explodes upon contact with water*” If there was a sniper rifle and the bullet exploded off the water how did it get from the water to his noggin? And at that range with a caliber that would be needed to reach would he not have a gaping hole instead of a small one?

@john65pennington “*Two Harley riders, going in opposite directions, met each other on top of the bridge.*” D’oh! You were a cop, use your inner Columbo. There were no tire tracks just his footprints until you stepped back on the bridge. If it had snowed hard enough to cover tire tracks it would have wiped out his foot prints, covered the area where the snow was brushed away on the rail and the body would have been half covered with snow. The fact that his was the only footprints lead one to think it recently happened.

@Kayak8 “*As he leaned on the railing he inadvertently brushed away the snow.*” That is the Achilles heel otherwise it was quite plausible. But the man could not have been at the rail because his footprints when straight up the middle to the crest, and if he were there long enough for the snow to cover his steps to the rail it would have covered where he leaned and his footsteps up the bridge as well. (On the way back you see a person laying face down in the middle of the bridge at the crest…… The only footprints are the person lying face down and yours both walking to the crest of the bridge). But a pretty good explanation so far, in your favor I would have to say you must vision the bridge much narrower that it was.

@john65pennington Wondered that as well, how thin would the ice be and hoe big this duck to break through. I also pondered if the duck landed right under the bridge it had to have glided from high to hit there and if that close so low how would the shooter not have seen the man in the on the bridge if he was at the rail or not?

@ShanEnri YOU ARE THE CLOSEST YET!! <gushes with pride> However you do have a few pieces missing yet. If the guy was in the middle of the bridge how would he get the gun in the water? It would be hard to pop himself AND toss the gun far enough to fly over the bridge too. One might say recoil but then it would have to be a larger piece and that would leave a larger hole it it didn’t blow the back of his skull off. Ummmmm………use your inner Columbo and I am sure you will find the missing pieces. :-)

@Hypocrisy_Central The bullet went through his head, through the bridge, and into the water, upon which it exploded, causing the big hole. The bullet could be very tiny, and then explode a good 2ft-3ft diameter under the bridge.

@Fred931 Ahhhh….but an exit would was not a fact in evidence, and that would have to be the case right, @john65pennington? For the bullet to have made the hole there would have had to be a trough and through head shot but that was not the case or he would have had 2 holes in his head. :-)

The man, who had just killed his wife, walked to the crest of the bridge. He needed to get rid of the gun and destroy all the evidence. He walked over to the railing, thereby disturbing the snow. He looked over at the water and saw the coating of snow on the surface but had no idea how thick the ice was on the water.

He walked back to the crest of the bridge and thought about his options. He then lobbed the gun over the edge of the bridge never expecting what happened next. The gun cracked the ice, making a hole and inadvertently discharging the weapon. The bullet hit the wooden support, making a deep groove and the ricochet kicked the bullet in the man’s direction, hitting him in the head.

@Hypocrisy_Central The only thing my inner Columbo can fathom right now is this…he was going to shoot himself or he committed a crime (murder) walked onto the bridge and tried to toss the gun over, but didn’t throw hard enough. The gun hits the bridge, goes off and then flies over the side into the water?!

@Kayak8 Ahhhh a variation of @ShanEnri but still just a little off. You both are so close you will kick yourself in the head once you know what really happened. :-)

@john65pennington Help them out, in your career and expertise what caliber of gun would leave an entry wound nut not an exit would if used at close range?

This guy was gonna testify against the Clintons in the Whitewater case, right?

Actually, I go with the Icecicle. Guy looked over the side, and caught one from above.
The Clinton thing was just a coincidence.

Entry wound and no exit? i have seen just one case of this scenerio. bullet entered the face and lodged in the brain. the cause? after an arrest and forensic evaluation of the murder weapon, it was determined that old ammunition was the culprit. like the saying goes, “the old gray mare ain’t what she use to be”. same applies to old ammunition. in other words, the killing bullet only had about 45% of its power to push the projectile from the barrel into the face and fizzeled out. does this make sense?

@john65pennington I can get my head around it. psst, you really want to know how it was done and what happened? I will tell ya and and since @ShanEnri I will let her in on ot too, just don’t tell everyone else. Hee hee hee

Yes I want to know please! :)

@ShanEnri Should I tell just you or should I reveal it to everyone? :-D

I think we’ve given up.

Wait, don’t share it just yet. I want to take one more stab at this (it is driving me crazy). I will post my final guess by 7 pm EST (so the rest of you don’t have to wait too much longer).

@Kayak8 Fair enough, I will give all who want to channel their inner Columbo until 8pm then….ta da….the great reveal. Some might go “D’oh! I was so close” :-)

@Hypocrisy_Central Sounds like a plan! I can’t wait to see!
@Kayak8 Good luck! I’ve wracked my brain and can’t come up with anything better!

Man, I hate to say it, but I give. Now I just have to wait for 14 minutes to solve the riddle that has haunted me for three days . . . . argggg I don’t know perhaps I killed a bloke and just don’t remember . . . .

doo, doo, doo, just sitting around waiting . . . .

OK, so maybe the red is paint from a paint ball gun rather than blood (he may not be dead, just on the ground).

As for the groove in the wood, trajectory of bullet or place where gun was clamped to the railing.

Hole in the water is either the gun (you all didn’t like the duck idea) or the ice was shot, thereby making the hole . . .

Man lobs gun over the side. Gun discharges into the bridge support causing the groove in the wood, the bullet hits the ice causing a hole into which the gun disappears. The ice kicked back from the frozen river hits the man in the head, the ice enters his head (ergo no exit wound).

OK you all did a good jub but here it is the solution no you don’t need popcorn for this

The bridge the body what happened?

Columbo; “So, sergeant you said the witness came upon the body on their way back to a friend’s house. And it was not the witness who shot theman?”

Sergeant, “That is right inspector, they had no gun shot residue on their clothing. Plus there were no other tracks and the vics tracks never over stepped his/hers.”

Columbo, “So the witness while walking back to the friends house spies the body and walks up to it to find blood in the snow, but no weapon. And the vics belongings were still on his body, his watch, wallet and everything….”

Sergeant; “We felt the reason there was no gin was that it was a hunting accident. Someone was illegally hunting and when he got to the bridge at its highest a stray bullet caught him in the head.

Officer; “Your bristling Inspector Columbo, You don’t agree?”

Columbo; “not really gentleman. We have a man shot in the head. A rifle to hunt with would have been powerful enough for an exit would. The snow was falling so if anyone shot him at close range they would have left tracks off the bridge even had the killer been on the bridge when it started to snow. Had the shooter been at the base of the bridge there would have still been tracks of the escape and there was just the witness returning from a walk who had no weapon or one along the trail he/she was walking, The linch pin is the rail.”

Sergeant; “It is just a wood rail”

Columbe; “Yes, but you notice the rest of the rail was covered with snow when the witness came upon the body except for this spot right here where a stripe of snow was brushed away. If the vic tracks never came to the rail how did this snow get moved aside?”

Puzzled looks from cops.

Columbo; “When you look under that part of the bridge there is a hole in the ice. There was no hunting accident or a robbery gone bad or a murder.”

Sergeant; “So what happened?”

Columbo; “Easy a suicide. The man figuring there was no one out in such weather came to this bridge, seeing the new snow had not fallen he had no ideal the witness was in the area because his/her tracks migled with all the old ones. He walked to the middle of the bridge at its highest. He took a small caliber hand gun, most likely a .22 and tided string or wire to the trigger of the gun, He did that more than likely to help get rid of the gun. Had he shot himself at the rail we would figure he dropped the gun over the side if we did not find it about the body. If he was in the middle he could not shoot himself and toss the gun over the side at the same time. With the wire around the trigger he tided the other end to a heavy object. standing in the middle of the bridge he tossed the heavy object over the side, when the slack was taken up the trigger was pulled and the gun fired a round into his head. Not thinking how far he was from the edge the gun clipped the rail while being dragged to the ice by the heavy object, and causing it to etch a grove in this spot here where the snow was brushed aside. When the heavy object hit the ice it broke through and pulled the gun with it. I am assuming he figured since he was the only one in the area that the ice would have froze over before he was found throwing off that the weapon used was there. He tried to kill himself and not make it look like a suicide.”

Sergeant; “Why would he want to do that?”

Columbo lighting his cigar; “That is another mystery. He sure isn’t talking so I guess that is another thing to dig for”

Shooting self in head

@Kayak8 The bonus question would be why would someone commit suicide by shooting himself in the head but trying not to make it appear that way….........ummmmmmmmm?

@Hypocrisy_Central Gotta be the insurance payout for his family . . .

@Hypocrisy_Central I wouldn’t have ever gotten that one! Good though! And I agree with @Kayak8 insurance payout!

@ShanEnri You had the gun in the frozen water…..then later that the gun was indeed tossed and that it shot him in the head, all you lacked was connecting the dots LOL LOL <starting to leave the door> Oh one last thing <puff puff> You can say “D’oh!! I was so close”.

It seems like a lot of work. Hiring my sniper would’ve worked better, and if he was stupid, the guy killed could decide to pay after the job was done.

@Fred931 Maye he could not find a sniper who could shoot straight or one at all; not like you can Google “snipers for hire” or “have bullet will travel”. :-)

@Hypocrisy_Central Well, you could in a country like, say, America?

@Fred931 I am here in America and you might be able to Google up snipers (but trying to hire one and not get busted, not easy). To actually be able to secure a good one how would you go about getting one? Not like you can ask around for one and why you want one and not have it makes its way to ther ears of the feds. :-)

@Hypocrisy_Central D’oh!! I was soooooooooo close! ;p