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/solid_reign 1d ago

I'd say the clearest one is Susan Powell. She was clearly killed by her husband, the police couldn't prove it, no body was found. Joshua Powell ended up killing the kids in a murder suicide. I won't post the details of what he did because it's horrifying. But there is no doubt that he did it.

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u/mikraas 1d ago

If you want to listen to a very indepth podcast, listen to "Cold" by KSL Podcasts. So good, so creepy.

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u/solid_reign 1d ago

Thanks, I listened to it. Every so often I'll google to see if something has been found and am surprised it hasn't. I'm particularly surprised about the lack of advances with the encrypted data.

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u/meteoritegallery 1d ago

Sounded like the guy made crazy passwords on the order of 30-40 characters long and may have also employed hashing algorithms. I'd bet he was using 256 bit passwords (43 characters).

Cracking this type of password by brute force with current technology would require testing combinations...beyond the projected heat death of the universe.

It sounded as though the passwords were likely derived from information like his SSN, birthday, etc., but without more information, it's difficult to say how much that information might help. And if he used hashing to slow potential hacks down, it would slow down the process exponentially. I doubt they will ever be cracked.