History Main / NotTheFirstVictim

** "[[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS12E3Behave Behave]]" opens with a woman who has recently been raped, and when the SVU team investigate, they learn that not only is this not the first time this particular woman has been assaulted but that the perpetrator in question has been [[SerialRapist stalking several women all over the country]], keeping track of them at all times, so that he can sexually assault them again at random times. It's revealed that he gets sadistic pleasure from knowing his victims [[NeverendingTerror live thinking of him, and ''only'' him, every waking moment]]. Some of them have been so broken by the repeated assaults that their marriages, jobs, and social lives have fallen to pieces, forcing them to live in fear of ''any'' human contact.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': In 1985-A, Marty discovers his father in this timeline [[DeadAlternateCounterpart was mysteriously murdered years before]]. Later, when Biff-A goes after Marty with a gun and corners him on the roof, Marty tries to convince Biff that he will only get caught by the police if he shoots Marty, only for Biff to respond:
--> ''Kid, I ''[[IOwnThisTown own]]'' [[PoliceAreUseless the police]]. Besides... they couldn't match up the bullet that killed your old man.''

* ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'': At the climax of the Season 4 episode "[[Recap/BonanzaS04E31 Thunder Man]]," Little Joe realizes that William Poole, a munitions expert the Cartwrights had hired, is a serial murderer. With direct evidence that he killed a widowed friend of the Cartwrights just moments earlier (whom herself had realized Poole's DarkSecret) and a strong suspicion that he raped and murdered his [[CartwrightCurse girlfriend]] (at the beginning of the episode), Joe directly confronts Poole with the evidence. After Poole bluffs a few explanations, he then arrogantly admits that he killed both Joe's girlfriend and the elderly woman, and then when further questioned he admits that he "don't rightly know" how many women he had stalked, sexually assaulted and either badly hurt if not killed before declaring himself master of women and nature and then – [[JustBetweenYouAndMe knowing he can take his confession to the sheriff]] – tries to kill Joe. [[spoiler: Joe, however, kills Poole before he is attacked with a vial of nitroglycerin.]]

* ''Series/TroubledBlood'': [[spoiler:Janice killed Margaret Banborough thirty years ago. However, she was a prolific murderer both before and after that: she killed Joanna because she had been sleeping with Steve, and was periodically poisoning her son Kevin to kill him for getting between her and Steve. After killing Margot for finding out, she then murdered several other people.]]

* ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'': At the climax of "[[Recap/BonanzaS04E31 Thunder Man]]" as Joe Cartwright confronts William Poole for the rapes and murders he's committed throughout the episode he pieces together these are far from Poole's first victims, with Poole sneeringly confirming it admitting he "don't rightly know" how many people's done this to by now, declaring himself master of women and nature before trying to kill Joe with dynamite.

* ''Series/CSINewYork'':
** "Blink", the first episode after the pilot episode has a downplayed example. The team discovers a woman who's been dismembered after having her neck snapped, and subsequently finds more victims with much more brutal injuries. They assume their killer is escalating, but [[spoiler: they realise that the least injured victim (and another who's been left brain dead) were the most recent. The killer's a ControlFreak who'd been refining his technique to put his victims in a state of "locked-in syndrome".]]

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': In 1985-A, Biff goes after Marty with a gun after realizing Marty knows the secret that made him rich. After getting cornered on the roof, Marty tries to convince Biff that he will only get caught by the police if he shoots Marty, only for Biff to respond:
--> ''Kid, I ''[[IOwnThisTown own]]'' [[PoliceAreUseless the police]]. Besides... they couldn't match up the bullet that [[DeadAlternateCounterpart killed your old man]].''

* ''Literature/Coraline'': After being trapped by the Other Mother, Coraline discovers the souls of three other children who were lured in and sucked dry by the same creature.

--> ''Kid, I ''[[IOwnThisTown own]]'' [[PoliceAreUseless the police]]. Besides, they couldn't match up the bullet that [[DeadAlternateCounterpart killed your old man]].''

--> ''Kid, [[IOwnThisTown I ''own'']] [[PoliceAreUseless the police]]. Besides, they couldn't match up the bullet that [[DeadAlternateCounterpart killed your old man]].''

--> ''Kid, I ''own'' the police. Besides, they couldn't match up the bullet that [[DeadAlternateCounterpart killed your old man]].''

!! Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Film/TheBadSeed1956'': It borders on being an OpenSecret that Rhoda killed Claude because she was jealous that he won the penmanship medal. Then Christine reveals that, when they lived elsewhere, an upstairs neighbor [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident fell down the stairs]] after promising to bequeath Rhoda a crystal ball [[TemptingFate when she died.]]

[[folder: Literature]]

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': During the first series, [=ThunderClan=] is horrified when their seemingly loyal deputy Tigerclaw is caught trying to murder their leader - and then even more shocked when Fireheart reveals the truth he has spent the last couple books uncovering: Tigerclaw was the one who killed their previous deputy Redtail, and the accident that had crippled Cinderpaw's leg was actually a trap that Tigerclaw had set in a previous attempt to kill Bluestar.

* ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'': At the climax of [[Recap/BonanzaS04E31 "Thunder Man"]] as Joe Cartwright confronts William Poole for the rapes and murders he's committed throughout the episode he pieces together these are far from Poole's first victims, with Poole sneeringly confirming it admitting he "don't rightly know" how many people's done this to by now, declaring himself master of women and nature before trying to kill Joe with dynamite.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In [[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS6E11TheTherapist "The Therapist"]], Dr Tate reveals offhandedly to Jake that not only did he kill the couple that Jake and Charles are investigating, he ''also'' killed another couple before, and that "nobody misses them." Even Jake is taken aback by how dark it is.

** When an old woman is strangled in [[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS5E23Bound "Bound"]], the detectives initially suspect some sort of insurance or inheritance goal. Then they link it to a series of mysterious strangulations of old women, which were perpetrated by one of the [=CEO=]s in order to spare their daughters the trial of having to look after them.
** [[Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS12E3Behave "Behave"]] opens with a woman who has recently been raped, and when the SVU team investigate, they learn that not only is this not the first time this particular woman has been assaulted but that the perpetrator in question has been [[SerialRapist stalking several women all over the country]], keeping track of them at all times, so that he can sexually assault them again at random times. It's revealed that he gets sadistic pleasure from knowing his victims [[NeverendingTerror live thinking of him, and ''only'' him, every waking moment]]. Some of them have been so broken by the repeated assaults that their marriages, jobs, and social lives have fallen to pieces, forcing them to live in fear of ''any'' human contact.

* ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'': In the first episodes of both the [[Series/LifeOnMars2008 American]] and British versions, Sam comes across a series of murder victims in the present day who have been strangled and found with fibers under their fingernails; when he arrives in 1973, he finds out that there had been a string of similar murders back then as well. At first, Sam thinks that Colin Raimes, the suspected present-day killer who he thinks kidnapped Maya (and who was 4 in 1973) is a copycat killer trying to impress Edward Kramer (the killer from 1973; Willie Kramer in the US version), but then Sam alters history by not submitting Kramer's psychiatric report as evidence so that Kramer will serve a lengthy prison sentence instead of the fairly short psychiatric observation he was originally put under (which results in there being no future murders and Maya getting rescued).

-->'''Frieda''': Are you kidding me? Kukudio is a suspect and I'm not? Heck, I killed a cop with his own gun! Wait, did I get caught for that? I'm getting old.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[/folder]]

* ''Series/TheRookie'': "In Justice" upon being promoted to a detective for her first case Angela Lopez is assigned to investigate a seemingly minor break-in at funeral directors, only for Lopez to realise they broke into use the [[FurnaceBodyDisposal furnace to dispose of a body]]. Upon catching the culprit, a former employee who was recently fired, during the interview he reveals that this is in fact the ninth body he's secretly disposed of in the furnace, having been forced to act as a cleanup crew for a vicious local street gang for the past few months. After losing his job he was too afraid to tell them when they turned up with the latest corpse so was forced to break in.

* ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'': At the climax of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BonanzaS04E31 "Thunder Man"]] as Joe Cartwright confronts William Poole for the rapes and murders he's committed throughout the episode he pieces together these are far from Poole's first victims, with Poole sneeringly confirming it admitting he "don't rightly know" how many people's done this to by now, declaring himself master of women and nature before trying to kill Joe with dynamite.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': In [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BrooklynNineNineS6E11TheTherapist "The Therapist"]], Dr Tate reveals offhandedly to Jake that not only did he kill the couple that Jake and Charles are investigating, he ''also'' killed another couple before, and that "nobody misses them." Even Jake is taken aback by how dark it is.

** When an old woman is strangled in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS5E23Bound "Bound"]], the detectives initially suspect some sort of insurance or inheritance goal. Then they link it to a series of mysterious strangulations of old women, which were perpetrated by one of the [=CEO=]s in order to spare their daughters the trial of having to look after them.
** [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS12E3Behave "Behave"]] opens with a woman who has recently been raped, and when the SVU team investigate, they learn that not only is this not the first time this particular woman has been assaulted but that the perpetrator in question has been [[SerialRapist stalking several women all over the country]], keeping track of them at all times, so that he can sexually assault them again at random times. It's revealed that he gets sadistic pleasure from knowing his victims [[NeverendingTerror live thinking of him, and ''only'' him, every waking moment]]. Some of them have been so broken by the repeated assaults that their marriages, jobs, and social lives have fallen to pieces, forcing them to live in fear of ''any'' human contact.

This is TruthInTelevision considering that {{serial killer}}s do prey on vulnerable populations in real life and so, by their very existence, serial killers are almost never caught on their first victim (unless they are caught and then freed). However, '''no real life examples, please!''' This trope refers solely to its use as a plot twist, relies on audience perspective, and is therefore not possible in real life.

* ''Literature/MagpieMurders'': In "Pünd's Last Case", Pünd figures out that this trope is subverted in one way, and played straight in another. [[spoiler:Robert killed Magnus Pye, but not his mother, Mary, who is the apparent first victim. It turns out he killed Pye due to having drowned his younger brother as children, and Mary, who knew, had left a confession with Pye in the event of her sudden death, because she suspected that Robert would kill her too.]]

* ''Series/{{Coroner}}'': The later part of season one deals with Detective Donavon [=McAvoy=] dealing with Gerald Henry Jones, a wealthy banker whom [=McAvoy=] arrested several years earlier for murdering Floyd Shipman, whose case is being reopened. Meeting with Shipman's daughter she reveals to him her theory that Jones is in fact a serial killer, due to their being four other unsolved murders that occurred in a similar area to her fathers death. Whilst Donavon is initially sceptical (partially due to how difficult it was to convict Jones of a single murder) the resultant investigation not only proves her right but that Jones is far more prolific than anyone imagined, having slaughtered people all other Ontario with Shipman being his twenty-third victim. His first victim as Jenny Copper eventually discovers was none other than [[{{Patricide}} his own father]] who Jones stabbed to death whilst in his teens.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': [[TortureTechnician Jo Young-hoon]] is already known to be a sadistic and vicious SerialKiller who tortured over a dozen women to death. Upon being sentenced to be executed for the murders, he gleefully drags out the suffering of his victims families by reminiscing about his crimes and bragging about how he'll be [[FameThroughInfamy remembered as one of Korea's worst ever killers]]. As such he specifically waits till right before his execution to reveal he has in fact over half a dozen more victims they never discovered.

** "Blink", the first episode after the pilot episode has a downplayed example. The team discover a woman who's been dismembered after having her neck snapped, and subsequently find more victims with much more brutal injuries. They assume their killer is escalating, but [[spoiler: they realise that the least injured victim (and another who's been left brain dead) were the most recent. The killer's a ControlFreak who'd been refining his technique to put his victims in a state of "locked in syndrome".]]

* ''Series/TheDetectives'': PlayedForLaughs, in one episode following the duo's incompetance whilst trying to catch drug smugglers leading to them getting trapped within a shipping container and shipped to Amsterdam. When its finally opened their confronted at a gun point by Dutch Gangsters. Dave Briggs reveals they are policemen bragging he'll be to afraid to kill them now he knows, only for the gunman to reveal he's loves killing policemen and has already got away with murdering seven at this point. Briggs accuses of bluffing right until he's outright challenging the psycho to kill them, whilst Bob Louis tries desperately to shut him up. Only the timely arrival of the Dutch police saves them from becoming his next victims.

** When an old woman is strangled in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS5E23Bound "Bound"]], the detectives initially suspect some sort of insurance or inheritance goal. Then they link it to a series of mysterious strangulations of old women, which were perpetuated by one of the [=CEO=]s in order to spare their daughters the trial of having to look after them.
** [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS12E3Behave "Behave"]] opens with a woman who has recently been raped, and when the SVU team investigate, they learn that not only is this not the first time this particular woman has been assaulted, but that the perpetrator in question has been [[SerialRapist stalking several women all over the country]], keeping track of them at all times, so that he can sexually assault them again at random times. It's revealed that he gets a sadistic pleasure from knowing his victims [[NeverendingTerror live thinking of him, and ''only'' him, every waking moment]]. Some of them have been so broken by the repeated assaults that their marriages, jobs, and social lives have fallen to pieces, forcing them to live in fear of ''any'' human contact.

** "Death and Dreams" sees Inspector Barnaby investigating a series of stranglings which appear to tie to a respected local psychiatrist who provides support for ex criminals. [[spoiler: Its eventually revealed the murders were committed by her three children as the individuals were taking away their mothers attention. It at first seems they were motivated by the death of their father, only for it turn out they murdered him as well for the same reason]].

* ''Series/PaganPeak'': Following hitting multiple walls whilst investigating [[MalevolentMaskedMan the Krampus Killer]], Ellie Stocker concludes that considering their willingness to commit so many brutal crimes it stands to reason they killed before. By comparing their murders to the unsolved murders they strike upon the case several years earlier of computer security company CEO who was bludgeoned to death that resembles the killers most recent murder. Sure enough he was the killers first victim who murdered him for rejecting him.
* ''Series/PrimeSuspect'': Starting the series in "Price To Pay" the Metropolitan police are investigating George Marlow on suspicion of the brutal murder of a prostitute. Ironically partially thanks to her misogynistic subordinate attempting to undermine her, through tracking missing persons case DCI Jane Tennison manages to uncover a [[SerialKiller series of similar murders]] stretching back years all of which correlate with Marlow's movements.
* ''Series/TheRookie'': "In Justice" upon being promoted to a detective for her first case Angela Lopez is assigned to investigate a seemingly minor break in at funeral directors, only for Lopez to realise they broke into use the [[FurnaceBodyDisposal furnace to dispose of a body]]. Upon catching the culprit, a former employee who was recently fired, during the interview he reveals that this is in fact the ninth body he's secretly disposed of in the furnace, having been forced to act as a clean up crew for a vicious local street gang for the past few months. After losing his job he was to afraid to tell them when they turned up with the latest corpse so was forced to break in.

** "Paradise Lost" features a variation, the terrifying serial killer [[ManipulativeBastard Arnold Mears]] was arrested several years previous for murdering three woman. However, Annie Farmer was convinced he also killed her daughter and after repeating meetings got Mears to confess (though only to her) that those three were in fact his last victims, and he'd already killed nine other people before them lying her daughter was amongst them to manipulate her into his twisted games. [[spoiler: To top it all off the three he was convicted for weren't even his last victims, with him having already abducted another woman before they arrested him, who his mother still had imprisoned for him after all this time]].
** "Red Hill" involves the team investigating the death of convicted paedophilic serial killer James Wade, who abducted, raped, tortured and murdering nine little girls before he was caught, with the question remaining why anyone would want to kill him when Wade was already in prison and dying of cancer. As its revealed at the climax Wade's first victim was no other than [[spoiler: his younger sister Miriam whom he tortured (and its implied to have raped) when they were children, using her as a prototype to discover what he enjoyed]].
** "Deadhead" involves the Lyell Centre team dealing with a string of suicides. It eventually turns out to be the work of Jim Bell who is finding vulnerable people and [[DrivenToSuicide convincing them to end it]]. Throughout the episode its implied he's motivated by his fathers death, only for it to be revealed in the climax that he was [[{{Patricide}} Bell's first victim]].

** "Near Death Experience" see's Frost investigating a particular vicious murder, where the killer somehow managed to break into his victims home, then bound and cut her before finally killing her. Bringing [[TheProfiler Martine Philips]] for advice after checking the crime scene, she becomes convinced that they can't be the first victim as the killer shows signs of having experience with binding and murdering people, despite their being no record of similar murders in the area. Upon winding their radius to the surrounding counties they manage to discover no less than five other victims stretching back several years.

** "Justice Painted Blind" see's Tony and Carol hunting for a [[VigilanteMan vigilante killer]] who murders their victims by binding them, forcing a bag over their head and strangling them with a rope (designed to mimic a hanging execution). It soon becomes clear their targeting the jury members of a trial that acquitted a local man accused of abducting and murdering a child. Initially the police are hunting for one member of the jury who had vocally come to regret their decision and whom no one had seen since before the killings began, suspecting they've started killing to correct what they perceive as their mistake. Only to discover their body in the trunk of a car, said member being the real killers first victim.
** "Nothing But Night" involves Tony and Carol dealing with an series of incredibly brutal murders with no clear pattern or seeming MO. Its only after the body of first victim is recovered (whom the killer murdered two months previously and pushed into the sea) that Tony is finally able to realise the killer is [[ThemeSerialKiller copying murders from films and tv shows]].
** "The Names of Angels" sees Tony and Alex facing an utterly bizarre killer, who rapes and murders young women who work at white collar businesses and then dumps their bodies dressed in other people's clothes. As they discover the clothes in fact belonged to his previous victims, and he has a long history of raping then murdering at least eight other victims all over Europe. Now no longer able to travel, to maintain the thrill he's decided kill in the area and [[CriminalMindGames challenge the police to catch him]]. [[spoiler:He [[KarmaHoudini escapes and doesn't get caught, suggesting that this pattern will repeat itself with another police force.]]]]
** The season seven episode "Unnatural Vices" starts with Tony and Alex investigating the death of Golvita Umed, who had been missing for a month, after her body is found in a suitcase that had been set alight on the commons. However, upon visiting the scene Tony realises that the killers actual intent was to dump the body in the nearby lake (only for the case to get stuck). Searching it reveals three other bodies, revealing a killer's been active since the beginning of the year.

* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAndTheCaseOfTheSilkStocking'': In this MadeForTVMovie, there is a serial killer on the loose who abducts and garrotes the daughters of wealthy aristocrats, each time dressing them in the clothes of their previous victim. As Holmes concludes, logically there must have been an original victim for him to get the first set of clothes. Sure enough, they're able to find a young woman who was recovered from the Thames naked a few months previously. Whilst the coroner ruled it a suicide, upon exhuming the body, Watson is able to find [[CallingCard a silk stocking stuffed down her throat]]. It's the discovery of this first victim that leads Holmes to the killer.

** When an old woman is strangled in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS5E23Bound "Bound"]], the detectives initially suspect some sort of insurance or inheritance goal. Then they link it to a series of mysterious strangulations of old woman, which were perpetuated by one of the [=CEO=]s in order to spare their daughters the trial of having to look after them.

* ''Series/{{Criminal Minds|2017}}'': [[TortureTechnician Jo Young-hoon]] is already known to be a sadistic and vicious SerialKiller who tortured over a dozen women to death. Upon being sentenced to be executed for the murders, he gleefully drags out the suffering of his victims families by reminiscing about his crimes and bragging about how he'll be [[FameThroughInfamy remembered as one of Korea's worst ever killers]]. As such he specifically waits till right before his execution to reveal he has in fact over half a dozen more victims they never discovered.

* ''Film/TheBadSeed1956'': It borders on being an OpenSecret that Rhoda killed Claude because she was jealous that he won the penmanship medal. Then Christine reveals that, when they lived elsewhere, an upstairs neighbor [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident fell down the stairs]] after promising to give Rhoda a crystal ball [[TemptingFate once she died.]]
* ''Film/BerlinSyndrome'': Although we only see Andi imprison Claire, the smoothness with which he does it, the blonde hair in the drain (Claire is brunette), and Andi's references to [[GirlfriendInCanada Nathalie]] having "gone back to Canada" heavily imply that he had at least one other victim before her. She also finds [[ConvenientPhotograph photographs]] of a girl with the same tattoo that he gave her. He never confirms it but Claire seems convinced, with good reason.
* ''Film/CrimsonPeak'': Lucille and Thomas dispatch Edith's father in order to bring her to the Peak, at which point we see her figuring out how wrong something is with her new family. However, Edith learns that [[spoiler:Thomas is TheBluebeard and has been married three times already, and killed all his wives before her.]] This then comes into play again with the revelation that [[spoiler:Lucille killed her and Thomas's mother after she caught them having sex.]]

* ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo2011'': As they investigate Harriet Vanger's disappearance, Lisbeth discovers a string of victims leading up to it that were not previously connected. [[spoiler:Then subverted. While Harriet's brother and father were/are serial killers, Harriet is not a victim and she escaped from Martin.]]
* ''Film/{{Greta}}'': While being stalked by Greta, Frances learns that Greta's daughter's girlfriend that Greta seemed to have been extremely abusive to her daughter. It's never explicitly confirmed because she's a PosthumousCharacter, having committed suicide prior to the events of the film. It's also heavily implied that Greta had multiple victims because Frances hears the same banging through the wall at the beginning of the film that she later makes while bound to the bed in Greta's house.

* ''Literature/DanielHawthorneNovels'': While [[spoiler:Robert Cornwallis, aka Dan Roberts]] killed both Diana and Damian Cowper, [[spoiler:he]] reveals in his EvilGloating to Horowitz that [[spoiler:he]] also killed [[spoiler:Amanda Leigh, who disappeared years previously, torturing her to death and then dismembering her body across seven graves.]]

* ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'': As they investigate Harriet Vanger's disappearance, Lisbeth discovers a string of victims leading up to it that were not previously connected. [[spoiler:Then subverted. While Harriet's brother and father were/are serial killers, Harriet is not a victim and she escaped from Martin.]]
* ''Literature/{{Misery}}'': When he manages to escape from the bedroom, Paul finds an [[EvidenceDungeon scrapbook]] kept by Annie where she reveals that she murdered her father, one of her husbands, and multiple babies at the hospital where she worked prior to holding Paul captive and killing a police officer to hide him, and has not been caught.

* ''Series/InTheHeatOfTheNight'': Following Athena Tipps being assaulted and raped in "Rape", after reviewing the crime scene Chief Gillespie becomes convinced that this wasn't the assailants first attack as the particulars of the crime scene suggest a level of experience. Sure enough by tracking the suspect Steven Ainslee's movements Gillespie discovers he raped at least two other women in the previous towns he worked in.

* ''Series/LieToMe'': In "Beat the Devil", a college student is accused of waterboarding, resuscitating, and then trying to bury alive a classmate. The investigation leads the police to realize he has many, many victims, and that he killed his sister years previously.

** "The Killings At Badgers Drift" in the very first episode whilst investigating a series of murders in the village, its established that the wealthy Henry Trace's first wife Bella died in a HuntingAccident two years previously. We're led to believe that she was killed by Phyliss Cadwell who was besotted with Henry in a moment of desperation. However, at the climax Inspector Tom Barnaby concludes that Phyliss's attempt failed, and Bella was actually murdered by the episodes killer who had their eye on Henry's money.
** "Death and Dreams" sees Inspector Barnaby investigating a series of garrotting's which appear to tie to a respected local psychiatrist who provides support for ex criminals. [[spoiler: Its eventually revealed the murders were committed by her three children as the individuals were taking away their mothers attention. It at first seems they were motivated by the death of their father, only for it turn out they murdered him as well for the same reason]].

* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAndTheCaseOfTheSilkStocking'': In this Made For TV Movie their is a serial killer on the loose who abducts and garrottes the daughters of wealthy aristocrats, each time dressing them in the clothes of their previous victim. As Holmes concludes logically their must have been an original victim for him to get the first set of clothes. Sure enough their able to find a young woman who was recovered from the Thames naked a few months previously. Whilst the coroner ruled it a suicide, upon exhuming the body Watson is able to find [[CallingCard a silk stocking stuffed down her throat]]. It being this first victim that leads Holmes to the killer.

** "Near Death Experience" see's Frost investigating a particular vicious murder, where the killer somehow managed to break into his victims home, then bound and cut her before finally killing her. Bringing [[TheProfiler Martine Philips]] for advice after checking the crime scene she becomes convinced that they can't be the first victim as the killer shows signs of having experience with binding and murdering people, despite their being no record of similar murders in the area. Upon winding their radius to the surrounding counties they manage to discover no less than five other victims stretching back several years.
* ''Series/TheUndoing'': Possibly. [[spoiler:Jonathan killed Elena and was responsible for her PlotTriggeringDeath. However, when investigating his background, Grace learns that the "dog" he was so upset that he killed was actually his younger sister Katie. Jonathan's story is that he simply wasn't watching closely enough, but his mother seems very unconvinced.]]

* ''Series/{{You}}'': Played with. Candace is SparedByTheAdaptation in Season 1, revealing at the end of Season 1 that she is not dead but still alive. However, unlike in the novel, Joe is shown to have killed a music executive that he believed was cheating with Candace before the events of the series. Season 2 also reveals that Joe killed his mom's abusive boyfriend as a kid.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': Early in the game, Shepard learns that the [[{{Precursors}} Protheans]] were destroyed by a race of sentient machines called the Reapers. It isn't until much later that they learn that the Protheans were not the only race to have been destroyed by the Reapers- the cycle of galactic civilizations rising, flourishing briefly, then being annihilated has occurred countless times.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Comics]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Midway through ''Literature/TheLovelyBones'', murdered protagonist Susie Salmon discovers that her killer, George Harvey, had actually murdered a number of other little girls over the years without being caught. One of these girls just so happens to be Holly, her guide in the afterlife. In the film adaptation, Susie coming to terms with her death allows her to meet the rest of Harvey's victims in Wide Wide Heaven, with the movie implying that [[spoiler:this is what allows them to manipulate events on Earth and instigate Harvey's KarmicDeath]].

* ''Film/TheDescent'': The women believe that the cave they're in is totally unmapped and unrecorded, and that they're the only people who've ever been down there. Then Sarah finds the ancient helmet while they're investigating shortly after the cave-in that traps them inside.

* ''Film/{{Greta}}'': While being stalked by Greta, Frances learns that Greta's daughter's girlfriend that Greta seemed to have been extremely abusive to her daughter. It's never explicitly confirmed because she's a PosthumousCharacter, having committed suicide prior to the events of the film. It's also heavily implied that Greta had multiple victims because Frances hears the same banging through the wall at the beginning of the film that she later makes while bound to the bed in Greta's house.

* ''Literature/GoneGirl'': After Nick figures out that Amy has faked her own murder to frame him, he finds out that she's done something similar twice before: that she framed her "best friend" in high school for stalking her and throwing her down the stairs, and that she framed an old boyfriend for rape. None of them are ''murder'', but both characters note they recognized Amy's pattern of behavior.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'':

* ''Series/{{You}}'': Played with. Candace is SparedByTheAdaptation in Season 1, revealing at the end of Season 1 that she is not dead but still alive. However, unlike in the novel, Joe is shown to have killed a music executive that he believed was cheating with Candace before the events of the series. Season 2 also reveals that Joe killed his mom's abusive boyfriend as a kid.