Can you describe the perfect murder?

I would say for it to be the perfect murder it would need to be completely random, with absolutely nothing at all to link the murderer to the victim.

No video footage, no connection whatsoever to the victim. The best way to do this, BTW, according to my Physical Anthro teacher is to burn the body, char it up really good, and then dump it in the woods. (Not encouraging it, but just saying). He said hacking it up takes too long and the better way to do it is burn up the body then break it up somewhere no one will see you.

He said this is because the chemicals you use to kill the person would be hard to find, you finger prints are oil. The only thing you have to be careful of is the teeth, but if character owns/has access to, say a crematorium, then the bones won't matter either. Crushing a skull is relatively easy. So are the other bones, so the only thing you have to worry about is teeth because most people have a dental record.

If you render the body unidentifiable, no one will guess the John/Jane Doe.

Oh and my Physical Anthro teacher worked in New Mexico in Forensics, which wasn't as exciting as it is on TV. He has a very dry sense of humor, so he'll answer these types of questions.

Novelists are a conscienceless lot.--Diana Gabaldon (An Echo in the Bone)

What if the the murderer left the body completely intact?

A little context: a character killed one of the MCs in a crime of passion, and when police found the body the next week, the only thing physically wrong with the victim was that she was decaying, and died of an over-the-counter drug overdose. How would the murderer have committed the perfect murder?

I think if it was a crime of passion there'd be something to link the killer to the victim, so you might get a bit stuck there. To be the ideal murder I'd say there should be no link between killer and victim, and no motive. So as you say, the only way for your killer to get away with it would be to wear gloves, hairnet (or completely shave, but that might be a bit obvious afterwards), exfoliate everywhere so there's no skin cells left behind, etc etc.

So would it be realistic if, say, the MC and the murder were at this charity ball type thing, so they were wearing the white elbow-length gloves. And every girl in attendance had gone to a day spa, and got exfoliated. (haha, this is so far-fetched already). Hairspray keeps wisps away, and the MC was unconscious, so there was no struggle whatsoever - nothing under her fingernails. It was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen carrying a friend upstairs and out of the way of the party, as most of the girls are lightweights and can't hold their liquor.

If this scenario plausible for a potentially perfect murder?

Well, I saw on The Practice one time when a guy was having an affair with a female cop, he killed his wife so he could be with his lover. He put her in the trunk of his car, his girlfriend pulled him over an illegally searched the trunk, so he got away with the murder.

It's pronounced "dack" -- All my stories are autobiographies. Some are just a little more shameless than others!

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George Carlin said the perfect murder was to take someone and use them to beat someone else to death. Two bodies, no witnesses.

In any case, it may make sense not only for the murder to not point to the murderer, but perhaps to point to someone else.

Seems to be that the perfect murder would be one where it appeared to be an accident or natural causes, and that appearance was so convincing and thoroughly planned that nobody ever suspected it was a murder.