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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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Oblomov23 · 26/12/2023 16:56

Interesting. You can't get away with anything these days. The man who rented the wood chipper does sound, very sensible, but even he got caught.

DyslexicPoster · 26/12/2023 16:57

NotDoingOk · 26/12/2023 14:57

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.

Yes public bins, but cctv. Still safer than burning. I'd take it to the tip as I go quite often anyway. Unless it's a big profile murder I honestly struggle to belive the police would be fast or effective enough to find the evidence in a tip. They need to be quick and find traces of blood in things like your car or house or your dna on the body. Finding dna in your house isn't enough in reality. It has to be beyound reasonable doubt. They didn't take any clothes or do any examination when my friend was raped. You assume they follow a standard procedure or use tools and methods known to them but in reality that's not always the case. It took months to ask for the phone then lost it. I think even if your reasonably dense you'd have a good chance of not getting caught and zero if your smart depending maybe on pot luck of the force who investigated it. I'm still shocked at how ineffective the police was.

You presume they will seek justice by all means available.

SmudgeButt · 26/12/2023 16:57

Oh more body disposal tips.....Anyone remember Hamish MacBeth? There was an episode where someone went missing and then they realised he'd fallen into the lobster enclosure. There's a similar sort of discussion in a Dorothy L Sayers book too. Think it was "Have His Carcase".

ActDottie · 26/12/2023 16:58

I watched a murder investigation on TV recently about a young lady who was murdered. They found footage of the suspect disposing of her clothes in a bin and a skip. They were able to trace the bin and skip contents and sifted through the rubbish at the recycling centre and were able to retrieve the clothing as evidence complete with forensics. So they do search through rubbish.

Burning clothes removes 99.9% of forensic evidence too so is the “safest” way to get away with it.

mangochops · 26/12/2023 17:01

The best way to dispose of a body is to dig up an existing grave and put it in there. That's what I'd do anyway

MereDintofPandiculation · 26/12/2023 17:03

RoseAndRose · 26/12/2023 13:46

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 everything is found in one place and there is evidence linking you to that place, that’s weak evidence that you were involved.

if things are found in 3-4 places and CCTV or other evidence links you to each, that’s much stronger evidence of you involvement

Topofthemountain · 26/12/2023 17:06

mangochops · 26/12/2023 17:01

The best way to dispose of a body is to dig up an existing grave and put it in there. That's what I'd do anyway

That did happen, but obviously there is then excess soil, a forensic botanist was able to prove where the dump soil came from and how long it had been there.

It was Jayden Parkinson (I watched a TV documentary about it)

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11295633.update-court-hears-jayden-buried-grave-ex-boyfriends-uncle/

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 26/12/2023 17:07

Rubbish doesn’t necessarily go straight to landfill though. Where I live it’s compressed by bin hopper and taken to a local storage shed. There it is further compressed and piled up by the manitou. An arctic will come and collect when bay is full. Which can be a few weeks.

SockQueen · 26/12/2023 17:09

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 often wonder if I got murdered, whether the police would be thrown off the scent by finding traces of blood around the sink where I rinse mine out. Poor DH might get accused!

Needhelp101 · 26/12/2023 17:09

frantically taking notes for my next book

I do remember a very sad case in Australia where police dug through a massive rubbish tip in search of a murder victim's body. Imagine that, digging through stinking rubbish in summer heat to find the rotting body of a poor murdered girl. Whatever they were paid, it was NOT enough.

mangochops · 26/12/2023 17:10

Topofthemountain · 26/12/2023 17:06

That did happen, but obviously there is then excess soil, a forensic botanist was able to prove where the dump soil came from and how long it had been there.

It was Jayden Parkinson (I watched a TV documentary about it)

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11295633.update-court-hears-jayden-buried-grave-ex-boyfriends-uncle/

Edited
Show quote history

Yeah- plus I don't know if they have CCTV in those places either. That's interesting. The forensics available nowadays are so advanced that it's actually very hard to get away with it which is a good thing obv.

saltinesandcoffeecups · 26/12/2023 17:11

Drive the body to a shitty part of town leave the car/keys and head home. Car will be stolen in no time and if found will have been part of another crime which gives reasonable doubt as long as all other evidence is gone.

That of course depends on the method of murder… this works best with stabbing or gunshot. Leave weapons in the car with the body and keys. Weapon will be stolen and probably used in other crimes which again will muddy the waters.

Cover story is that victim has been acting strange lately you were both going out and got in a fight, and got out of the car. You were worried about stress and suspected drug use or drinking but no evidence that you’d been able to find.

GHSP · 26/12/2023 17:12

I think, if I ever was to commit a horrific crime for which I needed to hide evidence, I’d just put a nametape on it and leave it in my daughter’s PE bag. It is extraordinary how things seem to disappear from existence via this route. I suspect there are wormholes in the girls’ changing rooms at school.

mangochops · 26/12/2023 17:13

What about identical twins? they have the same DNA and what if both denied doing it and they couldn't pin down which one it was?

ErrolTheRednosedDragon · 26/12/2023 17:13

Ha! This is something I have thought about too but I've seen crime and discovery shows whereby someone threw the murder weapon in the bin and it was found a few days after the murder. I always thought "how fcking stupid" to not get rid of it properly (the stupidity annoyed me almost more than the crime lol).

Surreptitiously dropping it into a canal seems like a better bet.

MadeOfAllWork · 26/12/2023 17:15

CombatLingerie · 26/12/2023 16:00

I seem to remember a case where it was almost certain that a missing person’s body had gone to a rubbish dump? The police said it was impossible to search for the body. I doubt the police would go grubbing around on rubbish dumps for bits of clothing.This sort of evidence collection probably only happens in fiction. I think there is an ongoing case in Canada where a serial killer dumped bodies at a rubbish dump and they can’t be recovered due to the cost. One of the victim’s daughter holds a vigil there for her mother. Very sad. Most people have washing machines. Do a good boil wash with biological washing powder. Then into one of those clothes recycling bins in the supermarket car park. I think those clothes just go for rags? The pushing someone off a cruise ship is ideal no body and no evidence.

That was near me.
Once they realised he was missing the cctv was checked. It showed him going into a dead end but not coming out again. The dead end was full of industrial bins and he had been known to sleep in them when pissed. The bins were collected in the early hours of the next morning.

They don’t know if he was taken to the land fill or the incinerator. They searched the landfill but found nothing. It wasn’t safe to use dogs. After the police stopped looking some local businesses funded further searches but he has never been found.

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 26/12/2023 17:16

I’d burn clothes ( wood stove ) dispose of ash and any remnants of a weapon( blade etc) on a dog walk By a river. Getting rid of a body Id freeze it and then get a couple of pigs. Apparently they can’t digest hair (shave head?) or teeth ( pull them out?) alternatively hire a wood chipper and woodchip body over river?

SleepingStandingUp · 26/12/2023 17:16

Frozen ice pick and a pet pig. You ain't being found anywhere..

Bbq1 · 26/12/2023 17:16

RoseAndRose · 26/12/2023 13:46

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

You need to write a thriller!

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 26/12/2023 17:18

MadeOfAllWork · 26/12/2023 17:15

That was near me.
Once they realised he was missing the cctv was checked. It showed him going into a dead end but not coming out again. The dead end was full of industrial bins and he had been known to sleep in them when pissed. The bins were collected in the early hours of the next morning.

They don’t know if he was taken to the land fill or the incinerator. They searched the landfill but found nothing. It wasn’t safe to use dogs. After the police stopped looking some local businesses funded further searches but he has never been found.

Show quote history

Oh was this in Glasgow? I’m sure I was told about this.

saltinesandcoffeecups · 26/12/2023 17:20

Of course we’re all now caught after the police check our internet history 🤣

RoseAndRose · 26/12/2023 17:29

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 26/12/2023 17:18

Oh was this in Glasgow? I’m sure I was told about this.

Show quote history

His name was Corrie Mckeague, and he went missing in Bury St Edmunds

Corrie Mckeague inquest concludes he died after going into bin - BBC News

RoseAndRose · 26/12/2023 17:30

MereDintofPandiculation · 26/12/2023 17:03

If everything is found in one place and there is evidence linking you to that place, that’s weak evidence that you were involved.

if things are found in 3-4 places and CCTV or other evidence links you to each, that’s much stronger evidence of you involvement

Show quote history

Noted, thank you Xmas Wink

Fannyfiggs · 26/12/2023 17:31

What I've taken from this thread is, if you're going to murder someone...

Do it naked!

GnomeDePlume · 26/12/2023 17:32

Crime scene clean up is also a problem.

I demonstrated this to myself by making blackberry jelly in my kitchen. It wasn't even particularly splattery but I still found more splatters and drops after I had cleaned up. This included a run of blackberry juice down the inside of a cupboard door which had been closed for the entire time.

I do wonder how many bodies have been disposed of on allotments. Not too many people to witness you manhandling the body out of your boot. Dig a hole, bury body, site your compost heap on top. Continue to garden the plot.