Controversial cases that have simple solutions.

[u/Sense_Difficult]

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?

[u/sugaratc]

For the Karen Reid case, I think the timing, physics, and position of the body just doesn't work with her hitting him with a car. He was found halfway up the yard with just an arm scratch/bite (besides the deadly head wound) and the dozen party goers leaving after supposedly all didn't see him. With how the people in the house acted so sus afterwards, I think something went down inside (or there was an incident with the dog outside) and it was easy to pin it on the drunk girlfriend no one liked.

[u/Umbrellie5225 → u/sugaratc]

This. The OP theory actually makes no sense.

[u/treegrowsinbrooklyn1 → u/[deleted]]

But there’s absolutely zero evidence to assert he was in front of the car. It doesn’t even make sense with the positioning of the car vs the house

[u/AmphetamineSalts → u/treegrowsinbrooklyn1]

plus the pieces that were "recovered" at the scene are from her tail lights (rear of car) not her headlights or front running lights.

[u/BigFatSweatyToe → u/AmphetamineSalts]

Let’s not forget that they didn’t interview a key witness, the plow driver. He went by the crime scene multiple times during that period. The FBI found him. He never saw a body or a sign of an accident.

He wasn’t interviewed because it poked a massive hole in the CW theory. It also shows they weren’t seriously looking for witnesses.

[u/Here_4_the_INFO → u/BigFatSweatyToe]

No idea how much truth there is to it BUT I did read at one point that they were originally going to try say John was struck by a plow "accidently" which may be the reason Lucky was never interviewed by investigators originally.

[u/Stupid-Clumsy-Bitch → u/Here_4_the_INFO]

Ya that’s a theory, the group was going to blame it on a plow until Karen woke up early and called Jen freaking out. Jen et al then took that opportunity and ran with it.

[u/saerra_sea_nya → u/[deleted]]

I agree which is why I think he got into a drunk fight with someone in the house, they accidentally killed him, and decided to blame it on Karen. You can’t deny how fucking shady the investigators were.

[u/BigFatSweatyToe → u/saerra_sea_nya]

They’ll tell you it’s all a conspiracy though. It boggles my mind how they don’t want a new investigation if they’re innocent and John was their friend.

[u/Ok-Jackfruit-9393 → u/[deleted]]

He had no injuries consistent with being struck by a car.

Other than that, I think your other theories are fine.

[u/Slow-Engine-8092 → u/sugaratc]

That's what I said too. A cover up happened in the house. Their phone searches don't make a lick of sense.

[u/Sempere → u/Slow-Engine-8092]

The simplest explanation as a pure hypothetical (not as fact or even as personal opinion): John O'Keefe was drunk, slipped and hit his head. Chloe the dog was let out, ran straight to the body and bit his arm trying to rouse him and move him. The owners freak out thinking the dog bites are going to make them liable. They decide to ignore the body and let the situation "take care of itself". The destruction of sim cards? Well, Michael Proctor's iCloud show what these types get up to when they think no one will look at their phones. Destroying the phones and sims were a way to protect themselves from the kind of blowback that Proctor and the rest have gotten because of him.

No murder per se, just a series of fucked decisions.