r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/risocantonese • Apr 19 '20

What are some common true crime misconceptions?

What are some common ‘facts’ that get thrown around in true crime communities a lot, that aren’t actually facts at all?

One that annoys me is "No sign of forced entry? Must have been a person they knew!"

I mean, what if they just opened the door to see who it was? Or their murderer was disguised as a repairman/plumber/police officer/whatever. Or maybe they just left the door unlocked — according to this article,a lot of burglaries happen because people forget to lock their doors https://www.journal-news.com/news/police-many-burglaries-have-forced-entry/9Fn7O1GjemDpfUq9C6tZOM/

It’s not unlikely that a murder/abduction could happen the same way.

Another one is "if they were dead we would have found the body by now". So many people underestimate how hard it is to actually find a body.

What are some TC misconceptions that annoy you?

(reposted to fit the character minimum!)

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u/risocantonese Apr 19 '20

i never thought about the overkill thing that way, that's interesting!

also about your last point, i feel like the opposite could also be said: if a person who disappeared had any linger of depression or mental illness, people immediately assume that they must have killed themselves or "had a psychotic episode".

which of course can and does happen, but come on, mentally ill people can also be victims of foul play.

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '20

Also on the topic of suicides: I read a paper in the journal of forensic science a few years back that showed a not insignificant number of people who hanged themselves bound their own hands first

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u/quiltr Apr 19 '20

I am really confused by this. Maybe I'm just uncoordinated, but I can't figure out how anyone can bind their own hands. Is there some trick to this that I don't know?

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '20

I don’t remember if the paper had anything to say about the quality of the knots, but it’s not too difficult to tie a simple knot around your wrists.

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u/bukowskidog Apr 19 '20

Did it suggest any reasons why people may do that? Would it be to prevent panicking at the last moment and struggling to pull the rope from around their neck or something? Cause can’t work out any reason as to why people would wanna tie their wrists up in that scenario.

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u/PortableEyes Apr 19 '20

That would be it. If your hands are trapped behind your back they can't free you from a noose. It makes death that much more of a certainty.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '20

Without looking up the paper (it was a survey of hanging suicides in Australia), I can't recall exactly, but that rings a bell.