How to conduct a murder investigation?

[Oriande]

Any suggestions on how I can conduct a murder investigation to make it more realistic for my players?  

The background is as follows:
The mutilated body on a man in his mid-thirties was discovered by hikers.
The man is regestered at a local hotel. His car is still in the lot.
He came to town to see his ex -- one of the player characters.
He was seen drinking with her in the hotel bar following a local festival which they attended together.
The coroner estimates the time of death to be 20-30 hrs later.

[jybil178]

Hmm... It seems you have a decent amount of gathered information for them... What else are you looking for?

A note, is you may want to try to think of a few aspects your players may attempt to find about the murder, and prepare for them to be discovered.

Also, how are the players being dragged into this?  Are the investigating this alongside the police?  Are they investigating this as best they can, by themselves?  Are they possibly suspects to the crime themselves, and they have to clear their name?  Or worse yet, DID they commit the crime, and are you asking us how the police will go about trying to solve this information, and if they have a chance of finding them?

[crusher_bob]

Your main characters to develop are the investigating officers:

Is the body obviously the result of foul play, or does it look more like an animal attack?
If it looks like an animal attack, the initial investigators are likely to be something like park rangers or fish, game, & wildlife guys looking to trap and kill the animal responsible.

If it looks like foul play, then it will be a police investigation.  If there's not a nearby town, the likely investigating officers would be from the State Patrol, possibly assisted by deputies of the county sheriff.

[Drachasor]

Edit: Misread OP, thought he was talking about BEING a player in the above scenario.  I think the link Crusher posted is pretty good.  Also, it is nice to layer mysteries together, so starting to answer something initially (say WHAT killed this guy), leads to further mysteries about the motive and such.  Depends on how significant you want things to be.  Also, sounds like the PC should be a suspect, making things a bit more difficult.

Well, there's the standard motive, means, and opportunity.

So you want to figure out who had a reason to kill him.  (Look at his professional and personal life, friends, enemies, etc).
You want to figure out who had the means to do it (looks like he was mutilated, so who could have done it in that fashion?), if he had any supernatural powers, you'll have to account for that as well.
And you want to figure out who could have killed him in those 10 hours.  Try to eliminate people who couldn't have been there (hard with a 10 hour window).

Also, you want to be able to explain anything odd about the crime and so forth...
He was found by hikers.  Did he hike?  How far from the hotel was he?  Why was he out there?
When did his ex last see him?  Was it just before the possible murder?  WHY was he in town to see her?  Was he going to see anyone else?  Did he know anyone else in town?
What sort of mutilation?  How was it done?  Anything else odd about the body?
When was he supposed to leave town?  Did anyone notice him missing?  Did anyone at the hotel see him after the PC?  Was he driving that night?  (That means he went back to the hotel).

Try to trace his activities in town while he was around.  See if there was anyone else in town at the same time, while you are at it.

Lots of stuff to answer and look at.

[crusher_bob]

Here: Mysteries. Step by step instructions. it takes me a while to dig up this thread each time.

[ironpoet]

Any suggestions on how I can a murder investigation more realistic for my players? 

The background is as follows:
The mutilated body on a man in his mid-thirties was discovered by hikers.
The man is regestered at a local hotel. His car is still in the lot.
He came to town to see his ex -- one of the player characters.
He was seen drinking with her in the hotel bar following a local festival which they attended together.
The coroner estimates the time of death to be 20-30 hrs later.

I think I've seen this episode... http://www.ncisfanwiki.com/page/3.17+-+Ravenous

[Bruce Coulson]

For a mystery, I've found the best way is to work backward.

Decide who dunnit, why they did it, how they did it.

Then work on why it's a mystery.  How did 'the butler' conceal their involvement?

Then present the bare-bones facts that would be available.

Also, don't get 'locked in' to a solution.  It's important to have a solution to the mystery, but if your players come up with a much cooler and more dramatic answer, go with it!

As far as involvement in this mystery, that's easy.  One of the PCs is an obvious suspect...

[Oriande]

I guess I should clearify.   jybil178  has it correct. I mainly need to know what the police are likely to do or say.  What is Standard Operating Procedure for dealing with suspects or "persons of interest" in a criminal investigation?

The victim was not dressed for hiking.  Nor is there any sign of how the body got to ots present location. [It was by way of the Nevernever, and the killer is supernatural in origin]
The player characters will likely guess this right away due to prior knowledge and interaction with the victim. 
The PC that I mentioned will need to clear her name by some means other than saying , "Well, I didn't kill him - a demon did it!"

[devonapple]

I guess I should clearify.   jybil178  has it correct. I mainly need to know what the police are likely to do or say.  What is Standard Operating Procedure for dealing with suspects or "persons of interest" in a criminal investigation?

I'm not saying "go spend money," but just FYI, in addition to whatever advice you receive here, there are published Police Procedural reference books for mystery/police writers who want to get such details right. They may have them in libraries as well. I bought one awhile back, but then had to cancel that game, so I didn't read it all the way through. It had clearly delineated sections so it was pretty easy to figure out how a particular procedure or group of procedures would work.

I should pick it up again. If you want, I'll get the title, but they shouldn't be too hard to find.

[bibliophile20]

I'm not saying "go spend money," but just FYI, in addition to whatever advice you receive here, there are published Police Procedural reference books for mystery/police writers who want to get such details right. They may have them in libraries as well. I bought one awhile back, but then had to cancel that game, so I didn't read it all the way through. It had clearly delineated sections so it was pretty easy to figure out how a particular procedure or group of procedures would work.

I personally like to use the New World Of Darkness books for this sort of thing; they're written with this sort of setting--dark urban fantasy--in mind, as well as being written for the gaming perspective, they're (usually) fairly well researched, and if you do any gaming at all, you probably have somebody in your extended social circle who has a copy.  For police procedures, I'd recommend two books from the nWoD line: Armory has equipment and legal stuff, and Tales From The 13th Precinct has police procedure and all of that, as well as an entire police precinct detailed out that you can simply adapt and drop into your DFRPG game (which is what I did...)

[Bruce Coulson]

There are advantages to being good friends with a police officer...

It depends on the 'person of interest'.  If they have a steady job, own a house, have a bank account (translation: not a high flight risk), they're likely to just ask the person to come by and answer some questions.  At the interview, they'll ask the obvious questions; what did the victim talk to you about, did he seem worried or nervous, did he meet anyone at the festival or seem to be avoiding someone, do you know of, or did he mention any enemies.  The basic establishing questions.  What the officers will be looking for is discrepancies, or a too-pat, too-knowledgable response.  The detective on the case would also be interviewing anyone else the victim had contact with.

This would all be low-key; unless there's a 'smoking gun' or some other clearly traceable weapon or circumstance that leads to the PC, they are a suspect; but so are a lot of other people.  The follow-up will depend on what answers/evidence the police discover.

If the PC has had 'legal encounters' previously, then the police will be a lot more demanding, and the PC will rank higher up on the suspect list.

Tales from the 13th Precinct is a good game guide for how police and investigations function.

Note that the police generally take a very dim view of private citizens investigating crimes; especially if said citizen is a suspect (and thus possibly trying to destroy evidence of their crime...)

[Drachasor]

There are advantages to being good friends with a police officer...

....

This would all be low-key; unless there's a 'smoking gun' or some other clearly traceable weapon or circumstance that leads to the PC, they are a suspect; but so are a lot of other people.  The follow-up will depend on what answers/evidence the police discover.

I'd think based on what the OP said the ex-girlfriend would be a prime suspect.  A spouse is killed it is usually the husband and in fact IIRC most murders are done by someone who knows the victim.*  I'd think this would be similar unless it looked like a human didn't commit the crime, if there were other real possibilities, or if there had been other murders like this.  Granted, they can't arrest her or anything (though they could detain her for 24 hours, IIRC), but they'd be pretty suspicious of her...especially if she started poking around (e.g. interfering with the investigation).

Does your friend generally agree with that?

*Might be wrong on the second part here, bit sick and didn't find stats with a quick internet search.

[Bruce Coulson]

Most murders are committed by someone the victim knows.  That is often a spouse or relative, and they are definitely suspects.

Keep in mind, that what police want is evidence that can hold up in a court of law.  And many murderers, if they're not caught 'in the act', get arrogant and think they've gotten away with it.  Police know this, and play up to it, in order to get the suspect to talk.  More people have talked themselves into jail than out of it.  A suspect that is talking is one that will probably give away enough information to either link them to the crime, or absolve them.  Either is good.

It's like weaving a net.  Police carefully gather physical evidence, and also talk to everyone even remotely related to the victim, and to everyone who met/saw the victim shortly before their demise.  If a suspect says, 'Oh, we bought ice cream at this booth'...then the police will be calling on that vendor.

Also, police prefer that suspects not 'lawyer up'.  Attorneys usually advise clients not to volunteer any information, and insist on being present at any meeting with the police.  Being accusatory towards a suspect is a good way for them to go running to a lawyer for help.  If you talk to them politely, sympathize with the inconvenience, and dismiss any concerns about the suspect's involvement in the case; "Oh, you're not a suspect; but wouldn't you like to help find out who did this terrible thing?"...then the suspect is far more likely to cooperate.

Now, if the ex is suddenly playing Miss Marples or Nancy Drew...then yeah, the police will suddenly no longer be so friendly.  For one thing, they can now arrest the person for 'interfering with an investigation' and 'interfering with official business'.  It's a minor charge; but now the police have far more latitude for search warrants and questioning.  And any friends accompanying the ex?  They're suspects and possible accomplices.

So, yes, the ex/PC is a definite suspect.  But it's very likely the police will pretend otherwise, at least until they have a reason to behave otherwise. 

[bitterpill]

Examples of common in game profiling mistakes ...  'It is always the spouse' 'he has funny eyes so he must be the villain', 'on his records one time at school he got into a fight so clearly a history of violence' and do not forget ' Twas the Butler that Dun it.'