Why can't you just dispose of evidence in the bin

[someladdersandsnakes]

I'm reading a thriller and the character done a murder and has destroyed her clothes by burning them. I feel like that would draw attention though. It wasn't the sort of crime that would be discovered immediately and the character wouldn't be suspected immediately either so I would have thought just putting them in the bin would be a good option really but nobody ever does that. Why not? Like surely once the rubbish van has come, and everything from the bins has been combined and smooshed down, there's no way any evidence would be recovered? Who's gonna dig through all that?

You're keeping your fingers crossed for perhaps a fortnight before the bin is emptied

The bins are collected once a week at most, and most murders are discovered and suspects identified very quickly, so it would extremely risky to bin anything that wasn’t going to be collected straight away. It would also possibly leave traces of blood etc in the bin itself.

Also, it is not unheard for murder evidence to be recovered from landfill at all.

I’m not in the police or any related professions but my guess would be:

Depending on the severity of the crime, police might indeed look in a rubbish tip for discarded evidence. Obviously their investigation can include finding out which rubbish bin the evidence was put in and when, when that bin was emptied, by whom and where the rubbish was taken, thus narrowing down the area they need to search for it.

If there is any suspicion that you have committed the crime before bin day then you have the evidence in your bins waiting to convict you. If the person was last seen visiting you, or caught on camera near your house etc, and the police act quickly - they’ll have everything they need. Of course like you say there might not be any suspicion on your part for a long time, but it’s quite a risk to take if something goes wrong and you missed a loose end or someone saw something.

also of course pulpy crime thrillers just need to keep the plot moving, they aren’t necessarily reflective of how it would go in real life.

I watch too many true crime shows and they absolutely would know where to search in a landfill if there is a possibility there could be discarded evidence after a serious crime.

Never, ever leave anything to find.

Ideally don't murder in the first place 😁 but if you do.

Leave no trace

I can never work out why, when there is a bit of time to achieve the task, they're not got rid of in more normal ways.

So perhaps one guilty item in a bag to a charity bin. Another washed and dropped off at a charity shop (again with other stuff, so obviously you need to plan your murder for when you need to declutter). Something in one of those kerbside collection bag. Something else could be cut up, and the tatters and thrown away in several different ways eg put in with some food packaging waste and then divided into being dumped in a random public litter bin, put in your own landfill bin, put in (you dreadful person you) other people's bins ideally from out of your own area that have different collections (and perhaps go to a different tip or part of tip)

Or perhaps just left behind on public transport, or after a public event

If I’d done the crime, I’d get the bloodied clothes, put them in a Tesco bag for life and mix in some shit (dog shit from the street or a dog shit bin, not your own dog) to make it look like someone had a messy problem. Then I’d drive my fragrant bag and ditch it in a public bin miles away.

don’t cross me

@someladdersandsnakes look up Elaine o Hara. Ireland.

That could have been the perfect crime

Thank Goodness her killer was caught by a few chance coincidences.

Her killer Is thankfully Jailed.

I watch a lot of true crime documentaries and believe me, the police are very thorough in their investigations of murder . Nowadays there are so many tools to assist them, CCTV, mobile phone data, DNA, the police are not easily outsmarted

I'd bury clothes etc in a hole in the middle of nowhere!

You could dump the clothes in woodland somewhere. You often see dumped clothes, shoes etc and it won’t occur to anyone they are evidence of a crime.

They could just shove it all under the patio with the body.

Umm@someladdersandsnakes is there something we should know and forwarn your DH about ? 🧐 😄

I'd take my evidence to the dump it site.They crush it down most days

Again, look at killing of Elaine O’Hara

Dumped remote stuff

Stuff hidden in remote reservoir.
Dog finding bones for several walks.

Remote area.

Do a news search for "police search refuse site"
They do search tips, although they'd have to know to look. For us it'd be every three weeks for a grey waste bin to be emptied, so unless you timed it just right - about 6.30am on the third Wednesday.

"Tales of the Unexpected" Lamb to the Slaughter
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717455/

Presumably things like bloodied clothes will take years to fully rot away though? So findable.

Slightly off track but do the waste disposal team have ways to check for things that shouldn't be in the normal rubbish.

Years ago DP stupidly put DD's (sealed) sharps bin in one of our usual black bags. It was rightly removed and left for us by the bin shed but they didn't leave the whole bag nor was there any sign they'd opened a bag and give through the contents. It always baffled me.

Yes, that was an utterly horrible murder of a vulnerable woman (a violent BDSM-scene architect intentionally stabbing a woman who had a history of significant MH problems and who had only been released from being an inpatient, with the idea that it would look like suicide by the time her body was found), and, as you say, while he was caught and imprisoned through good police work, the thing that initially sparked off suspicion about her death was someone finding a bag with a supermarket loyalty card in her name in a reservoir whose water was usually 15 feet deep, but was temporarily under one foot in depth because of very dry weather.

I think you would have to take it to the tip - but not sure if there are cameras at our local one so presumably would be seen there - not that I am about to need such caution, but just thinking it through. Seems like dumping it in another bin would be a good idea, but with the UK having one the highest incidence of public surveillance in the world, I would not be confident you would not be spotted.

There’s a house near me that has two very realistic-looking skeletons sitting on the roof of the bay window every halloween, and I’ve often thought that would be an excellent way to dispose of a body- just boil all the gooey stuff off it and then have it sitting there in plain sight for years.

Break it up. Eg knife - metal and wooden handle - recycle at different recycling sites - none of them on your car. Burn what you can eg clothes - distribute ash in local pond or woods - scatter use a bbq with a lid - wash rinse and repeat no phone on at all for any of this - leave phone at home and off. I’m

Ooh my kind of thread! I also think about how to commit to the perfect murder!

I wouldn't want to put them in my own bin.

Ultimately I suppose I would want to make my movements look as routine as possible...

So I might wash some things in my usual wash loads, and then dispose of them in public bins where I might feasibly stop anyway. Fill up with petrol and clear out some "rubbish" from the car into the bin next to the pumps. Then there are more bins next to the entrance of the Supermarkets. And a clothing drop bin there too.

But there's CCTV everywhere, so if there was any reason to suspect you, they would work it out quickly.

I guess as long as the clothes exist they can still be identified. Burning them is more permanent, it's a bit like the requiremenet to cut off the head of a zombie or axe murderer, if you don't then chances are they'll get back up later on and kill you.