History Main / DestroyTheEvidence

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The Mask of the Demon", Rex Bishop is only acting in ''Demon Brides'' due to Wolsey blackmailing him over his sexuality. However, Lady Felicia convinces him to bring Father Brown into the loop about the blackmail by assuring him that the Father is the last person who'd be bothered about his secret. Father Brown winds up finding and burning the incriminating evidence, knowing it will bring Rex peace.

%% Image moved to FieryCoverup per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1584522034064165600
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest an image.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'': Mihoshi's superior destroys her ''incredibly detailed'' report on dealing with Kagato because of the information there, most importantly that not only is the long-lost Prince Yosho on Earth, he has a grandson named Tenchi and that a number of other powerful people are on Earth connected in some way to Yosho with a ''lot'' of overlap. He lets the royal family of Jurai know, but there's no way he's letting the rest of the universe know the information.

* ''ComicBook/DastardlyAndMuttley'': In Issue 5, General Harrier attempts to burn the files connecting him to the [[GreenRocks Unstabilium-239]]. However, he's hampered by the fact that he's been transformed into a cartoon raccoon and thus lacks the thumbs needed to trigger his lighter. This prevents him from destroying anything before the protagonists arrive.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Silverblade}}'', the falcon torches the Fotomat kiosk where Belinda drops of the roll of cine-film to be developed to destroy the footage of Jonathan changing forms.

-->Superwoman: Now that you're here on Earth someone else can play the role of Agent Liberty's Kryptonian murderer.\\

* ''Fanfic/BecomingLifprasir'': When Snotlout [[spoiler:catches Cattongue and Astrid together with her hair down]], Snotlout [[SlutShaming accuses her of being a whore and drags her into the middle of the village by her hair to publicly shame her]]. Because he dragged her by the hair, she was able to explain that her hair came loose when he dragged her with the only remaining evidence being his word. Since it's ''Snotlout'' making the claim, naturally not that many people believe him over Astrid.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Kodiak destroys tapes of [[spoiler:the Don (and probably more of the Alphas) abusing and raping Skybolt and Cavalier, who were MindRaped into being obedient slaves]] because he knows that should the tapes get out, sooner or later the entire school would see them -- and any chance of [[spoiler:Skybolt and Cavalier]] having a normal life once they get released from the psych ward would be ruined.
* There's an accidental case in ''[[Literature/PhryneFisher Dead Man's Chest]]'' by Kerry Greenwood. At a wake held for a dead woman, Phryne steals a pillowcase dropped by a maid that she finds to be suspicious -- it [[spoiler:has teeth imprints and a stiff patch, indicating that the old woman was murdered by being smothered with the pillow.]] At the end of the novel, Phryne's maid Dot washes the pillowcase and returns it, not realising that it was important.

* The ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' short story ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornblower_and_the_Widow_McCool Hornblower and the Widow McCool]]''. The British occupying forces and Irish rebels have recently achieved a fragile peace in Ireland. Hornblower discovers letters to rebels not known to the authorities. If he turns the letters over to the authorities, they'll go after the rebels and cause another outbreak of violence. He decides to throw the letters overboard instead.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/MenAtArms'', Captain Carrot destroys the evidence that [[spoiler:he's the rightful king of Ankh-Morpork,]] because he doesn't think it needs a king anymore.
* ''Literature/FamilySkeletonMysteries'': [[spoiler:Attempted in the conclusion of the first book, as Sid's killer intends to finish what he started by pulverizing Sid's skeleton and then using an acid bath to eliminate what's left. He's stopped in time.]]
* ''Literature/TheTamuli'': Late in the series, the heroes realize that the Cynesgans are taking orders from Cyrgai. They also realize the large quantity of smoke coming from the chimneys of the Cynesgan embassy in Matherion is the same color as that produced by burning paper. But by that point there's a telepath among the heroes, so destroying the records doesn't help the Cynesgans.

* In ''Series/VeronicaMars'', Logan comes into possession of [[spoiler:the sex tapes of his girlfriend and his father]], and he destroys them so [[spoiler:they wouldn't be seen in court and ruin Lilly's memory]].
* In one episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', Gibbs [[spoiler:switches tissue samples so that it will appear that a body they're trying to identify was that of a dead Marine- the Marine (who is dead) had had a kidney transplant from a friend, who was still alive. Because you can't be a Marine if at some point in your life you donated an organ]], the Marine, if this became known, would have to quit- which he ''really'' didn't want to do.
** Another ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' example. At the end of one episode, Gibbs realizes that a bad guy was killed with the prayer beads of a man the bad guy himself murdered, a marine and the son of a local Imam. Gibbs knows that this means the marine's father killed the bad guy to avenge his son's death, and the Imam should be arrested for murder himself. But when Ziva mentions that the prayer beads belong to the original victim Gibbs denies it, and she lets it pass.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' has been known to mess with or destroy evidence to ensure that particularly bad criminals go free... so that [[SerialKillerKiller he can hunt them down and kill them himself]] instead of letting them have a government-sponsored vacation at prison.
* In the season one finale of ''Series/InPlainSight'', Mary hides cocaine from the police and Marshall Service to protect her little sister. The final shot of the episode is of the back of a line-painting machine on a football field, implying that this is how she got rid of the evidence.
** Actually she fully believed that the drugs were in those cases. It was her boyfriend (who was a baseball player) that got rid of it that way.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': "[[Recap/CSINYS01E17 The Fall]]." Don Flack's mentor, Moran, finds out that his son was involved in the robbery of a bodega. He subsequently disposes of the incriminating pop can he finds to keep the boy out of jail. This results in BrokenPedestal and Mac and Flack having to arrest him.
* ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' had it once or twice. One episode involved a bookmaker destroying his paper trail, which was written on flash paper, a quick burning type of paper. Friday luckily stopped him before it all went up in flames.
* ''Series/AllMyChildren'': After getting [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raped]] by Michael Cambias, Bianca is severely traumatized and burns all the physical evidence. Unfortunately, when he is later taken to court for it, Bianca's destruction of the evidence only ensures that Michael gets OffOnATechnicality long enough for Bianca herself to confront him and shoot him dead in self-defense.
* In the infamous ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E19InThePaleMoonlight In the Pale Moonlight]]", Captain Sisko basically confesses to his personal log that he was an accessory to a murderous conspiracy to drag the Romulan Empire into the war against the Dominion that the Federation and Klingon Empire weren't doing too well in. The most self-damning thing to him is that [[ICanLiveWithThat he thinks he can live with it]]. He then tells the computer to delete the entire log entry.
* In the ''Series/EnemyAtTheDoor'' episode "Judgement of Solomon", two sixteen-year-old boys are caught with a camera in a restricted zone, and developing the film shows that they've been taking photos of German military installations. Not wishing to apply the mandatory death sentence for espionage to a pair of children, Major Richter orders the officer investigating the matter to destroy the prints and negatives and proceed as if the boys had been found trespassing with no evidence of their intentions.

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'': Michael says that they need to find evidence to figure out what exactly is wrong with the afterlife. [[TheDitz Jason]] helpfully reminds him that evidence isn't a ''good'' thing, it's something you're supposed to destroy before the cops show up.
* In the ''Series/{{Decoy}}'' episode "Queen of Diamonds," Casey discovers a negative proving that a suspect for armed robbery was in the right city at the time the robbery took place. But before she can turn it in, the man sets the negative on fire.
* ''Series/AgathaRaisin'': In "Agatha and the Wizard of Evesham", Agatha has to destroy her smoke damaged clothing so she can claim she was nowhere near Johnny's house when it was torched. She bundles it all into her fireplace and sets fire to it just as DI Wilkes and Bill arrive to question her, leading to awkward questions about what the bad smell is.
* Played with in the case of ''Series/TheDevilJudge''. [[ByTheBookCop Soo-hyun]] enters Minister Cha's office to find her dead with Ga-on (and Yo-han) in the room, so she naturally assumes that they killed her when in fact she shot herself and proceeds to get rid of the evidence that they were there so her friend Ga-on wouldn't get arrested.
-->'''Soo-hyun:''' ''[Slaps Ga-on]'' Do you know what I had to do for you? I had to destroy the evidence. How could you disappoint me like that? How could you? ''(starts crying)''
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The first episode of season five has Walt realizing he still has lots of loose ends to tie up. He starts off by throwing away all the stuff he used to make the bomb that killed Gus and then also dumps the potted lily-of-the-valley plant he used to poison Brock. [[OhCrap Then he realizes he has a much bigger problem]]; the Superlab had numerous security cameras recording his every move while he was working for Gus, and Gus' laptop with all the incriminating footage was confiscated by the DEA. Walt, Jesse, and Mike then spend the rest of the episode trying to find a way to destroy the laptop before anyone watches the footage and discovers their involvement, which they manage to accomplish to do with a giant electromagnet. Unfortunately for them, this ends up accidentally revealing the bank account numbers, which had been hidden in a photo frame, that Gus had been using to pay his employees...

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The Mask of the Demon", Rex Bishop is only acting in ''Demon Brides'' due to Wolsey blackmailing him over his sexuality. However, Lady Felicia convinces him to bring Father Brown into the loop about the blackmail by assuring him that the Father is the last person who'd be bothered about his secret. Father Brown winds up finding and burning the incriminating evidence, knowing it will bring Rex peace.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'':
** During Anakin and Ashoka's first mission to Mustafar in "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E3ChildrenOfTheForce Children of the Force]]", Paplatine/Sidious orders his main nanny droid RO-Z67 to turn off the facility's gravity supports to hide evidence of kidnapping Force-Sensitive children that would've become Dark Side spies, which succeeds despite Anakin and Ashoka rescuing the children.
** At the end of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E4Orders Orders]]", [[HeKnowsTooMuch Fives]] is shot by Commander Fox of the Courscant Guard while Palpatine expresses his "condolences" to the Jedi and tells them that a parasite infected Fives and Tup's inhibitor chips, causing them to go haywire, and "promises" to have every Clone Trooper checked so an incident like this could not happen again. He then has Dooku destroy the chips Nala Se gave him, while waiting for the order, [[NumberOfTheBeast Order 66]], to go as planned.

** At the end of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E4Orders Orders]]", [[HeKnowsTooMuch Fives]] is shot by Commander Fox of the Courscant Guard while Palpatine expresses his "condolences" to the Jedi and tells them that a parasite infected Fives and Tup's inhibitor chips, causing them to go haywire, while "promising" to have every Clone Trooper checked so an incident like this could not happen again. He then has Dooku destroy the chips Nala Se gave him, while waiting for the order, [[NumberOfTheBeast Order 66]], to go as planned.

** Similarly, when Echo, Gregor, and the Clones raid Captain Pearce's Gozanti-class cruiser to rescue Howzer and 2 of his men during ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheBadBatchS2E14TippingPoint Tipping Point]]'', the Imperial orders his TK Stormtroopers and Clone Commandos to wipe the files before their enemies could find out where the cruiser was taking the disobedient clones. Though partially deleted, Echo manages to recover some of the files, before falling back with the others to avoid getting destroyed by a fleet of V-Wings sent from a Venator-class Star Destroyer to fully blast the cruiser to smithereens.

** During Anakin and Ashoka's first mission to Mustafar in ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E3ChildrenOfTheForce Children of the Force]]'', Paplatine/Sidious orders his main nanny droid RO-Z67 to turn off the facility's gravity supports to hide evidence of kidnapping Force-Sensitive children that would've become Dark Side spies, which succeeds despite Anakin and Ashoka rescuing the children.
** At the end of ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E4Orders Orders]]'', [[HeKnowsTooMuch Fives]] is shot by Commander Fox of the Courscant Guard while Palpatine expresses his "condolences" to the Jedi and tells them that a parasite infected Fives and Tup's inhibitor chips, causing them to go haywire, while "promising" to have every Clone Trooper checked so an incident like this could not happen again. He then has Dooku destroy the chips Nala Se gave him, while waiting for the order to go as planned.

** Implied during ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheBadBatchS1E15ReturnToKamino Return to Kamino]], where any more intel on Clone Force 99's creation was wiped because the Empire was about to destroy Tipoca City.
** During ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheBadBatchS2E11Metamorphosis Metamorphosis]]'', 2 Imperial V-Wings destroy Transport 904 on the Mid Rim world of Silla to prevent anyone else from stumbling upon it since it formerly contained a cloned Zillo Beast.
** Similarly, when Echo, Gregor, and the Clones raid Captain Pearce's Gozanti-class cruiser to rescue Howzer and 2 of his men during ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheBadBatchS2E14TippingPoint Tipping Point]]'', the Imperial orders his Stormtroopers and Clone Commandos to wipe the files before their enemies could find out where the cruiser was taking the disobedient clones. Though partially deleted, Echo manages to recover some of the files, before falling back with the others to avoid getting destroyed by a fleet of V-Wings sent from a Venator-class Star Destroyer to fully blast the cruiser to smithereens.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': "The Fall." Don Flack's mentor, Moran, finds out that his son was involved in the robbery of a bodega. He subsequently disposes of the incriminating pop can he finds to keep the boy out of jail. This results in BrokenPedestal and Mac and Flack having to arrest him.

* In ''Literature/DeadSilence'' MegaCorp Verux has done quite a lot of this to hide their coprorate malfeasance with their Mars colony Ferris. Claire only finds out about the details thanks to working for them. Later on [[spoiler:they try it again by scuttling the space ship Aurora, to hide their use of a sonic weapon that drove everyone aboard insane.]]
* In the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Kodiak destroys tapes of [[spoiler:the Don (and probably more of the Alphas) abusing and raping Skybolt and Cavalier, who were MindRaped into being obedient slaves]] because he knows that should the tapes get out, sooner or later the entire school would see them -- and any chance of [[spoiler:Skybolt and Cavalier]] having a normal life once they get released from the psych ward would be ruined.