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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

362 replies

someladdersandsnakes · 26/12/2023 13:30

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?

OP posts:
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13
mangochops · 30/12/2023 10:05

She lived long enough to tell the first responders that he’d pushed her

That poor woman.

That's why you have to pick somewhere remote, and very very high up. Possibly abroad too, in a place where police are not known for being very efficient

mangochops · 30/12/2023 10:12

How awful- so glad he was found guilty

VisionsOfSplendour · 30/12/2023 10:33

MadWifeInTheAttic · 27/12/2023 09:55

Just chuck your phone in the North Sea.

Show quote history

OK if you live by that coast but adding another layer of complications if you're nowhere near there

GrandParade · 30/12/2023 10:54

mangochops · 30/12/2023 09:50

LOL or take them away for an anniversary trip/holiday (send lots of lovey dovey texts prior to it and gush to friends and family how much you adore them for a few months prior etc). Then, go up a remote mountain side, take some selfies near the edge, then push them off. Job done. "They were trying to take a selfie officer and just slipped"- you have evidence on your phone of selfies and noone around to see it. No way that can be proven as murder as people slip/trip/fall all the time. You never wanted them dead- everyone knows you adored them! Death by misadventure- all the ends nicely tied up

Edited
Show quote history

Shrien Dewani was accused, tried and later acquitted in SA for arranging his wife’s murder on their honeymoon, by making it look like a carjacking. He was extradited to SA from the UK and eventually acquitted on lack of evidence, but as he admitted in court to being bisexual and paying male escorts, unbeknown to his wife, her family thought he had a motive and were trying to have an inquest in the UK.

Which is not to say he is guilty, obviously, only that honeymoon murder scenarios are not unknown.

dayswithaY · 30/12/2023 14:23

There’s been so many people who have “disappeared “ in the US national parks and on hiking trails. Literally vanished, some while walking with companions - they turn a corner and they’re gone. No bodies found. Most suspect wild animals or falling into a lake. But it’s so commonplace now, I’m not sure how hard the police would look. Especially if you’re on a plane back to the UK.

I often think the scrubby, bushy sides of the motorway would be a good place to hide a body. No one ever walks there, it’s not cut back very often and as it’s already clogged up with litter - who would notice another black bin liner?

This is how Melanie Hall’s body lay unnoticed for so long.

scorpiogirly · 30/12/2023 14:43

I always wonder things like this and also watch a lot of crime shows. It baffles me how the killers can be so stupid sometimes. Using their phone without taking into consideration they can be tracked to certain locations, having stuff in the houses, browsing history on computers. Taking the murder weapon home and hiding it there. Why not bury it far far from the body? If they used poison, not taking into account that there will be an autopsy which will find the chemicals.

The list goes on and on.

Citrusandginger · 30/12/2023 16:32

DH has just suggested taking our rubbish to MIL's as our bins are full. Is it bad that my first thought was this thread?

JanglingJack · 30/12/2023 17:01

My nosey neighbour checks everything that goes in my bin 🙄 A body, even dismembered would highly likely to cause a stink - see dead rat 🤮.

If you're a suspect they'll swab your bin, they'll know where your rubbish is dumped.

I would suggest getting a job at a crematorium before you move on to murder.

JanglingJack · 30/12/2023 17:04

I'd follow Dexter's rules. He seemed to have it down pat.

SmudgeButt · 30/12/2023 17:20

ArtG · 29/12/2023 10:54

I imagine at some point a consensus will be reached on this thread and in a year or two we can expect a Netflix series on « The Mumsnet Murders » where means and methods are identical but victims are geographically dispersed and with wildly different motives and opportunities.

so instead of Strangers on a Train it will be A Lot of Strangers on a Website.

beastlyslumber · 30/12/2023 17:44

Have you seen "Am I Being Unreasonable"? Entirely based on Mumsnet threads!

RoseAndRose · 30/12/2023 17:51

Why can't you just dispose of evidence in the bin
MILTOBE · 30/12/2023 18:00

beastlyslumber · 30/12/2023 17:44

Have you seen "Am I Being Unreasonable"? Entirely based on Mumsnet threads!

Is it worth watching? I only watched the first 15 minutes and didn't like it.

beastlyslumber · 30/12/2023 18:38

MILTOBE · 30/12/2023 18:00

Is it worth watching? I only watched the first 15 minutes and didn't like it.

Show quote history

I loved it! Very, very dark and twisted, though.

VegeBurgers · 30/12/2023 22:15

I just watched a cheesy 2000’s movie and back then it was incredibly easy to murder someone and get rid of the body. He did the murder spur of the moment too.

VikingLady · 30/12/2023 23:47

BigBoysDontCry · 29/12/2023 19:32

Pillow works just as well as a murder weapon. Just saying.... 😁

It's really easy to spot in a postmortem. It leaves fibres in the mouth and lungs, and there's often bite marks left in the pillow too. Plus you'd have to restrain their hands etc first.

VikingLady · 30/12/2023 23:49

BigBoysDontCry · 29/12/2023 19:40

Yes, but if they aren't finding the body then it doesn't matter. 😉 No body, no murder weapon.

I think the key is to have the victim not be noticed as missing/dead for a decent while. So you need to sort a scenario for them being absent and not reported missing. In the meantime you can get rid of the body/evidence and have a decent period of time for it to destroyed.

You might need to get in the habit of going drives at night dressed in black and make sure you have an older car that isn't signed up to one of those trackers.

Back to Roald Dahl's stories, he had an abused wife hear her husband get trapped in a lift between floors as she was leaving to spend a fortnight abroad. So she left him there. And write him cheery little postcards from her holiday so throw suspicion off herself.

mangochops · 31/12/2023 09:03

GrandParade · 30/12/2023 10:54

Shrien Dewani was accused, tried and later acquitted in SA for arranging his wife’s murder on their honeymoon, by making it look like a carjacking. He was extradited to SA from the UK and eventually acquitted on lack of evidence, but as he admitted in court to being bisexual and paying male escorts, unbeknown to his wife, her family thought he had a motive and were trying to have an inquest in the UK.

Which is not to say he is guilty, obviously, only that honeymoon murder scenarios are not unknown.

Show quote history

I remember that being in the news- he was guilty as hell as far as I could see

QueenOfThorns · 02/01/2024 21:51

dayswithaY · 30/12/2023 14:23

There’s been so many people who have “disappeared “ in the US national parks and on hiking trails. Literally vanished, some while walking with companions - they turn a corner and they’re gone. No bodies found. Most suspect wild animals or falling into a lake. But it’s so commonplace now, I’m not sure how hard the police would look. Especially if you’re on a plane back to the UK.

I often think the scrubby, bushy sides of the motorway would be a good place to hide a body. No one ever walks there, it’s not cut back very often and as it’s already clogged up with litter - who would notice another black bin liner?

This is how Melanie Hall’s body lay unnoticed for so long.

You’ve reminded me of this sad case, although it was probably an accident rather than murder. The poor man lay there for 8 years before he was found: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2012/feb/22/missing-man-road-traffic-accident

Missing man may have been in a road accident, police say

But tests fail to establish a cause of death for Vincent Derrick, whose remains were found last week, eight years after he disappeared

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2012/feb/22/missing-man-road-traffic-accident

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 02/01/2024 22:12

I saw or heard of a real life case where the murderer had dropped a tissue in the immediate area, and they got the DNA that helped to convict him from a morsel of snot.

Talk about a lesson in not littering!

WeeOrcadian · 03/01/2024 13:02

Make sure you burn your gloves, especially latex - although the don't leave prints, prints can be retrieved from inside the gloves

Use a frozen lamb leg or icicle - there's no evidence to dispose of that way

You're welcome :)

HeirToTheIronThrone · 03/01/2024 13:20

SardineJam · 26/12/2023 15:49

Slightly off topic...I use a moon cup and have heavy periods, I often wonder if anyone was monitoring the sewerage/water ways and identified a larger amount of blood (yes I know it will thin out when mixed with loads of water), if that would ever raise suspicion

I always wonder, when I empty mine, whether if I went missing the police would find traces of my blood in the pipes and therefore suspect DH... Too many crime podcasts I think!

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