Interactive Practicum

When faced with a series of crimes that might be related, investigators have some decisions to make. Try your own hand at making those decisions by following along with the case below. This case is not only a whodunit, but a how-to-catch-him, and it starts with two separate investigative threads.

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Vitava River

On a chilly September morning in 1990, a woman's body was found along the bank of the Vitava River in Czechoslovakia, near Prague. She was lying on her back, nude, with a pair of gray stockings knotted around her neck. Left in a sexually suggestive position with her legs open, she was covered with leaves, grass and twigs. Those who found her ran to alert the authorities. On her finger was a gold ring.

They brought the body in for examination, and according to the information on a chart provided by the police, this victim had been strangled, as well as stabbed and beaten. It appeared that she had been killed recently, perhaps the night before. There were bruises all over her, signaling quite a struggle, but oddly enough, no sign that she had been raped. A tampon was still in place, and investigators found no biological fluids on her or at the scene. There was also no identification on or around her. They took her fingerprints, but unless she had a criminal record or had registered her prints for employment, they might not supply her identity. It was a murder, to be sure, but where to go from here?

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