October 26 newsletter mystery

Devil of a Mystery: The Open Day at Sisters Creek

Vanderhoek's have grown tulip bulbs at Sisters Creek for three generations, and for one Saturday each October they open the gates. It is a small event with a marquee, a plant stall, a pipe band, a raffle for the hall roof fund, and a lots of tulips.

Malcolm Prosser counted the money as he did at every Vanderhoek open day for eleven years.

At 1:05 pm he used the PA in the marquee to read out the raffle prizes. Two hundred people heard him. Then he collected the morning's gate takings in the cash tin and set off up the hill to the packing shed, where he always did the count, because it was the only place on the property with a door that locked.

The walk takes nine minutes. He would have been there by 1:14 pm.

At 2:15 pm a woman looking for the toilets found the shed door open, the tin open on the bench, and Malcolm dead on the floor behind it. The float was gone.

At 1:55 pm, all four people you are about to meet were called up onto the marquee stage to draw the raffle. They stood in front of two hundred people until well after Malcolm was found.

So the shed was reachable by one of them between 1:14 pm and 1:55 pm.

The location

Sisters Creek is a working farm, not a showground. There are four places that matter.

There is no footpath along the main road, which is why there is a shuttle.

The shuttle runs a loop all day. It leaves the car park on the hour and the half hour. It leaves the gate at quarter past and quarter to. The crossing takes twelve minutes either way.

Tickets are stamped by the kiosk that issues them — the gate kiosk at the gate, the car park kiosk at the car park. Both kiosks keep a tape.

There is no mobile reception on the top block. It drops out at the top gate and does not come back until you are down level with the marquee. Everyone who has ever worked a Vanderhoek open day knows this, and complains about it.

The four suspects

1. Dell Yaxley, working on the plant stall

Dell ran the plant stall beside the marquee, alone, all afternoon. The stall's card terminal prints a tape. It records a sale at:

1:12, 1:19, 1:26, 1:34, 1:41, 1:48 and 1:53.

She was the only person who touched that terminal.

2. Rowan Ferris, photographer

Rowan was taking photographs for the hall committee newsletter. He was on the phone to his mother in Ulverstone for most of the afternoon.

His call log shows one continuous call from 1:08 pm to 1:52 pm. 

3. Bec Lamprill, farm manager

Bec went down to the overflow car park to move a delivery van that was blocking the gateway.

Her shuttle ticket was stamped at the car park kiosk at 1:30 pm. She came back through the gate on that service at 1:42 pm, and went up to the marquee.

4. Ted Prosser, the victim's brother

Ted says he went back to the car for a jacket.

His shuttle ticket was stamped at the gate kiosk at 1:15 pm. He says he took that service down, waited, took the 1:30 service back, and reached the marquee a little before two.

The car park kiosk tape records exactly one ticket stamped for the 1:30 service back to the gate.

Who killed Malcolm Prosser — and what does their alibi actually prove?

Everything you need is on this page. Nothing new will appear in the solution.

Three of the suspects could not have been in the packing shed between 1:14 and 1:55, one of them could.

Submit your answer at by 29 September to win an audio book bundle.