Case files

All cold case files

Six case files: the first is free, the rest come with Premium. Play online on any phone or computer, alone or in a room with friends: text chat in every room, voice chat and up to 8 players with Premium. Each is a complete, self-contained investigation.

Play online with friends. Open a room and everyone reads on their own phone, with text chat. Premium adds voice chat and rooms of up to 8, from $19.99 a week.

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Last Call at the Bluebird — cold case file cover01FREE
FILE 93-1114 · MICHIGAN · 1993

Last Call at the Bluebird

Empty register. Locked cooler. One set of tracks.

A tavern owner found dead in his own walk-in cooler. Six suspects. 30 documents.

FREE2–3 h · 4/5
The Overnight Sleeper — cold case file cover02NEW
FILE 88-0207 · OHIO · 1988

The Overnight Sleeper

A bolted door. A sealed window. A flask he filled himself.

Ruled a suicide in three weeks. Six suspects, one poisoned flask, and a widow who never believed it. 28 documents.

Premium2–3 h · 4/5
Jane Doe, Room 14 — cold case file cover03NEW
FILE 03-0419 · FLORIDA · 2003

Jane Doe, Room 14

Before you can find the killer, find out who she was.

No purse, no car, no name, cash left on the dresser. Two files from two states that nobody compared. 29 documents.

Premium3 h · 4/5
The Harvest Ball — cold case file cover04NEW
FILE 79-0288 · IOWA · 1979

The Harvest Ball

Four hundred witnesses. Thirteen minutes. One glass nobody touched.

A grain baron drinks and dies at the head table of the Harvest Ball. Nicotine in the glass, and everyone with a motive in plain sight. 28 documents.

Premium2–3 h · 4/5
Dead Air — cold case file cover05NEW
FILE 11-3308 · MAINE · 2011

Dead Air

On the air until four. Found at the console at ten past five.

An overnight radio host found strangled at her console after the show goes off the air. 27 documents.

Premium2–3 h · 4/5
The Extra Hour — cold case file cover06NEW
FILE 96-1027 · TENNESSEE · 1996

The Extra Hour

The night had twenty-five hours in it. One o'clock happened twice.

A truck-stop owner shot in his office on the night the clocks went back, in the hour that happened twice. 27 documents.

Premium3 h · 5/5

Which case to open first

If you are new, start with Last Call at the Bluebird. It is free, it needs no account, and it teaches the habit every other file depends on: a statement is only a claim until a record backs it up. Most people finish it in two to three hours.

After that, choose by the evening you have in mind rather than by number. The Overnight Sleeper and Jane Doe, Room 14 are quiet, close-reading cases that suit two people on a sofa, which makes either one a good murder mystery game for a date night at home. The Harvest Ball has a hall full of witnesses and holds a table of four to six together, so it is the one to pick for a murder mystery party. Dead Air and The Extra Hour turn on logs, clocks and timestamps; they work well for team building, where people like to divide the evidence and compare notes.

Every case is played online, in the browser on any phone or computer. Anyone with Premium can open a room, and friends join free from their own phones with a six-character code; the room has text chat, and voice chat when the host has Premium.

The Extra Hour is rated 5 out of 5. Nothing in it is hidden, but it asks for patience and a sheet of paper for the timeline. Prices and plans are on the pricing page.