How to write a murdering case

[Klaustasya]

Sooo...i was never good with plotting an unsolved-murdering-case
To make it brief, i have a story where there is this character killing a man, not purposely with a killer intention but neither by accident, and this character should be caught at some point, but how can i make him/her be free and lead a normal life again?
Like, how can i, in the end, make it look like a never resolvable case or "in the end it wasn't that character, but the true is that it was"
Let's say that this story has a bit of supernatural pinch in it (like this character not being completely human) don't know if this is relevant or not to be honest, i just don't know how to make this chara live normally in the end without no more consequences or need to run away.
Help?

[DiegoPalacios]

To make it brief, i have a story where there is this character killing a man, not purposely with a killer intention but neither by accident,

Hmmmm......this sounds like the most paradoxical murder ever.......

jokes aside, it depends of how the law works in the setting, and how willing is society to forgive the character (maybe the victim was a jerk that nobody liked, so everyone gave him a pass because they know he is a cool dude??)

If the story has a supernatural pinch and if there is magic availabe, the murderer (or someone who wants to reintegrate the murderer to the society) just need to erase people`s memory, making them forget the murder and even could make them forget the victim exists in the first place.

Or maybe the murderer has an awesome lawyer, or he bribed the justice system.

I think more info is neccesary to figure out what can or can`t work and why.

[Klaustasya]

I don't wanna spoil the story xD
Buuut...it's a girl with predator istinct that is triggered by the smell of danger, so basically she kills this dude because she could "smell" his bad intention so she snapped and turned into an animal and killed him. We could make the cops think "okay i think it was a wild bear" or something, but i still want her to be in jail for a short story arc then somehow break free and be realised from the case.

[DiegoPalacios]

hmmm......i got an idea!

She could be in preventive custody because she is the main suspect. After some investigation and not conclusive evidence against her, she could be declared innocent.

If it is in modern times, maybe DNA samples don`t work because the DNA changes in beast form.

[MuffinMusing]

Well if she's starting out the story with very concrete morals, you could make her have a change of heart by the end. So basically she would start out thinking that the murder was straightforward and wrong. Then, as she has more encounters with evil, she realizes that it's not that simple. (I mean, you said the guy has bad intentions, so it's not the worst.) She doesn't have to think it's right, (maybe she's working to control her powers or something) but she knows that she still saved whoever that man was going to harm.

[crayon_witch]

It’s much easier to figure out who, what, where, how, and why before worrying about making it a mystery! Then you can choose what information to give the readers and when so that they can piece it together.

[lunaartemisasama]

In my country if you are a suspect of a criminal case and you have no ties that guarantee you will stay and not run away you can end up in jail, just for prevention,while you are on trial, specially when the case is on the press.

Bread and circuses, like the romans.

Just an idea.

[Wumbl]

Write it backwards - you have to know exactly what really happened and then construct the obstacles around the investigation - decide when the key information gets found out and arrange the tension around it.
What evidence would they leave at the scene? What things about them would be noticeable in their methods? Is there any DNA or other forensic trace?

Is it a self defence killing? Self defence killings end in total acquittal and no criminal punishment in most countries. If the victim threatens and goes to attack it ill be fully legal to kill them.
Witness protection maybe? If there are bigger acts at play and the character agrees to talk about all of it they might become a protected witness rather than a suspect and be able to live without prison time. This is really handy if there's some kind of conspiracy surrounding this character's inhuman species.
If not, maybe they hid enough evidence that the investigator was hoping to find - you can only be held in custody for 72 hours normally until you're proven a suspect. Maybe they're in custody for that time and eventually let free because the investigator doesn't have enough to make a formal arrest. The evidence was disposed of so well (the last piece to put everything together) that it is never found. They wouldn't be happy about having to free the person they feel is the culprit.

Those are just a few ideas.

[baasinsimple]

I mean, why would you have someone not have consequences for their actions in the first place? That's what makes a story interesting, when someone engages in a fight, what are the consequences for losing, or even winning? A somber well executed ending is much better than a happily ever after ending just because you want one, and can elevate your story to a much better height. The way I'm planning to end my comic isn't in the most ideal way, but it's the most impactful and just plain great ending I can think of. I just don't think just ending the comic in the most idealistic way is the smartest thing to do. Think of JoJo part 6, that ending was sad, terrifying and amazingly beautiful. Death Note's ending also somber in a sense, we've saw Light devolve into his end-story state after all. Bitter yet satisfying endings can't be underestimated at all.