What crime stories have you been obsessed by?

[WomenHour]

I was griped by the James Bulger murder 25 years ago

A more recent disappearance case of Corrie McKeague. It felt so close to home.
Also the disappearance of April jones, her sister worked at the high school I went to and it will always be on my mind what happened

Like a PP said, obsessed isn’t the right word, but being affected by and feeling a deep sense of sadness after reading:

Suzanne Capper
Kelly Anne Bates
Jyoti Singh (Nirbhaya)

The pain and torture they went through really stayed with me after reading about them.

Breck Bednar really gets me too, @Emeraldshamrock.

Shanda Sharer and, more recently, Skylar Neese have always stuck with me.

The Jodi Arias case gripped me for quite a while.

I definitely have a "weirdo" true crime obsession. God forbid DP go missing and someone check my search history!

JonBennet Ramsey. Poor little girl

Not obsessed & very much don't seek out information about it, but....I was about ten when James Bolger was murdered & the whole case has lodged very deeply in my mind (the grainy video of the poor child being led away). I remember it as being the first 24 hour news era murder this side of the Atlantic & the first case of children killing children I remember. I grew up on a rough council estate myself & didn't exactly have a sheltered life, but even I couldn't wrap my head round it.

I also sometimes find myself wondering about the children in the Fritzl case. I don't google for stories because they deserve their privacy, but I wonder how well they've coped & adjusted to 'normal' life.

There is an excellent podcast about the Scottish banker who was shot on his doorstep - The Doorstep Murder. It’s such a strange case - why on earth was he given an empty envelope addressed to someone else? And why did the killer only shoot him after he decided to return to the door?
I also listened to a podcast about Aysha Degree and was really affected by it. I just can’t imagine anything that would make a 9 year old girl voluntarily leave their bed in the early hours of the morning during a storm.

I think with Brian Schaffer that he was just missed on CCTV. It can happen. Maybe two people walked out at the same time or the tape skipped or something. He had a lot of problems and had been drinking. It's not impossible that he took his own life jumping off the bridge on the way home. It's the best theory I can come up with about his disappearance.

I would love to finally find out what happened to JonBenet Ramsey and Madeleine McCann. I think there was DNA found at the scene of JonBenet's death. I hope that one day they will find a match.

There is evidence that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were involved with Meredith Kercher's death. Her parents certainly seem to feel strongly that they were involved.

Stephen Laurence
Victoria climbie - this one gave me sleepless nights. The poor little girl.
Meredith kercher - I still think Amanda Knox had something to do with it. Cartwheels after your mate dies? She gave me the creeps

I don’t believe Amanda Knox had anything to do with it. The media hysteria was a witch-hunt, and lots of the press details were twisted or made up.

Perhaps Knox shouldn't have fingered an innocent bloke, then. That sort of thing tends to get people's backs up, as well as make them extremely suspicious. Meredith Kercher is the victim of that affair. Not Knox.

Doesn’t make her a murderer.

Meredith’s killer is in jail. There’s not a shred of evidence that Amanda Knox killed her or was involved in the killing.

She was tried in the media and in the court of public appeal, not for murder, but for her behaviour. Being an oddball and acted weirdly are not crimes and don’t make you a murderer.

@boltzmannbrains

I don’t believe Amanda Knox had anything to do with it. The media hysteria was a witch-hunt, and lots of the press details were twisted or made up.

It wasn't just how things were presented in the press. The forensic evidence against them was very strong, but they took an OJ approach, throw enough doubt at the whole thing and it gets tossed. For example how did his DNA end up on Meredith's bra strap? You can claim it was contaminated, there were problems with collection, etc. But DNA doesn't just spontaneously appear on a piece of evidence like that.

There's a really great Wiki page that goes through all the evidence: themurderofmeredithkercher.com/Main_Page

I find Ted Bundy interesting because he is the opposite everyone assumes a killer is. Everyone assumes killers look or act weird but he was good looking, charming (apparently)

This has to be one of the most mind blowing true crime stories.

casefilepodcast.com/case-42-sherri-rasmussen/

@JaneyGotAGun

The Laci Peterson case.

She was 8 months pregnant when she was murdered by her husband on Christmas Eve 2002. He has just had his death sentence reversed on appeal but his conviction still stands and he is still in prison. He terrifies me because he seemed so normal. He is a psychopath for sure

I thought he was guilty too. However I recently watched a six part series on it and now think this was a wrongful conviction.

He was found guilty because he had an affair I think, but even that was not exactly the affair it was made out to be, he had seen this woman twice.

There’s a case (can’t remember it now, will Google) about a man turning up dead on a beach with all labels cut out of his clothes. That still fascinates me and then there’s the Dyatlov Pass mystery... listened to so many podcasts on this and it’s so eerie and terrifying.

I assume you mean the court of public opinion.

I don't particularly give a shit that she did cartwheels and capered about in sort of faintly gamine Anne Hathaway impression. But it's not oddball to tell police the killer was a 22-year-old Black man, in order to save your own skin. It's vile.

If anyone’s interested it’s the Tamam Shud case

@Whylurkwhenicanjoinin

I read about this crime a few years ago and it still haunts me. I think it was the worst thing I have ever read in my life. I’ve removed the specifics from my memory now but I know I never want to read it again.

I’m definitely not obsessed with it though. The obsession with true crime does make me a little uncomfortable. I feel it can sometimes tip over into forgetting that these are actually real people and real families whose lives have been utterly decimated in the most appalling way. And how would I feel if people were discussing my family tragedy like a ‘murder mystery’ online?

The Dupont de Ligonnes case for me.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_de_Ligonn%C3%A8s_murders_and_disappearance

I'm not so interested in the actual crimes, but more in the mindsets of people who do these things. WHAT brings them to think that killing is the only way out?

I can't do podcasts but I have been watching lots of 'Unsolved' stuff on Neflix and Prime. I find myself wondering - apart from obviously random crimes and opportunitistic killings - just what motivates someone to do the things that some people do?

The murders of Anita Cobby and Janine Balding were absolutely horrific Australian crimes in the 80's and somewhat similar. Just awful!

A more up to date crime -2007- which sickened me at the time, had little news coverage but was unbelievably horrendous were the murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome. I can't comprehend how scared those kids must have been!

If you're not familiar with the case, Google it. Their poor parents are still struggling for proper justice.

Netflix- The Staircase. He so did it.

Also the murder of poor Anni Dewani- still find it unbelievable the husband was cleared.

[quote Aquamarine1029]@2020iscancelled

Definitely jonbennet- i feel like it was likely the brother.

Please educate yourself.[/quote]
What does this mean?

He was found guilty because he had an affair I think, but even that was not exactly the affair it was made out to be, he had seen this woman twice.

He was found guilty because there was a huge amount of circumstantial evidence, because his own behaviour over her disappearance created red flags, because he repeatedly lied, and because there’s no logical alternative. It’s just too much a coincidence to believe someone else killed her and transported the body 90 miles away and just coincidentally dumped the body in the exact same part of the same body of water Scott “went fishing in” the same day, especially when he couldn’t answer basic questions about bait and catch.

His affair with Amber Frey was significant - it was six times they saw each other, not two, but each of those six times was a multi-day visit. He had at least four affairs while married to Laci. I don’t think he killed his wife because he was in love with Amber but he clearly wanted to be able to run around with other women, and the faked Divinity degree to impress Amber and other lies he told his affair partners are also interesting.