01
Open the file
Receive the original briefing, scene records and persons of interest.
Online cold-case investigations
Every case is closed.The truth isn’t.
Evidence notice · The Case Desk
Case 1 is completely free
No card required. No trial. Your progress is saved.
Examine the evidence. Question every account. Build the timeline. File your theory.
14 cases live · Case 1 completely free · No card required · Progress saved
Case file · CC-1987-114
The Missing Passenger
Original status
Missing personLocation
Ravensmoor line“The train never stopped—but she never arrived.”
Featured investigation
The Missing Passenger
CC-1987-114
One passenger boarded the final train from Ravensmoor. The train never stopped—but she never arrived.
- Difficulty
- Standard
- Time
- 2–3 hours
- Evidence
- 22 exhibits
Investigative method
The desk is yours.
No hidden-object guessing. Read the record, test the testimony and build a theory that survives the evidence.
02
Investigate
Examine evidence, interview suspects, test alibis and record contradictions.
03
Build your theory
Construct a timeline, connect evidence and consult DS Vale without being handed the answer.
04
File the case
Name the culprit, explain what happened and receive your score, rank and case certificate.
Caseload roadmap
The archive keeps growing.
14 complete investigations are live today. Volume 1 of the Case Desk archive is complete: ten full investigations, from your first timeline to a prosecution-standard reconstruction. Cases 11 to 14 are open: The County Line, The Salt Line, The Night Shift and Switchback.
- Live now
- 14 cases
- Volume 1
- Complete — 10 cases
- Volume 2
- Now open — 4 of 10 released
The archive expands
One desk. Distinct investigative worlds.
The Case Desk opens its investigations in volumes. Each volume contains ten complete fictional cold cases connected by a distinctive setting, atmosphere and investigative world. Your progress, scores and certificates remain permanently preserved as the archive expands.
10 cases · Complete collectionVolume 1
The Ravenshire Files
Begin in Ravenshire—a fictional British county of railway stations, harbour towns, isolated houses, old hotels and institutions built to protect their secrets.
Across ten increasingly demanding investigations, you will examine evidence, reconstruct timelines, challenge testimony and develop the skills required to become a Master Detective.
Ten British cold cases. One complete investigative journey.
Explore Volume 1
Now open · 4 of 10 cases releasedVolume 2
The American Files
The archive is crossing the Atlantic.
Ten fictional investigations take detectives across the United States—from coastal communities and crowded cities to mountain roads, desert counties, forests and remote northern settlements.
New jurisdictions. Greater distances. Different investigative challenges.
Ten new American cases. A completely new investigative world.
Cases 11 to 14 are open: The County Line, The Salt Line, The Night Shift and Switchback.
Explore Volume 2The American Files · Case list
The desk has reopened.
Volume 2 is now open. Cases 11 to 14 are open. Ten American cases will make up the volume; the remaining files are released in sequence.
- Case 11 · AF-2004-011Now open
The County Line
A county clerk's car was found outside a closed diner. She never drove it there.
Experienced · 38 exhibits · 3–4 hours
Open case - Case 12 · AF-1991-012Now open
The Salt Line
The boat came home. The skipper didn't.
Advanced · 42 exhibits · 4–5 hours
Open case - Case 13 · AF-1998-013Now open
The Night Shift
Every record says nobody went in.
Expert · 46 exhibits · 5–6 hours
Open case - Case 14 · AF-1983-014Now open
Switchback
The road doesn't lie. People do.
Expert · 44 exhibits · 5–6 hours
Open case - Case 15
Closed · Coming soon
- Case 16
Closed · Coming soon
- Case 17
Closed · Coming soon
- Case 18
Closed · Coming soon
- Case 19
Closed · Coming soon
- Case 20
Closed · Coming soon
Volume 1 · The Ravenshire Files · 001—010
Ten investigations. One fictional British county.
Ten investigations from a fictional British county where quiet communities, old institutions and carefully preserved stories conceal unfinished crimes.
10 cases liveVolume 1 complete
CC-1987-11401 / 10
The Missing Passenger
A passenger boards a train and never arrives.
Standard·22 exhibits·2–3 hours
CC-2004-01902 / 10
The Harbour Light
A death beneath a lighthouse gallery was dismissed as an accident.
Experienced·36 exhibits·3–4 hours
CC-1996-24103 / 10
The Long Weekend
Six people attended the reunion. Their stories do not agree.
Advanced·36 exhibits·4–5 hours
CC-1979-00804 / 10
Room Eleven
A locked hotel room conceals a route nobody recorded.
Expert·42 exhibits·5–6 hours
CC-1992-06305 / 10
The Empty House
Police answered an emergency call from a house nobody admits existed.
Master·48 exhibits·6–8 hours
CC-1994-20606 / 10
The Last Broadcast
A presenter promises to expose a sixteen-year-old recording. Minutes later he is dead in a locked studio.
Advanced·44 exhibits·2–2.5 hours
CC-1989-07307 / 10
The Silent Ward
A records officer falls in a hospital wing that had been closed for eleven weeks.
Expert·40 exhibits·4–5 hours
CC-2003-04108 / 10
The Red Ledger
A finance director disappeared with £148,000. Eighteen years later, the money is still missing—but she is not.
Advanced·38 exhibits·4–5 hours
CC-1999-31709 / 10
The Dead Air
Thousands heard a presenter die on live radio. A mislabelled tape says otherwise.
Expert·44 exhibits·5–6 hours
CC-2007-01010 / 10
The Black File
A body sealed in a police evidence archive was identified as the missing archivist. DNA says otherwise.
Master Detective·52 exhibits·6–8 hours
Volume 2
The American Files
The archive is crossing the Atlantic.
Volume 2 is now open. Cases 11 to 14 are open — the first of ten American cases.
Investigative development
The cases don’t just get harder. You get better.
Every file develops a different investigative instinct. Early cases teach you how to read the record. Later cases ask you to challenge it. By Case 10, you are no longer following an investigation—you are running one.
- Case 01Live
The Missing Passenger
Evidence discipline
Separate established facts from assumptions and construct your first defensible timeline.
- Case 02Live
The Harbour Light
Corroboration
Test witness accounts against physical records and recognise when testimony cannot stand alone.
- Case 03Live
The Long Weekend
Contradiction mapping
Compare overlapping alibis, isolate impossible accounts and separate motive from opportunity.
- Case 04Live
Room Eleven
Spatial reconstruction
Use access points, movements and physical spaces to expose a route nobody recorded.
- Case 05Live
The Empty House
Competing hypotheses
Keep several explanations alive, test each one and actively disprove the theory that merely feels right.
- Case 06Live
The Last Broadcast
Source analysis
Interrogate recordings, timestamps and edited material without assuming the technology is telling the whole truth.
- Case 07Live
The Silent Ward
Record integrity
Determine which institutional records can be trusted, what has been altered and what was never recorded at all.
- Case 08Live
The Red Ledger
Systems reconciliation
Connect financial, access, print and vehicle records while separating the central crime from the lies surrounding it.
- Case 09Live
The Dead Air
Investigative judgement
Challenge an assumed timeline and test whether apparently objective evidence is what it claims to be.
- Case 10Live
The Black File
Case command
Combine every method you have learned, test the provenance of the record itself and falsify your own theory.
The experience
Work the evidence, not the interface.
A focused investigative workspace combines tactile source material with tools built for comparison, chronology and careful reasoning.
- Realistic evidence documents and period photography
- Evidence-gated suspect interviews
- Interactive timelines and movement maps
- Alibi testing and statement comparison
- Evidence board and working theories
- Atmospheric music, ambience and audio evidence
- DS Vale AI investigative assistance
- Persistent progress across devices
- Scores, ranks, archives and downloadable certificates
Exhibit viewer · EX-114/02125%
Scene examination
Carriage C
The compartment was secure on arrival. One overcoat remained on seat 12A. No passenger answered the guard’s call.
Logged
Timeline conflict
22:14 — Two statements place the same person in different locations.
Connections, chronology, contradiction
An investigation that takes your reasoning seriously.
Pin exhibits, test accounts against known movement, preserve working theories and return to every decision. The desk records what you discover without deciding what it means.
Movement maps
Gated interviews
Private notes
Audio evidence
DS Vale · Investigative analyst
You have an analyst.
You still have to solve it.
DS Vale can compare unlocked evidence, challenge assumptions and analyse the timeline you build. The sealed solution remains inaccessible: Vale cannot reveal what you have not proved.
“There is a discrepancy between the station clock and the guard’s account. Which source do you consider more reliable, and why?”
Private case continuity
Your desk remembers everything.
Every investigation is securely saved to your private detective account and restored when you return—from the same device or another.
01Evidence status
02Notes and flags
03Timelines
04Interviews
05Case time
06Working theories
Caseload awaiting assignment
A new caseload is waiting.
Ten investigations. Hundreds of exhibits. Nobody is going to tell you which detail matters.
FAQ
Before you open the file.
Are The Case Desk investigations based on real places?+
No. Every Case Desk investigation is fictional. Volume 1—The Ravenshire Files—is set within a fictional British county and its surrounding communities. Volume 2—The American Files—is now open and will contain ten fictional investigations from across the United States. The settings are designed to feel authentic, but all characters, locations, organisations and events are invented.
What are Case Desk volumes?+
Each Case Desk volume contains ten complete cold-case investigations connected by a shared geographical setting and atmosphere. Cases become progressively more demanding, while your scores, progress and certificates remain preserved across every volume. Volume 1 contains The Ravenshire Files. Volume 2, The American Files, is now open — Cases 11 to 14 are open: The County Line, The Salt Line, The Night Shift and Switchback — and will contain ten American cases.
Does the AI solve the case?+
No. DS Vale analyses only the evidence you have unlocked.
Do the cases become more difficult?+
Yes. Each investigation introduces a different kind of reasoning—from evidence discipline and corroboration to conflicting timelines, altered records and competing theories. Later cases combine several methods at once, but every solution remains fully supported by the evidence inside the case.
Is progress saved?+
Yes, every case is saved privately to your account.
Can different people play?+
Yes, each detective has an independent profile, progress and certificates.
How long does each case take?+
Approximately 1–8 hours, with difficulty increasing across the caseload.