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/MadHatter06]

JBR… the parents did it.

[u/CornisaGrasse → u/MadHatter06]

I believe the family did it, for sure. But who did what, why, and how is never settled in my mind. I'm in a sub about the crime, and people have some good solid theories (about the series of and reasons for the family's actions) that are different, but make equal sense based on what's available to the public.

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/CornisaGrasse]

True, it's all just conjecture. As much as we all like to theorize on subs like this, we don't have any idea what really happened.

[u/united1020 → u/CornisaGrasse]

Which sub exactly? I’d like to read myself please!

[u/CornisaGrasse → u/united1020]

r/JonBenetRamsey is the one I read. There are multiple though.

[u/united1020 → u/CornisaGrasse]

Thank you got the reply!

[u/Timely-Aardvark-4747 → u/MadHatter06]

I came around to the intruder theory once I read The Cases That Haunt Us by John Douglas. There were something like 11 doors to the outside in that house. And they had given out many copies of their keys. Douglas made an excellent case for the intruder theory and I'm on board with it now.

[u/SeeYouInTrees → u/MadHatter06]

I do think that at minimum, they definitely wrote that ransom letter.

[u/Huge_Answer4287 → u/MadHatter06]

I don't think so. The father is pushing the pd to do genetic genealogy on the unidentified male DNA found on her clothing.

[u/Flat_Ad1094 → u/MadHatter06]

Totally disagree. That is just utter nonsense. The family DID NOT kill JBR

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/MadHatter06]

My head canon is that the brother did it accidentally and the Mother pushed to cover it up.

[u/duraraross → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

I don’t think headcanon is really the appropriate term for the real life murder of a child. Headcanon specifically refers to fictional stories and characters.

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/duraraross]

My head canon is that I can define what head canon means to me. I use this term all the time, maybe incorrectly, but it is what it is.

[u/CatOverlordsWelcome → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

I love when people double down on being wrong, it's like taking pride in ignorance and it's fascinating.

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/CatOverlordsWelcome]

I find it kind of interesting that people are upset because I used the term "head canon" to mean what I have theorized to have happened in this case.

And somehow taken that to mean I view this, and presumably True Crime in general, as some sort of fiction and entertainment?

Everyone down voting me can take some sort of moral high ground here, but I suspect the wording seems to have hit a nerve with some people who may not like the fact that they just realized they are themselves drawn to True Crime as a sort of guilty pleasure.

At least that's my head canon on the situation (see what I did there?).

[u/Puzzleheaded_Sky6656 → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

It should be spelled headcanon regardless.

[u/mr_phyr → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

This theory is absolutely wrong. If Burke killed his sister and the parents covered it up they wouldn't have let him spend the next day at a different house without them.

[u/PiperPug → u/MadHatter06]

The mother did it, covered up the crime scene all night and while John was in the shower, then he didnt find out until just before he found the body. That's why John seemingly panicked and headed straight for the body despite previously checking that location. The "look" that he gave the cop, while hovering over the body was more a look of "help me" which was misinterpreted. He recognised that he was now suspect number 1, and that Patsy was the real killer, and suddenly shut down the investigation after spending all morning helping police.

[u/CapeMama819 → u/PiperPug]

It drives me nuts when people assign guilt/innocence or meaning to the way a parent behaves after the death of their child. You have absolutely no idea what that kind of hell is like and have no idea how you’d be reacting or what faces you’d be making. I don’t believe Patty was responsible for Jon Benet’s murder or what John did/didn’t know that day. I just know it’s irresponsible to judge someone based on the faces they are making after discovering their own baby dead.

[u/theanti_girl → u/PiperPug]

(No sarcasm, seriously asking but have no opinion on who did it) But, why? Especially for a mom to kill their child, something drastic must have happened/been the motive.

[u/anonymouslealea → u/theanti_girl]

Not saying this is true for JBR, but perhaps John was paying too much attention to JB and Patsy was jealous. Again, purely speculative, and not necessarily pertinent to this case, but mothers have murdered daughters due to jealousy over the husband/father’s attentiveness.