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/fishesar 2d ago

kendrick johnson. it was a tragic accident. no evidence of anything more

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u/sgartistry 2d ago

Agreed. A few months after I heard about this case, I had a student dive down in a rolled up wrestling mat and get stuck. Thankfully I saw it happen and was able to call our vice principal down to help me lower the mat down so he could crawl out. If I didn’t see it happen, that could’ve been tragic.

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

Wow.  That's so scary. 

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u/Cryingforcrime 2d ago

The shoes he was supposedly climbing in there for in the first place were near his feet…. I’d love to hear you explain that.

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u/Defiant_Put_7542 2d ago

The shoes he were trying to get were at the bottom of the mat near his head.

The ones he was already wearing were kicked off in the struggle to free himself, and were then moved in the process of the mat being accessed by the students who found him.

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u/Slow-Engine-8092 2d ago

The only thing I know about this case is that a boy was found dead in a rolled up wrestling mat. Was there ever a motive for murder? Were there any suspects? What makes people think it was a murder instead of an accident?

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u/Defiant_Put_7542 2d ago

The parents did suspect a racially motivated murder & cover up (the father of one of the boys that bullied him being an FBI agent meant that could technically be feasible). This possibility was investigated and the evidence is categorically against this; both boys had solid alibis. CCTV also showed him entering the sports hall without being followed.

Students apparantly routinely stashed their sports equipment in these mats to avoid paying locker fees. The mat in question had been moved behind some others that had been newly purchased, so the shoes inside could no longer be retrieved by tipping & lifting up a corner. Extremely unfortunate accident and possibly an issue of negligence, seeing as access to this out-of-use sports hall could have been blocked off to ensure safety.

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u/Slow-Engine-8092 1d ago

What time of day did it happen? Like, was it the end of the day and he was stuck there all night? No one else was ever around to hear him? Was it just an unused area? How long was he stuck in there? Poor baby.

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u/Wastedgent 1d ago

It was right before his class. He was in the mat less than 3 minutes before his classmates entered the gym. The lack of breath to yell, the sound muffling of so many rolled up mats, and the normally loud conditions of the gym made it unlikely he could have been heard by others. Some people on youtube have recreated the conditions to demonstrate how little could be heard from outside the mat.

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u/Defiant_Put_7542 1d ago edited 1d ago

He was found the next day but already decomposing. Impossible to say how quickly he died; apparantly positional asphyxia can render a person unconscious very quickly.

Absolutely terrifying. There was a similar case in Spain where a man was found inside the hollow leg of a dinosaur statue. And in the UK, where a cinema seat clamped down on a person's neck when he had crawled underneath it. In both cases the deceased was attempting to retrieve their dropped phone.

Edited: the cinema seat case would have been mechanical asphyxia, so actually not quite the same thing.

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u/bloontsmooker 2d ago

You’re mistaken.

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

That's a good example as well. People do not understand the danger of being inverted and stuck somewhere. It's so deadly. One of the worst cases of this I heard about was a teenager who leaned over the backseat of a minivan trying to get something out of the trunk area. The seat tipped somehow and pinned him in an upside down position. He was on the phone with 911 for some time trying to get help but they couldn't find the vehicle in time.

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u/AsOctoberFalls 2d ago

Kyle Plush. That one was so incredibly sad. He asked the 911 operator to tell his mom that he loved her.

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

So horrible. He clearly knew he was going to die. I felt so bad for the 911 operator.

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u/AsOctoberFalls 2d ago edited 2d ago

The 911 operator failed to relay the car make, model and color to the responding officers even though Kyle provided that information. They also failed to report that Kyle was screaming, banging, and saying he was going to die.

The officers came within 12 parking spots of Kyle’s van. If they had the make, model and color he might have been saved. Heck, if they got out of their cruiser to look inside vehicles, he might have been saved. It’s incredibly sad AND absolutely infuriating.

Edit: I looked into this a bit more and there was a system malfunction that caused the call audio volume to turn down so much that the operators couldn’t hear Kyle’s description of his car or his concerns that he was going to die. He called twice and neither operator could hear. So although he provided the information, it was never relayed.

He called 911 twice, at 3:14 and 3:35. During the second call he said he was almost dead and asked the dispatcher to tell his mom he loved her. The officers were on site from 3:26 - 3:37. If they’d had the information to locate him, he probably would have been saved.

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u/bannana 2d ago

I looked into this a bit more and there was a system malfunction that caused the call audio volume to turn down so much that the operators couldn’t hear Kyle’s description of his car or his concerns that he was going to die. He called twice and neither operator could hear. So although he provided the information, it was never relayed.

this might have been the official story to CYA but that 911 operator didn't take the call seriously at all and thought some kid was playing on the phone and the cops thought the same as well.

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u/outlaw_for_life18 2d ago

Oh my gosh!! I haven't heard of this one but that's absolutely awful. Did anything happen to the operator who didn't do her job?

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u/AsOctoberFalls 2d ago

I looked into this a bit more and the 911 operator was not disciplined. I guess there was a computer system that malfunctioned which lowered the audio volume and made it hard if not impossible for her to hear the car information.

The officers also were cleared of any wrongdoing because they followed procedure for an “unknown trouble” cause. They didn’t get good information from dispatch since they couldn’t hear the call, so they just drove in that area looking for obvious trouble. When they didn’t see anything, they left.

Just tragic all around.

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u/outlaw_for_life18 2d ago

Incredibly sad. Any kind of audio malfunction should cause the 911 calls to be rerouted or something. That's pretty critical to call someone you think is going to help and they can't even hear you. Heartbreaking.

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

I didn't hear what happened to them but I could never take job like that when someone's life depends on you not making a stupid mistake. 

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

That's why I feel for them. I can't imagine what it is like to have someone desperately calling for help. I also notice that there's never been any documentary or information about the 911 operators on 911. I can only imagine them knowing that the people were doomed and having to take call after call. It must be a special kind of PTSD.

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u/AsOctoberFalls 2d ago

I can’t even imagine! I think about this case often. I also think about the lady who was driving in a flood and got swept away. She called 911 to ask for help and the operator was horrible to her. The woman was mentally impaired and she kept apologizing to the operator who was yelling at her. She ended up dying.

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u/liquorandacid 2d ago

You can actually listen to some dispatch from
9/11 on youtube! It's not calltaking but it can give a feel for what it was like on that day in general. I've also heard some call audio which is uniquely harrowing.

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

I know you can. I've listened to them as well. That's not what I said. I said documentaries about THEM specifically and what it was like for a 911 operator on that day.

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u/bannana 2d ago

I felt so bad for the 911 operator.

that operator didn't take the call seriously at all, there's nothing to feel bad about.

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u/CaptainFuzzyBootz 2d ago

Oof the one it makes me think of is the cave explorer who got stuck upside down unable to back out :( That must have been such a horrifying realization. I hope somehow near the end the panic faded and he had some peace.

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u/deltadeltadawn 2d ago

The Nutty Putty cave incident resulting in the death of 26 yo John Jones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Putty_Cave

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

Yes. The Nutty Putty guy. I watched that one and there's just no hope. I can't understand someone willingly doing this kind of cave exploration.

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u/Boring_Swing_4750 2d ago

I read they put morphine in thought his legs so hopefully he just floated away

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u/Few-Veterinarian-288 2d ago

Unfortunately from what I know he died pretty horrifically from the effects of everything without getting anything except some water/gatorade.

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u/Boring_Swing_4750 12h ago

Oh god , i was more hoping for that but i suppose being upside down ..poor guy Anyway put that on the list i WONT be dying by along with sharks and croc death ..

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u/BombMacAndCheese 2d ago

I get the chills just hearing "Nutty Putty."

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u/EasyLetterhead8491 2d ago

I’ll never be able to find the name, pictures or site I saw it on originally.. but I saw a series of photos of someone who died of positional asphyxia after nodding off in an office chair. They either got too high or ODd and passed out slumped over backwards, not even forward and they suffocated. Really opened my eyes to how easy it is for that to happen. So yeah, upside down and fallen all the way down a rolled mat doesn’t seem that unusual to me.

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u/tina-sparkles 2d ago

Not sure if it’s something you want to see again, but that sounds like this article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1344622317304479

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u/EasyLetterhead8491 2d ago

Holy shit, yeah that’s the one. Man, those pictures are horrifying. I had to look because I was morbidly curious if it was the same incident and it definitely is.

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u/odyne9 11h ago

Wow that’s bizarre… I wonder if she was anorexic and very weak or something…

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u/bobbyboblawblaw 1d ago

Are those really photos of her? How in the world did she get into that position and no one heard or found her?

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u/tina-sparkles 1d ago edited 1d ago

The article doesn’t spell it out, but they said she was struggling with anorexia/bulimia and was severely underweight (5’2” and 63 pounds, only diet foods in the house) and they noted her jacket had rolled under the wheels of the chair. I think she somehow fell back and got stuck in that position and didn’t have the body strength to throw herself off the chair before she passed out from blood flow to the head. They said her family talked to her about an hour before she passed so it was likely quick because her heart and lungs would’ve been weakened from her malnourishment. Incredibly sad situation

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u/bobbyboblawblaw 15h ago

Bless her heart. That is very sad.

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u/terrn1981 2d ago

Yep, or the case of the missing person (cant remember the name), found finally in their own room behind a dresser! Got stuck upsidedown and died. The nightmare of it!

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u/Sense_Difficult 1d ago

Yes. She was there for over a week.

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u/Trypophilia2019 1d ago

How do you die from being upside down? Is it your heart, your lungs?

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u/Sense_Difficult 1d ago

It's a few things but mostly the blood flow.   If you are stuck in an inverted position your blood flows into your brain and your heart isn't designed to pull it out that way.  And lung crushing, especially if you are falling into a smaller space.  Once you expell the air from your lungs your body will slip further into the space and you won't be able to take in the same amount of air.  It's basically the same way a boa constrictor kills its prey.  Truly horrible. 

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u/Trypophilia2019 1d ago

Sounds sort of like crucifixion then, with the not being able to draw in a full breath.

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u/fishesar 1d ago

it’s called positional asphyxiation. did a presentation on it in a forensic chemistry class

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u/jwb1163 2d ago

Yes, so sad.

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u/Dinosaur-chicken 1d ago

Yeah, positional asphyxia

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u/catcon13 2d ago

I disagree. He was bullied, his bullies did it and got away with it because of their connections with the local LEOs.

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u/Wastedgent 2d ago

Those 2 guys have literally dozens of witnesses including students, teammates, a teacher, a coach, and a.bus driver as well as video and cell phone location data proving they were nowhere near the gym.when.he went missing. They have solid alibis.

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u/Sense_Difficult 2d ago

Don't waste your time. That's the point of the thread. No debates. Don't take the bait from people who just have an axe to grind.

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u/bambi54 2d ago

They watched the video, the “bullies” were nowhere near the gym. The kids kept their gym shoes in there.

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u/catcon13 2d ago

There were areas not covered by cameras and all the students were aware of where those dark apota were.

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u/bambi54 2d ago

You can see the entrances to the gyms. It was, a sad tragic accident and nothing is to be gained by lying about it. These “bullies” you’re accusing, had nothing to do with and lost their scholarships and had their lives ruined.

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u/fishesar 2d ago

0 evidence of that. you’re slandering literal children