The Borden family had no written will to legally divide their inheritance, Lizzie and Emma Borden were to be the sole recipients of the Borden fortune upon their death, and would be the only people to financially benefit from their parents untimely deaths. One neighbor reported to the police that she had seen Lizzie burning what appeared to be a blood stained dress in the stove merely hours after the homicide, when questioned about it Lizzie claimed to have bumped into some wet paint while wearing the dress and burning it was merely as a way to dispose of the ruined garment without a mess.

Lizzie had also been reported to have purchased a form of prussic acid at a local drug store several weeks before the murder. The acid was not used as evidence in the case because no poison was ever found in the victims stomachs during the autopsy, though many people involved in the case had claimed that a small amount of the acid could have still been used to cause the Borden's deathly illness without noticeable traces of it being found later in the autopsy.

Due to a lack of hard evidence and Lizzie's strong personal charm she was quickly acquitted of the horrid crime. It took the jury less than 90 minutes to decide that there was no way such a sweet young lady could perform such a brutal act, she was a victim and the murders were surely the work of a deranged madman.