At least 3 of the “clues” were actually things the other players came up with as jokes and you were just remembering wrong

Depending on your DM, this might very well work.

It would be interesting to have some kind of RPG built around that. The DM doesn’t decide who the bad guy is. They make clues, intentionally or not, and if the player finds a certain amount then that’s who they are. Or maybe they roll for it, and each piece of evidence improves their odds.