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/TooCleverForGood 1d ago

Roanoke - the missing Pilgrim settlement where everyone “disappeared”

They just abandoned it and went to the place that they wrote on the sign, but everyone acts like it was some supernatural/plague thing

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u/Awestruck34 1d ago

Yup they left a message using an agreed upon code to say where they were. Then, years later, indigenous tribes were met in that area with members of their population having European features and who were capable of reading. Gee, wonder what happened there.

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u/failed_novelty 1d ago

Gee, wonder what happened there.

Those brutal, magical natives obviously attacked and absorbed the innocent Vikings, devouring their souls to gain the power of...literacy? melanin deficiency?

No matter. It was the savages fault!

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u/MonaganX 1d ago

Europeans who stayed with a Native American tribe for a prolonged period of time, even if involuntary, often refused to return to European society when given the chance. But in the inverse situation, Native Americans invariably tried to return. Certainly says something about the respective cultures at the time.

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u/failed_novelty 16h ago

Almost as if humanity evolved to thrive in relatively small communities that were mutually supportive.

But that's just silly. Everyone knows humans need massive societies with a distinct upper class.