■ FILE NO. 1996/417 — REOPENED

FREE COLD CASE
MURDER MYSTERY GAMES.
YOU SOLVE THE FILE.

Unsolved for twenty years. Your turn. Realistic cold case files in real police format: autopsy reports, witness statements, phone records, marina logs. Cross-reference the evidence and accuse the killer. One accusation. No hints. Alone, or with friends on your own phones.

How it works
Evidence

EMILY HARTWELL

16.08.1996 · Fenwick Point, CT · Homicide

Convicted: R. Dolan — 24 years
Status: Innocence petition, 2016
Documents: 26 · Sealed solution envelope

Investigator: __________

THE CASE FILES

The Boathouse01
CASE 01 · 1996 · CONNECTICUT · DIFFICULTY ●●●○○

The Boathouse

A journalism intern is killed in a holiday compound's boathouse. The night watchman has been in prison for twenty years. Clear him, find the weapon, name the killer.

FREE2–3 hDetails
Last Departure02
CASE 02 · 1988 · CHICAGO UNION STATION · DIFFICULTY ●●●●○

Last Departure

An architect is found dead in a sleeper compartment locked from the inside. Timetables, a conductor's log, and a ticket stub that shouldn't exist.

FREE3 hDetails
Unidentified03
CASE 03 · 2003 · OUTER BANKS, NC · DIFFICULTY ●●●●●

Unidentified

A burned body in the dunes. No name, no witnesses. First find out who she was. Then find out who made sure nobody would ask.

FREE3–4 hDetails
The Lighthouse Keeper04
CASE 04 · 1979 · MAINE · DIFFICULTY ●●●●○

The Lighthouse Keeper

A lighthouse keeper dead at the foot of his tower, the hatch above him bolted from inside. The county said he fell. The log says a boat came.

FREE3 hDetails
Room 31205
CASE 05 · 1992 · RENO · DIFFICULTY ●●●●○

Room 312

A poker dealer strangled in a locked hotel room on tournament night. A drifter did twenty-six years for it. The casino's tapes have a forty-minute hole.

FREE3 hDetails
The Orchard06
CASE 06 · 1985 · WASHINGTON · DIFFICULTY ●●●○○

The Orchard

A picker crushed under a bin trailer at the height of the harvest. An accident, the sheriff said. Two ledgers for the same week say otherwise.

FREE2–3 hDetails
1. Open the cold case file

Twenty-six documents from the cold case file, exactly as the original investigators had them. Some lead nowhere. That is the point. Reports, statements, photographs, records. Read everything. Pin what matters.

2. Build the case yourself

No objectives, no hints, no highlighted lines. Some documents are dead ends, some point at the wrong person. The file gives you nothing for free.

3. One accusation

When you are sure, name the killer. Right or wrong, the sealed solution envelope opens and shows what the file actually proved. With friends: share a 5-letter room code; pins, notes and the verdict stay in sync.

What is a cold case murder mystery game?

A cold case murder mystery game hands you a closed police file and asks you to finish what the original detectives started. There is no narrator and no puzzle box. You get what a real investigator gets when a file comes back out of storage: the first incident report, the autopsy, witness statements taken in the days after the killing, phone records, a site plan, newspaper clippings and the odd document nobody bothered to read at the time.

Each case on Cold Murder Mystery is a complete fictional file of twenty-six documents. Some of them matter. Some are noise, exactly as they would be in a real box of evidence. Two or three point firmly at the wrong person. Your job is to read, compare times and names across documents, and work out which story the evidence actually supports.

How a case plays

Open a file and start anywhere. Most players begin with the prosecutor's summary and the newspaper clipping, then go to the statements and test each one against the records. Pin the documents that matter, write notes, and build your own timeline of the night. When you are ready, you make one accusation. There is no second try: right or wrong, the sealed final envelope opens and the solution file walks through what the documents proved.

Solo or with friends

Alone, a case is a long evening of careful reading, and your progress is saved on your device. With friends it becomes a different game. One person opens a room and shares a five-letter code; everyone reads the full file on their own phone, in any order, while pins, notes and the timeline stay in sync. It works at the same table or over a video call, for two to eight players.

Free, and fair

Every case is free to play in the browser, with no download, no account and no payment, including the solution. The cases are written to be fair: everything you need to name the killer is in the file, and nothing depends on a lucky guess. If you enjoy detective games online and crime solving games that trust you to do the thinking, start with case 01, The Boathouse.

FAQ

What is a cold case file game?

A murder mystery you solve by reading a reconstructed police file: autopsy reports, witness statements, phone records, photographs. There is no board and no dice. You cross-reference documents until the evidence proves who did it. Ours are played entirely in the browser.

Is it really free?

Yes. Every case is completely free, with no sign-up and no payment, including the sealed solution envelopes.

How is this different from a boxed case file?

Same kind of evidence, same one-accusation ending, but nothing to ship and nothing to lose. It works on a phone, so a group does not have to crowd around one table. And answers are checked, not looked up.

How many people can play?

One to eight. In group mode every player has the full file on their own phone and can read in any order; notes and the accusation are shared.

All questions

CASE 01 · THE BOATHOUSE

How do you want to investigate?

Already have a code?