Is it possible to perform the perfect murder with the internet?

Soldato
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I caught a bit on the radio a few days ago about the Jo Yates killer, and how he would stay one step ahead of the police thanks to the internet and would research how long a body would take to decompose.

So with the internet, do you think it is possible to premeditate a murder and get away with the whole thing by researching on the internet?
 
Yes and even without the Internet. With lots of planning I have no doubt many have got away with murder. I would hazard a guess all those missing/runaway people's. Aren't always just missing.

You just have to look at how long some serial killers got away with it, with no idea they were doing it, but like everything. People get "greedy" or inevitably make a mistake at some point.
 
Yes and even without the Internet. With lots of planning I have no doubt many have got away with murder. I would hazard a guess all those missing/runaway people's. Aren't always just missing.

You just have to look at how long some serial killers got away with it, with no idea they were doing it, but like everything. People get "greedy" or inevitably make a mistake at some point.


This - there are still plenty of unsolved murders. If you kill someone you don't know and have no connection with, and you stay off the NDNADB then you're probably OK. If you kill someone you do know or are connected with, you just need a good lawyer.
 
This - there are still plenty of unsolved murders. If you kill someone you don't know and have no connection with, and you stay off the NDNADB then you're probably OK. If you kill someone you do know or are connected with, you just need a good lawyer.

What I always wonder, is how many murders have taken place that police simply don't know have happened, no crime scene and no body and no one would know, to even start an investigation.
 
I caught a bit on the radio a few days ago about the Jo Yates killer, and how he would stay one step ahead of the police thanks to the internet and would research how long a body would take to decompose.

So with the internet, do you think it is possible to premeditate a murder and get away with the whole thing by researching on the internet?

He was one step ahead?
How does researching how a body would decompose, after you've already dumped it in the woods, in the coldest winter in living memory where the frost and snow covered the ground going to help him?

Also the press seem to making a massive thing of his internet porn and his prior use of call girls. Seriously? Call girls make you a murdered now? Well lock up the royals and the politicans for murder then.
 
Of course its possible, don't think I could cope living the rest of my life with it on my mind though. You'd be constantly looking over your shoulder, so to speak - it would probably drive me insane with paranoia after a while. No doubt some people could deal with it though.
 
No more or less possible than it would have been by simply reading up on it via books I would have thought.

There's a fair amount of variables involved in bodies decomposing including temperature, if it's placed in any substance to aid decomposition (quicklime/acid etc), if there are any insects or other animal scavengers to remove the flesh/disperse the body etc etc. Most of the rough information is available in books but a number of murderers get caught out by things they just haven't anticipated - as an example read up about John Haigh (the acid bath murderer).

The problem isn't necessarily in the disposal of the body, it's in ensuring that there's no link between you and the victim or at least that you've got a plausible enough alibi at the time of the murder.
 
Of course it' is. You don't even need the internet.

First, be smart from the very beginning. Pulverize all teeth, burn off fingerprints, and disfigure the face. Forcing a DNA test to establish identity (if it ever comes to that) might introduce the legal/forensic hurdle that saves your ass down the line. An unidentifiable body can, in a pinch, be dressed in thrift store clothes and dropped in a bad part of town where the police are less likely to question it. I don't reommend that disposal method, I'm just saying an easily identifiable body is an even bigger threat than the opposite.

Assuming you have it inside a house where you can work on it a bit, the first thing you want to do is drain it of fluids. This will make it easier to cut up, and slow decomposition a little bit. The best way to do this quick and dirty is to perforate the body with a pointed knife, and then perform CPR on it. Cut the fronts of the thighs deep, diagonally, to slit the femoral arteries. Then pump the chest. The valves in the heart will still work when dead, and the springback of the ribcage can put apply a fair amount of suction to the artria. Do this in a tub. Plug the drain, and mingle lots of bleach with the bodily fluids before unplugging the drain to empty the tub. This should help control the stench of death, which would otherwise reek from your gutter gratings. Do everything you can to control odors. Plug in an ionizer, burn candles, leave bowls of baking soda everywhere. Ventilate the room in the middle of the night, but otherwise keep it closed. Keep the body under a plastic sheet while it's in the tub.

If you want to bury, I recommend seperating the body into several parts, and burying them seperately. For one thing, it's easier to dig a deep enough hole for a head than for an entire body. this reduces your chances of being discovered while you are actually outside and digging the grave.
That is the one thing you can't do inside the doors of your house, and represents a vulnerable moment you want to keep brief, under 2 hours. Do it between 3 and 5 am. It's also less likely for someone to call the police if their dog digs up some chunk of meat, than if they dig up an enitre body. They may assume it's an animal carcass disfigured by decomposition, and leave it alone or dispose of it. It's also more likely that the dog will consume all of it before anyone knows the difference. A whole skeleton is another story. You can cut a body into 6 pieces faster than you think. It's not much different than boning a chicken, but it takes more work, a big knife, and time. A hammer will be useful for pulverizing joints or driving the knife deep where it doesn't want to go. Anyway it's wise to crush as much of the skeleton as you can along the way. It will aid in making the body less identifiable for what it is as it decomposes.

Don't return to the same site 6 times for 6 burials.You'll attract suspicion from anyone nearby, and you'll wind up placing the body parts close enough together to be found by any serious investigation. Put them in plastic bags with lots of bleach, and store in a freezer until you have enough time to bury them all.

Depending on what tools you have available, you may find that you're get really good at deconstructing the body. You might prefer to slowly sprinkle it down a drain without leaving your house. This avoids the long-term risk of discovery associated with burial, and the overwhelming supply of bacteria in a sewer accellerates deconomposition, whil e providing a convenient cover smell.

Truly grinding down a body takes a lot more work, and you run the risk of fouling your plumbing and calling in a plumber. So don't try it unless you know how to clear bones and meat out of a drainpipe. A good food processor can be useful. But don't over-use it, or power drills or saws. They're noisy and they attract attention. And forget the kitchen sink. It's better if you actually remove one of the toilets in your house from its base, which will give you direct access to one of the largest sewer pipes that enters your house. Follow any disposals with lots of bleach and then run the water for 5 or 10 minutes on top of that. And plug that pipe when you're not using it, to prevent any sewer gasses from backing up into your house. Usually, a U-trap inside the toilet does that for you.
 
Jill Dando was killed pretty much perfectly, iirc?

Shot on doorstep, killer never found and the bonus was a nice scapegoat who took the limelight.

The perfect murder wouldn't have you faffing about with dead bodies.
 
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