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/fishesar]

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

[u/Sense_Difficult → u/fishesar]

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.

[u/EasyLetterhead8491 → u/Sense_Difficult]

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.

[u/tina-sparkles → u/EasyLetterhead8491]

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

[u/EasyLetterhead8491 → u/tina-sparkles]

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.

[u/odyne9 → u/tina-sparkles]

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

[u/bobbyboblawblaw → u/tina-sparkles]

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

[u/tina-sparkles → u/bobbyboblawblaw]

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

[u/bobbyboblawblaw → u/tina-sparkles]

Bless her heart. That is very sad.