The longer you leave it, the worse it gets really. At some point, for your own peace of mind, no matter how committed you are or what you have done, you might feel owning up is worth turning yourself in, just so you don't have to carry it anymore. It may be worse to live with than face the consequences at some point. I've never been in that situation but that's how I feel I'd be.
The letter with the lawyer thing doesn't fly with me. The family may die never knowing if they outlive you. Having had someone missing for a very short period of time, I know that the only thing worse than finding them dead would be not knowing.
You're not wrong. It would be an incredibly heavy burden to carry for the rest of your life.
Some of us have a firm moral compass. I find it rather appalling to know you would behave in the way GL did based on his account of events, or on the example scenario discussed you would consider doing that, it's sickening, imo. I would rather spend life in prison than be a dishonest person with zero empathy or conscious for the people who knew the victim or the victims themselves.
What kind of human would you have to be care so selfishly about yourself over actual justice, if you do something wrong as a decent human you should have the guts to own up, be an honest person and not act selfishly.
"Some people are kidding themselves", who are you to assume that about some of us sleuthers? Some of us chose to be honest people and would remain honest in a terrible series of events and circumstances.
I don't know how I'd behave. This is all hypothetical. If it was obviously an accident it was obviously an accident. Call the cops.
If it's not obviously an accident you could be spending your life in prison as an innocent. If you think there is a realistic chance of you being wrongly accused of something as serious as manslaughter or murder you would be stupid to put your hand up straight away. At the very least remove yourself from the situation and hand yourself in at a later date with a lawyer.
If Lynn had contacted the police and not disposed of the bodies do you think he would have been believed or ended up charged with serious offences?
What kind of human would you have to be care so selfishly about yourself over actual justice,
If the death is through misadventure or accident on behalf of the deceased what justice is there to serve?
if you do something wrong as a decent human you should have the guts to own up, be an honest person
We've been talking about accidents resulting in death from misadventure initiated by the deceased, like grabbing at a firearm, running in front of a car or attacking someone with a knife and falling on it. There's nothing for you to 'own up' to. It's just an accident.
"Some people are kidding themselves", who are you to assume that about some of us sleuthers? Some of us chose to be honest people
I mean statistically some of you are just following group conformity, saying the feel good moral thing with no idea how they'd actually act. I'm sure some of you genuinely would risk wrongful life imprisonment so a family has closure though.
I'd say I'm honest. In fact I'm being very honest right now.
I doubt that many of us would even know what would happen to us, if we were involved in a "tragic accident" or two tragic accidents occurring within minutes of each other.
A couple of years ago I had a woman die on the pavement while I was trying to treat her stab wounds. I keep stab pads at work but by the time I'd sent someone to retrieve them and they returned she'd bled out too much. You know what I saw when the paramedics arrived and I looked up? Phones. People were just filming her. Middle of the CBD. 30 or so. Didn't seem bothered a human being had died in front of them. Sending it to their friends. It was excitement to them. Like putting her into their phone and seeing it on the screen made it entertainment, like it wasn't real.
I would feel absolutely awful if I made a decision to cover up a deadly accident, but I'm also not going to throw away my entire life if I hadn't actually caused any harm.
I thought more people would think like that. Maybe I'm just jaded.