History Main / MistakenForMurderer

* In ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', the gang suspects that Mac is a serial killer due to his suspicious behavior. In reality, he's just dating a transsexual.

* ''Fanfic/{{Frenzy}}'' revolves around Sonic having to find a SerialKiller that murdered Amy, all while avoiding the police because they think ''he'' killed her. It was actually [[spoiler:his robotic lookalike Metal Sonic]] who killed Amy.

* In "Spookyfish", a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' Halloween episode, Stan is mistaken for a murderer by his mother, when in fact the murderer is his pet goldfish. Instead of being afraid of him, she attempts to protect him by burying the bodies and locking a police officer in the basement (without any pants, for some reason). Stan's father takes everything surprisingly well.

* ''Film/NoHardFeelings'': Percy gets the wrong idea when Maddie first shows interest in him. Rather than go along with it like Maddie had hoped a HormoneAddledTeenager would have at the sight of her, he's completely weirded out by the sudden attention. Maddie also uses a CreepyStalkerVan to pick him up and takes his phone when he tries to text his parents. She gets a face full of mace for her troubles.

* Downplayed in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. In the Japanese version of "A Date With Delcatty", Misty thinks that she's gotten a death threat when in actuality the boy wants to give her a LoveConfession.

* ''Series/KamenRiderAgito'' gives this a twist by having policeman Makoto Hikawa think Agito is a murderer while being friends with Shoichi Tsugami, Agito's civilian identity. This gets resolved when Hikawa learns Agito's identity and realizes that a nice guy like Shoichi could never be a cold-blooded killer. This plot was [[RecycledScript recycled]] in ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'' and ''Series/KamenRiderKiva''[[note]]All three shows had the same head writer[[/note]]; while ''Kiva'' handled it in near-identical fashion, ''Faiz'' labored the point for a bit too long, especially by having the resident JerkAss make Faiz look bad by periodically stealing the Faiz belt and wreaking havoc with it.
* The subplot of the ''Film/{{Mitchell}}'' episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Gypsy accidentally intercepts a call from Deep 13 where Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank decide to kill Mike Nelson, who's just taking his job way too happily. However, Gypsy accidentally interprets it as them trying to kill Joel, thus trying to get him out of the Satellite of Love.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In the episode "Living Hell", the protagonist tries to warn the cops about a killer whose visions he has been receiving. As the detective in charge of the investigation points out, how is it that this particular person who called them up out of the blue knows so much detailed information about the crime scenes? It's no surprise that he quickly becomes suspect number one. The cops do believe him eventually, though.

* In the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "The Ballad of Gentleman Joe", someone is dropping intricately-carved hobo coins into the pockets of hobos and then killing them after they're discovered. Crabtree and Watts go undercover, taking one of the coins to use as a conversation starter. Inevtiably, the hobos come to the conclusion that if these newcomers have the coins and ''haven't'' been killed, they must be the killers.

* ''Literature/SwansBraidAndOtherTalesOfTerizan'': Swan mistakenly thinks Terizan is an assassin sent after when the latter tries to steal her braid and draws her dagger for this purpose while she's pretending to sleep. They soon clear this up however.

* Episode 198 of ''WebAnimation/HoloNoGraffiti'' is based around Shion coming across the apparently-dead bodies of several fellow members of WebAnimation/{{hololive}}, with the GrimReaper's apprentice Calliope standing over them with her scythe out. Shion immediately concludes Calli killed them and flees in a panic. Calli chases after her to try to clarify that they're not dead, only passed out from drinking too much the night before.

* This is what drives [[spoiler:Kaede Kayano/Akari Yukimura's]] motivation for killing Koro-sensei in ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom''. [[spoiler: Her sister Aguri was working in the lab that the future Koro-sensei was being experimented on, and when Koro-sensei broke out of containment, Akari arrived at the destroyed lab only to find him looming over her sister's corpse as well as a letter he left saying he would be teaching Aguri's class in her stead. As such, she implanted herself with [[PsychoSerum tentacle cells]], changed her identity to Kaede Kayano, and [[NewTransferStudent transferred to Class 3-E at the start of the story]] so she could exact revenge on the monster that seemingly killed her sister. As it turns out, Koro-sensei did not kill her sister; rather, Aguri [[InterruptedCooldownHug was killed trying to calm him down]], which prompted his HeelRealization and thus him taking up the role of Class 3-E's teacher as TheAtoner. Koro-sensei only gets to clear this matter up with her once he removes her tentacles]].

* The series ''Anime/{{K}}'' begins with an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent finding out that there's a video that shows him murdering someone, and the other members of the victim's gang are out for revenge - but he doesn't remember doing it, and he's sure he's innocent. He and his companions work to solve the mystery over the first season. The truth is [[spoiler: it was his body, but he was [[BodySnatcher body-swapped]].]]

* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/PsychoII''. Mary finds herself holding a knife against Norman Bates in self-defense when she assumes he's reverted back to his psychotic ways. However, when the police arrive on the scene they mistake ''her'' for a murderer [[spoiler: and shoot her dead on the spot.]]

* Thanks to being a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire with a [[StalkerWithACrush Not So Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Stalker]], Jody from ''Literature/BloodsuckingFiends'' has to deal with suspicion that she may be a serial killer -- something that is not helped by the fact that she has a chest freezer with a dead man in it. [[spoiler: The police eventually get a warrant to search her loft and implicate her boyfriend, Tommy, for both the serial murders and her ''own'' "murder". Naturally, Tommy can't explain the situation without sounding like a complete loon ("I didn't kill her! Okay, so I did put her in the freezer, which admittedly was pretty rude...")]]

* ''Series/Mouse2021'': Ba-reum stops Bong-yi late at night while wearing blood-covered clothes. Bong-yi and her grandmother get the wrong idea and freak out. [[spoiler: Played with when it turns out he really is a murderer.]]

* When Nikki breaks her leg at Prof. Oglevee's apartment on ''Series/TheParkers'', she decides to convalesce there and becomes even more annoying. He gives her a pair of binoculars which she uses to spy on the neighbors. She sees a man strangling a woman and then sees him carrying a suspicious bundle out of his apartment. The killer sees her and decides to come after her. In the end, [[spoiler: it was all a set-up by the Professor with an actor friend of his to teach Nikki a lesson about spying]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam & Max: Season 2]]'' re-opens Stinky's Diner, which was closed throughout the entirety of Season 1, and introduces its new owner: a thoroughly sketchy woman who claims to be Stinky's granddaughter, taking care of the diner while her grandfather is traveling (something Sam & Max point out would be ''incredibly unlikely'' for the cantankerous old man to even ''consider''). Throughout the season, the implications pile up that this mystery woman murdered Stinky, but in ''What's New, Beelzebub?'', it turns out that [[spoiler: Stinky died in a mountain climbing accident ([[BackFromTheDead he gets better]]), and that Girl Stinky is not only very much ''not'' a murderer (despite near-quoting [[TheScottishTrope Lady MacBeth]]), but a bit of a CloudCuckoolander to boot. She's also a Cake of the Damned, created by Stinky in a culinary experiment gone wrong.]]

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'': During two of the Atari-style mini games, you'll notice a purple guy (this one is light purple) [[spoiler: that is heavily implied to be the murderer from the backstory and thus [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom responsible for everything.]]]] However, during another mini game, you have a chance of running into another, possibly different purple guy (this one is a slightly darker shade of purple) that stops your progress. It's somewhat hard to tell due to the graphical limitations, but the rarer purple guy has a badge, glowing white eyes[[note]][[FridgeHorror just like the animatronics]][[/note]], and [[spoiler: [[TheReveal what appears to be]] [[BigBadFriend a phone]] [[TheDogWasTheMastermind in his hand.]]]] The mini games, along with the animatronics being suspicious of adults, strongly implies many things, most prominently that the robots can't tell two adults apart[[note]] and dear ol' [[ExpositionFairy Phone Guy]] is [[TheDogWasTheMastermind not to be trusted,]] but that's beside the point[[/note]]. This means that the animatronics think that any security guard ([[ObliviouslyEvil even the most innocent ones]]) is a suspect... and causes them to suffer HeWhoFightsMonsters in the process, as ''they're trying to kill the murderer.''

* In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' Halloween cartoon "I Killed Pom Pom", a deflated inflatable pumpkin leads Homestar to believe he somehow murdered Pom Pom. Strong Bad decides to egg Homestar on, and things spiral out of control until [[spoiler: Homestar accidentally kills Pom Pom for real.]]

* Terry has to [[ClearMyName clear his name]] of killing Mad Stan in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Eyewitness". [[spoiler:He was framed by Spellbinder, the villain who specializes in technologically-induced hallucinations. Mad Stan wasn't even dead]].
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy and Cosmo believe that [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily Big Daddy's men]] are going to murder Wanda. Turns out [[spoiler: they were taking her out to dinner]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' episode "Future Shock," Tuck peeks into the future via a {{Chronoscope}} and sees what appears to be Jenny [[EvilLaugh laughing maniacally]] with blood on her hands in front of Brad's head, severed from the rest of his body. [[spoiler: It turns out that when Tuck tried to fight Jenny out of his paranoia, he ended up squirting [[ABloodyMess ketchup]] on her hands, and in the commotion, Brad ended up landing in a hole with the rest of his body intact. The other body turned out to be Brad's dummy which he brought along to a couples-only drive-in theater as a "date." Jenny was only laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.]]

* An episode of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' concerning the topic of Health Class, Cookie believes that his friend Moze killed her boyfriend Faymin by pushing him out the window, and was conspiring with Gordy the Janitor and Mr. Monroe the Health Teacher to hide the body. In actuality, "Faymin" was really the school's old CPR mannequin that Moze attempted to clean and spruce up with new clothes (Faymin's), only to further break it by accident, and Mr. Monroe suggested they bury it so that it would be considered "lost property" and the school would replace it.

* An episode of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' concerning the topic of Health Class, Cookie believes that his friend Moze killed her boyfriend Fabian by pushing him out the window, and was conspiring with Gordy the Janitor and Mr. Monroe the Health Teacher to hide the body. In actuality, "Fabian" was really the school's old CPR mannequin that Moze attempted to clean and spruce up with new clothes (Fabian's), only to further break it by accident, and Mr. Monroe suggested they bury it so that it would be considered "lost property" and the school would replace it.

* Justified in [[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 5 Days A Stranger]], in that the character mistaken for the murder did in fact commit the murder. Granted that it was actually due to a case of DemonicPossession. This may or may not be justified in ''7 Days A Skeptic''. Taken as a standalone game, 7DAS appears to play this straight but ''6 Days A Sacrifice'' implies that what we saw then might not have been what actually happened.

* In ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', Daemon Targaryen thinks his older brother KIng Viserys has been murdered by the Hightowers, while he actually died of the leprosy-like illness afflicting him (which Daemon witnessed but somehow didn't account for).

* In ''ComicBook/LadyMechanika'', the first person that Mechanika ever killed was Deacon "Grin" Grindlethorn of the Ministry of Health, who ran a BedlamHouse dedicated to "curing" children with monstrous birth defects. A perpetually masked man who combined traits of a MadScientist and a SinisterMinister in a place where girls would frequently go missing without warning. Before her escape from the Ministry, Mechanika found him in a room with shelves full of the preserved body parts of many of the girls who had supposedly been "cured", and killed him in a rage. It would be many years later before Lady Mechanika would learn that Deacon Grin actually was a compassionately God-fearing (if still unsettling) doctor who cared about the girls, and that the one who actually murdered them was a young Katherine de Winter, a fellow patient and budding psychopath.

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', [[BrokenBird Machi]] was kicked out of her parents' house after they surprised her trying to smother her baby brother while she actually was putting a blanket on him. The rumor is so persistent even her half-brother [[HeroicBastard Kakeru]] believes it, but doesn't blame her because he thinks this event is a consequence of the DarkAndTroubledPast he shares with her (they were forced by their respective mothers to be better than the other to prove they were worthy of their common father's heritage, and Machi's brother announcement made their hard work AllForNothing).

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', [[BrokenBird Machi]] was kicked out of her parents' house after they surprised her trying to smother her baby brother while she actually was putting a blanket on him. The rumor is so persistent even her half-brother [[HeroicBastard Kakeru]] believes it, but doesn't blame her because he thinks this event is a consequence of the DarkAndTroubledPast he shares with her (they were forced by their respective mothers to be better than the other to prove they were worthy of their common father's heritage, and Machi's brother announcement made all their hard work AllForNothing).

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', [[BrokenBird Machi]] was kicked out of her house after she was putting a blanket on her baby brother and her parents believing she was trying to smother him. The rumor is so persistent even her half-brother [[HeroicBastard Kakeru]] believes it, but doesn't blame her for it because he thinks this event is a consequence of the DarkAndTroubledPast he shares with her (they were forced by their respective mothers to be better than the other to prove they were worthy of their common father's heritage, and Machi's brother announcement made all their hard work AllForNothing).

Though they are not major characters, Kogoro Mouri frequently accuses the wrong people of the murders that happen. To be fair, he isn't the only one: many cases feature clearing someone's name before they're formally accused of stuff they didn't do.

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', [[BrokenBird Machi]] was kicked out of her house after she was putting a blanket on her baby brother and her parents believing she was trying to smother him. The rumor is so persistent even her half-brother Kakeru believes it, but doesn't blame her for it because he thinks this event is a consequence of the DarkAndTroubledPast he shares with her.

* In ''VideoGame/FruitsBasket'', [[BrokenBird Machi]] was kicked out of her house after she was putting a blanket on her baby brother and her parents believing she was trying to smother him. The rumor is so persistent even her half-brother Kakeru believes it, but doesn't blame her for it because he thinks this event is a consequence of the DarkAndTroubledPast he shares with her.