Long Distance Murder

[CdnWriter]

So....crime novel, my main character wants to murder someone. Preferably at a long distance - I mean from the murder, time-wise not like from a sniper rifle 1,000 miles away. I am thinking three methods:

gifting a bottle of their favourite beverage - this works in terms of you can FedEx the poisoned bottle/can to them so by the time they do drink it, you're far, far away from the scene and if you went through a few steps, your identity is hidden.

gaining access to their residence and placing the poison in a beverage, a food, an ice cube tray, etc, etc. You'd need to be in their physical space and leave some evidence although disguise and distance time wise can hide the fact you were there.

I don't really like this next method but introducing some type of venomous snake or insect....how would you guarantee it would attack the victim? Like I know...boa constrictors like to squeeze their prey to death for example but why would a snake attack the victim? Plus the murderer has to have access to an exotic snake and handle it, get it into the victim's locale.

Does one of these methods sound "better" than the others in terms of puzzling investigators and stumping them, giving the murderer more time to escape?

Things to keep in mind. The murder will be disguised, wear gloves, pay cash, and the only victim will be the target. No family or kids in the house.

Thank you for your help! Just trying to sort of decide which murder scene to write here. I'm not after "flashy," I'm after something mundane that will allow the investigators to say, "It was natural causes." and give them an "out"so they don't look too hard at the situation.

 

[buttercream]

The first one's the most reasonable of the three, but you'll have to make some adjustments if you don't want the police to suspect foul play. Poison would be too easy to detect, by a trained eye and by toxicology, especially if your story's set in modern times.

You could give the victim a major allergy the MC is aware of. Slip some of the allergen in the drink and feign ignorance if questioned. Boring, can be done at any distance, and allows for a clean getaway.

 

[CdnWriter]

The first one's the most reasonable of the three, but you'll have to make some adjustments if you don't want the police to suspect foul play. Poison would be too easy to detect, by a trained eye and by toxicology, especially if your story's set in modern times.

You could give the victim a major allergy the MC is aware of. Slip some of the allergen in the drink and feign ignorance if questioned. Boring, can be done at any distance, and allows for a clean getaway.

I'm not too concerned about the police, mainly because it's a smaller town police force more used to catching speeders on the local highway and the victim isn't going to be notable (at first) to anyone.

TBH, I read a graphic novel years ago by Ed Brisson called "Murder Book" and there was a story in there, where two teenagers carjacked someone who was driving a stolen car with a copse in the trunk. When the teens started joyriding and shooting off their cheap pistols at the local signs, they got pulled over by the traffic cops who searched the car and found the body, then charged the teens who were driving a stolen car, had been firing pistols (gunshot residue on their hands) and had a body in the trunk with bullet wounds. (The guy who they carjacked killed someone and was disposing of the corpse.) The cops took the easy arrest and closed the book. HOWEVER....there was some racial bias in play, the teens were black, the cops were white so that kind of led them to the "case closed." I'm thinking the victim could be discovered because the cops drive out to see why the house alarm is going off.....and interrupt a burglary in progress. So...burglar, dead body, case closed, right? I'm only shying away from it because I think it makes it too complicated.

Murder Book

I'm starting to wonder about the idea of crushing up a bunch of pills, benzodiazepines and injecting them into a bottle of wine via the cork....if the person has a glass of wine every night before bed and uses sleeping pills.....maybe they "accidentally" ingested too much? Plus there's also the time between the death and the discovery of the corpse, so the forensics will be an issue as well. I realize that may not be possible with some drugs but I don't actually want to document a legitimate method of murder in a story or the cops will have some serious questions for me. It just has to be plausible.

What I do like about that idea above is that you can set the booby-trapped bottle of wine way, way ahead of time and just wait a few months, maybe a year and then.....DEAD! As long as there's no rush. Easy-Pleasey.

I'm also going to look at the allergen thing. I'm just at a bit of a loss - until I research...- how one gets an allergen and whether it can be done at a distance from the victim. If MC puts allergen X into a bottle of wine or a can of soda pop via a syringe and is miles away when the death occurs....

THANK YOU!!!

EDIT 1: I just looked up allergens and I'm thinking peanut oil injected into something via a syringe. I just have to figure out how to disguise the allergen....like why would the victim's corn flakes and milk have peanut oil included....?

 

[hirundine]

EDIT 1: I just looked up allergens and I'm thinking peanut oil injected into something via a syringe. I just have to figure out how to disguise the allergen....like why would the victim's corn flakes and milk have peanut oil included....?

There was a case in the UK a while back where a girl was severely allergic to milk. She Had a drink (I think it was hot chocolate) and asked for soy milk and made sure the barista knew she was allergic, but the barista didn't realise that milk powder was an ingredient in the hot chocolate. The girl had an anaphylactic reaction and died. A small amount of milk or milk powder could be mixed with soy milk (or milk powder be mixed into milk-free hot chocolate powder) without the character being able to detect it, so that could possibly work for your story.

 

[Trish]

. I realize that may not be possible with some drugs but I don't actually want to document a legitimate method of murder in a story or the cops will have some serious questions for me.

Unless people start dropping around you by the same method - no they won't.

Considering the amount of people into true crime and the horrors available, imo, you want it to be a legitimate method. Otherwise a lot of people will just roll their eyes and think "that doesn't work how you think it works".

 

[CdnWriter]

There was a case in the UK a while back where a girl was severely allergic to milk. She Had a drink (I think it was hot chocolate) and asked for soy milk and made sure the barista knew she was allergic, but the barista didn't realise that milk powder was an ingredient in the hot chocolate. The girl had an anaphylactic reaction and died. A small amount of milk or milk powder could be mixed with soy milk (or milk powder be mixed into milk-free hot chocolate powder) without the character being able to detect it, so that could possibly work for your story.

That does work, THANK YOU!!!

 

[Rath Darkblade]

So....crime novel, my main character wants to murder someone. Preferably at a long distance - I mean from the murder, time-wise not like from a sniper rifle 1,000 miles away. I am thinking three methods:

gifting a bottle of their favourite beverage - this works in terms of you can FedEx the poisoned bottle/can to them so by the time they do drink it, you're far, far away from the scene and if you went through a few steps, your identity is hidden.

gaining access to their residence and placing the poison in a beverage, a food, an ice cube tray, etc, etc. You'd need to be in their physical space and leave some evidence although disguise and distance time wise can hide the fact you were there.

I don't really like this next method but introducing some type of venomous snake or insect....how would you guarantee it would attack the victim? Like I know...boa constrictors like to squeeze their prey to death for example but why would a snake attack the victim? Plus the murderer has to have access to an exotic snake and handle it, get it into the victim's locale.

The first one's the most reasonable of the three, but you'll have to make some adjustments if you don't want the police to suspect foul play. Poison would be too easy to detect, by a trained eye and by toxicology, especially if your story's set in modern times.

You could give the victim a major allergy the MC is aware of. Slip some of the allergen in the drink and feign ignorance if questioned. Boring, can be done at any distance, and allows for a clean getaway.

Hmm ... if you go with the first method, I wouldn't use FedEx. I'm not American, so I'm not sure how easy it is to trace back to your murderer. I googled "can police trace a FedEx package to a sender" and found that yes, they can. (TBH, I'd be very surprised if they couldn't! I'm sure FedEx would cooperate with law enforcement in cases like this).

If you use the second method, it depends on what poison you use. If I remember my Agatha Christie, Three Act Tragedy used

Spoiler

pure nicotine in a martini glass at a party.

(I'm hiding it so if anyone hasn't read the book, they won't be spoiled). This poison is particularly insidious: colourless, odorless, and difficult to trace (at least in those days). I'm not sure how easy to trace it is now.

I'm not a toxicologist, so again, I googled "untraceable poisons" (gosh, the police would have fun with me... =P) and found this interesting video ... "Six Undetectable Poisons (and How to Detect Them)". It's not bad as a start. (Note: don't use arsenic or cyanide. They're way too famous and have many, many ways to detect them). But it's important to note that there is no such thing as an "undetectable" or "untraceable" poison.

As for the third method (i.e. introducing a snake or insect) ... you can do that as a bluff. I mean, it's possible that your detectives will find a poisonous insect (perhaps dead?) in the victim's house/dwelling and leap to the conclusion that the person was stung by this insect, but instead, he was killed in a different way. (Hypodermic syringe? Injected while the person was asleep or otherwise helpless?)

This wouldn't fool a forensic analyst, but if your detective (or policeman) is sure of his facts, and says "This person died from being stung by a wasp", then he wouldn't call in the forensics. (When you do your big reveal later on, of course, your detective/policeman would look like an idiot).

Things to keep in mind. The murder will be disguised, wear gloves, pay cash, and the only victim will be the target. No family or kids in the house.

Disguises and gloves are all very well, but gloves can leave glove residue behind. Cash can also be traced through serial numbers, especially when something like murder enters into it.

Your murderer will probably want to make his crime look like either suicide or an accident (e.g. a wasp sting). Some people are allergic to wasps, and even a single sting can trigger anaphylaxis, a rapid, whole-body allergic reaction that can be fatal. If your victim has a pre-existing condition (e.g. heart problems or a weakened immune system - e.g. recovering from flu or COVID?), he/she would be more vulnerable to complications from a wasp sting.

I hope all this gives you food for thought. I'm not a crime writer, but I am an avid crime reader (especially Christie, who knew lots about poisons because she was worked as a pharmacist's assistant during World War I, and also had a nursing background). I'm sure poisons have moved on significantly since Christie's day, though ... so do your research.

 

[Luxuria]

I'm not a toxicologist, so again, I googled "untraceable poisons" (gosh, the police would have fun with me... =P) and found this interesting video ... "Six Undetectable Poisons (and How to Detect Them)". It's not bad as a start. (Note: don't use arsenic or cyanide. They're way too famous and have many, many ways to detect them). But it's important to note that there is no such thing as an "undetectable" or "untraceable" poison.

Neither am I, but I have done a lot of research on poison for stories. I don't think there is any poison that's 'undetectable'. Not to a modern day toxicologist. Unless your Medical Examiner office is underfunded, which is common. As for cyanide and arsenic, I would say you can use them. But please, for the love of the Gods, don't go 'Hollywood' with it. Aka, don't have the character grasp their throat and keel over dead. Use the real-life symptoms and affects of the poisons.

See: Cyanide Poisoning Treatment, Symptoms & Effects

The same goes for arsenic that is actually a pretty slow killer and shreds your digestive tract. It's pretty nasty, but fun in a story. I had a character poisoned with arsenic and it took 24-48 horrendous hours for him to die.

See: Arsenic Toxicity - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

So yes, you can use these two poisons. Just get them right.

Your murderer will probably want to make his crime look like either suicide or an accident (e.g. a wasp sting). Some people are allergic to wasps, and even a single sting can trigger anaphylaxis, a rapid, whole-body allergic reaction that can be fatal. If your victim has a pre-existing condition (e.g. heart problems or a weakened immune system - e.g. recovering from flu or COVID?), he/she would be more vulnerable to complications from a wasp sting.

I agree with this. Honestly though, there is no perfect story murder. Also, the wasps might be pretty easy to do. Just have bad guy call to cancel victim's pest control. Wasps build homes fast in my experience.

 

[Naomasa298]

Send them a gift of dried mushrooms. Add some deathcap mushrooms in. Include a recipe for beef wellington.

 

[Luxuria]

Send them a gift of dried mushrooms. Add some deathcap mushrooms in. Include a recipe for beef wellington.

Yes. This is the way.

 

[Hammer]

Send them a gift of dried mushrooms. Add some deathcap mushrooms in. Include a recipe for beef wellington.

Too far-fetched... whoever heard of anyone being killed by a beef wellington...?!

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Send them a gift of dried mushrooms. Add some deathcap mushrooms in. Include a recipe for beef wellington.

Isn't it fairly easy to tell the difference between deathcap mushrooms and other mushrooms? *wonders* I'm not sure. Is there a myocologist in the house?

But please, for the love of the Gods, don't go 'Hollywood' with it. Aka, don't have the character grasp their throat and keel over dead. Use the real-life symptoms and affects of the poisons.

Seconded. Nobody realistically ever does that. I've seen something like that in Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie, but even then, it takes time for the poison to take effect.

And that gives me an idea for your 'untraceable poison' (mwa-ha-ha). Three Act Tragedy uses

Spoiler

liquid nicotine, mixed into a martini.

Can the same poison be extracted from a vaping product? It is highly lethal (even a dose as small as 50-60 mg can kill an adult within minutes), and if it is hidden in food or drink ... especially something that would mask the taste ... your victim wouldn't have time to realise that he/she had just ingested this poison.

Obviously, and I can't stress this enough: DO NOT DO THIS. (Sorry, I know this is obvious. Just covering my you-know-what in case some lawyer decides to do something half-you-know-whated) =P

 

[Stuart Dren]

Distance means indirect, which means unreliable. Sabotaging cars, putting snakes in fruit baskets etc. are all chance things. It might take a few tries.

Being suspended in alcohol would degrade a lot of drugs. However, "booby-trapping" hard liquor probably isn't that hard: add methanol.

Methanol toxicity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If the story's victim is known to binge-drink alone, there's a chance this would as least kill him that night or cause a great number of complications if not treated quickly. However, the doctored bottle would need to be one the victim already possesses: the risk of his surviving and knowing who gave him the rye is too great.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Distance means indirect, which means unreliable. Sabotaging cars ... are chance things. It might take a few tries.

That depends. Some terrorist groups (e.g. the Mafia) used, and still use, car bombs. I've also heard of bombs fitted to the undercarriage of a car and detonated remotely; see the Russell Street bombing. But we're getting side-tracked, since the CdnWriter asked for poison.

Less dramatically, it's possible to stage an "accident" by tampering with a car's brakes. But this requires the victim to trust the murderer sufficiently to give him/her access to the car, as well as the murderer having sufficient knowledge of cars ... and leaves a lot to chance, e.g. the victim might lend his car to someone else.

Being suspended in alcohol would degrade a lot of drugs. However, "booby-trapping" hard liquor probably isn't that hard: add methanol.

Methanol toxicity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If the story's victim is known to binge-drink alone, there's a chance this would as least kill him that night or cause a great number of complications if not treated quickly. However, the doctored bottle would need to be one the victim already possesses: the risk of his surviving and knowing who gave him the rye is too great.

That's plausible, but it requires the victim to trust his murderer sufficiently to give him the chance to do that without being observed. And where would the murderer find sufficient, undiluted methanol?

 

[Sandor]

I think a lot of this depends on your characters and their relationship to each other. What's their ages, interests, etc? How do they know each other? The internet, in person, old friends, relatives? I wrote a story where I had to look into "household poisons" and such. I think overdoing it on stuff like Asprin could work well, especially when mixed with wine. I think killing with an insect or a snake could be fun, but that's just me.

 

[Stuart Dren]

That's plausible, but it requires the victim to trust his murderer sufficiently to give him the chance to do that without being observed. And where would the murderer find sufficient, undiluted methanol?

You can buy it pure, as it has plenty of non-hostile uses. Or just distill it from windshield washer fluid.

 

[CdnWriter]

I think a lot of this depends on your characters and their relationship to each other. What's their ages, interests, etc? How do they know each other? The internet, in person, old friends, relatives? I wrote a story where I had to look into "household poisons" and such. I think overdoing it on stuff like Asprin could work well, especially when mixed with wine. I think killing with an insect or a snake could be fun, but that's just me.

I saw some blurb on Reddit about how snakes were being smuggled on a plane, they weren't adequately sedated and invaded the passenger cabin. The passengers all stormed towards the cockpit to get away from the snakes and the weight of the passengers all crowding at the front of the plane caused it to crash. I felt it was the inspiration for the film, "Snakes on a Plane" but it seems it happened AFTER the film came out.

I was thinking of several different situations but the one that seems to allow the most destruction is one where it's totally random. Like a visiting customer at a local store spikes bottles of aspirin and completely unrelated people start dropping dead all over several different geographical regions. I did a LOT of research and checked into some of the "un" solved murders and one of the things that really, really jumped out to me is how INCOMPETENT the investigators are. Like....there's people like John Wayne Gacy and his neighbours were mass reporting suspicious odors from his property and nobody listened....THEN years, decades later, they find the rotting remains of like 20 corpses or something. Or there's some kid's shoe found in X place and the investigator takes the evidence and check with the parents, "Yes, that's "Tommy's" shoe!" and then weeks, months later the investigator explores the area further and finds the kid's corpse. Like.....within 50 feet of the original shoe. WHAT exactly do investigators get paid to do all day long???

[Dumb me, I didn't jot down the poster's name when I copy/pasted this comment from Reddit. You can google for it if you really want to find the original comment.]

"There was this one episode of one of those random murder case shows where someone went missing. The case was hopeless until someone came into a station one day with a shoe they found on the side of a rural highway on the outskirts of town. They showed the shoe which was a childs TMNT shoe and the victim's parent confirmed the kid owned TMNT shoes. Although that doesnt necessarily confirm it is HIS shoe.

Even still, with this new information in hand, eventually the detective assigned to this case went out to that highway where the bystander said they found the shoe but couldnt find any other clues. The show then says that like a month or two later, he returned AGAIN, but this time decided to check the other side of the highway. And apparently like 300 ft further down the road, they find the kids body underneath a blanket.

The only thought around my head was....you are looking for a missing child. Someone comes in with a child's shoe abandoned on the highway. The parent confirms it could be their shoe.....and you wait multiple months to canvass the highway? Thats like 1 dude's single day of work and you postponed that months!?"

So....if someone just wanted to kill random people - men, women, children, all careers, all races, all ages, etc - it would be impossible for them to be found. Even if they use poisoned Tylenol because within such a random sample some people will die from an allergic reaction to a wasp sting, some will get hit by cars, some will have a heart attack, etc so even if they would have died of the poisoning, it wouldn't be attributed to the poison. Plus not all regions have medical examiners or reasons to autopsy a body. Another factor would be WHEN was the aspirin purchased and WHEN was the fatal dose taken? I mean...I have aspirin in my medicine cabinet that I bought 3 years ago.

I really wanted to avoid the killer getting away with anything due to the incompetence of police investigators but it seems that I actually can get away with "cops sucky at their jobs!" because HOW else can you explain some of the serial killers such as Robert Pickton??? He was convicted of 26 murders, he claimed to have murdered 49 and 65 women went missing when he was active.

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-pickton-case

The police were TOLD multiple times about missing women but because they were transient populations - homeless, sex workers, drug addicts, etc - the police assumed in every case that they moved on. Or..."NHI" which stands for "no humans involved" and not worth our time. Police seem more actively invested when it's a child or a specific race. They don't seem to take teenage victims or victims of colour seriously.

 

[JT Woody]

The first one.

It actually hapoened in Brazil earlier this year. A woman sent a box of valentines day chocolate to her ex's new GF and her kids. Chocolates were poisoned.
Unfortunately, the kids died. I can remember if the mother died, but she was hospitalized in critical condition.

So.... the first one is doable and has been done.

I really wanted to avoid the killer getting away with anything due to the incompetence of police investigators but it seems that I actually can get away with "cops sucky at their jobs!"

I can name a few where the murderer got away because of how outlandish and weird the case was.
There was a documentary about this woman and man who were drugged in their own house. When the guy woke up, the gf was missing. Cops were looking for her for days but the whole situation was so strange they started questioning whether it really happened at all. Things just werent adding up. Then the woman shows up at a relatives house and cops were really like "yeah, this cant be real".
It took another woman to go missing in the same way year later for them to realize "oh snap, someone IS actually doing this!!"
When my husband got promoted to detective, he and his training class had to watch that documentary and take notes on everything that went wrong (he showed me the documentary when he came home and said, starting out, nothing made sense and he and the other detectives thought it was a hoax).

Another instance was the Dating Games Killer. Acala had already killed multiple women before ending up on the Dating Game. But he always got out of jail because of lack of evidence, and his super chill, super suave personality. Cops just couldnt stick anything on him.

The police were TOLD multiple times about missing women but because they were transient populations - homeless, sex workers, drug addicts, etc - the police assumed in every case that they moved on. Or..."NHI" which stands for "no humans involved" and not worth our time. Police seem more actively invested when it's a child or a specific race. They don't seem to take teenage victims or victims of colour seriously.

Same with the serial killer in Louisiana who only murdered gay black men. Cops didnt care
They didnt put too much effort into investigating. I think there was a quote saying "good riddence" or something. They chalked it up to a sex kink gone wrong (strangulation).

 

[CdnWriter]

When my husband got promoted to detective, he and his training class had to watch that documentary and take notes on everything that went wrong (he showed me the documentary when he came home and said, starting out, nothing made sense and he and the other detectives thought it was a hoax).

How does one get promoted to detective? Like my impression is that a police career starts off as a cadet, then a beat cop, then a sergeant or another higher rank, and then after....5? 10? years and educational courses along the way, someone gets pushed into a specific career in a specific department. Then there are different departments that get detectives, right? Robbery is one department, homicide is another, vice is a different department, and so on....

Can your husband, if he's in the vice division, transfer to the homicide division & vice versa?

 

[JT Woody]

How does one get promoted to detective?

he has the education and met all the requirements. He started as a cadet, then was a beat cop. he is very well respected (the sergeants think very highly of him and kind of mentored him and urged him to apply for the open detective position). He is meticulous and detailed with his work.

Then there are different departments that get detectives, right? Robbery is one department, homicide is another, vice is a different department, and so on....

Can your husband, if he's in the vice division, transfer to the homicide division & vice versa?

its a small police department (we dont live in a big bustling city... here, the cops are also fire department/emergency services. so he had to train as an EMT and as a Firefighter while he was a cadet). so as a detective, he does a little of everything (except sex crimes. that has a whole other department). He had his first homicide this past week since becoming a detective.