Make a crime board online
A crime board is the corkboard from every detective drama: suspects, evidence, places and dates pinned side by side, joined with red string until the pattern shows. Detective Board lets you build one in the browser in a few minutes, keep it private while the case develops, and publish it when it is ready to share.
What a crime board is for
The point of a crime board is not decoration. It is a way to hold more of a case in view than a notebook allows. Each card carries one fact: a person, a statement, a piece of physical evidence, a location, a time. Lines between cards record the relationships you can support, and the gaps between cards show what you still cannot. When a new detail arrives, you pin it and see which strings it touches. That is why the same format works for a real cold case, a mystery novel, a tabletop campaign and a school project on a historical crime.
Who uses crime boards
- Writers plot a murder mystery from both sides: the truth of what happened, and the trail of clues the reader is allowed to see. Two boards, one crime.
- Game masters and roleplay groups track suspects, factions and leads across sessions, then publish the board so players can study it between games.
- True-crime readers and students organise timelines, witness accounts and articles about a documented case, with sources attached to each card.
- Teams use the same layout for any investigation where people, events and evidence have to be connected: incidents, audits, research.
How to build a crime board in five steps
- Start with the crime itself. One card for the event: what happened, where, and when. Everything else on the board hangs off this card.
- Add people. Suspects, victims and witnesses each get a card with a photo or portrait and one line on why they matter. Keep opinions off the card; put them in a note you can revise.
- Pin the evidence. Upload photos, paste article links and write sticky notes for statements. An article card keeps its source so you can check it later.
- Draw the strings. Connect cards that share a fact: a person to a place, a statement to a time. Colour the strings by confidence if it helps, and leave weak links unconnected rather than guessing.
- Step back and share. Zoom out, read the board as a whole, and look for the card with no strings. When the board is ready, make it public or keep it private and invite collaborators.
Crime boards from the community
Public boards built with these tools. Open one to see the layout, or fork it as a starting point.
Tips that keep a crime board useful
- One fact per card. A card that says three things cannot be connected honestly.
- Date everything. Timelines are where most contradictions surface.
- Keep the source with the fact: attach the article, the photo or the page reference.
- Prune. A board that holds every rumour hides the string that matters.
- For fiction, keep a second board for what the reader knows, and compare the two.
Start your crime board
Free to start, no download. Boards are private until you publish them.