We had a case in Brazil that was both sad and absurdly silly.
A woman was found murdered in a cemetery. She was in town for a university-related festival/party, and was staying temporarily with some other students.
The police suspected the other students first, and went to their house, and found out:
1. One was an RPG player, had RPG books.
2. The other was a heavy metal fan and had heavy metal-related posters.
3. The other guy was into literature and had some 'dark' literature.
So conclusion of the officers: it was a satanic cult, and the woman was killed in a "RPG Satanic Ritual"
The prosecutor's office at first went with it too.
Later, already mid-trial, the prosecutor changed, the new prosecutor found a lot more formerly-useful now useless evidence that the police seemly deliberately ignored:
1. The police had in evidence storage some bloodied clothes that they never ran DNA tests on, the DNA was now useless (it has been years since the actual murder). Also the evidence was probably contaminated, the storage consisted of stuffing all the evidence in trash bags and leaving them in a random room in the police station.
2. People told the police multiple times, that the woman had drug debts, but they were ignored.
3. A known drug dealer was seen on the day past the murder, riding a bike around town, with his t-shirt having red stains on it, police even seen the guy themselves, and didn't bother stopping him and checking his t-shirt.
The new prosecutor despite seeing all this, had hands tied and just went along with what the police wanted, and tried to prove in court that they were "satanists".
The ruling was this (the judge was quite upset at it too):
1. The prosecution failed to prove they were satanists, evidence pointed out to the accused living there by coincidence, and their hobbies being "dark" or "fantasy" were coincidence too, only one of them was an RPG player, only one of them was a heavy metal fan, and so on, they didn't shared their hobbies with each other.
2. And even if they WERE satanists (they weren't), in Brazil being a satanist is not a crime.
3. For some reason the prosecution provided zero evidence that was actually related to the murder, they only tried to prove the accused were satanists and presumed this would be enough to know they were the murderers, but they never tried to link the accused with the crime scene, didn't even tried to explain when they would been at the cemetery.
Off-topic, but Boy Einstein couldn't have created the puzzle like exactly described with those cigarette brands, because some of them were introduced much later in his life...
A woman was found murdered in a cemetery. She was in town for a university-related festival/party, and was staying temporarily with some other students.
The police suspected the other students first, and went to their house, and found out:
1. One was an RPG player, had RPG books.
2. The other was a heavy metal fan and had heavy metal-related posters.
3. The other guy was into literature and had some 'dark' literature.
So conclusion of the officers: it was a satanic cult, and the woman was killed in a "RPG Satanic Ritual"
The prosecutor's office at first went with it too.
Later, already mid-trial, the prosecutor changed, the new prosecutor found a lot more formerly-useful now useless evidence that the police seemly deliberately ignored:
1. The police had in evidence storage some bloodied clothes that they never ran DNA tests on, the DNA was now useless (it has been years since the actual murder). Also the evidence was probably contaminated, the storage consisted of stuffing all the evidence in trash bags and leaving them in a random room in the police station.
2. People told the police multiple times, that the woman had drug debts, but they were ignored.
3. A known drug dealer was seen on the day past the murder, riding a bike around town, with his t-shirt having red stains on it, police even seen the guy themselves, and didn't bother stopping him and checking his t-shirt.
The new prosecutor despite seeing all this, had hands tied and just went along with what the police wanted, and tried to prove in court that they were "satanists".
The ruling was this (the judge was quite upset at it too):
1. The prosecution failed to prove they were satanists, evidence pointed out to the accused living there by coincidence, and their hobbies being "dark" or "fantasy" were coincidence too, only one of them was an RPG player, only one of them was a heavy metal fan, and so on, they didn't shared their hobbies with each other.
2. And even if they WERE satanists (they weren't), in Brazil being a satanist is not a crime.
3. For some reason the prosecution provided zero evidence that was actually related to the murder, they only tried to prove the accused were satanists and presumed this would be enough to know they were the murderers, but they never tried to link the accused with the crime scene, didn't even tried to explain when they would been at the cemetery.