Columbo

Columbo (1971)

3 mistakes in Undercover

(35 votes)

Starring: Peter Falk

Genres: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Undercover - S12-E3

Factual error: At the crime scene, the landlady of the dead man is brought into the room in order to identify one of the dead men. This is never, ever done - she could contaminate the crime scene in a dozen different ways. She would be asked to identify the corpse at the morgue after the scene had been cleared by forensic examiners.

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Suggested correction: Completely wrong. Immediate identification of a murder victim is vital to the continuing investigation. As long as the landlady was under escort (she was) and did not touch anything in the room (she did not), she would definitely be asked to identify the dead man. There are too many examples to list, but when actor Bob Crane was murdered in 1978, his theatre co-star Victoria Berry was escorted onto the crime scene to confirm the identity of the dead man - Crane.

Columbo: Oh, I didn't come to ask any more questions. I came to arrest you.

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How to Dial a Murder - S7-E4

Trivia: A clever, subtle hint as to Mason's guilt - Columbo arrives at the animal pound just in time to stop him feeding Laurel and Hardy (the dogs he trained to kill on command) a large amount of chocolate treats. He has planned this murder meticulously, and he would be aware that chocolate is extremely toxic to dogs. The amount he is planning to feed them from the bulging bag of large chocolate balls he is holding would kill both dogs within hours if ingested.

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Answer: "Apparent" drowning answers your question - things are not always as they seem. Drowning could be accidental, but it could also be a murder in disguise. Moreover, the actual cause of death has not yet been determined - accident, suicide, murder, or natural cause (e.g, heart attack while swimming). Columbo would be there to investigate if anything looks unusual for it to be a mere drowning or if there is evidence or suspicion of something else.

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This was just on TMZ.com's "Aaron Carter Dead at 34" (11/05/2022): "Law enforcement sources tell TMZ... homicide detectives have been dispatched to the scene but we have no information or evidence of foul play. It's standard operating procedure for homicide detectives to investigate such [drowning] death scenes."

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