(Some) Criminals are total idiots

 I don't know if I have ever said this before...

content warning!  I am going to talk about actual murders!  

Not graphically but I just wanted to say if that kind of thing is too upsetting, don't read further!

So I watched a bunch of episodes of a New Zealand show called Forensics, which is about murders in that country which were solved largely through scientific methods.

I find forensics interesting, and I also love New Zealand accents.

So anyway, I did find the episodes interesting, but it was depressing how incredibly stupid many of the criminals were.

Murder is wrong.  That is just...so so so obvious. You shouldn't murder anyone.  Being a soldier in war, or a policeman, or someone in authority is a different matter because I believe there can be justified killing but I'm not talking about that -- I am talking someone gets mad or wants to steal someone's else's stuff  and murders one or more people in the process.

Now if you are evil enough to plot to kill someone, then it seems obvious to me that you'd want to do it in a way which would keep you out of prison for most or all of the rest of your life. That just seems basic sense, right?

Of course murder is terrible.  I'm just saying, from a self preservation point of view, it would be sensible not to murder someone if it is almost certain that you will be caught.

Several of the murderers in question on this show (all were convicted) were stupid, but one of them was particularly idiotic.

He was the ex boyfriend of a woman and was mad that she had broken up, so he decided to murder her. (First degree -- it was planned.) So he snuck into her house, killed her, stole her phone, and started sending out bunch of messages supposedly from her claiming that she was afraid of a stalker at work.

Ok, yeah, that sounds kind of sneaky.  The idea, obviously, was it to look like she was sending messages about a stalker, and then when she was found dead, the police would go after the hypothetical stalker.

But.

He was not a strong speller and when he wrote the text messages, he included numerous spelling errors that the woman would never make.

He made a big deal about how she had told him about the stalker and that he was at her work place, but no one at work knew anything about a stalker.  Furthermore, she was very happy at work. Furthermore, her ex boyfriend HAD been stalking her and her coworkers knew that and told the police.  He had also sent her threatening messages.

So the police were all over that, of course -- they were like, ex boyfriend is probably the culprit.

And then they found a bloody fingerprint on her door, and it matched his fingerprint.

Like. Wow.

Like, dude you are so so so stupid!  You concoct this moderately elaborate plan to murder this innocent woman and LEAVE A BLOODY FINGERPRINT!

Sigh.

Of course I am very glad he was caught and convicted. Horrible man.

But it is kind, I don't know, scary -- yes, scary, that there are idiotic people out there who will commit crimes and apparently genuinely think they will get away with it in spite of all of modern technology pointing their way?

Maybe the smart criminals don't get caught.