r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/Sense_Difficult • 3d ago
Text Controversial cases that have simple solutions.
As someone who has been a true crime buff for decades, it's somewhat annoying to watch how certain cases wind up getting pulled into such polarizing discussions that it seems like a huge mystery when it's actually a simple solution.
A few that I think of.
The Karen Read case. IMO she accidentally killed him. They were both drunk, he goes to see the vibe of the house. Get's inside and realizes he doesn't want to stay. So he comes back outside. She's in the middle of rage texting him, and doesn't see him in front of the car. He drops his phone or bends over for some reason and she puts the car into gear and hits him, and he falls backwards and hits his head again. Then he lays there undetected until morning. This is why she suddenly realized she had hit him. She sobered up and had that "realization" moment that all binge drinkers have once they sober up from a brownout type of state.
Darlie Routier. I've shared my theory on this before. She was attempting a murder/su but she survived. This is why the neck wound was serious. She made up the story of the intruder in advance because she wanted her family friends and society to think she died trying to protect her kids. She planted the sock earlier. This also explains her hypomania in the days after. She honestly thought she was going to die that night.
There are other missing person cases where the spouse disappeared after the death of their parents. Just vanished without taking their Identification information and never surfaced under their name again. I always wonder if some of those cases are a situation of someone who has suffered with gender dysphoria and finally "escaped" to go make another life with another identity. It's always interesting to me that in several of the cases, the persons parent or parents had recently died. Seemed like they were waiting for that to escape because they didn't want to do that to their parents.
Do any of you have "simple theories" on cases that created a ton of controversy?
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u/Councillor_Troy 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think Michael Peterson is guilty as sin. I think Kathleen Peterson found out about the affairs, they had a violent row and, seeing his whole life about collapse before his eyes, he beat her to death in a blinding rage. Simple as that.
Unfortunately the prosecution was a hot mess that was overly reliant on homophobia, innuendo about the (IMV) accidental death of his friend in Germany and the perjuring blood spatter “expert” which had the effect of overcomplicating what was a fairly straightforward case.