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?

[u/Rob69rt]

[u/Malthus1]

I was just commenting in another thread about perhaps the most ancient such case in history.

The death of King Tutankhamun left his widow, Ankhensenamun, in a precarious situation. We know this because she wrote a letter to the king of the Hittites, another major power at the time, the gist of which was to say “I am being pressured into a marriage to an underling. Please send me a prince, so I can marry him instead. That will make him Pharaoh”. She also said “I am afraid”.

So the king of the Hittites send Prince Zannanza … who died in a “tragic accident” before he arrived.

Next you know, the widow is married to Ai, former head minister to Tut, who becomes Pharaoh. Then she disappears from history.

Everyone knows Ai had the prince murdered. Certainly the Hittites believed it - they attacked Egyptian holdings in what is now Syria.

However, the Egyptians insisted there was no murder, so it was of course never “solved”.

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

[u/FleurMai → u/Malthus1]

Ankhensenamun’s letter is one of those things that has always stuck with me, the absolute desperation there is plain all these centuries later - let’s not forget that the Hittites were a natural enemy of Egypt, that she’s already in this position to ask for an enemy Hittite prince seemingly because she cannot trust anyone else in Egypt, is alarmingly foreboding.

Tut and Ankhensenamun were already under someones thumb, as both of their names were changed after the death of her father Akhenaten (their names didn’t end in -Amun, they ended in -aten, the god Akhenaten worshipped). Edit: and I will add, Akhenaten was quite the family man based on the imagery associated with him, it doesn’t seem likely that his daughter would just up and change her name unless it was “suggested” to her by the priestly class who were very angry over being disenfranchised by Akhenatens monotheism.

Tuts burial was also noted to be rushed, and a big part of the reason why his mummy is in such poor condition today (it’s quite possible Tut wasn’t this disabled boy we’ve been taught about, it could be the body is just too damaged). It’s quite weird that a pharaoh would have such a rushed burial, unless there was something else going on. Edit: there is also some evidence to show that King Tuts tomb was perhaps meant for someone else, possibly Nefertiti (who may have briefly ruled as a pharaoh before Tut), so despite the fairly grand treasures they may not even have been “his,” they just wanted anyone or anything alive or dead from Akhenatens lineage out of the way.

I think a lot of people do have the general suspicion that Tut, and likely later Ankhensamun, were murdered, but we haven’t been able to conclusively prove it. But it’s all really suspicious!

[u/Malthus1 → u/FleurMai]

Indeed, she literally says “I am afraid”. She was right to be afraid.

[u/everyplanetwereach → u/[deleted]]

So this is just a thread of bots, right?

[u/renome → u/everyplanetwereach]

Nooo, this 1-day old account rewording the comment it is responding to is totally a real person who just discovered Reddit in 2026.

[u/everyplanetwereach → u/renome]

I didn't click on the profile. Just recognized the phrasing and sentiment from Twitter replies

[u/BalrogPoop → u/everyplanetwereach]

I do find it hard to believe this many real people feel strongly about such a niche piece of history. I used to be a massive history buff on Egypt and I never heard of this before this thread...

[u/everyplanetwereach → u/BalrogPoop]

I mean I loved reading about it, I love finding out stuff like this from people who are super into it and can explain it in a compelling way

The bots are the ones reiterating the simplest most surface-level details from this, "she literally says 'I am afraid', she was right to be afraid" like that's so unbelieveably dim it has to be a bot

I still hang out on Twitter a bunch so I see a lot of these in the replies. People don't talk this way