Seven Clues As to Why Mysteries Remain Unsolved
From an educational documentary television interview with Dr. Bursztajn
on 3-1-99*
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Misleading first impressions: once people make their minds up, they
do not change their minds or they have a hard time doing so.
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Triage driven investigators who are too busy.
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Detectives are a special select group of people; it is hard to put
themselves in shoes of people very different than themselves
or too similar to theirselves!
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Premature attribution or exclusion of motive, (eg. overlooking robbery
or greed).
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Distraction by media (losing the forest for the trees).
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Crucial missing or overlooked pieces of data (eg. O.J. Simpson and
alleged steroid abuse).
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Multiple perpetrators: copy cats and conspirators or the perpetrator's
communications are intentionally deceptive.
* For clues as to why "medical mysteries" remain unsolved see
also Medical Choices, Medical Chances: How
Patients, Families, and Physicians Can Cope with Uncertainty
Written by Dr. Harold Bursztajn et al, published by Routledge: 1990