History Main / EverybodyDidIt

-->-- '''Holly''', reading ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', ''Series/RedDwarf''

[[folder:Films]]

* OlderThanSteam example: ''Fuenteovejuna'' (1613) by Lope de Vega. BasedOnATrueStory of a 15th century Spanish town that confessed (the whole of it) to murdering the mayor, rather than pointing the finger to one inhabitant in particular, and was "pardoned" by royal decree.
* Invoked, then averted by Claire Boiko's humorous 1980 play ''Murder on the Orient Express Subway'', wherein Hercules Pearot [sic] ''immediately'' announces that everyone did it. All the suspects then confess, whereupon it's discovered that the victim died of "apoplexy" before anyone touched him.

* ''VideoGame/TheHex'' begins with six video game characters together at an inn, and the bartender being informed that one of them will commit a murder. Turns out that every single character at the inn, including other [=NPCs=] and the bartender himself (who is the mastermind), need the ''player'''s help to murder their own creator, since each one of them has a reason to be angry with him, e.g. the platform mascot had his franchise sold to a corporation that proceeded to run it into the ground, the cooking game character was forced into a fighting game franchise away from his loving grandmother, the character from a strategy game found himself in a world that had been abandoned and taken over by modders, the bartender had his game deleted from existence, and such.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMysteryOfTheBatwoman'', all three suspects are [[CollectiveIdentity Batwoman]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends'' episode "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?", Charlie and Pim find the owner of the eponymous fast food establishment, Salty's, dead on his couch during his "iconic 7 PM nap", and the two try to figure out which one of his colorful mascots/employees did it. The entire mystery gets solved thanks to a surveillance tape: ''everyone'' tried to kill him in his sleep back-to-back... but no one was actually guilty of murder because unbeknownst to them, [[AccidentNotMurder Salty died from a heart attack right before his nap.]]
* In the end of the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Lice Capades", every single student in the class had lice.

* A filler episode of the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' anime had an investigation of "who stole the takoyaki?" complete with Shout Out to a famous samurai mystery drama series. (Famous in Japan, that is...)

* In the ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'', Batman is looking for a serial killer targeting mobsters. All three of the suspects end up having done at least some of the murders, though none of them knew who the other killers were.
* One ''ComicBook/TheSpectre'' story had him investigate the brutal murder of a hated slumlord who was chained to a boiler pipe in the basement, and beaten burned and stabbed over a period of days. It's eventually revealed that while it was just one tennant who chained him up, most, if not all, of the other tenants heard the man's screaming for help, but either did nothing or went down to inflict further torture upon him themselves.

* The former TropeNamer would be the Creator/AgathaChristie novel ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', where [[EveryoneIsASuspect everyone was suspected]], and for good reason. [[ItWasHisSled Not really a spoiler any more.]] Also the TropeMaker and UrExample. Everyone on the train except the victim and the detectives was part of an elaborate conspiracy to execute the victim, a [[AssholeVictim notorious mobster who victimized all of them in some way]]. The original idea was to provide themselves with an interlocking net of alibis, such that guilt could never settle on any of them and it would be assumed that someone from outside the train did it. If it hadn't been for a ClosedCircle snowdrift cutting off the hypothetical murderer's escape, it might have worked. Moreover, the participation of all the suspects ''was'' a clue in itself: the murder took place during "dead season", but there were no vacant seats available in the wagon. Similarly, each of the twelve conspirators stabbed Cassetti once in rapid succession, specifically so that there would be no way to determine which of them had struck the blow that actually killed Cassetti and they would all equally bear the responsibility.
* Subverted in the Randall Garrett ''Literature/LordDarcy'' story, ''The Napoli Express'' (whose name is an obvious shout-out to the Christie novel). When the non-hero detective comes up with the "they all did it" theory, the hero has to restrain himself from saying how silly the idea is. The people involved can't even hide that they all know each other, even though they're trying to. Hiding that they conspired together to commit the murder is quite ridiculous.
** The whole story is a ShoutOut to the Christie original. Garrett's solution even harks back to the one Poirot presents as the alternative to the trope.

* In the Sherlock Holmes story ''The Doctor's Case'' by Creator/StephenKing, only one person technically did it, but once Watson explains how it was done, Holmes and Lestrade immediately work out that it could not have been done without the active assistance of everyone else in the household. Then they consider the fact that this would cause an entire family to be executed or locked away for life, the victim [[AssholeVictim had been emotionally abusing his family for decades and forced them to put up with it or be disinherited]], and then, when he learned that he would be dying of natural causes within the year, [[PassedOverInheritance changed the will so that the entire estate would go to a pet shelter, leaving his kin penniless, out of sheer spite]], [[LetOffByTheDetective they choose not to arrest anyone and instead quietly remove the evidence]] that the deceased had been murdered by his kin so they could destroy the revised will.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': a late season 1 episode reveals that basically, all the 09'ers were complicit in Veronica's rape, including her future boyfriend Logan, who supplied the drugs for the party. One review aptly summarized it as 09er culture raped Veronica. While Veronica actually wasn't raped, this was no thanks to the people around her. Then Season 2 {{retcon}}s this with the revelation that she was raped. Whether or not this takes away from the general point is hotly debated.
* Comically subverted in the British spoof anthology series ''Series/MurderMostHorrid'' starring Creator/DawnFrench:
** In the episode "The Case of the Missing", everyone ''did'' do it, but the detective assigned to the case (French) is so confused and frustrated by their manipulation of the evidence that she finally snaps and concludes that [[DetectiveMole she must have done it]].
** Subverted again in the episode "Mangez Merveillac". Obnoxious travel writer Verity Hodge (French again) makes the French town of Merveillac a hugely popular tourist destination by forcing the locals to conform to stereotypes. Eventually, the locals grow tired of this, murder Hodge, and serve her up to the tourists at a local festival. However, once the credits roll, we discover that Hodge is actually alive and well, and the "murder" was part of a scheme to draw even more tourists to Merveillac by inspiring a Hollywood blockbuster.
* In ''Series/TheLWord'', at the end, Jenny Schecter could have been killed by anyone.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', this is basically how Cardassian mystery novels (or, as they call them, "enigma tales") are said to play out, with all the suspects being guilty; the mystery is figuring out who is guilty of what.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'':
** In the episode "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk": Monk meets a guy, but the next day, everybody denies that he existed. The guy stole money from his employers and died of a heart attack. The other guests find out and agree to split the money, but hid the truth from Monk because he's honest, so they erase all traces of the man's existence.
** Likewise, in the episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank": Monk goes undercover to find out which of the six members of the staff was the bank robber's accomplice. The answer? There was no robber, and the entire staff staged the crime to conceal their robbery of the bank's safe boxes.

* The ''Series/JonathanCreek'' episode "Satan's Chimney", wherein the second murder victim was killed for inciting the murder of the first victim, by the first victim's friends.
* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Series/RippingYarns'' episode "Murder at Moorstones Manor," which ends with a standoff between the characters claiming credit for the murder.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' once had a "[[Series/{{Dallas}} Who Shot J.R.]]" parody in which everyone shoots a Texan {{Jerkass}}, then discover one person did ''not'' have live ammo, and they try to figure out who ''didn't'' shoot him.
* ''Series/ElleryQueen'': Not ''everybody'', but in "The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader", three of the five suspects end up being guilty of the murder.

* ''Series/MajorCrimes'': In "There's No Place Like Home", all of the tenants are responsible for the death of the landlord. As Major Crimes can prove conspiracy to commit murder, but not if the death was actually murder, the killers cop to a collective plea of manslaughter.
* On ''Series/{{Dallas}}'', one of the major plot twists was the shooting of J.R. Ewing. To avoid any leaks, the producers, cast, and crew shot scenes of everyone's character individually shooting J.R..... [[ExaggeratedTrope up to and including J.R. himself ambushing himself in his own office and mercilessly gunning himself down.]]
* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' arc in which Captain Cragen is accused of murder ("Rhodium Nights" to "Above Suspicion"), it turns out every single guest character in the episodes is involved in the murders in some way, including both of the defendants' attorneys, a rookie cop who initially seemed to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and even the prosecutor, who had been bribed by one of the suspects with money for her disabled daughter.
* ''Series/{{Broadchurch}}'': This is apparently what happened with the Sandbrook case. Lee had sex with Lisa, got caught by Ricky, Lisa mouthed off to Ricky, Ricky accidentally killed Lisa, Pippa overheard everything and thought Lee did the killing, Ricky had Claire drug Pippa while they cleaned up the crime scene, Lee smothered Pippa to keep her quiet but told Ricky she died due to him drugging her, and the three of them agreed to keep each other's secrets.
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': In "Body Double", the first murder was committed by only one person the leading lady of a theatrical company, but the coverup (which involves a second murder) is arranged by all of the acting company.
* On an episode of ''Series/{{Veep}}'', Selina tasks Amy with finding the White House staffer who called her the [[CountryMatters C word]] in an interview. It turns out to have been everyone ([[HiredToHuntYourself including Amy herself]]) with the sole exception of Gary, who thought that the C word was "crone".
* ''Series/DeathInParadise'':
** In "Dishing Up Murder", all of the suspects colluded to stage an elaborate cover-up to make it appear the VictimOfTheWeek was murdered 12 hours later than he actually was. This provided them all with an alibi, except for the one person who didn't have a motive.
** In "Erupting in Murder", it turns out all of the suspects (bar one) committed the murder: two doing it for the money, and the third being blackmailed into it. The fourth suspect gets arrested on corruption charges.
* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "A Bullet for Joey", three brothers shoot the victim at the same time. However, two of the three guns are loaded with blanks; the idea being that will never know which of them fired the fatal shot. But one of the brothers confesses to knowing which gun was loaded with the real bullet, and choosing that gun to ensure the murder happened. He is charged with murder, and his brothers are charged with conspiracy.
* An episode of ''Series/WelcomeFreshmen'' sees Erin defending Walter in trial for defacing Vice-Principal Lippman's portrait. She proves piece after piece of vandalism as being done by other suspects, finishing with the entire student body pelting the portrait with cafeteria food.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': In "Who Pooped the Bed," Artemis announces that she's solved the titular mystery with a lengthy, convoluted explanation involving "a turd merger" and "fecal forgery," implicating the entire Gang, as well as Rickety Cricket and the Waitress. Everyone pretty much believes it until Frank confesses to all the poops.

* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': In "Chuck Versus the Suburbs" the team attempts to track down a sleeper agent in the Meadow's Branch suburban cul-de-sac. It turns out every person living on the cul-de-sac is a sleeper agent.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "The Scarecrow Murders", instead of the usual one murderer, there were three working in concert. They had met in an online support group for gamblers and, on discovering they had all had their lives ruined by one particular online gambling company, moved to the village where it was based to extract revenge. Each of them killed one of the principals involved in the company, and teamed up in an attempt to kill the last but were arrested by Barnaby and Winter. They attempted to dress the murders up as [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget the work of serial killer]], but the methods of killing were so different that Barnaby was convinced there had to be more than one killer.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'' the guest stars are chased by an invisible madman and slowly proven that each suspect has an alibi Velma concludes that the ScoobyDooHoax was a group effort by the suspects, using a technology they were developing for the government.

* A filler episode of the ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' anime had an investigation of "who stole the takoyaki?" complete with Shout Out to a famous samurai mystery drama series. (Famous in Japan, that is...)

* ''VideoGame/TheHex'' begins with six video game character together at an inn, and the bartender being informed that one of them will commit a murder. Turns out that every single character at the inn, including other [=NPCs=] and the bartender himself (who is the mastermind), need the ''player'''s help to murder their own creator, since each one of them has a reason to be angry with him, e.g. the platform mascot had his franchise sold to a corporation that proceeded to run it into the ground, the cooking game character was forced into a fighting game franchise away from his loving grandmother, the character from a strategy game found himself in a world that had been abandoned and taken over by modders, the bartender had his game deleted from existence, and such.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': PlayedForLaughs when Sanji notices the food he's rationed for their voyage to Arabasta is going missing. He questions Luffy, [[INeverSaidItWasPoison who accidentally admits he's been stealing the food]]. As Sanji is beating Luffy as punishment, it cuts to show Karoo, Chopper, and Usopp also eating stolen food.

* ''Series/{{Minhunter}}'': The case on Beverly Jean Shaw, a woman found dismembered and mutilated in a junk yard. After outsider suspects are ruled out, the main suspects become is timid fiancee Benjamin, and his brother-in-law Frank with a past with violent crime. Eventually, Rose, Benjamin's sister and Frank's abused wife, comes forward and tells the police what happened. Benjamin beat and tied Beverly up out of jealousy and rage, after which Frank raped her, and Benjamin then stabbed her. Rose was roped in to help clean the crime scene. Based on her description of Rose's blood still gushing, it's determined she was still alive when Rose was present, which leads to her being charged with accessory to murder, and to the shock of the FBI, the prosecutors decide to pin the responsibility on Benjamin, when the agents consider Frank equally guilty, if not the probable instigator, who gets off with relatively lesser charges.

* In the Something Awful Let's Play of ''VideoGame/LauraBow and the Colonel's Bequest'', the goons were unsatisfied with the original ending that revealed a mentally unstable Lillian as being responsible for the murders and came up with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqhTz-zpfA&feature=youtu.be a theory worthy of Agatha Christie.]]

* A filler episode of the ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' anime had an investigation of "who stole the takoyaki?" complete with Shout Out to a famous samurai mystery drama series (famous in Japan, that is...)

* ''WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKFZWcI6gqM When Yuri discovers a few of her rings missing]], she remembered inviting Yuzuriha, Akane, and Azami in her house before the rings were missing, which she and her husband Katsura hatched a plan to catch the suspect. When she called the three about the ring's whereabouts, they not only feign ignorance of the missing rings, but also accused each other of the theft. Yuri then invites them back into her house to find the rings, which they all "found" the rings that "appeared" to be misplaced. Through hidden surveillance cameras, Yuri and Katsura learn that all three of them stole her rings in the first place, which results in their arrest.
* In the Something Awful Let's Play of ''VideoGame/LauraBow and the Colonel's Bequest'', the goons were unsatisfied with the original ending that revealed a mentally unstable Lillian as being responsible for the murders and came up with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqhTz-zpfA&feature=youtu.be a theory worthy of Agatha Christie]].
* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', there's a variation. Throughout seasons 11 and 12, we get flashbacks to how every single member of the Reds and Blues (Except [[LethallyStupid Caboose]], surprisingly enough) did something that could have caused their ship to crash- Tucker flirted with the pilot, Washington knocked a cable out of the wall, Grif spilled soda on an instrument panel, Sarge messed with the engine, and Simmons tried to update the ship's navigation computers midflight. The crash was ''actually'' caused by a tractor beam. Said antics just caused the ship to rip itself in half instead of crashing normally.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E24MysteryOnTheFriendshipExpress MMMystery on the Friendship Express]], the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness was partially eaten by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity. The other bakers also ate each others' desserts.

* In the Creator/MercedesLackey song "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night," it's implied that the Count was the man who murdered the Countess (he was the only person other than the deceased with a key to the locked room she died in), though given how there was at least one servant able to testify as to where he was at any given ''minute'' that night, it was obvious that the entire household was in on it. The death was ruled as 'suicide'.
** "She tried to eat her lute."

* This is how ''Film/BookOfShadowsBlairWitch2'' ends... maybe...

** In the episode "The Case of the Missing", everyone ''did'' do it, but the detective assigned to the case (French) is so confused and frustrated by their manipulation of the evidence that she finally snaps and concludes that she must have done it.