Murder occurred one evening in the home of a married couple Mr. Hahn and Mrs. Hahn and their son Oliver and their daughter Claire. One member of the family murdered another member, the third member witnessed the crime, and the fourth member was an accessory after the fact.

1. The accessory and the witness were of the opposite sex.
2. The oldest member and the witness were of the opposite sex.
3. The youngest member and the victim were of the opposite sex.
4. The accessory was older than the victim.
5. Mr. Hahn was the oldest member.
6. The killer was not the youngest member.

From the above clues, determine which one of the four – Mr. Hahn, Mrs. Hahn, Oliver or Claire - was the killer?

There is an ambiguity in who is the second and who is the third oldest person. From the conditions of the logic puzzle alone there are 2 conclusions possible that we can draw by pure logic (or a programm can draw).
We don't have the information that Oliver is Mrs. Hahn's own (blood) son. So there is no necessity to presuppose that she must be older than Oliver. You can confirm this for example by a Prolog program. Therefore, the second solution is:

Mr Hahn        oldest              male          accessory
Oliver            2nd oldest       male          victim
Mrs Hahn       3rd oldest       female        killer
Claire             youngest        female        witness   

Posted by braun on 2014-12-14 15:39:27