Murder mysteries of the 21st century

Contains minor spoilers for Sherlock Holmes, Knives out, Mindhunter and Sonar Kella. 

Inspector: "Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Inspector: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

Sherlock Holmes makes this fantastic deduction in Conan Doyle's Silver Blaze arriving through reasoning that the crime was committed by someone familiar.

The same reasoning was also seen in the first Knives Out movie where we see that in the case of the "murder" of the Harlan Thrombey, the caregiver didn't make the dogs bark but Ranson (the grandson) did. 

But in today's world with technological advancement moving at such a high pace, how much would the Sherlocks, Poirots, Benoits and Marples of the generation have to keep up with the times?

Let us say a hypothetical person named Shelly was a suspect in a murder investigation and the police asked her where she was at the night of the murders.In truth with or without lawyers, she would probably not have to breathe a single word to the judge in court. 

Gone are the days of a dried speck of blood or mud catching the detective's eye. DNA fingerprinting, actual fingerprint and forensic biology has been around before the start of this century but the interesting fact is that our current involvement with our black screened devices leave more patterns behind than we think of.

The digital forensics would just have to download Shelly's phone's metadata. Was her Google Maps timeline at the same location as that of the victim's? Did she try to hide evidence or the murder weapon? Where did she head off to? Which phone network tower was receiving her phone signal, when her friend sent her a text? Did she try to mess with the victim's phone? Did the victim's phone bluetooth detect Shelly's phone-bluetooth at any point at the night? Does it match with the coroner's report of the time of death? Our digital footprints, has made reconstruction of crime scenes much easier. 

Would then Sherlock Holmes be jobless or have to step up to the level of AI crime scene reconstruction? Are Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant more than enough?

Is just the information about Shelly's location  and hard facts, her DNA on the murder weapon, enough to prove that Shelly committed the crime? That's probably where the human touch is needed. 

Growing up reading thrillers, detective novels and being exposed to our famous fictional Bengali sleuths Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi, it was revealed to me that hardcore facts might not always prove towards a conclusion. In such mysteries usually only AI crime reconstruction removes the most basic human nature and pysche for such evils- the motive. Cold blooded murder, act of passion, revenge plots, framing other people or acts of self defence are also a factor. Even in case of serial killers-as is highlighted by the famous show based on true criminal masterminds, Mindhunter.

The best murder mystery that sticks out to me from my childhood is Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet", where I remember as a 13 year old I was rooting for the supposed perpetrator. 

So in my opinion the age of masterminds like these detectives is not gone, but probably they might need more expertise on forensic biology and digital forensics or have a team of people to help them do that. The Agatha Christies and Sharadindus of the world with tech-savvy Gen-Zs would need to write thrillers keeping in mind also the facts that the murder victim had kept her location settings switched on in Facebook where Shelly had received a notification about said victim attending a concert near her house. That's how she ended up knowing the victim's location.

The crime reconstruction of "how and why dunnit?" has always been more interesting of a question as an enthusiast in true crime podcasts and more recently the Murdaugh murder trial.

Listening or watching unsolved mysteries makes me wish everyday for a real life Sherlock who would come in and do a big reveal and say "Elementary, my dear Watson" or Ray's iconic dialogue revealed through Mr. Mittir "আছে আছে, আমাদের টেলিপ্যাথির জোর আছে"