History Main / BeneathSuspicion

** ''Film/SawII'': Downplayed with Amanda, one of the supposed victims in the Never Gas House. While nobody ever suspects her as being a Jigsaw apprentice, there's a decent amount of {{Foreshadowing}} to it over the course of the film before her reveal at the end.

** ''Film/SawII'': Downplayed with Amanda. While nobody ever suspects her as being a Jigsaw apprentice, there's a decent amount of {{Foreshadowing}} to it over the course of the film before her reveal at the end of the film.
** ''Film/SawIV'': This film sets up a twist ending that's very similar to the example from the first film, down to having a fake suspect for the audience to assume as an apprentice. .

** ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'': .
** ''[[Film/Spiral2021 Spiral]]'': .

* ''Film/SawI'': Nobody, not even the audience, ever thinks at any point that the "dead" body in the bathroom where Adam and Lawrence are trapped in is just PlayingPossum and is, in fact, the mastermind.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban,'' a Sneakoscope, which supposedly detects betrayal, starts acting up as soon as Harry meets up with Hermione, Ron, and his family. Who is it reacting to? Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, who is actually a transformed villain.]

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban,'' a Sneakoscope, which supposedly detects betrayal, starts acting up as soon as Harry meets up with Hermione, Ron, and his family. Who is it reacting to? [[spoiler:Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, who is actually a transformed villain.]]

* Happens in lots of Creator/AgathaChristie novels.
** It gets to the point that the characters who have absolutely rock-solid alibis are often the ones responsible. Examples include ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (she was at a party with friends), ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'' (one had been shot in the leg, the other with a nurse looking over her) and ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' (he was on the roof while the victim was downstairs). In many cases, Christie deliberately doesn't point out that the suspect has an apparently unshakable alibi to avoid evoking the obvious reaction.
** Christie was also fond of the trick of the character who we know was there but, by the rules of detective stories, wouldn't normally think of as being a suspect - TheWatson in ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd''; a policeman in ''Literature/HerculePoirotsChristmas'' and (as a deliberate ShoutOut to Chesterton's Invisible Man) "The Man in the Mist"; and perhaps the ultimate example, Hercule Poirot himself in ''Literature/{{Curtain}}''.

** In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', Mikan Tsumiki, a girl with [[ShrinkingViolet abysmal]] self-esteem, turns out to be the murderer of the third case. The rest of the cast comments on this after Hajime accuses them of it.

When a character turns out to be the one who committed a crime, but was not even regarded as a suspect by the detectives until halfway through the final act. The reasons why this character is never considered vary, but boil down to the trope name itself: they're beneath suspicion. The idea that someone [[TheQuietOne so quiet]], or [[TheDitz so stupid]], or [[BitCharacter so insignificant]] could ''possibly'' be the culprit seems so asinine that no one considers it, much less find it worth pursuing, until every other option has been exhausted or one last piece of evidence comes to light.

* Played straight and also zig-zagged in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. One episode has Dipper realize that local MadScientist and {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Old Man [=McGucket=], who he's ignored for the most part over the show's past season, might be [[spoiler:the Author of the Journals]]. The quest to recover his lost memories leads to the straight example: the reason why few townsfolk seem to remember the local oddities is because of a cultist group called The Society of the Blind Eye, dedicated to erasing resident's memories of such activity in the town, comprised of [[spoiler:Bud Gleeful, father of the previous season's BigBad Gideon, lame reporter Toby Determined, Tats, the bouncer of the local lumberjack bar, Sprott, the former owner of Mabel's pig Waddles, and a man married to a woodpecker who had appeared as a RunningGag several times before]]. They all used the Society to make themselves and others forget their failures and oddities. The zig-zag part comes in [=McGucket=]'s identity: [[spoiler:no, he wasn't the Author of the Journals. But he did work with him on the portal project, and would go on to found the Society in order to prevent himself from going mad after seeing the Nightmare Dimension during said project. However, he went too far, erased too much, and became a hermit hillbilly and local crackpot]].

--> '''Apu:''' Homer Simpson is the Pie Man? Impossible! He's never thrown a pastry away in his life!
--> '''Sideshow Mel:''' His brain isn't large enough to juggle two contrasting personae!
--> '''Moe:''' Yeah! And Homer's a dumbass! No offense, Homer... you dumbass.
--> '''Homer:''' I'm telling you, I'm the Pie Man!
--> '''Carl:''' No you're not! The Pie Man can fly!
--> '''Lenny:''' And spit acid!
--> '''Carl:''' Yeah and animals did his bidding!

* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': The murderer in ''[[Literature/TheCircleOpens Shatterglass]]'' ends up being a [[spoiler:''prathmun'', a member of Tharios' Untouchable caste, considered so low and degraded that to even acknowledge his presence requires being ritually purified afterward.]]

** In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', the Supreme Grand Master of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night (aka [[spoiler:Lupine Wonse, Vetinari's secretary]]) recruits the Brethren from the very bottom of Ankh-Morpork's food chain, precisely ''because'' they're all so low on the food chain that Vetinari, who has spies ''everywhere'' and is aware of every plot against him, wouldn't take notice of their plot until it's too late.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''
** [[spoiler:Professor Quirrell]] in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''.
** [[spoiler:Ginny Weasley]] in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''.
*** For that matter, [[spoiler:[[SoulJar Tom Riddle's diary]]]]. You don't usually expect [[spoiler:a MacGuffin]] to be the BigBad.

** Inverted in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', when Harry's spying on [[spoiler:Draco Malfoy]] has him convinced that [[spoiler:Malfoy]] is a Death Eater and responsible for lots of the life-threatening mischief at Hogwarts that year. Everyone he talks to finds this [[EpilepticTrees very far-fetched]], because [[spoiler:Malfoy's]] just a teenage student and not even a particularly competent one. Of course, [[spoiler:he turns out to be right.]]
** It's also played straight in the same book. Harry never once suspects the correct person of being the Half-Blood Prince and has to be told who it is. [[spoiler:This is despite his habit of suspecting Snape of anything, and also the (once common) tradition in British schools of school teachers keeping their favourite textbook in the book cupboard and it only ending up in the hands of pupils if they're desperate (precisely because of how moth-eaten and scrawled over these books often were). As a result, the one time Snape should have legitimately been one of Harry's ''first'' suspects was the one time he inexplicably wasn't suspected at all.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler:Slughorn ''had'' taken over for Snape as potions master that year, so they only had Slughorn to relate it to.]]
** Animagi seem to like using this reasoning, especially unregistered ones. In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'', Professor [=McGonagall=] spends all day spying on the Dursleys in the form of a cat. Later, various other animagi try using the same reasoning with varying degrees of success, such as Sirius trying to get away with using his dog-form [[spoiler:and Rita Skeeter obtaining her stories by turning into a bug.]]

* ''Literature/SimonArk'': In "The Dying Marabout", the murderer turns to be [[spoiler:the marabout's tall, bald servant. As Simon explains during TheSummation, the murderer had to have been someone present at the monastery before the invitations were sent out, which was only the marabout and his three servants. The marabout was murdered and of the servants, only one of them was tall enough to have impersonated him.]]

* On ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer,'' Buffy gets a job at a local burger joint with a high turnover rate. She finds a human finger in the meat grinder and believes that [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies they're killing the employees for food]]. Instead, it turns out that [[spoiler:they're being eaten by a demonic customer who looks like a harmless old lady]].

* ''Series/ElleryQueen'': The killer in "The Adventure of [[spoiler:the Pharaoh's Curse]]". This was one of the only episodes where the killer was not one of the suspects named in the opening monologue.

* On ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'', in the episode ''Campus Terror'', Joe Hardy's old flame Wendy calls the brothers in to help solve a series of kidnappings and disappearances taking place in an East Coast women's college, as she's the next targeted victim. She barely escapes an attack as the Hardys rush in moments after the attacker has fled & both the Hardys & the police treat her as just another victim. While suspicion falls on various men around campus (a young man who's stalking one of the female students, a professor with a history of evil experiments, the school's male self-defense teacher), it turns out that [[spoiler: Wendy herself is the kidnapper, suffering from delusional split-personality episodes, and her "other personality" faked the attack to throw the police off.]]

* In ''Los Misterios de Laura'', a guy is poisoned and wakes up amnesiac after an emergency operation at the hospital. Immediately afterwards, a mysterious woman he doesn't know claims to be his wife and insists he signs some documents, as her husband, so they can access a locked security vault at a bank. The woman the guy claims was his real wife claims she's married to someone else and then is suspiciously killed after she attempts to call the police, leaving incriminating evidence pointing at the "other" wife. Then she tries to get him incapacitated so she can finally take over all his accounts without needing him around anymore. [[spoiler: In the end, the criminal was ''the amnesiac guy'', who was truly married to that woman and was only feigning amnesia and pinning a whole lot of heavily suspicious actions on his wife so the detective would fall for it and arrest her, forcing her brother, on whom he wanted to get revenge, to come out of hiding to give decisive evidence on his sister's favour.]]
* ''Series/TheNightOf'': It's heavily implied that the murderer is [[spoiler:the victim's financial manager, who was first interviewed by the protagonist while investigating the victim's stepfather]].

* Inverted in ''Theatre/LesMiserables'': even though Monsieur le Mayor matches Jean Valjean's description, including the near-superhuman strength, Javert concludes that they cannot be the same person because there is no way that an escaped convict could ever become the mayor of a town (and because they caught the "real" Valjean soon after Javert first suggested that le Mayor was Valjean). [[spoiler:They are the same, and Valjean goes to defend the accused by revealing himself shortly thereafter.]] Justified in [[Film/LesMiserables the film]], as Valjean was bald with a long beard in prison, and le Mayor had a full head of hair and was clean shaven; in most stage adaptations, however, the difference between the two is merely a change of clothes.

-->[[spoiler:'''Demyx:''' Oh, I get it! It's because ''I'' got benched!]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Vexen:''' ''I'' got "benched", too!]]

** [[spoiler: Dee Vasquez and Acro]] in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' and ''Justice For All''. Justified by the fact that the investigators didn't even know [[spoiler: Vasquez]] was near the murder scene until the very end of the first trial day, and [[spoiler: Acro is in a wheelchair. Acro basically even says, ''"I'm in a wheelchair, you jerk, how could you accuse me?!"'']]
** Also the true head of the smuggling ring in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' and culprit of both I1-5 murders is the sweet, self-effacing [[spoiler: ManipulativeBastard Quercus Alba. Despite being the ambassador from KG-8 to the present, nobody thinks to investigate the guy who can barely walk even with a cane. At least, until Shi-Long Lang [[SpottingTheThread spots the thread]] during your investigation, and starts his own gambit that leads to Edgeworth accusing the correct suspect]].
** In ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2'', it takes until the very end of the fifth case for Edgeworth to realize that [[spoiler:maybe the best friend of the second case's victim might be somehow connected to events. Pretty justifiable, as in this case 'events' meant multiple kidnappings, manipulating two high-level law enforcement officers into committing murder, and hiring an assassin to kill a president. Said best friend was a ''clown''.]]
** Then, in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', the mastermind behind nearly all the events of the game, as well as eight years of corruption in the courts, was [[spoiler: Detective Bobby Fulbright, or rather his killer [[KillAndReplace posing as him]]]], who is only added to the list of profiles because, well, [[spoiler:he's the {{detective|Mole}}]]!

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' has the little bunny Boingo, the actual Goody Bandit. All four of the parties in a simple domestic disturbance turn out to have had separate encounters with Boingo, and he's the only common thread in everyone's testimonies: Red Puckett meets him once while she's riding her bike and then again in the cable car, suggesting that she's being tailed by [[spoiler:Boingo]] (she's the only one who encounters him more than once), the Wolf asks him for a shortcut to Granny's house, he is the first person to show up after Kirk's truck is raided, and he asks Granny for her autograph before the ski race.

* Similarly in ''Film/MurderByDeath'' (1976), several candidates are nominated for the murderer, and the big reveal at the end? [[TheEndingChangesEverything There was no murder at all]] (except maybe of a weekend) because the corpse gets up and thanks everybody for making a fool of themselves; he only invited the world's best detectives in order to extort money from them...[[note]][[TheUnreveal But there's one more twist]] just before the credits roll.[[/note]]

* ''All'' the [[AnAesop working class]] characters in ''Film/GosfordPark'' are considered this by the detective since the murder victim was upper-class and the detective is only interested in anyone who had "a real connection" with the victim. Had he bothered to question any of the servants, he might have learned that the victim had slept with some of them.

* The major plot twist of ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' is all about this trope. The Customs agent is so focused on proving Dean Keaton is behind everything, he never once suspects that he might be getting lied to by [[spoiler: Verbal Kint, the crippled con man, who's not actually crippled and is possibly Keyser Soze, the most ruthless crime boss in world history. None of the other criminals in the story suspect Kint of not being genuine, either, at least if ''that'' part of the story he told the Customs agent is to be believed.]]

* ''Film/DeadlyAdvice'': The reason UsefulNotes/{{Jack the Ripper}} gives as to why he was never caught. An unassuming hairdresser, he once even cut Inspector Aberline's hair; showing how close to an investigation he could come without being suspected.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', the princesses never suspected [[spoiler:the Porters because they lost some of their mothers, their Eldest, and their brother in the same blast that killed the elder princesses and were their sisters-in-law.]]

** The killer in the Literature/DrGideonFell novel ''Below Suspicion'' was [[spoiler:in a prison cell when the murder was committed]].

* Lots and lots of Creator/AgathaChristie novels.
** It gets to the point that the character(s) that have absolutely rock-solid alibis are often the ones responsible. Examples include [[spoiler: ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (she was at a party with friends), ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'' (one had been shot in the leg, the other with a nurse looking over her) and ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' (he was on the roof while the victim was downstairs)]]. In many cases, Christie deliberately does not point out that the suspect has an apparently unshakable alibi to avoid evoking the obvious reaction.
** Christie was also fond of the trick of the character who we know was there but, by the rules of detective stories, wouldn't normally think of as being a suspect - [[spoiler: TheWatson in ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd''; a policeman in ''Literature/HerculePoirotsChristmas'' and (as a deliberate ShoutOut to Chesterton's Invisible Man) "The Man in the Mist"; and perhaps the ultimate example, ''Hercule Poirot himself'' in ''Literature/{{Curtain}}''.]]

* ''Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels'': In ''The Cuckoo's Calling'', the murderer turns out to be [[spoiler: the brother of the first victim, who was the one who initially hired the detective after the police ruled the death a suicide, and is for most of the book the only one convinced her death was murder.]]

** The page quote comes from ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', in which a prominent dwarf religious leader is murdered in a dwarf mine, with a troll's club beside him. Despite both dwarves and trolls searching for the murderer and combing their respective communities, no one ever looks at the troll junkie Brick. [[spoiler: Subverted, however, because Brick isn't the murderer. He's a ''witness'', albeit an unreliable one, because he was there totally by accident and still on a drug high.]]

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': When it becomes clear that there's a traitor to the White Council, everyone's prime suspects include people like TheCaptain of the Wardens, members of the Senior Council, or Dresden himself. Until ''Literature/TurnCoat'', nobody suspects that the traitor is [[spoiler:the Senior Council's ''secretary'',]] who, while not an officially high position, does have access to all the information the ranking officers do.

* ''Manga/{{Arachnid}}'': Alice was determined to protect her poor friend Kuramoto from being [[SexSlave enslaved]] by Sara the Army Ant, not realizing that [[spoiler:Kuramoto herself was the Army Ant Queen and Sara was just her lackey. Ironically, it is from being so concerned about Kuramoto that she plants [[RazorFloss strings]] on her neck and ends up overhearing her talking about her true nature to Sara, which allows Alice to fool and kill her later]].
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Despite [[spoiler:Selim Bradley]]'s ties to the military/government (his father is [[spoiler:the PresidentEvil]]), it comes as a shock when he's revealed to be Pride, one of [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent the Homunculi]] because [[spoiler:he [[Really700YearsOld appears to be]] [[DeliberatelyCuteChild an adorable child]]]].

** Niho Kurono is the only one who ever asked to get converted and becomes Himeno's closest confidant due to this, but she's actually [[spoiler:the middle-aged policeman Jiro Kuroda after a brain transplant into a schoolgirl's corpse. Those circunstances make Niho resistant to the brainwashing, though she is affected enough to be unable to directly kill Himeno]].
** [[spoiler:Nagisa Hattori, Himeno's first soldier,]] likewise is assumed to be mentally unable to ever do any harm to her Queen, [[DragonWithAnAgenda and yet she is involved in the scheme]] against the American Queen Serena that both brought Niho in and got Himeno tortured and several of their comrades killed. Himeno is shocked to realize that, from the beginning, there was such malicious intent in [[spoiler:Nagisa]] suggesting her to [[spoiler:create an utopic nation]].
* In ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'', Orsted has identified and analyzed every one of [[spoiler:Hitogami]]'s agents except one, but that one blind spot is enough to foil his plans. The agent turns out to be [[spoiler:Gisu]], a person with no combat abilities or political sway.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': In the Wano Country arc, it is revealed [[spoiler:Kanjuro]] is the spy who's been leaking the Akazaya Nine's plans to Orochi. A [[EmptyShell broken man]] who can only live [[MasterActor by acting other lives]], he brags to their faces that only one of their own could've leaked the location of Zou and yet they never suspected a thing because of how they've been together, even through mortal danger, for such a long time.

* Basically, the entire premise of ''ComicBook/BatmanEternal'': Batman is put through a hellish experience involving just about every one of his regular villains, trying to figure who's behind this, convinced it has to be the Joker, Ra's al Ghul, Penguin or someone else. The culprit: [[spoiler:''Cluemaster.'' He, Lock-Up, Signalman, Ratcatcher, and Prankster came up with this entire scheme, convinced they were so under Batman's radar that he would never suspect any of these C-listers of possibly being able to pull this off. And he was right.]]

** The true identity of the Light from that arc of the Dynamite run? [[spoiler:A hospital nurse, who Margo has a close encounter with.]]
** The killer in Dynamite #21 is [[spoiler:an elderly washerwoman]] who no one would look at twice.

* ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'': In "The Mile High Corpse", a mob boss is [[DeathInTheClouds murdered on a trans-Atlantic flight]] and Jen and Gabe discover an OrgyOfEvidence on the body seeming to indicate all three of the other passengers in first class. Dismissing this as the RedHerring it is, Gabe is able to identify the murderer as [[spoiler:someone who is not a passenger at all, but had been in out of the cabin all flight without anyone paying her the least attention: the flight attendant]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' has [[spoiler: the little bunny Boingo, the actual Goody Bandit]]. All four of the parties in a simple domestic disturbance turn out to have had separate encounters with [[spoiler:Boingo]], and he's the only common thread in everyone's testimonies: Red Puckett meets him once while she's riding her bike and then again in the cable car, suggesting that she's being tailed by [[spoiler:Boingo]] (she's the only one who encounters him more than once), the Wolf asks him for a shortcut to Granny's house, he is the first person to show up after Kirk's truck is raided, and he asks Granny for her autograph before the ski race.

* The obvious candidate in the 2007 horror ''Film/DriveThru'' is [[spoiler:the owner of the drive-thru chain and the father of the kid who died in an accident when he was 18]]. The police only suspect him three-quarters into the movie, [[spoiler:but this is subverted as they are wrong: they're not in a normal murder mystery, the killer is the ghost of the dead kid.]]

* Similarly in ''Film/MurderByDeath'' (1976), several candidates are nominated for the murderer, and the big reveal at the end? [[spoiler:[[TheEndingChangesEverything There was no murder at all]] (except maybe of a weekend) because the corpse gets up and thanks everybody for making a fool of themselves; he only invited the world's best detectives in order to extort money from them...]][[note]][[TheUnreveal But there's one more twist]] just before the credits roll.[[/note]]
* The titular character in ''Film/{{Fresh}}'' pulls off a BatmanGambit on the two local drug gangs, [[spoiler: using them to get rid of his enemies and ensure a living for himself and his sister outside of the crime-riddled ghetto they are currently living in. His plan is to get caught by one gang while running drugs for the other and making both believe someone is trying to steal their business.]] It works, because no one suspects that the 12-year-old Fresh could possibly be enough of a ManipulativeBastard, or have enough resources, to have planned everything by himself.
* ''All'' the [[AnAesop working class]] characters in ''Film/GosfordPark'' are considered this by the detective since the murder victim was upper-class and the detective is only interested in anyone who had "a real connection" with the victim. Had he bothered to question any of the servants, he might have learned that [[spoiler:the victim had slept with some of them.]]

** Few could have seen [[spoiler: Adachi]] as the murderer. But you, the player character, are also called under suspicion with [[KidDetective your snooping around]], but the main detective can't believe that the guy who's helping him raise his daughter would do such a thing.
** Throughout the game, several people are abducted and thrown into the TV world - often in broad daylight, or with plenty of people around. Not even the victims themselves remember seeing anyone suspicious after they're rescued. [[spoiler:The kidnapper drives a delivery truck. Which also means that your cousin Nanako, who was left home alone, doesn't consider him to be a 'stranger' when he knocks at the door... It also helps that the aforementioned murderer is giving him directions and, at one point, draws the party away from his target.]]
** As it turns out, [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain the true mastermind behind the whole mess]] is a random gas station attendant you met at the beginning of the game. They are so far beneath suspicion, they don't even get their own CharacterPortrait! At least until you start pressing them about their involvement.]]

** [[spoiler:Kalas]] in the first game is this trope both on a meta-level and in-universe. Few players would expect to be betrayed by [[spoiler:the main character]]; none of the other characters ever suspected he could be the spy (likely to avoid tipping off the player) even though he never gives any particularly strong reasons as to why he's helping with the quest in the first place.
** In an even more meta example, the sequel has [[spoiler:''the player themselves'' (unknowingly)]] lying to Sagi and co.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', [[spoiler:Tomas, the old, friendly and slightly awkward librarian]] is just another NPC wandering around [[spoiler:the Garreg Mach Academy, aided by a cane and requiring plenty of help]], but soon enough it turns out [[spoiler:he's Solon, a member of Those Who Slither In The Dark and who's [[ColdBloodedTorture capable of very, very mean stuff]] like trapping Byleth in eternal darkness...]]
* In ''Videogame/Psychonauts2'', the true mastermind of the plot turns out to be [[spoiler:Nick Johnsmith, the mailroom clerk whose body spends most of the game debrained and later used as a host for Helmut Fullbear's mind. As it turns out, "Nick" is actually deposed prince of a third-world country who chose to infiltrate the Psychonauts via posing as as a menial worker that almost everyone liked]].

** In the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', the murderer turns out to be Gonta Gokuhara, who's a kind-hearted and caring person, doesn't do well in social terms or technology (or things aside from his talent, which is entomology), and is certainly not cunning enough to come up with a murder plan or cover it up. Adding the fact that he doesn't remember a thing of what happened in the case, he's such an unlikely murderer that Shuichi never even considers him as a culprit, until [[spoiler:Kokichi, who manipulated Gonta into the murder, outright reveals who it is]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE18BewareTheGrayGhost "Beware the Gray Ghost"]], the HiddenVillain MadBomber is [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGunman the young toy collector that bought Simon Trent Gray Ghost memorabilia earlier in the episode.]]]] When Simon Trent had his EurekaMoment, he cannot believe it:

** In the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', the murderer turns out to be Gonta Gokuhara, who's a kind-hearted and caring person, doesn't do well in social terms or technology (or things aside from his talent, which is entomology), and is certainly not cunning enough to come up with a murder plan or cover it up. He's such an unlikely murderer that Shuichi never even considers him as a culprit, until [[spoiler:Kokichi, who manipulated Gonta into the murder, outright reveals who it is]].

** In the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', the murderer turns out to be Gonta Gokuhara, who's a kind-hearted and caring person, doesn't do well in social terms or technology (or things aside from his talent, which is entomology), and is certainly not cunning enough to come up with a murder plan or cover it up. He's such an unlikely murderer that Shuichi never even considers him as a culprit, until [[spoiler:Kokichi, who manipulated Gonta into the murder outright reveals who it is]].

-->'''Gundham:''' Hmmm... to think there are people killed by a woman as thickheaded as she... it's beyond difficult to believe.\\

** In the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', the murderer turns out to be Gonta Gokuhara, who is an extremely kind-hearted and caring person, doesn't do well in social terms or technology (or things aside from his talent, which is entomology), and is certainly not cunning enough to come up with a murder plan or cover it up. He's such an unlikely murderer that Shuichi never even considers him as a culprit, until [[spoiler:Kokichi, who manipulated Gonta into the murder outright reveals who it is]].

** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': In the fourth case, the murderer turns out to be Gonta Gokuhara, who is an extremely kind-hearted and caring person, doesn't do well in social terms or technology (or things aside from his talent, which is entomology), and is certainly not cunning enough to come up with a murder plan or cover it up. He's such an unlikely murderer that Shuichi never even considers him as a culprit, until [[spoiler:Kokichi, who manipulated Gonta into the murder outright reveals who it is]].

** In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', [[spoiler:Mikan Tsumiki]], a [[spoiler:girl who has [[ShrinkingViolet abysmal]] self-esteem]], turns out to be the murderer for the third case. The rest of the cast comments on this after Hinata accuses them of it.
-->'''[[spoiler:Tanaka]]:''' Hmmm... to think there are people killed by [[spoiler:a woman]] as thickheaded as [[spoiler:she]]... it's beyond difficult to believe.\\
'''[[spoiler:Sonia]]:''' We could do without the "thickheaded" part...
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': In the fourth case, the murderer turns out to be [[spoiler:Gonta Gokuhara]], who is [[spoiler:an extremely kind-hearted and caring person, who doesn't do well in social terms or technology (or things aside from his talent which is Entomology) certainly not cunning enough to come up with a murder plan or cover it up]]. This person is such an unlikely murderer that the protagonist never even considers them as a culprit, until [[spoiler:the person who manipulated the culprit into the murder outright reveals who it is]].

Source of TheButlerDidIt. See also TheDogWasTheMastermind, BeneathNotice. Compare InsistsOnBeingSuspected.

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/SawI'': Nobody, not even the audience, thinks that [[spoiler:the "dead" body in the room where the protagonists are trapped in is just FakingTheDead and is, in fact, the mastermind]].

[[/folder]]

** Throughout the game, several people are abducted and thrown into the TV world - often in broad daylight, or with plenty of people around. Not even the victims themselves remember seeing anyone suspicious after they're rescued. [[spoiler:The kidnapper drives a delivery truck. Which also means that [[AdultFear your cousin Nanako, who was left home alone]], doesn't consider him to be a 'stranger' when he knocks at the door... It also helps that the aforementioned murderer is giving him directions and, at one point, draws the party away from his target.]]

When a character turns out to be the one who committed a crime, but was not even regarded as a suspect by the detectives until halfway through the final act. The reasons why this character is never considered vary, but boil down to the trope name itself: they're beneath suspicion. The idea that someone [[TheQuietOne so quiet]], or [[TheDitz so stupid]], or [[Beneath Suspicion so insignificant]] could ''possibly'' be the culprit seems so asinine that no one considers it, much less find it worth pursuing, until every other option has been exhausted or one last piece of evidence comes to light.

When a character turns out to be the one who committed a crime, but was not even regarded as a suspect by the detectives until halfway through the final act. The reasons why this character is never considered vary, but boil down to the trope name itself: they're beneath suspicion. The idea that someone [[NiceGuy so kind]], or [[TheQuietOne so quiet]], or [[TheDitz so stupid]] could ''possibly'' be the culprit seems so asinine that no one considers it, much less find it worth pursuing, until every other option has been exhausted or one last piece of evidence comes to light.

* The obvious candidate in the 2007 horror ''Film/DriveThru'' is [[spoiler:the owner of the drive-thru chain and the father of the kid who died in an accident when he was 18]]. The police only suspect him 3 quarters into the movie, [[spoiler:but this is subverted as they are wrong: they're not in a normal murder mystery, the killer is the ghost of the dead kid.]]

* Similarly in ''Film/MurderByDeath'' (1976), several candidates are nominated for the murderer, and the big reveal at the end? [[spoiler:[[TheEndingChangesEverything There was no murder at all]] (except maybe of a weekend) because the corpse gets up and thanks everybody for making a fool of themselves; he only invited the world's best detectives in order to extort money from them...[[note]][[TheUnreveal But there's one more twist]] just before the credits roll.[[/note]]]]

* ''Film/TheLimehouseGolem:'' * Kildair spends the film investigating the only four men who visited the library containing the Limehouse Golem's hidden journal in the right timeframe to record its last entry. None of them are guilty. While only those four ''men'' visited the library that day, the librarian never thinks to mention Lizzie and several other ''women'' who visited the library.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban,'' a Sneakoscope, which supposedly detects betrayal, starts acting up as soon as Harry meets up with Hermione, Ron and his family. Who is it reacting to? [[spoiler:Ron's pet rat, Scabbers, who is actually a transformed villain]].

** Animagi seem to like using this reasoning, especially unregistered ones. In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'', Professor [=McGonagall=] spends all day spying on the Dursleys in the form of a cat. Later on, various other animagi try using the same reasoning with varying degrees of success, such as Sirius trying to get away with using his dog-form [[spoiler:and Rita Skeeter obtaining her stories by turning into a bug.]]

* Justified in ''[[Literature/{{Perfume}} Parfum]]'' (the book, not made clear in the film) because Gaston has no personal smell he almost cannot be remembered and slides under everybody's radar.

* In ''Los Misterios de Laura'', a guy is poisoned and wakes up amnesiac after an emergency operation at the hospital. Immediately afterwards, a mysterious woman he doesn't know claims to be his wife and insists he signs some documents, as her husband, so they can access a locked security vault at a bank. The woman the guy claims was his real wife claims she's married to someone else and then is suspiciously killed after she attempts to call the police, leaving incriminating evidence pointing at the "other" wife. Then she tries to get him incapacitated so she can finally take over all his accounts without needing him around anymore. [[spoiler: In the end, the criminal was ''the amnesiac guy'', who was truly married to that woman and was only feigning amnesia and pinning a whole lot of heavily suspicious actions on his wife so the detective would fall for it and arrest her, forcing her brother, who he wanted to get revenge on, to come out of hiding to give decisive evidence on his sister's favour.]]

** Throughout the game, several people are abducted and thrown into the TV world - often in broad daylight, or with plenty of people around. Not even the victims themselves remember seeing anyone suspicious after they're rescued. [[spoiler:The kidnapper drives a delivery truck. Which also means that [[AdultFear your cousin Nanako, who was left home alone]], doesn't consider him to be a 'stranger' when he knocks at the door...It also helps that the aforementioned murderer is giving him directions and, at one point, draws the party away from his target.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a plague is released in a section of Omega space station that kills everything ''except'' humans and vorcha. Naturally, the aliens are suspicious of the humans in the area, believing (correctly) that such a targetted plague could only be an intentionally-designed bioweapon. Nobody, meanwhile, suspects the vorcha of a thing. Partly because vorcha are [[IdealIllnessImmunity immune to everything anyway]], but mostly because vorcha are considered little more than intelligent vermin: sapient, but very stupid. It turns out that while the vorcha didn't create the plague, they are the ones who are ''distributing'' it, know perfectly well what they're doing, and the humans aboard the station are innocent ([[WretchedHive at least of this particular crime]]).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', this is how Homer ultimately gets away with being the masked vigilante Pie Man. The mystique and legend of Pie Man gets built up so much that the people of Springfield would never in a million years suspect ''Homer'' of being the man, and even when Homer outright unmasks himself in front of a crowd and confesses everyone calls him a liar.

[[/folder]]
----

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' has [[spoiler: the little bunny Boingo, the actual Goody Bandit]]. All four of the parties in a simple domestic disturbance turn out to have separate encounters with them, and they're the only common thread in everyone's testimonies: Red Puckett meets them once while she's riding her bike and then again in the cable car, suggesting that she's being tailed by them (she's the only one who encounters this person more than once), the Wolf asks them for a shortcut to Granny's house, they are the first person to show up after Kirk's truck is raided, and they ask Granny for her autograph before the ski race.

Source of TheButlerDidIt. See also TheDogWasTheMastermind, BeneathNotice. Comapre InsistsOnBeingSuspected.

Source of TheButlerDidIt. See also TheDogWasTheMastermind, BeneathNotice.