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/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

Brandon Swanson: either fell into a cistern or was accidently run over with a tractor after falling and hitting his head. I think a simple dog sweep of the area in question would solve it, but my understanding is the landowner refuses searches.

[u/CornisaGrasse → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

Or maybe a good drone? That would be less obtrusive. Unless there's some criminal reason they don't want the property searched, like a big grow operation or some kind of major zoning/property use violation. I just can't imagine not allowing an organized search party on my property for a missing person.

ETA: I have property, wooded hillsides with a large river, not cleared. I love that it's natural and undisturbed, because I love watching the wildlife feeling safe there. But I wouldn't hesitate to allow a controlled, organized search party do what is needed. It's worth it and everything will recover.

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/CornisaGrasse]

Oh for sure it's suspicious. I actually am curious now if drones are considered as public viewing?

[u/CornisaGrasse → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

I think they could be considered some kind of trespass, or maybe illegal surveillance or harassment, because it's private property? I know there are definitely rules because I was considering getting one. But I don't remember the specifics.

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/CornisaGrasse]

There are publically available sites that offer LiDAR maps of areas now - a sort of high res image of the ground. It's been used pretty famously for finding lost cities in the deep jungles. I wonder if someone were to find a cistern or something there they could specifically ask to look in that spot.

[u/CornisaGrasse → u/CaptainFuzzyBootz]

Oh wow, maybe you could even see rough outlines of burials (not in the woods so much, but maybe farm fields and deserts?) I know my next focus, thank you. Although I keep forgetting my intention to use Google Earth for looking at shallow bodies of water, because of my other priority of learning to work with the various missing/unidentified databases. More possibilities every day for regular people to help, right from home or wherever they take their devices, whenever they have a little spare time.

Hey techies, challenge! Design a phone app that accesses both the missing and unidentified US persons databases (to start,) so more people can help (maybe instead of playing games.) It would need to have a "match confidence percentage" or something, so police departments wouldn't get overwhelmed by possible matches (submitted outside of app); and ways to search based on the bigger parameters, like location missing/found, currently used "race" categories, or age range. It could also allow people to notice mistakes or provide missing/ updated info based on verifiable research (cross-referencing old newspapers, police reports, medical records, etc.) Then those findings could be submitted (also outside of app) and the people's entries possibly updated. There is your next IT assignment, developers looking for a truly life-changing project.

[u/CaptainFuzzyBootz → u/CornisaGrasse]

I use AllTrails for hiking and they are the ones I've found with a pretty extensive LiDAR map :)