The Story...
Local geocaching legend Peyton Cash has been murdered along the Ballenger Creek Trail.
The police haven't been much help. Chief Lee A. Pathette (IC) may just be an Interim Chief, but he's been around the block enough to know to "let those geocacher people be." Apparently, that courtesy extends not just to strange-looking people roaming around the fringes of parks and highways--the hands-off mentality carries all the way up to homicide investigations! A cacher has been murdered on cacher turf, possibly by another cacher, and it's up to us, the caching community, to get to the bottom of it. Who dun' it?
From the police report you were able to get the time, place, and cause of death, but little else. The murder occurred around dusk two nights ago on a trail south of Frederick, MD. Cause of death was confirmed to be asphyxiation--Peyton was strangled. The picture of the body from the crime scene confirmed this as well, believed to be taken shortly after he died. You couldn't help but notice that, other than the unbecomingly broad welt all around his neck, Peyton Cash still looked just as you remembered him. He was in his caching attire, with the bright yellow feather of his famous plumed pen sticking out of his breast pocket. Legend has it that he used that pen to sign the logs for every single one of his 25,000+ finds. Most irking was his face... it seemed to have settled back to his signature wily, knowing grin, oddly peaceful after such a gruesome event.
Hmmmm... Peyton usually kept that pen in a special container, where it would stay safe from the perils of the outdoors until it was time to sign a log. It was odd he had out, exposed, in his breast pocket. Then it hits you... he must have been about to sign a cache! Following up on geocaching.com, mdgps.com, and other forums, you find out that there was a very challenging cache right in that area, never found in over three years. What's more, one of the forum threads reveals that Peyton seemed to be boasting about some "brilliant discovery," much to the chagrin of his caching rivals, and that he was planning a trip to the Frederick area on that same fateful day. Definitely worth checking out further.
So, you do. Apparently, the cache has since been archived, as a sign of respect and condolence for Peyton. You contact the CO, Unfathomable_Depth_79, and after a little explanation, she happily gives you the former final coords for GZ. Anything for Peyton (not to mention that the container still needs to be removed for the now-archived cache.) Not surprisingly, GZ is within 50 feet of the crime scene. If Peyton visited the cache, it could contain clues that the detectives never would have found! You grab your caching pack and race out the door.
After arriving, you recognize the area from the photos in the police report. You zero in on GZ, and, being the astute geocacher that you are, have the small lock-n-lock in hand shortly thereafter. You deduce that the cache was hastily handled. Only one of the lid flaps was properly secured, and the logbook was not returned to the zip lock. Definitely abnormal behavior for a respected veteran cacher. You open the logbook and find Peyton Cash's name as well as the date of death, as expected. It's what you see below his signature that captures your attention.
Two initials were scribbled rapidly with what appears to be the same pen: "P. R." What could it mean? A final plea to improve Public Relations in the caching community? Unlikely. Direction to take a second look at the Police Report? Nah, that doesn't make sense. The initials of his assailant, quickly written before trying to escape? Now, that idea has some merit.
After more investigation, you come up with three likely suspects. Witnesses put all three on the trail that night, and they all certainly had motive. But which one was the murderer?
What Now?
Continue your on-scene investigation at these three caches:
Using the information you obtain from those caches, deduce the murderer, and piece together the location of the cache, hidden somewhere around:
N39 22.
??? W77 25.
???
Use the coordinate information found in the "color" clues from all three caches to fill in those question marks. Then...
If
Papacito is the killer, then X=5, Y=3, and Z=1.
If
P' Ussell is the killer, then X=6, Y=0, and Z=4.
If
Raines is the killer, then X=2, Y=7, and Z=8.