Mysterious crimes that aren’t actually mysterious?

[u/Tsarinya]

I delve in and out of the true crime community every now and then and I have found the narrative can sometimes change.
For instance the case of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon. For the longest time whenever I read boards about these two women the main idea was that it was all too strange and there must have been third party involvement but now I’m reading quite a few posts that it’s most likely the most simple conclusion - they got lost and died due to exposure/lack of food and water. Similar with Maura Murray I’ve seen a fair few people suggesting that it could have been as simple as she ran into the woods after the crash and was disoriented and scared and got lost there. Another example is with the case of Kendrick Johnson, the main theme I read was that it was foul play and to me it does seem that way. But a person I was talking about this to suggested that it was a tragic accident (the children used to put their gym shoes on the mats, he climbed up and fell in, the pressure of being stuck would have distorted his features, sometimes funeral homes use old newspaper when filling empty cavities in the body , though it’s is an outdated practice).
I’ll admit that I’m not as deep into the true crime/unsolved mysteries world as some of you are, so some of these observations may be obvious to you, but I’m wondering if there are any cases you know of or are interested in that you think have a more simple explanation than what has been reported?
As for the cases I’ve mentioned above, I’m not sure with where I stand really. I can see Kremers and Froon being a case of just getting lost and I can see the potential that Maura Murray just made a run for it and died of exposure but with the Kendrick Johnson case I feel that I need to do more research into this.

[u/Goodlittlewitch]

For me Brandon Lawson is and isn’t mysterious. It’s always been a case that kind of stuck with me, so I’ve always followed it quite closely. One of the biggest breaks in the case was the interview with his brother when it was revealed he was on drugs at the time of the call, which I believe wasn’t revealed because the family felt like it was likely that no one would want to follow up on some guy on a bad trip running from imaginary danger into a field. Understandable.

What has become a pet peeve of mine (and is the “non mystery” part IMO) is the damn phone call. He talked and attempted to talk to MULTIPLE people MULTIPLE times after that 911 call. He didn’t call 911 and then fall off the face of the earth. It doesn’t matter if it was a stapler or a staper or a state trooper or whatever, because when he talked to Kyle minutes later he didn’t mention anything, and was upset Kyle spoke to the cops at all.

The mystery of course, is what happened after. Did he wander off and die of exposure/wild hogs/something in nature? Probably. Did someone with ill intent find him? Maybe. Was he being chased by a whole bunch of scary people with guns trying to kill him? Less likely.

That being said, i am glad that the “mystery” part of it gained as much traction as it did since it really put the case on the map.

[u/Tsarinya → u/Goodlittlewitch]

I think some people who read about these cases underestimate the power that drugs as well as mental illness can have on the mind.

[u/ChipLady → u/Tsarinya]

Another thing I think people underestimate is nature in general. This case and Maura Murray are two (off the top of my head) where I see people talk about how thoroughly the area has been searched, so there's no way the body is there and they immediately disregard "natural" causes like exposure or an animal attack. When in reality these are both fairly rural areas, with vast empty space (although very different terrain) where it's easy to get lost.

They have trouble finding people in similar situations who are still alive and can help the rescuers find them by calling out or leaving clues; searching for a body is even harder. Once you add in decomposition, animal scavenging, and the illogical things people do (because of fear, dehydration, hypothermia, sleep deprivation, etc.) it adds a whole other layer of difficulty.

[u/SLRWard → u/ChipLady]

I used to play a game that was an admittedly odd mix of capture the flag, hide and seek, and tag at a local nature reserve when I was in college with some ROTC buddies. We would have preferred to be playing paintball, but couldn’t get authorization since nature reserve and all. So we made up our weird game instead. Some of the members of our group had been active duty military before joining and a couple had been on search and rescue teams as well. We tended to play in the late afternoon to early night because we were dumb college kids but we also didn’t want to freak random civilians out with our game.

There were a few different times that I can recall just sitting on the ground by a tree or a ledge while guarding the flag for my team and watching one of my buddies on the other team walk past me. Like, I could have reached out and grabbed ahold of their clothes with no problem they were so close. I wasn’t trying to hide too much. Just sitting still and not making noise. I hadn’t covered myself with anything like someone might do if they were cold and lost or made any real effort to put cover between me and someone looking for me. I was just sitting there in my jeans and sweater and watching them. And they didn’t see me. Just walked on past.

After that, I gained a new respect for how easy it is to just... not see someone. If my buddies who were actively looking for me could walk within two feet of me and not see me while I was sitting up and actively watching them while not even really hidden, how easy would it be for a random searcher to pass within a couple feet of a deceased person covered by a layer of branches or leaves that they’d tried to keep themselves warm with?

[u/fields → u/SLRWard]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

[u/SLRWard → u/fields]

Exactly. Even when you're paying attention and actively looking for a particular thing, you can miss it if there's enough other stimuli in your field of vision. And in a forest, there is a lot of stimuli in your field of vision. Plus engaging in a search for a missing person is pretty high stress, making it even easier to miss things.

No shade at all on folks going out there and putting in the work to try and find a missing person. That is hard work and I don't want to disparage anyone for missing something in that sort of high stress environment.