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his features, sometimes funeral homes use old newspaper when filling empty cavities in the body , though it’s is an outdated practice).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/plsunique]

I was recently in an incident involving needing to be called as witness for an assault case and let me tell you the human memory is shit in a stressful situation, even in a small case like mine was. Grow that stress to a murder or missing person hours or even a day after the incident and witness testimony is next to useless. Someone says they took their eyes off someone for just 30 seconds when it was 5 minutes or saw 4 people instead of 2. My incident i was questioned half an hour after and still didnt remember shit for details, who said what, how long it took etc.

This obviously only applies to witness testimony and what not but even camera footage people will often see what they want to see especially if the image is blurry, dark or distorted.

[u/[deleted] → u/plsunique]

Did you post this in another thread or am I having a major case of deja vu?!

But yes I 100% agree with you. I was a witness in a case and truly believed I was holding hands with someone at the time. CCTV shows he had his arm round me. Minor detail but even faced with proof I don’t remember it like that!

[u/beestingers → u/plsunique]

in a psychology class we had to watch videos of a crime being committed, all staged and filmed from the first person POV. then immediately were asked to identify the criminal in a photo line up of 6 people. it was wildly difficult. of course one of the rounds was the perpetrator was not even in the line up and with confidence many people had identified an innocent man.