In The Sherlock Society, how were the group able to identify Aaron Pettigrew as the person who dumped barrels of toxic waste into the Everglades?

• A. the truck he drove up in at Kane Sugar was missing a hubcab
• B. a photo clearly showing him
• C. an eyewitness testimony
• D. his fingerprints on the barrels

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is connecting a suspect to the crime using a distinctive, observable clue from the vehicle involved. The missing hubcap on the truck Pettigrew drove to Kane Sugar provides a tangible link that can be checked and verified against the vehicle used to dump the barrels. Because a missing hubcap is a concrete, verifiable detail, it strongly ties Pettigrew to the specific truck and, by extension, to the act of disposing the waste. It’s a clue that you can observe, compare, and corroborate, which makes it more reliable than a photo that could be unclear, eyewitness testimony that can be mistaken, or fingerprints on the barrels that could be wiped or contaminated. So the missing hubcap serves as a concrete thread that connects Pettigrew directly to the incident.