Here's a fun little riddle I came up with based on a story I am writing: Who is the murderer?

One day in the midst of July of 1925, the hot sun baked the dead body of Sierra Lockwood (age 30) who lay lifeless in the green grass of her backyard garden.

The crime scene is spread out as so:

Sierra was approximately 40 feet from her home, her body discarded in her garden. Her body lay near a stout shrub, the blood already hardened on her clothing. A trail of disrupted grass and flowers displayed the fact that she was dragged from her home after the murder took place.

The police had already found the four suspects that could be related to this case:

Lucas Quill: The man who Sierra was once engaged to Ms. Lockwood, but was left on the alter after Sierra fled, unwilling to marry him. He was the one who discovered the body and reported it to the police.

Victoria Lockwood: A sister of Sierra who had been sick with the flu for the past couple days. When their parents died Victoria found that in her parents will they left the estate in the hands of Sierra and did not leave anything for Victoria. She had been bitter ever since, possibly to the point of murder.

Jaime Lockwood: The youngest sister of the Lockwood girls, only at the age of 21. She had always hated Sierra, always held a grudge against her for being so perfect and the golden child. But as of late, she had tried to make amends with Sierra. Coincidentally, she had tried to get close to Sierra right before her murder.

Norman Williams: The butler of the Lockwood household. He had been working there for 50+ years and had gotten quite grey and exhausted. Jaime did say that he had gotten quite irritable always had a rage behind his eyes. He had gotten quite angry towards Sierra when she wouldn’t raise Norman’s pay or give him the proper bonus.

Here were their stories:

Lucas Quill: “I was just coming home from work on my way to visit dear Sierra when I couldn’t find her anywhere. So I went out to check her garden when I found her body. It was so hot outside that her body had started to burn and blister. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but I ran back inside to call the police.”

Victoria: “I was out on the porch for the past hour trying to get fresh air. I was hoping it would make me feel better. I even had some iced tea with me, it really was blistering hot out there. The only other people in the house was Norman and Jaime.”

Jaime: “I was in the kitchen trying to make rolls for the soup kitchen down the road. I’d been baking since early this morning. I never even noticed the absence of my sister. I though she may had left for the market…I would never have suspected that she had been murdered.”

Norman: “I had been running errands for Miss Jaime and Victoria. Collecting things from the cellar for Miss Jaime’s baking, and necessities for Victoria so that she would feel better. I had thought Miss Sierra had been in bed, maybe she too was not feeling well. I never really acknowledged her absence. I even took a short break to cool off because the heat was overwhelming.”

The detective when to go find the places that the four had claimed they had been and here is what the detective found:

Lucas Quill: He was at work all day, his coworkers reported that he was at his office till 1 this afternoon, then took a short leave for his lunch break, but came back at approximately 1:45 p. m. And finished work at 4:00 p. m.

Victoria: Out on the porch was a wicker rocking chair and a small table which sat a clear glass of lemon and lavender tea, the ice still in large cubes, basking in the mid-summer sun. Even a blanket lay next to the chair.

Jaime: In the kitchen, a mess of ingredients for rolls was splayed out on the counters. It was clear she had been cooking all day. A batch of rolls sat in the oven, with other pans already cooked and set out to cool on the counters.

Norman: Down in the cellar there was footprints, the size of Norman’s, on the dusty floor, proof that the butler had been down there that day. There was even missing ingredients from what Norman took for Miss Jaime’s rolls.

So…who was the murderer? Pay attention to details. ;)