Learn Croatian: Je li se sumnjivac skrivao igdje blizu kuće? - Was the suspect hiding anywhere near the house?

Igdje means "anywhere," and it belongs to the i- prefix family from this lesson. We use these i- words primarily in yes/no questions or conditional sentences where we genuinely do not know if the place, person, or thing exists. If you used negdje ("somewhere"), it would sound like you already assume he was hiding and are just confirming the location.

Why is the word for house in the form kuće?

The noun kuća is in the genitive case here. It changes to kuće because it directly follows the preposition blizu (near), which always requires the genitive case in Croatian.

Why are li and se placed together right after Je?

Both li (the question particle) and se (the reflexive pronoun belonging to the verb skrivati se) are clitics. Clitics are unstressed words that must group together in the second position of a sentence. When combining them, the question particle li always comes before the reflexive pronoun se.

Could I use the perfective verb form sakrio instead of skrivao?

You could, but it changes the meaning. Skrivao se is imperfective, meaning "was hiding" (focusing on the ongoing state or process). If you used the perfective form sakrio se, you would be asking "Did the suspect hide?" focusing on the completed action of going into hiding.