put/throw someone off the scent: o que isso significa?

If you're like me, investigation movies are on the top list of your favorite kinds. So we know that in movies like that we have one or more victims of a crime, and then we have several suspects. As the movie progresses towards a climax, we see that many of the suspects we thought were innocent were actually only throwing us off the scent by giving false evidences. But wait, what does that mean?

When you put or throw someone off the scent, you give them false or confusing information to try to stop them from discovering something. So it's cliche that in investigation movies, the real murderer is the one that we least suspected. It's just part of the experience of watching a movie like that. Talk to you next time!