Murder Mystery: Hiking Trails of Betrayal (Solved)

As we came down on Julius’ poaching business, he quickly turned on Cheryl and threw her under the bus for a better deal. She was solely responsible for the murder of Nathaniel. She had found Brad’s phone and was snooping on it when he received the message from Nathaniel about planning to get proof of the poaching. If she only had access to the phone, she wouldn’t have been able to read the encoded message, but unfortunately she had Brad’s notebook as well – which had all the ciphers she needed to read the code. She quickly put together a plan to get rid of Nathaniel. She was pretty sure that Brad didn’t know about Julius as she had intercepted the message, but she thought is safe to discredit him just in case by framing the murder on him.

She knew the two men very well and it was easy to come up with something believable. She messaged Nathaniel from Brad’s phone to lure him out to Trail A that was closed. In this way she wouldn’t be spotted in the act. She then went about planting evidence that would point the investigation towards Brad. She created a tree note to resemble the ones she’d seen on hikes before. She knew that Brad would be painting his house that day, so she used regular house paint for her tree notes. This is something that eco-conscious Brad would never do. However, she was unaware that Brad would be called out of state for work – giving him an airtight alibi. She also placed a shovel, that Brad had lost in the bar, at the crime scene to further incriminate him.

Cheryl assumed that she could get to the top of Trail A and back without anyone noticing she was gone, but one of her staff did notice.

Poaching and Money

Nathaniel had been keeping notes on the various traps he found surrounding hiking areas and was reporting them to police. He was also doing his own investigation to find out who was involved. During this time, he bought an engagement ring and was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Sandra. The threatening letter from Julius made him back off of his plans and leave instead – for her safety.

Julius’ poaching business was very profitable but he didn’t have a means to launder his ill-gotten cash. Cheryl and Julius got into business together whereby he would sell his pelts on the black market, and then run the cash through her legitimate business for a fee. This became a very lucrative endeavor for both parties and Cheryl soon found herself deep into the poaching business. An unlucky set of events and some keen detective skills put away these dangerous people.

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