I would pick the accusation that Rena Parquette lit herself on fire.

Also the JoAnn Romain case (from Netflix UM), it seems absurd that she killed herself by wading into the river.

Doug Johnston when no gun was found at the scene takes the cake for me.

Doug Johnston when no gun was found at the scene takes the cake for me.

What's really sad is that in many of these cases I doubt the perp was even trying to make it look like a suicide. They had to be shocked and laughing their arses off when they found out the cops wrote it off as that.

I'm actually a supporter of law enforcement most of the time. But far to often they can be a flat out joke.

I would pick the accusation that Rena Parquette lit herself on fire.

For sure.

In a similar vein, I would submit the theory that Dave Bocks chose to commit suicide by jumping into a furnace.

I would pick the accusation that Rena Parquette lit herself on fire.

Also the JoAnn Romain case (from Netflix UM), it seems absurd that she killed herself by wading into the river.

Rena totally was murdered. Who would kill themselves by setting themselves on fire w/o at least putting themselves to sleep first so they wouldn't suffer?

JoAnn I think was an accident. She might have been sitting there contemplating, or maybe she heard what she thought was a dog, tripped, and fell on her butt. Attempting to get up, she slipped and fell in the water.

If she got caught on something, it is possible she was dragged out far enough to drift out towards Boblo Island.

JMO.

There was the older guy, I think Robert Derschel (sp?), who authorities said committed suicide by using his toe to pull the trigger of his shotgun. They didn’t find evidence of a struggle or forced entry so they immediately jumped to suicide, but that is a crazy theory that he committed suicide in that manner, especially considering he owned a handgun. If he was going to kill himself why go through the trouble of making it that difficult? Never added up to me

There was the older guy, I think Robert Derschel (sp?), who authorities said committed suicide by using his toe to pull the trigger of his shotgun. They didn’t find evidence of a struggle or forced entry so they immediately jumped to suicide, but that is a crazy theory that he committed suicide in that manner, especially considering he owned a handgun. If he was going to kill himself why go through the trouble of making it that difficult? Never added up to me

1000% agree. First case I thought of when I saw this thread was the Dirschel case. Defies logic really.

Who would kill themselves by setting themselves on fire w/o at least putting themselves to sleep first so they wouldn't suffer?

Indeed. The whole concept of suicide is ridiculous. But maybe what hampered that from ever being taken as seriously as it should of was a combination of small town and time period, which was 1964. This was also a period where almost all child abductions were written off by police as runaways, something that would continue throughout the 70's.

It is very frustrating, though, when police ignore all other circumstances in order to declare a death a suicide. Like Chad Mauer. Immediately the Chicago Police call the family to tell them Chad committed suicide because of the carbon monoxide poisoning but ignore everything else; the bruises all over his face, both knuckles being skinned to the bone, the blood stains on his t-shirt.

Soooooooo, we're supposed to believe a teen that decided to kill himself by carbon monoxide poising decided to drive three hours to a dangerous neighborhood, park in a side garage, possibly bang his face repeatedly on the steering wheel to purposely give himself bruises, somehow skin his knuckles and THEN turn the engine on to kill himself? Why not just skip all that other business and park in a garage in your home town and be done with it?

Doug Johnston when no gun was found at the scene takes the cake for me.

Detective Harvey E. Hamrick's quote in the segment....

"As far as evidence, the only thing we found was a 25 caliber bullet casing. We did NOT find a weapon that fired that bullet. Our medical examiner determined it was just as likely that the gunshot wound to the head could have been self inflicted as it was as likely that another person had done that. So based on that, we can't classify that as murder or a suicide."

How does a police detective even state that with a straight face? No logical scenario points to suicide. The gun either magically sprouts wings and flies away through the closed windows or a stranger someone happens upon Johnston's vehicle, notices he's dead but still decides to open the driver's side door, sees a gun, thinks to himself, "Hot damn! A free gun!!!," takes the gun, is somehow completely unfazed at the dead corpse he has to reach over to get said gun, closes the door, happily leaves the scene with his new gun and doesn't call police.

You can't be that desperate to throw logic out the window.

Doug Johnston when no gun was found at the scene takes the cake for me.

This is the one.

Also the JoAnn Romain case (from Netflix UM), it seems absurd that she killed herself by wading into the river.

I'm not saying one way or another that she did or didn't (I don't have an opinion on it, partly because I don't remember the case, off hand), but people have killed themselves in that manner. It's rare, but not completely unknown. Virginia Woolf killed herself by filling her jacket pockets with rocks and wading into a river near her home.

However, as I said....it's not a common method of offing oneself.

I'm not saying one way or another that she did or didn't (I don't have an opinion on it, partly because I don't remember the case, off hand), but people have killed themselves in that manner. It's rare, but not completely unknown. Virginia Woolf killed herself by filling her jacket pockets with rocks and wading into a river near her home.

However, as I said....it's not a common method of offing oneself.

This particular episode did a good job of pointing out what would be involved if she had walked all the way to the riverbank, and it looked like this would be quite a feat to get out that far at this particular location...my comment that wading into the river to kill oneself is absurd did sound a bit naïve, I admit. I really meant the whole specific circumstance of her getting all the way into the water.

The episode was called Lady in the Lake I think

This particular episode did a good job of pointing out what would be involved if she had walked all the way to the riverbank, and it looked like this would be quite a feat to get out that far at this particular location...my comment that wading into the river to kill oneself is absurd did sound a bit naïve, I admit. I really meant the whole specific circumstance of her getting all the way into the water.

The episode was called Lady in the Lake I think

No biggie :)

For some reason I can't remember that one. Was it a later episode?

No biggie :)

For some reason I can't remember that one. Was it a later episode?

Yes, it was part of the second batch that was released. I find that Netflix UM is hit or miss, depending on the episode. That case was one of the most compelling I've seen so far.

Yes, it was part of the second batch that was released. I find that Netflix UM is hit or miss, depending on the episode. That case was one of the most compelling I've seen so far.

OH! I was thinking it was part of the RS era and couldn't figure out why I didn't remember it. Now that I know that, I know the one you're talking about, and yeah, that's one I don't agree with a suicide ruling. At least not with the evidence I've heard.

Ted Loseff

These are all great responses IMO, and I pretty much agree with most of them. Because I very recently participated in the Norman Ladner discussion, his case is one of the first to come to mind. Until someone can offer a credible explanation for how Ladner either committed suicide with a "disassembled" rifle or shot himself and THEN disassembled the rifle, the suicide ruling will never wash IMO. And that's saying nothing about the fact that LE made a definitive ruling of suicide without ever having located the bullet that killed him.

The Chuck Morgan and Danny Casolaro cases never struck me as being suicides either to be honest. I sometimes find myself wondering if LE floated that idea simply because the cases were just too crazy to make sense of.

For obvious reasons, I never bought the Mario Amado case as a suicide. The good news there is that it seems as if LE finally came to a similar conclusion IIRC.

Of the more recent Netflix episodes, I have to say that the Rey Rivera case stood out the most to me as a possibly erroneous suicide ruling. There are simply way too many unanswered questions IMO to call it as a suicide. Not to mention that his injuries and the location of his death just don't add up, to me at least. I also agree with my fellow posters up thread about the JoAnne Romain segment. I have no idea if she took her own life or not, but SOMETHING shady seems to be going on in that case IMO.

Rae Ann Mosser.

Of the more recent Netflix episodes, I have to say that the Rey Rivera case stood out the most to me as a possibly erroneous suicide ruling.

It was glaring that the one detective who believed there was not enough evidence to support suicide was taken off the case.

Michelle Witherell. It's possible that her death was accidental, but I lean much more towards murder. There's no way, IMO, that it was a suicide.

It was glaring that the one detective who believed there was not enough evidence to support suicide was taken off the case.

I couldn't agree more Jon, and quite frankly some of these suicide rulings are so absurd that I often find myself wondering how ANY of the detectives can utter that nonsense with a straight face.

While they weren't UM segments, I feel exactly that way about the deaths of Rebecca Zahau, Dr. Shane Todd (in Singapore), and Army PFC LaVena Johnson. At least with the Zahau case, an argument could be made that she lost herself to despair after the accidental death of the small child in her care. The suicide rulings in the Todd and Johnson cases however are so preposterous IMO that it makes me wonder if there was official misconduct involved.

Another glaring example of this IMO is the Michelle O'Connell case (also not featured on UM). O'Connell was shot to death with her former boyfriend's service weapon on the same night that she planned to end their relationship (according to her family and friends). IIRC, O'Connell's family also alleged that she was ending the relationship due to previous acts of domestic violence perpetrated by her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, Jeremy Banks was a deputy with the local sheriff's office at the time of O'Connell's death as I recall and it was his own colleagues that responded to Banks' 911 call. It's a doozy of a case IMO and I'd love to hear some insights from our fellow posters about it.