Stony Lane is a long, narrow, dead end street. Stony Lane is connected to Main Street, which is a very long street with many small roads connected to it. There are hills on both sides of Main Street beyond the small roads. Stony Lane is about 300 feet long from Main Street to the end of the street. Stony Lane is not connected to any other street.

John lives alone in a one story house on Stony Lane. He has been living alone for 20 years on Stony Lane.

On a Saturday in July, at 7 o'clock in the evening, John walks out of his house, and gets into his blue car, and then he starts driving to a park. He makes a turn from Stony Lane onto Main Street, and then he is going north on Main Street. He drives three miles, and then he makes a right turn onto a small road, which leads to a park.

John enters the park and parks his car on the side of the road. He gets out of his car, and then he walks around the park for about 20 minutes. Then he gets back into his car, and he drives back onto Main Street, and he is going back to Stony Lane. He is going south on Main Street, and he drives three miles, and then he makes a right turn onto Stony Lane, which is the street where he lives.

On the right side of Stony Lane, there are two houses at the end of the street. There is a red house, which is the closest house to Main Street, and next to the red house, there is a yellow house at the end of the street.

On the left side of Stony Lane, there are also two houses at the end of the street. There is a green house, which is directly across the street from the red house, and next to the green house, there is a blue house at the end of the street. The blue house is directly across the street from the yellow house.

The red house is average size. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, a cellar, and an outdoor porch in the back.

The blue house is average size. The blue house is very similar to the red house. Both houses are the same height, and the same length going across. The only major difference is the blue house has an indoor porch in the back, which makes the length from the front to the back longer. The blue house also has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, and a cellar.

The green house is small. It is about four feet lower than the red and blue houses. The red and blue houses are about three feet wider than the green house. The green house has two bedrooms and one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a dining room. It has no cellar and no porch. Every room is on the same floor.

The yellow house is very small. It is about two feet lower than the green house. The green house is about three feet wider than the yellow house. The red and blue houses are about six feet wider than the yellow house. The yellow house has one bedroom and one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a dining room. It has no cellar and no porch. Every room is on the same floor.

Beyond the end of Stony Lane, there is a large amount of flat land with no trees. There are hills about 300 feet away from the end of Stony Lane.

Mike and Jill are married. They are young, and they live on Stony Lane. They have a dog. They are on vacation, and they gave John the key to their house. He would go to their house every morning and unlock the front door, and then he would let the dog out. In the early evening, John would unlock the door to their house, and let the dog go back inside.

The dog is standing in the middle of Stony Lane between the red house and the green house when John makes a right turn onto Stony Lane. John parks his car on the right side of the street just before the red house. Mike and Jill live in one of the four houses with their dog. They live in either the red house, the blue house, the green house, or the yellow house.

John gets out of his car and walks over to the dog, and then they walk to one of the four houses. Then he unlocks the front door, and then he lets the dog go back inside of the house. Then he walks back to his car, and he gets inside, and then he drives to his house, and then he parks his car in the driveway. Then he gets out of his car, and then he walks to the front door. Then he unlocks the door, and then he walks back into his house.

John works five days a week. On Monday through Friday, he would get up very early to go to work, and he would leave his house at 5:30 in the morning. In the summer, when he is leaving for work, sometimes he would be standing in his front yard looking at the hills, which are less than 400 feet away from his house, and he would see the sun rising behind the hills. He would always be looking in the opposite direction of Main Street to view the sun rising behind the hills.

Fifty years ago, there was a young woman who lived alone in one of the four houses which was murdered. Her name was Brenda. She lived in either the red house, the blue house, the green house, or the yellow house. The murder happened in the first half of July. She was stabbed to death in her bedroom on a Friday night between 11:30 and midnight. It was a foggy night. Someone heard a scream. Brenda was found dead on the floor at ten minutes past midnight. The murder happened on a day that was easy to remember. It was one of the bloodiest murders that ever happened. The number of times that Brenda was stabbed is equal to ten plus the number of bedrooms in John's house. 

When the murder scene was examined, a shocking coincidence was discovered. If the murder happened one night earlier, or one night later, then there would have been no coincidence, and fewer people would have remembered the date.  The murder did not happen on a holiday. The murder was never solved.

The murder house now has a new owner. Some repairs were made on the house. No rooms were added to the house. The dimensions of the house are the same as they were 50 years ago. The other three houses look the same as they were 50 years ago.

Mike and Jill came home two days after John went to the park. The next day, Mike and Jill saw a photo of the murder house the way it looked 50 years ago. The photo was taken one day after the murder.

Mike and Jill could walk out the front of their house, and make a right turn, and then continue walking straight on Stony Lane, and the next house that they would pass on the same side of the street as their own house would be John's house. Mike and Jill do not live in the same house that John lives in.

Mike and Jill's house has either two or three more bedrooms than John's house, or John's house has one more bedroom than Mike and Jill's house.

If John's house has one bedroom, then the murder house is a kitty corner away from Mike and Jill's house. If John's house has two bedrooms, then the murder was committed in his house. If John's house has more than two bedrooms, then the house which is directly across the street from Mike and Jill's house is where the murder was committed.

Jill had two nightmares about the woman who was murdered 50 years ago. In her first nightmare, she was standing in the front yard of a blue house with her dog between 11:30 and midnight on a foggy night, and she was looking at the house. She could see most of the house through the fog. The blue house was average size. Jill heard a woman screaming from inside the house, and then she saw blood flowing down the front of the house in many places. The front of the blue house was covered in blood. Jill was frightened by the sight of blood, and then she ran to her house with the dog. She went into her house with the dog, and then she ran into her bedroom, and then she got in bed with Mike. A minute later, she woke up, and she was relieved to find Mike in bed with her, and it was only a dream.

A few nights later, Jill had another nightmare about the murder that happened 50 years ago.  In her second nightmare, she was standing in the front yard of a green house with her dog between 11:30 and midnight on a foggy night, and she was looking at the house. She could see most of the house through the fog. The green house was small. It was about four feet lower than the blue house that she saw in her first nightmare, and the blue house in the first nightmare was about three feet wider than the green house in the second nightmare. Then the fog got thicker, and then the fog was completely covering the green house. A few seconds later, the fog diminished, and then the fog was completely gone. The green house was gone. The green house vanished into thin air. Then all of a sudden, another fog quickly moved in, and then it completely covered the land where the green house once stood. A few seconds later, it was less foggy, and then a yellow house appeared in the fog.

Jill could see a yellow house in the fog, and the yellow house was on the land where the green house once stood. She could see most of the house through the fog. The yellow house was very small. The yellow house was about two feet lower than the green house, and the green house was about three feet wider than the yellow house. Jill heard a woman screaming from inside the house, and then she saw blood flowing down the front of the house in many places. The front of the yellow house was covered in blood. Jill was frightened by the sight of blood, and then she ran to her house with the dog. She went into her house with the dog, and then she ran into her bedroom, and then she got in bed with Mike. A minute later, she woke up, and she was relieved to find Mike in bed with her, and it was only a dream. 

Mike and Jill may live in a house which is very similar to one of the houses that she saw in one of her nightmares, but the murder was not committed in their house.

In one of Jill's nightmares, she saw the murder house exactly the way that she saw it in the photo.
 

     1. Which house do Mike and Jill live in?

     2. Which house does John live in?

     3. In which house was the murder committed?

     4. How many times was Brenda stabbed?

     5. What was the coincidence that was discovered at the murder scene?

     The answers are available upon request.