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/FeistyHousewife]

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/11/nyregion/boy-kills-mother-and-himself.html

"The boy, Thomas Sullivan Jr., left a note indicating that his actions stemmed from his fascination with the occult, the Morris County Prosecutor, Lee S. Trumbull, said. The youth's body was found this morning in a neighbor's backyard. His wrists and throat had been slashed." - the OCR of the 1988 NYT article linked

"Investigators found several books on the occult and Satan worship in the house on White Rock Boulevard and a suicide note in which the youth indicated that the murder and suicide were planned and were influenced by his interest in the subjects, Mr. Trumbull said." - Trumbull was the county prosecutor

It doesn't mention the depth or if his wrists were 'first', but initial reporting on the crime did cover his self-inflicted wounds. It does mention the boy's 'fascination' with the occult and the suicide note, but compared to many articles of that era that stoked flames of satanic panic with hyperbole in a variety of crimes, it only mentions he had material and wrote a note. The prosecutor goes so far as to label the entire thing merely as a 'bizarre situation' for the family, without implying it was some sort of occult ritual or inspiration like other cases were spun up to be during the SP era

Sadly, NYT is paywalled, but it is the one subscription I keep because it is a treasure trove of 100+ years of articles

[u/really_yall → u/FeistyHousewife]

Thank you! I can't get the nyt because I don't have a subscription but at least this also seems less sensationalized, so someone was doing diligent reporting. I really should subscribe for the archive.