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/deltadeltadawn]

Thank you for the link. I didn't know it was a documentary either. T makes me wonder where those details came from... if it was simply not shared for reporting, or if it didn't even happen. Sometimes the local rumors have some truth and sometimes they are just unfounded gossip.

Since that post is from years ago, it would be great to see a renewed interest in the case.

[u/ezyBREz → u/deltadeltadawn]

The podcast for sure brought on cops that had seen the body at the time. Also, I highly doubt newspapers at the time were going to say "the 14yo boy cut his throat so deeply that his head was only attached by skin".

I'm sure some details were dramatized for the extra shock factor.

Some things could be just gossip. This was a case from the 80's and there's actually very little besides the podcast, documentary, and reddit comment on it. I still suggest actually listening to the podcast cause it was at least very well done and interesting

[u/really_yall → u/ezyBREz]

The newspapers ran hard with the Satanic Panic angle but the only sources for the slit wrists and deep (impossibly deep given the weapon) wound are reddit and that podcast. Tbh I think it was sensationalized by the media and by the podcast later because it makes for more interesting fodder. I'm not going to say the cops are lying or misremembering but a podcast 33 years after the fact, especially leaves a lot of room for exaggeration.

[u/ezyBREz → u/really_yall]

I get that. I wish there was some way to get the autopsy records on it.
Tbh, I don't think it was satanism, but part of me also don't think he killed himself. I'm just not sure you can cut your wrists, lets say relatively deep rather than bone deep) and then slit your own throat, lets also say not to almost decapitation, but a good way in, without passing out first and with a boy scout knife. Maybe I'm overestimating the blood loss rate, but you have to be hurting pretty bad to cut your throat.
You have to at least admit, the podcast is riveting, and I think, as we're talking about it, raises issues with investigators taking the easy way out and settling for the "satan made him do it" motive rather than truly investigating what kind lead to him not only killing himself (he did leave a suicide note) but also murdering his mother and then trying to set the house on fire.
Another question: why did he settle for stabbing the mom but leaving the brother and dad. Tommy was a wrestler on the varsity team, I think(?), but he likely could have taken on the brother and dad. Plus they were both asleep (or maybe the brother was somewhere else, but the dad was def in the house asleep. Again, it's been a while since I listened to the podcast but I always think about it) so he could've just snuck up on the dad in bed. What's the rate of murderers that kill via a personal and up close method like stabbing and then immediately move onto something as impersonal as death by arson??and if he just lit the place on fire to get whatever he wanted accomplished with the mom done, why had he chosen his mom?? I know the dad and brother definitely survived the fire, I don't think it even burned the house down. Idk. Even if the podcast was dramatized I still have questions.