The case
Saturday night, October 26, 1996, a truck stop on Interstate 40 in Tennessee. At two in the morning the clocks go back to one, and the owner, Lamar Garrison, walks around the diner resetting every one of them himself, the way he does every year. Then he takes the night deposit into his office to count it, shuts the door, and is shot in the chest with his own revolver. The safe is empty when the waitress finds him.
Every witness gives the Sheriff a time. Every record in the file has a time on it. The Sheriff lines them up, clears everyone who can be cleared, and blames a stranger off the interstate.
Twenty-three years later the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has the file.
Six people: the wife at the Elks dance, the son who was fired in August, the waitress who found him, the trucker who argued at the pumps, the competitor who wanted the plaza, and the deputy who was seeing the wife.
What is in the file
- Police Reports — incident report, scene report with plan, evidence log, 1997 inactive summary, 2019 review memo
- Forensics — autopsy, firearms report
- Witness Statements — eight, from the waitress who found him to a man interviewed in prison in 2019
- Photographs — six frames, persons-of-interest sheet
- Records — the citation, the Highway Patrol dispatch log, telephone records, the pump controller log, the Sheriff's dispatch log, the newspaper's clock-change notice, alibi verification
- Personal Documents — a lawyer's letter, a ledger page
- Press — 2019 feature
Persons of interest
Six people on the persons-of-interest sheet:
- Bonnie Garrisonthe victim's wife
- Denny Garrisonson
- Ruby Szymanskinight waitress
- Earl Saylestrucker
- Marvin Tidwellcompetitor
- Glen Wadesheriff's deputy on night patrol
The hardest file on the site
The Extra Hour is rated 5 out of 5 and it is the case we suggest last. Nothing in it is hidden, but it asks for more patience than any other file on the site.
Plan on three hours and a ruled sheet of paper for the timeline. Solo players who enjoy arithmetic will get the most out of it. Teams do well when one person keeps the timeline while the others read, which makes it a good choice for a work group or a family with older teenagers who want a proper challenge. If you have not played the free Bluebird case yet, start there; this one assumes you are comfortable building a timeline.
What you must decide
Name the killer. One accusation. Every conclusion in the solution rests on at least two documents. There are no hints anywhere on this site.
