Armchair detectives

[pontivex]

A police force local to me have shared an artists impression of a lady who was found dead on train tracks a few months ago and who cannot be identified. No one has reported her missing etc so they are appealing for anyone who may recognise her.

So many armchair detectives offering suggestions to the police thinking their input is clearly going to solve the case.
‘Have u checked CCTV?’
’Dental records will tell u who she is’
’why not check her fingerprints?’
‘Check if she had her fone’

Like the police are going running the incident room ‘Kerry from Hull has suggested we check if she had a fone… we didn’t think of that did we?’

Some people seem to think they are either living on the set of Vera or think the police are sitting there looking at a dead body waiting for guidance from the public.

I don't know, remember that time they didn't catch a serial killer because he left a note on the body saying 'it wasn't X' signed from the victim? They can be quite thick sometimes!

Some people are spectacularly dense. These are the same people who, when you post on MN, "I have problem X, I have tried Y, Z, W and V, I can't do B because I'm allergic. Any advice?" will answer with "Have you tried Y, Z, W, V?" "Why haven't you done B yet?" "Stop being a snowflake allergies are nonsense, just do B." "Why haven't you tried Y, Z, W or V?" etc.

Yep, I see it all of the time on our local Facebook community groups 🙄

A lot of the time people also seem to think that policing is like an episode of 'The Bill' where investigations are tied up all neat and tidy in an hour or two 🙄

Poor lady though - I always find it so very sad when someone is found dead and no one seems to have missed them 😢

This thread made me laugh! Thanks OP

There was a Facebook group set up when Jay Slater first went missing in Tenerife and some of the stuff on there was crazy!

There is a thread on X/Twitter where someone screenshotted all the crazy theories. Type in username: danm16476 the thread is pinned to the top of his profile. It’s hilarious.

(obviously not hilarious that the young lad passed away but the sheer craziness from the Facebook detectives).

I think I seen this post, someone posted she's clearly foreign 🧐 really annoys me

YANBU! All the armchair detecting has got completely out of hand. All the crazy theories and not believing the police's most likely version of what happened.
It's all so annoying.

I hate that people use such tragic stories for their own entertainment

I’ve seen that too. I think people really don’t realise how a train destroys a body. They will have likely checked any dna they could’ve got hold of against the missing persons database the past few months and not come up with anything. This is a last ditch attempt. However I generally find these Efits of remains end up looking nothing like the person.

I think it was likely an illegal immigrant doesn’t make it any less sad though

This always happens. Even over in the US when poor Gabby Petito was missing and the press were camped out, outside the Laundrie house and Brian then went missing too. Police officers were shown coming in & out of the house, the usual routine. Thousands of comments on the News channel’s Live broadcasts, saying “Why haven’t they checked the garage?” “They should check to see if he’s in the camper” (RV parked on driveway) “Anyone have the police station’s number? We’re going to tell them to check the garage” 🫣🫣🫣

Recently a poor older man with Alzheimer’s went missing so my local police shared a photo with an appeal. They mentioned that there’d been a potential sighting in a town next to the A1 motorway. One guy commented with “Right, what you need to do is start putting posters in the windows of the shops in that town, send officers door to door and check bus cctv cameras. Then you need to be checking in the grass verges next to the A1 paying special attention to verges next to lay bys” I couldn’t stop myself commenting to ask if he genuinely believes our entire county’s police officers were brand new to the job and hadn’t been searching for missing people for their entire careers?! I got sworn at.

Such a sad story as well I agree. How someone can not be missed for months is a horrible situation.

Sadly there’s loads of possibilities. She may have been trafficked and her family abroad may not know where she is. Her family may be dead. She may have cut them off to move here.

Oh yes was that the guy killing gay men? There was a tv drama about him a few years ago.

I've seen that post too OP, poor woman.
The comments are unreal, the lack of intellect is astounding.

We also get armchair CEOs on Mumsnet quite often, offering advice to cinemas who "don't realise that they would sell more snacks if they reduced their prices".

Just do a quick Google.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/29/seven-police-officers-under-watchdog-investigation-over-fatal-cardiff-car-crash

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-09-07/mum-and-partner-lay-undiscovered-in-crashed-car-for-three-days-despite-999-call

Then look at the case reviews, DV, child abuse, suicide. The police very often don't follow policy and procedures, they use their own bias to direct them. Then there's the lazy and corrupt. There isn't the same effort put in for every case, just ask the WC mothers, whose sons go missing, even as children.

Some of the stuff that is said can be wild and people are nasty minded, but the Police don't always get it right.

As someone whose family did have small retail businesses, tbh, you could buy in at Home Bargain prices, charge less than cinemas do and still turn a profit. Smaller theatres keep the prices down and still make money. I know the people involved in two local, small theatres and have talked about this. I was interested in that side.

I had a few small local theatres near me. Very cheap tickets although only about two screens each. Both shut down during Covid sadly

Just think of how stupid the average person is, and now consider that around 50% of people are stupider still than that.

And commenters on a police face book (?) post are a self selecting population of people with nothing better to do.....

...a bit like MN really, which reminds me, I'd best be off

It's the comment that cinemas "don't realise" that they would sell more if they reduced their prices that was ridiculous, when the cinemas have their own data about sales figures at different prices, and know how much it costs to purchase, transport and store the snacks.

Fascinating how this thread has morphed into a discussion about retail profit margins on popcorn.

Some of those dense people are in the police.

It was wild on MN when Nicola Bulley was missing.