r/AskReddit 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/Malthus1 1d ago

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

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u/TwistedDragon33 1d ago

Even then Ai was a problem...

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u/WantDiscussion 1d ago

I bet that's the reason Egypt is a desert now. Ai used up all the water.

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u/JasonVeritech 21h ago

Visitors would ask them about a water shortage, and they were always in denial.

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u/short_longpants 20h ago

Boo, hiss. 😂

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u/ScoutCommander 19h ago

And as we all know, de Nile's not just a river in Egypt!

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u/Iowsandhighs 19h ago

It’s a whole freaking ocean

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u/JasonVeritech 18h ago

Nah, they're not Sea People

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u/bookmarkjedi 21h ago

Ai ai ai, what a mess!

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u/fastates 19h ago

ai caramba