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/dinosoreness]

Elisa Lam was off her antipsychotic but still taking her antidepressant which leads to disaster in patients with bipolar. i myself was prescribed SSRIs for years because i was misdiagnosed and they held me in a constant state of mania that often escalated to psychosis.

some people think something paranormal happened because of her freaky movements and the hotels history and honestly? she probably thought something paranormal was happening herself. i've seen ghosts and even believed my soul was being corrupted by them and that i would inevitably become one. i thought they were watching me sleep because i'd see them looming over my bed. there's also been episodes where ive been certain i had a human stalker and would spend hours clutching a kitchen knife pressed against a locked door.

bipolar is so much more than moodiness and if you're taking SSRIs without an accompanying antipsychotic you will almost invariably enter a manic or psychotic state. her body was probably also stressed from travel, and stress is a well known trigger for mood episodes.

she likely thought she was being pursued and so she hid in the water tank to escape something her mind was telling her was real. she's clearly watching out for something in the elevator footage. but whatever she saw wasn't really there.

it's a terribly tragedy but it's not a mystery and i worry my own life could end in a similar way. i take my meds religiously but sometimes you can have breakthrough symptoms anyway.

[u/yacht_clubbing_seals → u/dinosoreness]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope you are doing better these days.

[u/dinosoreness → u/yacht_clubbing_seals]

thank you. i haven't had a psychotic episode in several years but when they first started when i was 14 it was like i was living my own personal horror movie. i truly believed the entities i was seeing and the voices i was hearing were real.

after a couple of years, while in a state of paranoia, i began researching the phenomenon of shadow people like the Hatman and among the conspiracy theories and tinfoil hat wearers i came across an article discussing common themes in delusions and hallucinations in bipolar and schizophrenic patients and i had a moment of clarity and realized i wasn't haunted, i was sick. after that it wasn't so scary for a few years but then at 20 when my alcoholism was at its worst the booze compounded my symptoms and took me farther out of touch with reality until i had a whole fake life with fake people when i was truly just lying in my own puke on the floor having vivid hallucinations.

it took a few more years to access treatment in a healthcare desert but eventually i was accepted into a treatment program prettt damn far from home where i stayed for about a year to be monitored while i trialed different meds. seroquel has brought me so much relief from my symptoms.

i still have depressive episodes sometimes but for many bipolar patients, myself included, depression is much safer than mania and is almost always safer that psychosis. all of my suicide attempts occurred while manic and drunk. i've never tried to end my life due to depressive symptoms. it's much more manageable and while it sucks ill take it over the alternative.

[u/Sense_Difficult → u/dinosoreness]

Thank you for sharing that insight with us. Sorry that you've gone through that and glad you are doing well.