The Young and the Restless spoilers: Sharon plants evidence to frame Daniel, but does it work?

It’s starting to look like one of our latest predictions for The Young and the Restless is about to come true. Just a week ago, we tossed out the theory that after Sharon (Sharon Case) "murdered" Heather (Vail Bloom) and with an imaginary Cameron Kirsten (Linden Ashby) still fanning Sharon’s flame for revenge against Daniel (Michael Graziadei), that Sharon would kill two birds with one stone. Meaning, Sharon would help frame Daniel for Heather’s murder. While this plan leaves Daniel among the living, we assume seeing Daniel rot in prison for a crime he didn’t commit would be enough to satisfy her unrelenting quest for vengeance. 

In the following preview clip for The Young and the Restless episodes airing during the week of October 7, Sharon can be seen placing blood-stained towels into a cabinet that looks to be in Daniel’s apartment. Take a peek at the video and see for yourself. 

Now we should mention that in the episode that airs on October 3, Chance (Conner Floyd) reveals to Daniel as a friend that police know that Heather didn’t drown in the river but was killed by "blunt force trauma." The ex-cop (hoping to be a cop again) also shares that the Genoa City Police Department is launching a full investigation into what happened. 

It is pretty standard for authorities to suspect romantic partners in murder investigations, so Sharon likely thinks planting evidence will help make this a slam-dunk case against Daniel. However, would it be a mistake for her to make such assumptions? 

Daniel has a pretty airtight alibi for the night Heather was murdered. He was with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) and Summer (Allison Lanier) for dinner, and then he met Lucy (Lily Brooks O’Briant) for ice cream at the athletic club. He even took Lucy to a movie that night. So would police suspect he had enough time to kill Heather and clean up before doing all these things? Even if they search the apartment and find the bloodied towel, is Daniel’s alibi enough for them to assume he’s being framed? 

Then there’s the question of Daniel’s motive. He and Heather were madly in love and really only disagreed about whether or not they should remain in Genoa City, which Daniel told his family Heather agreed to stay. So he had no reason to want her dead. 

Looking at this from another angle, it’s possible that an overzealous prosecutor sees the towel as enough evidence to make a case against Daniel. The prosecutor may argue that Daniel’s timeline is rather tight the night Heather was killed, but that it’s not entirely impossible that Daniel did the deed (which sounds like a stretch to us). Additionally, the prosecutor could allege that Heather was so unhappy living in Genoa City and fearful for Lucy, that Heather threatened to leave town with Lucy again, leaving Daniel behind, and Daniel flew into a murderous fit of rage thinking he may be without his daughter. 

Should Daniel be charged off the most circumstantial of evidence, he should be thankful that his godmother Christine (Lauralee Bell) is headed back to town. She’s an excellent lawyer, and no longer a district attorney, so she’d be a great person to have on his team. 

With all that being said, we’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up the possibility that Sharon’s plan backfires and she finds herself as suspect number one. Phyllis and Lucy are likely to point fingers at her, and she doesn’t actually have an alibi for where she went the night of the murder. If suspicion grows, will Sharon panic and start spiraling even further out of control? Will Nick (Joshua Morrow) step in to help her? These are questions we have to ask as this storyline has been rather unpredictable. 

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.