At a recent family dinner, the conversation drifted from upcoming travel to where we’re spending the summer to, finally, the brutal murder of four University of Idaho students that took place in November.

This was before Idaho police and the FBI had identified and arrested a suspect, when it seemed like the murders would go unsolved. Perhaps six members of my family, ranging in ages from 14 to 83, holding only a cursory understanding of the details of the crime and zero experience in homicide investigations, felt they could solve the case, probably, between the main course and dessert.