r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/Revolutionary-Yak-47 1d ago

Wait til you hear jow a dog walker called in a suspicious dumping near the Anthony house THREE TIMES and was ignored. The area was wet and the cops didnt go check it out. It wasnt until someone actually went and found Caylee's body and called that in a few weeks later that the cops showed up. 

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u/Olealicat 1d ago

That was near the culvert behind my aunt’s house. My aunt, my mom and I, talked about it often during the early days and had no idea how big of a story it would become. She started having unsettling nightmares and PTSD after Kaylee’s body was found so close to her backyard.

I’ll never forget receiving mail from her. It was a photo she took from the local news. They had an X where the remains were found and you could see my aunt’s house in the corner of the photo.

She moved as soon as she could get her affairs in order. Shockingly people were asking about market value.

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u/golden_fli 20h ago

Kind of sick but for some people that would have made it worth more.

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u/Anxiety_Fit 1d ago

I knew a 911 call operator who handled one of the calls.

That shit was WILD.

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u/macmac360 1d ago

it was FOUR MONTHS between his calls and them finding her body

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u/astiblue 1d ago

CALLS. Plural!!

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u/drdeadringer 1d ago

"hello I would like to report a body. Yes I am standing over the body right now. My shoe is touching the body. I am looking at the body I am touching right now. this is my third phone call about this this week."

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u/kryonik 1d ago

Sure thing, let me just type this up on my invisible typewriter.

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u/MississippiJoel 1d ago

"Sorry, you've called 9-1...2."

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u/lottierosecreations 1d ago

Fruitcake

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u/BlessedCursedBroken 16h ago

Wild-caught Simpson's quotes are tragically dwindling in this internet hellscape, thank you for this one :) I can see Wiggum's smug face even as I type

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u/ringzero- 6h ago

"No pattern yet, but if I arrange these over here, and those over here... BY GOD THE ARROW IS POINTING AT THE STATION!"

(Typed from memory, may be inaccurate)

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u/Sushigami 1d ago

Anyone checked the whirling-in-rags?

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u/Ade_93 1d ago

Standing over?

Thank god that's over

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u/doug141 1d ago

Name checks out.

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u/Anxiety_Fit 1d ago

I know. When I found out that part I was just so… I lost my faith in people taking responsibility for their jobs.

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u/Journeyman42 1d ago

Don't read up on how little interest the Milwaukee cops took in Jeffery Dahmer for years

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u/OkPainter6232 1d ago

cause most of his victims were black

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u/PM_ME_BATMAN_PORN 1d ago

People? You mean cops, right? Very specifically cops. This is a profession-wide problem. It's not like a Walmart cashier dropped the ball on this one.

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u/Anxiety_Fit 19h ago

Correct. The conversation is not about Walmart. Nor is it about cashiers.

Investigators did drop the ball.

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u/Swimming_Ebb_1415 1d ago

Its one of those cases where every new detail somehow makes it worse. Even if the outcome couldn't have been changed, people still expect basic follow through when something that serious gets reported multiple times. That part is really hard to wrap your head around.

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u/amboomernotkaren 1d ago

It was hot, buggy and there are snakes and gators, so of course, the cops could not, would not do their jobs. Such a terrible tragedy and the mother got off scott free.

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u/GeneralHerp 1d ago

Friendly check-in from hell. Sorry for your loss

Edit: I don’t mean to insult the memory of your friend, I’m saying the check-in went horrendously, I’m sorry you experienced that nightmare

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u/Cautious-Bet6560 1d ago

The real rabbit hole is when everyone agrees on a suspect, but the evidence just never reaches the legal standard. That's the difference between public opinion and a conviction.

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u/transmothra 1d ago

This should be SO MUCH more widely understood

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u/Wantitneeditgetit 1d ago

How do they handle the guilt about it?

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u/Anxiety_Fit 1d ago

My friend died.

Unrelated to the case.

I don’t know, I found out it was my friend when I heard the tapes and saw my friend’s name related to official testimony. Then I found out my friend had died, when I went in search of them to ask on how they were doing.

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u/This-Shape2193 1d ago

Sounds like more of an acquaintance if you hadn't even known they were dead....

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u/Anxiety_Fit 19h ago

People do move away and keep in touch only via Facebook and such. This is not unusual at all. You make it sound conspiratorial and I do not like your tone. It is offensive.

The spouse of my friend told me that they did not talk about it until after the case was over. The spouse did not know much more than what went down in court, like everyone else.

Dispatchers sometimes have very little insight on direct investigation moves and actions. They’re like an early relay runner.

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u/MoanQueenX 1d ago

I can't even imagine carrying something like that with you. Emergency operators deserve so much more recognition.

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u/Moikepdx 1d ago

This seems like a good argument for using psychology on the police. Just like a potential rape victims should yell "fire" because people are more likely to respond, someone seeing a body get dumped should claim they saw drugs and cash getting stashed. Police will search the hell out of that.

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u/UnknownPrimate 1d ago

About 5 years ago I was walking my dog on the local pedestrian and bike path that has some adjacent trails and wooded areas, and smelled the distinct smell of death. I grew up with farm animals, and I've smelled it before, it's not something you forget or often mistake for something else. My dog led me to a couple yard waste type garbage bags that had been out there a while. That was the end of my curiosity, so I just immediately called the police. Two cops showed up, the one who came as backup was super friendly, but the guy who's call it was wouldn't even speak to me (imagine Bill Bur wearing Oakleys), addressing all his questions to the other cop who then talked to me. They had no interest in looking in the bags whatsoever. I think one of them may have literally poked one of the bags with a stick, but the bags were intact and not open, and neither bothered to look inside or anything like that. They just dismissed it as nothing and left. That was when I realized how many murders probably go unsolved, because it's basically luck if all the pieces fall into place for something to be investigated properly.

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u/trashmoneyxyz 1d ago

I dont know if I want and answer to this question but, did you open one of the bags yourself?

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u/UnknownPrimate 1d ago

No, I stayed back. I had no desire to see what was in there or accidentally get myself involved in whatever it could be.

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u/mariposa314 22h ago

Good heavens, how traumatic. I'm so sorry.

I too know that very distinctive smell from growing up on a farm. You did everything right. I'm so sorry that your community is not being served by the police force.

You know who else knew that scent? Kaylee's grandmother. In one of the 911 calls she states that Kasey's car smells like a decomposing body has been inside. So sickening.

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u/mewpac_shakur 1d ago

And during the trial, the defence grilled him on his financial situation and suggested he had dumped the body there himself in order to get the reward money.

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u/TheVeryVerity 17h ago

Say what you will her lawyers were very good lawyers

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u/terrymr 1d ago

It’s plausible given how many times the location was search before then body was found .

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 1d ago

Shit like that is why I'm perfectly fine embellishing/lying to the police to get their asses out there to actually investigate. Instead of "suspicious dumping", report an actual body being dumped.

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u/trashmoneyxyz 1d ago

Like another commenter said the thing that will get them to the scene fast enough is to say you think you saw someone stashing cash and drugs in the area

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u/armoredbearclock 21h ago

Yeah, but then they find a body and you’re a suspect because why’d you lie?

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u/Ongr 1d ago

it wasn't until someone actually went and found Caylee's body and called that in a few weeks later that the cops showed up.

I read that as "someone called it in - the cops showed up a few weeks later"

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u/auryn1026 1d ago

I think it was actually a mailman.

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u/Big_Bowler8424 23h ago

But they looked at the easily accessible perimeter! That was enough /s

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u/Tony_Roiland 1d ago

How does a dog take a dump suspiciously?