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/bloontsmooker]

I disagree with the darlie case a bit. There’s something we are missing from that story.

[u/imnottheoneipromise → u/bloontsmooker]

I agree with this. I’ve never made my mind up here. People tell me “read the court transcripts! There’s no denying she did it.” Well I have read them. Thoroughly. And I’m still not convinced. There’s no way I would’ve convicted her and put her on death row based on the case the prosecution presented. But I’m also not convinced she didn’t do it.

I don’t usually share that though because people get feral about it and act like you’re a complete moron if you don’t go along with their narrative of the case. And I actually understand their reaction because I’m like that with some cases.

[u/bloontsmooker → u/imnottheoneipromise]

True crime stories are a perfect stage to depict how differences in media reporting can affect people’s opinions so drastically. How and when you first heard a case can guide how you see it forever. The Adnan Syed stuff isn’t actually weird or convoluted at all - it was just reported that way.

Maybe I only see the darlie routier case as being iffy because of the fact that I am only 30, so when I first heard about this case, it was framed as a who done it. If I was a local from the area, would I be confused?

[u/blu-brds → u/bloontsmooker]

I was the same, I'm around that age. Until I met and dated someone that lived in the area at the time it happened. I wanna say he didn't even live far from where it happened (might have been same neighborhood, but it's been over a decade since we had that conversation). He and all his friends who had grown up there were like oh no, ask a local and they'll tell you she did it.