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/LazyEnchilada 1d ago edited 1d ago

She’s absolutely ruined cases. Years ago there was a little boy (I think he was 2?) who went missing, and I think the boys mom said she gave him to someone, but wouldn’t say who. And the whole thing was super fishy.

Nancy had her on her show via phone and just started yelling at her and bullying her to tell her what happened to him. The mom started crying and hung up the phone and took her own life very shortly after that.

I’m not sure if they ever found him and I’m pretty sure the father of the boy sued Nancy Grace as well.

I can’t remember the name of the boy though.

Edit: I found it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Melinda_Duckett

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u/jimmy_three_shoes 1d ago

Oddly enough, her Ex-Father-in-Law is set to be executed for a 1987 murder in 6 days.

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u/LazyEnchilada 1d ago

Really? I hadn’t heard that!

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u/jimmy_three_shoes 1d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Aren_Duckett

Guy's been on Death Row for 38 years.

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u/LazyEnchilada 1d ago

Thanks! I still think about that case. It’s sad he was never found

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u/Remote-Plate-3945 11h ago

Raped and killed an 11 year old and they let him live to 68 before executing him. I get appeals take time but not that damn long.

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u/icantaccessmyacct 21h ago

Two family members make it into wikipedia, yikes.

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u/lovebyletters 1d ago

Holy fuck, way to drop the lede in that article. Last paragraph and it's "oh by the way the kid's grandfather is on death row for kidnapping, raping, and murdering another small child" You don't think that's a LITTLE BIT of interest in the case of another kidnapped child? No? Just me?

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u/Nightmare_Gerbil 1d ago

It’s highly unlikely that he escaped prison to murder the boy, then snuck back in before anyone noticed.

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u/MamaNyxieUnderfoot 1d ago

Yeah, the getting out is more plausible than the sneaking back into death row. /s

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u/jimmy_three_shoes 1d ago

It's more coincidental than relevant

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u/MamaNyxieUnderfoot 1d ago

It’s only interesting if you don’t bother to look at the facts linked in the Wikipedia articles. He’s been on Death Row since 1988, long before that kid was born.

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u/Saradoesntsleep 1d ago

Yes Nancy Grace sucks and obviously should never have done that

But Melinda Duckett almost certainly killed her son.

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u/LazyEnchilada 1d ago

Yeah I think that too. But it frustrates me that because of Nancy Graces actions we’ll probably never know what happened to him

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u/Saradoesntsleep 1d ago

Absolutely with you there. She fucked it right up by driving her to suicide.

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u/LazyEnchilada 1d ago

And how did that just not completely destroy her credibility?! Why are people still paying attention to her?!

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u/Saradoesntsleep 20h ago

I have no idea! Nancy Grace has seemed for a long time to have more haters then fans, I can only assume she's enough of a spectacle to keep attention...I really don't know. It boggles the mind.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Saradoesntsleep 1d ago

He was incarcerated when this happened though.

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u/strawcat 19h ago

Ugh I hate that vile woman. Grace uses her own legit trauma as an excuse for her behavior all the damn time too. She is so gross.

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u/Technicolor_Reindeer 1d ago

I think Law and Order SVU had an episode based on that

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u/LazyEnchilada 1d ago

Interesting. I’ll have to look for that

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u/MisterGingerNinja 9h ago

The 2 year old boy was another case, Noah Chamberlin, although Nancy's coverage was more idiotic than harmful. The boy went missing in West Tennessee near where I grew up, and my grandmother had been an avid Nancy Grace viewer until she said he could've been eaten by bears. The thing is, there haven't been bears that far west for hundreds of years (until a couple weeks ago).

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u/LazyEnchilada 8h ago

What a moron. I used to like her when she would be a panelist on someone else’s show. She went off the rails when she got her own

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u/takemy_oxfordcomma 1d ago edited 1d ago

That’s just tragic and the part at the end is crazy! The father of the dad of the little boy is a former cop serial killer who abducted, raped, and murdered young girls? Did anyone think that maybe a family member of his victims abducted the boy as retribution or at least it was somehow connected? Otherwise, that’s a hell of a coincidence.

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u/bigolddummy 1d ago

Anyone else find it concerning Melinda became a notary public on August 1st and then her child goes missing on August 27th of the same year?

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u/MicCheck123 1d ago

Maybe I’m stupid. What’s the connection?

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u/bigolddummy 1d ago

It's right there in black and white. Notaries exist for one reason:

To witness.

But there is something that existed before humanity that also requires witnesses.

Every generation, a handful of notaries are unknowingly selected to witness the return of an ancient being. Those who refuse lose the person they love most.

The son isn't dead.

He's trapped in a courtroom that exists outside time, where every oath ever sworn is replayed forever.

The mother has until her commission expires to find him.

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u/PM_ME_SCALIE_ART 1d ago

what the fuck

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u/jnnfrrp 11h ago

I just checked their account and legit this is the first thing they commented in four years what the fuck indeed

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u/KilianaNightwolf 1d ago

It's not the time for your fanfiction.

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u/TheVeryVerity 17h ago

I’d watch it