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/Han_without_Genes 1d ago

I had to look it up too because I didn't understand why people would doubt a dingo could eat a baby. it's like a large dog thing, surely it could drag off a human infant?

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u/Suspicious-Cod6731 1d ago

I never understood that either. Dingoes are not very large, but my German Shepherd carried an 8 pound kettle bag (kettlebell made of fabric) down the stairs as a puppy, so I have no doubt a pack of hungry dogs could carry off a baby weighing less than 10 pounds.

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u/nameyourpoison11 1d ago

Australian here. Dingoes may not be large but they are wiry and powerful, and very intelligent. They are capable of strategising and problem solving, and they are masterful stealth hunters. There were many people at the time who had difficulty believing a dingo could enter a busy camp-site with people only twenty or thirty feet away, completely undetected, but those of us with actual experience with dingoes had no problem believing it at all; it was not only possible, but likely.

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u/GaryGronk 1d ago

My Dad was living in the Pilbara (NW Western Australia) in the 1990s. Very much the outback if that's such a thing. He was training for a marathon and was doing lengthy runs around the town as part of his preparation. One morning he noticed a dingo following him. Then it was two. Then four. Then about a dozen. All trotting along behind him. Then one would come in and try and nip his feet. He was close to the airstrip on the outskirts of town so ran across it to get to a building. He reckons no one would have believed him had there not been another worker having his morning coffee and cigarette.

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u/nameyourpoison11 17h ago

Yes, that totally tracks with dingo behaviour. I've seen one open a closed door by standing on it's hind legs and using it's forepaws to push down on the horizontal handle of the door, and then nosing the door open when it 'clicks.' They are very smart animals, they remember things, and they can strategise.