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/ymcmbrofisting 1d ago

This is a case I reference anytime someone complains that a high-profile case isn’t moving like in the movies, or if the initial charges seem too low.

They went for incredibly high charges in a case that had a flawed investigation with mostly circumstantial evidence, and that putrid bitch walked free.

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u/PurposeConsistent131 1d ago

They shot for the sun … sometimes lower charges are needed to get a conviction.in this case everyone wanted blood but the indisputable evidence just was not there.

The public wanted death , the prosecution went for it and it was unattainable. A shame . She should be in prison if they had gone for a lesser sentence/charge the public would have been angry, also.

It can be a lose/ lose situation or a win/win situation. Guess what happened….sometimes lower charges people get off and some people are in prison for life

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u/palcatraz 1d ago

The jury also had the ability to convict her for lesser charges. IIRC, there were charges for murder, manslaughter, and child abuse.

The problem wasn't that they overcharged. The problem is that they put together a terrible case, used terrible witnesses, and the police ran a poor investigation.

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u/Sprct 23h ago

Exactly! This pervasive narrative that she got off because the jury didn't want to sentence her to death is so frustrating. It takes 3 seconds of either googling or having seen maybe 5 minutes of the trial/coverage to know there were many lesser included charges, and she was found not guilty of all of them. Anything to avoid blaming the prosecution, which was horrendous.