History Main / SuspectExistenceFailure

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'': If everyone suspects someone being an imposter, their innocence will only be proven if an actual imposter kills them. (Or if they actually get ejected, and the game says they were not the imposter.)

'''As a DeathTrope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* An episode of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' has an imaginary parody of detective works with Urkel as the detective. Every time Urkel would accuse someone of the murders, thunder would make the [[LightsOffSomebodyDies lights go off briefly]] and that person would be found dead. [[spoiler:Laura is the murderer. Urkel then reveals that he knew it was her all along and was letting her kill everyone else so they could be together with no interference. She promptly calls the police and confesses to murdering seven people.]]

* Used in John Steed/Emma Peel ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' at least once.

* Done repeatedly in ForensicDrama series such as ''Series/{{CSI}}'' and ''Series/{{Bones}}''.

* Ditto for a similar episode of the television program ''Series/TheWildWildWest'', "The Night of the Tontine".

* Unnecessarily [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] just before the end of ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'''s "Michael Jackson vs. Michael Jackson" sketch.

* ''Series/MurderRooms'': [[spoiler:"The White Knight Stratagem".]]

* Done similarly in a TenLittleMurderVictims episode of ''Series/RemingtonSteele''.

* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'': The ''The Calming Detective, Osomatsu'' skit, being a parody of detective stories, plays it uniquely. In it, the characters are investigating a serial murder case. With Ichimatsu plainly standing in the background carrying bloody weapons and wearing Jason mask. Then he died later in the episode. It's unique since only the viewers experience this trope. The characters [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom never notices Ichimatsu's existence at all]], not even when he was chasing Detective Osomatsu with weapons in hand.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': The Gotham City Police Department once has a prime suspect in a series of brutal killings with a veritable mountain of damning evidence against him, up to and including his going around and bragging to everyone who would listen that he did it all. It turns out that all of the evidence is manipulated or outright fabricated because the guy is trying to make a name for himself of another's deeds. For reasons [[TooDumbToLive beyond human understanding]], he decided to pick Gotham's most infamous and self-aggrandizing mass-murderer to bite off from -- The Joker. No bonus points for guessing how it ends for him.

* The ''The Calming Detective, Osomatsu'' skit of ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'', being a parody of detective stories, plays it uniquely. In it, the characters are investigating a serial murder case. With Ichimatsu plainly standing in the background carrying bloody weapons and wearing Jason mask. Then he died later in the episode. It's unique since only the viewers experience this trope. The characters [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom never notices Ichimatsu's existence at all]], not even when he was chasing Detective Osomatsu with weapons in hand.

%%[[folder:Fan Fic]]
%%* ''FanFic/LaBelle'': Happens to [[spoiler:Master Hand]] and then very briefly to [[spoiler:Isolde]].

* In ''Film/ChaosTheory'', a cop gets blown up just as a fishy smell hits the air. In the usual subversion, he is not actually that dead in the end...
* Agent Kujan from ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' tells the same subversion story about Dean Keaton. Sometime in the past, when Keaton was among suspects for some crimes, he dies. Then, in a few months, witnesses die too, someone else gets convicted, and you guess it, Dean Keaton turns up quite alive and well. This episode is presented by Dave Kujan as a pinnacle of Keaton's evil, so they appear to be quite genre-savvy in that regard.

* In ''Film/MurderMystery'', this keeps happening. Nick will find an excellent suspect, only for them to come up dead in the next scene...

* In ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' novel ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', Lestrade is prepared to arrest his suspect, only to find that he's already been murdered.
* The trope occurs several times in Agatha Christie's ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone''. Ultimately subverted and then played straight, [[spoiler:as the murderer faked his death precisely to eliminate himself as a suspect. Of course, then it is ultimately played straight as he then commits suicide to complete his perfect crime and, again, eliminate himself as a suspect.]]

* In ''The Ninja'', the antagonist Saigo uses the fake version of this to throw law enforcement and the antagonist Nicholas off the trail, killing a man of very similar build and chucking him off a high tower block face-first to fool identification procedures. (The novel is set in 1980 before routine DNA analysis).

* In the ''Series/{{Lost}}'' episode "The Other 48 Days", Nathan was suspected of being a spy from the Others. He was murdered by the real spy, Goodwin, who hid the body and let the other survivors believe that he had escaped. In this case, the action was justified in the dialogue, as he was worried that further interrogation from Ana Lucia would eventually prove that she had the wrong guy.

** Another notable example is from [[Series/LawAndOrder the original series]], when a doctor who's supposed to be giving vital testimony in his daughter's case (she's up for murder, her defense is that it was assisted suicide) kills ''himself'' on the stand (via poison he administered several hours beforehand.) This, obviously, calls for a mistrial and [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled gets him out of facing consequences]] even though he'd practically admitted that there were less-than-merciful motives for the "assisted suicide" all along.

* And the John Steed/Emma Peel ''Series/TheAvengers1960s''. At least once.
* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'' has a TenLittleMurderVictims episode with a gathering of {{Bounty Hunter}}s at a secluded hotel.
* In ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Shadow Play", Dennis Weaver is on DeathRow trying to convince people that the world is a nightmare he keeps having, [[GroundhogDayLoop night after night, over and over again]]. The Warden is finally convinced he must be insane and calls the Governor to ask for a stay. The stay comes too late, the electric chair is fired up, and we find he was right: everyone else dies, and his nightmare starts all over again.
* Canadian comedy team Wayne and Schuster did a ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' skit in which everyone Holmes accused of being the murderer would then be killed in a different way, in some cases a quite ridiculous way. When he finally got down to accusing the ''butler'', a B-52 flying overhead dropped a load of bombs, and the butler was crushed by rubble. Then Holmes realized the truth; as he told Dr. Watson: "We're in the wrong bloody house!"
* One episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}'' had Shawn suspect a fashion mogul of killing her husband right up until she died at his funeral. He then commented, "Okay, probably not the wife." Ultimately subverted when it's learned that she actually did kill him. She died from the [[TimeDelayedDeath delayed effects]] of him [[MutualKill poisoning her]].
** As the show reaches its later seasons, this trope starts occurring almost OncePerEpisode.
* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E18KilledByDeath "Killed by Death"]], the Scoobies become convinced that the villain killing the sick children in the hospital is the creepy (and, it turns out, criminally negligent to the point of malpractice lawsuits) Doctor Backer... until Backer himself is killed by the invisible monster that is ''actually'' killing the children.
* In ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'''s first season episode "Kush", there's a crash, followed by several murders. When they settle things down by supposedly catching the suspect, he's killed and they have to reexamine their "fool-proof" method of determining the killer.
* The ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "Last Salute to the Commodore" starts out as a normal episode, with us seeing Charles Clay disposing of the victim's body and setting up his alibi, Lt. Columbo comes in and starts his usual harassing of the suspect, and then halfway through Clay turns up dead, and the episode suddenly turns into a [[FairPlayWhodunnit Whodunnit]].
** This formula is repeated in "A Bird in the Hand". Incidentally, both episodes were scripted by ''Columbo'' veteran Jackson Gillis.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}''
** The pilot has the suspect Peter Saldua turn up dead. It turns out that Saldua was the one who killed the victim, her husband manipulated him into doing it and killed him, and [[NeverSuicide made it look like suicide]].
** [[Recap/ElementaryS02E02SolveForX "Solve for X"]]: Holmes calls Bell to tell him who he thinks the killer is, and before he has a chance to say so, Bell informs him about another victim, naturally the same man.
* In the episode of ''La caméra explore le temps'' dealing with the murder of the Duchess of Praslin, the Duke commits suicide by swallowing arsenic after his arrest, as he did in history. There is little doubt that he killed his wife anyway, the only real question being "why?", but his death came just at the right moment to spare the Chamber of Peers from having to try one of theirs.
* In the NBC ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', the eponymous cannibal occasionally amuses himself by causing serial killings that he isn't responsible for to have Suspect Existence Failure.
* ''Series/InspectorLynley'': [[Recap/InspectorLynleyS03E02ATraitorToMemory "A Traitor to Memory"]], Lynley and Havers were almost certain that it was [[spoiler: ex-husband Richard]] who killed Eugenie Martin until he is murdered in the same way.
** The best part? [[spoiler: in the original novel, Richard ''was'' the killer - it was switched to Raphael due to AdaptationDistillation (see above), so they weren't actually that far off.]]
* ''Series/MurderRooms'': [[spoiler:"The White Knight Stratagem".]]
* ''Series/{{Benson}}'' had a two-part episode ("Death in a Funny Position") where a millionaire invited the Governor and his staff to join him on a cruise on his yacht. During this, the millionaire is murdered. They have a likely suspect, only for him to die as well. [[spoiler:It turns out the millionaire faked his death so he could kill the suspect.]]
* An episode of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' has an imaginary parody of detective works with Urkel as the detective. Every time Urkel would accuse someone of the murders, thunder would make the [[LightsOffSomebodyDies lights go off briefly]] and that person would be found dead. [[spoiler:Laura is the murderer. Urkel then reveals that he knew it was her all along and was letting her kill everyone else so they could be together with no interference. She promptly calls the police and confesses to murdering seven people.]]
* In the ''Series/LostTapes'' episode "Werewolf", a group of cops are following a man who is suspected of committing a series of grisly, animalistic murders throughout the city. They follow him home where they see him enter with a woman he had picked up at a bar. The cops rush in after they hear screaming coming from inside the house, only to find the corpse of their suspect, [[spoiler: revealing that the woman he brought home was the real killer, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent and a werewolf to boot]]]].

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** A very tragic example occurs in case 4 of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations''. Mia is on the verge of proving Terry Fawles innocent of murder, only needing a little more testimony from him to reveal the true culprit. However, Terry is [[LoveMakesYouDumb hopelessly]] [[LoveMartyr in love]] with said true culprit, [[spoiler: Dahlia Hawthorne]], who is able to [[MurderBySuicide manipulate him into poisoning himself]]. What's worse, it's ''heavily'' implied that this was ''always'' the plan for after Terry outlived his usefulness.
** ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'':
*** A non-lethal variant happened in the flashback case, where the defendant, a famous stage magician, pulled a vanishing act when it looked like he was going to lose. They never found him again, so the case was declared a mistrial.
*** The final case had the prime suspect of a poisoning case collapse while on the witness stand, having somehow ingested the same type of poison that killed the victim. This does not absolve her of guilt, as the prosecution claims that she attempted suicide out of remorse. As the suspect was still alive but in critical condition following the collapse, the prosecution insists that they finish the trial and come to a verdict before the suspect actually dies, since a verdict can't be assigned to a dead person.
** The fourth case of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' begins this way. The defendant is accused of murder. But then, he claims his prosecutor (who wasn't his prosecutor yet) told him to do it. The case is put on hold until a new prosecutor is found (this being Miles Edgeworth, the player character). But then, both the defendant ''and'' the original prosecutor are found dead in a room guarded from the outside.
*** The sequel's second victim is the guy Edgeworth had pinned as the ''culprit'' of the previous case, and who was also made the main suspect for a fake assassination attempt on the President of Zheng Fa ([[NotMeThisTime he was actually innocent of this one]]).

* The left side of the flowchart in ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' plays with this. People who the evidence points to as having committed each crime continually end up as the next victims, [[spoiler: but it turns they ''did'' each commit the murder prior, or [[GrandTheftMe at least their bodies did.]]]]
* A VideoGame/GarrysMod game mode named ''VideoGame/TroubleInTerroristTown'' can have this happen as a traitor kills a suspect or even more likely the innocents killing off a suspect who was actually innocent.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BeCoolScoobyDoo,'' the gang is at a staged murder mystery party, wherein everyone knows the ghost is fake. Shaggy and Scooby discover they're actually ''good'' at following the evidence to solve a mystery, as long as it's safe. Unbeknownst to them, there's a "[[ScoobyDooHoax real]]" ghost gathering the players one-by-one, in addition to the scheduled shenanigans. When Shaggy's ready to announce the "killer," he runs through every guest at the party, finding out each time that they've been taken by the "real" ghost.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote: LightNovel/AnotherNote, the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases'', [[spoiler: Rue Ryuzaki, a.k.a. Beyond Birthday,]] plans to create a case that L can't solve by committing suicide and making it look like a murder. Up until this point [[spoiler: we're led to believe that it's L, not Beyond Birthday]] actually doing it.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* ''FanFic/LaBelle'': Happens to [[spoiler:Master Hand]] and then very briefly to [[spoiler:Isolde]].
[[/folder]]

A common subversion, of course, is that the suspect actually ''is'' the killer, and was faking his Existence Failure all along. Another possibility is that the suspect was the killer you were looking for and just happened to be killed by someone else (perhaps using the same MO, trusting that his solid alibi for the murders he ''didn't'' commit would keep him from being suspected for the one he ''did''). Yet another possibility is that the suspect might have been [[FrameUp framed]] and [[DeceasedFallGuyGambit killed]] so that he couldn't [[ClearMyName prove his innocence]].

* The final case of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' had the prime suspect of a poisoning case collapse while on the witness stand, having somehow ingested the same type of poison that killed the victim. This does not absolve her of guilt, as the prosecution claims that she attempted suicide out of remorse. As the suspect was still alive but in critical condition following the collapse, the prosecution insists that they finish the trial and come to a verdict before the suspect actually dies, since a verdict can't be assigned to a dead person.
* The fourth case of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' begins this way. The defendant is accused of murder. But then, he claims his prosecutor (who wasn't his prosecutor yet) told him to do it. The case is put on hold until a new prosecutor is found (this is who you play as). But then, both the defendant ''and'' the original prosecutor are found dead in a room guarded from the outside.

* The left side of the flowchart in ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' plays with this. People who the evidence points to as having committed each crime continually end up as the next victims, but it turns they *did* each commit the murder prior, or [[GrandTheftMe at least their bodies did.]]

* In ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'', Billy asks, soulfully, what he has to do to prove his innocence. A second later the killer leaps into the room and stabs him. Because ''Scream'' never met a trope it didn't want to [[PlayingWithATrope play with]], it turns out Billy's the killer ''anyway''. There were two killers and they engineered the whole thing to screw with Sidney.

* Canadian comedy team Wayne and Schuster did a ''SherlockHolmes'' skit in which everyone Holmes accused of being the murderer would then be killed in a different way, in some cases a quite ridiculous way. When he finally got down to accusing the ''butler'', a B-52 flying overhead dropped a load of bombs, and the butler was crushed by rubble. Then Holmes realized the truth; as he told Dr. Watson: "We're in the wrong bloody house!"

A common subversion, of course, is that the Suspect actually ''is'' the killer, and was faking his Existence Failure all along. Another possibility is that the suspect was the killer you were looking for and just happened to be killed by someone else (perhaps using the same MO, trusting that his solid alibi for the murders he ''didn't'' commit would keep him from being suspected for the one he ''did'').

Compare GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty, which also uses ironclad evidence to prove a suspect's innocence, and NeverTheObviousSuspect.

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'': If everyone suspects someone being an imposter, their innocence will only be proven if an actual imposter kills them.

Compare GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty, which also uses ironclad evidence to prove a suspect's innocence.