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1) From Ronald McDonald’s clue, we can tell that Captain Morgan, Aunt Jemima and Charlie Tuna are safe.
2) Charlie Tuna tells us that Marlboro Man is safe.
3) Marlboro Man tells us that the only victim in his row is Mr. Peanut.
4) Mr. Peanut tells us that there are 11 victims in total. Aunt Jemima told us that seven of those victims are adjacent to corners, so we can deduce that four of them are not adjacent to corners (including Mr. Peanut). The only remaining spaces that are not adjacent to corners are Michelin Man, Mr. Clean, the Trix Rabbit, the Geico Gecko, Chester Cheetah, the Noid and the Energizer Bunny. However, as revealed by the Marlboro Man, there are no victims in his row other than Mr. Peanut, so Michelin Man, Mr. Clean and the Trix Rabbit can be crossed off that list.
This leaves us with the other mascots in Column 3: the Geico Gecko, Chester Cheetah, the Noid, and the Energizer Bunny. Of these four, three are victims and one is safe. Mr. Peanut helpfully told us that he is vertically adjacent to one safe mascot, so we know that the one safe mascot in Column 3 is either Chester Cheetah or the Noid. Therefore, both the Geico Gecko and the Energizer Bunny must be victims.
5) The Energizer Bunny cannot see the murderer. Both the Michelin Man and the Trix Rabbit are in his line of sight, so neither of them can be the murderer. Additionally, the Marlboro Man’s clue told us that they’re not victims, either. So both Michelin Man and the Trix Rabbit are safe.
6) Look back at the Geico Gecko’s clue; one row is filled with nothing but victims. Rows 1, 3 and 5 each have at least one safe mascot, so that leaves us with either 2 or 4.
But the Trix Rabbit’s clue just told us that the Energizer Bunny is only adjacent to one victim, and he’s adjacent to three boxes in Row 4. Those three boxes can’t all be victims, so that only leaves us with Row 2.
Pillsbury Doughboy, Joe Camel, Chester Cheetah, the AFLAC Duck and Little Debbie are all victims.
And now that we know that Chester Cheetah is a victim, we can tell that the Noid is safe thanks to Captain Morgan’s clue.
7) Little Debbie’s clue tells us that Flo is safe.
8) According to the Pillsbury Doughboy’s clue, if Colonel Sanders is a victim, then the Kool-Aid man has to be one too. However, as of this moment we have identified four victims adjacent to corners; two adjacent to Ronald McDonald and two adjacent to Captain Morgan. As Aunt Jemima told us, there are a total of seven victims adjacent to corners. If there are two victims adjacent to Aunt Jemima, then the last remaining corner victim would have to be adjacent to Charlie Tuna, since Michelin Man told us that every corner is adjacent to at least one victim. That would leave…
2 victims adjacent to Ronald
2 victims adjacent to Morgan
2 victims adjacent to Jemima
1 victim adjacent to Charlie
However, Michelin Man’s clue ALSO told us that one corner is adjacent to three victims, so this can’t be true.
Since Colonel Sanders is a food mascot, he cannot be the murderer according to Flo’s clue. So Colonel Sanders is safe.
Since Aunt Jemima has to be adjacent to one victim, we can deduce that Kool-Aid Man must be a victim.
Kool-Aid Man is adjacent to the Energizer Bunny, so all the other spaces adjacent to him must be safe, including Smokey the Bear and Tony the Tiger (neither of them are in Chester Cheetah’s line of sight, so neither of them can be the murderer).
8) Tony’s clue tells us that Cap’n Crunch is safe.
9) Captain Morgan, Aunt Jemima and Charlie Tuna are each adjacent to at least one safe mascot. This means that Ronald McDonald is the only corner remaining who can be adjacent to three, so according to Michelin Man’s clue, the Jolly Green Giant must be a victim.
10) That leaves us with Mr. Clean and Snuggle Bear as the possible murderers. However, Charlie Tuna has to be adjacent to one victim according to Michelin Man’s clue, and both Smokey and Tony are safe, so Snuggle Bear must be a victim. That leaves us with only one unidentified space… the murderer, Mr. Clean.