The Squirrel

Patricia Bradley Mystery Question 20 Comments

Last week I promised a story about the squirrel in the photo. One day, my husband and I were sitting out in the garage with the doors up, and a cat that had taken residence at our house became very interested in something in the corner. When we investigated we found this:baby squirrel

It was a little boy squirrel, and evidently, something had happened to the mother squirrel. We took it inside and fed it–it’s been a while ago, so I’m not sure what, but it wasn’t long before he was eating french fries. He also loved Nutter Butter cookies! He would take them apart and eat the sweet stuff in the middle and leave the cookie part.

squirrel eats french fry

He stayed inside for a couple of weeks, then one day we opened the back and out he went. But every morning I’d open the door and he’d come in and run all around the house. The rest of the time, he stayed in the tree that had the hummingbird feeder.

He never seemed afraid of us and came up into the garage when we sat out there. One day he came and he had a friend with him, a little female squirrel. It was almost as though he was introducing her to us. That was the last time he came up into the garage. And after that, if he saw us, he ran and hid–he’d reverted back to the wild.

The story about hummingbird feeder will have to wait until another time.

Now for last week’s Mystery Question: It’s 1965 and a physician left his hospital, picked up his son from a nursery school near his home, then drove to a family friend’s house to pick her up for lunch. When the friend was unable to keep the luncheon appointment, he drove home to his apartment and found his wife lying on the utility floor. She had been shot repeatedly. He immediately called a neighbor, another medical doctor, who pronounced the wife dead. Which of the following statements is true of this case?
  1. The husband was arrested and convicted, but on appeal, he was released until the new trial, and he fled to Uganda where he became the personal physician to Idi Amin, the country’s dictator.
  2. When the murder weapon was identified as a Walther PPK, the doctor, a gun collector, claimed he didn’t own that type gun until evidence proved otherwise. He then changed his story and said it had been stolen.
  3. When asked why he didn’t examine his wife’s body, the doctor claimed he didn’t need to because he could tell from lividity that she was dead (Lividity=blood pooling at lowest extremities in a corpse). But the other doctor said when she examined the body, lividity had not occurred.
  4. Time of death was determined to be at 11:36 am. The doctor claimed that he was at his friend’s house at that time, but the friend said he was mistaken. She had strep throat and she had a dose of medicine due at 11:30 which she took on time. At the trial, she stated it was a good half hour after she took her medicine before the doctor arrived.

And the answer is…#4. Congrats Lisa and Jerusha for guessing correctly!

And now for this week’s Mystery Question: In 1983, a man’s body was found in a wooded area. It was determined to be a man who had disappeared two years earlier. Later his vehicle was found and the secret panel in his Ford van where he’d stashed $95,000 had been ripped out and the money was gone. Which statement below is a false statement about the crime:
  1. Ice crystals were found around the man’s heart, and the medical examiner determined the body had been on ice for two years in order to disguise the time of death.
  2. If the killer had thawed the body before dumping it, the medical examiner could not have told the body had been frozen.
  3. The man wanted to elude debtors and had started over in another part of the country with a partner, but right after he disappeared, the two got into an argument and the partner killed him and froze the body for two years before dumping it.
  4. The medical examiner soaked the man’s hands in glycerin and water to obtain prints and identify the victim.

Okay, Super Slueths, which is the false statement? Leave your comment below to be entered in November’s drawing for an adult coloring book!

October’s winner is: Anne Rightler! Anne, I’ll email you with a list of books in my library and you can pick one.

 

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none” inject=”#giveaway”]Did the murderer flee to Uganda and become Idi Amin’s personal physician?[/tweet_box] [tweet_box design=”default” float=”none” inject=”#giveaway #colloringbook”]Can you disguise the time of death by freezing a body?[/tweet_box]

Happy Fall!

Halloween’s pumpkins with autumn leaves on wooden table. See series.

 


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  1. Edward Arrington

    Sometimes I scroll down to see other answers before responding but I selected #2 this time and noticed as I scrolled down that everyone else seems to be going with that one. Interesting story about the squirrel. She must have been more introverted than he was or more afraid of big ol’ humans.

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  2. Trixi

    I’ll be the odd man out and say #4, though I’m sure it’s a true statement 😉

    Loved your squirrel story Patricia! My grandpa had “tamed” a black squirrel enough that he would sit on my grandpa’s knee and eat peanuts (as long as you didn’t make sudden moves). His name was Charlie and we saw him for many years, then my grandpa passed away and he stopped coming around. I love squirrels…they have to be my favorite furry creatures 🙂

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      Patricia Bradley

      I love watching squirrels while sitting on my deck. They chase each other all over the place. Do get a little aggravated when they tear up my bird feeders or get my pecans. 🙂 We’ll see next week if being the odd man out paid off, Trixi!

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