Examples of UM Red Herrings

[Mike82]

What are some examples you know of red herrings in UM cases—that is, information that’s irrelevant or misleading yet gets a disproportionate amount of attention? Here are a few examples that come to mind:

Darlie Routier: The silly string video (and her reaction in it) is completely irrelevant to the facts of the case, yet it’s often treated as central evidence and pointed to by both sides of the fence. This creates the false impression that she was railroaded because of that video, which in turn makes the case against her seem weak and an enormous amount of time and resources have been wasted as a result. In reality, the forensic evidence points to her guilt with near certainty. I’m not making a judgment about motive (murder vs psychotic break for example), but she did it.

Amy Bradley: I always knew Wikipedia wasn’t reliable for obscure articles, but this one shows that even mainstream summaries can be loaded with red herrings and other biases. One example repeated in the UM episode is the idea that Amy couldn’t have drowned because she was a trained lifeguard. What? Even the world’s strongest swimmer, under those conditions (intoxicated, in the dark, falling from a significant height) might have only a 40% chance of survival at best. The case is full of misleading details, but this one comes up constantly.

“Tom Johnson”: People often fixate on how TJ was overpaying for the computer system, but that’s beside the point. If he never intended to pay for it, the amount he agreed to is irrelevant. From my perspective, he offered enough money to make the trip worthwhile, but not so much that it would immediately tip off Jeremy or his company that the deal was too good to be true. Either way, I am not sure why the exact price tag was even mentioned on the show except to highlight it wasn't just a cheap PC.

[MagiciansBrick]

Kurt McFall: Gabriel Carillo is definitely sus, and is absolutely a viable suspect, but I think the witchcraft element is more or less irrelevant and weakens any genuine arguments for Carillo's guilt.

[JohnUM]

Norman Ladner: The radio like device and the man at coroners office

Kurt Sova: Kurt being spotted around town by buddies and the "crazy guy from Detroit "

Deborah Poe The Megadeth shirt wearing dude

Tara Calico Photograph

Amy Bradley 99% of her case. She drunkenly fell overboard..

[sharonite]

The infamous "Hot Jock" graffito in the Dexter Stefonek segment.

[MagiciansBrick]

Originally Posted by JohnUM

Kurt Sova: Kurt being spotted around town by buddies and the "crazy guy from Detroit "

Another Kurt Sova one: The inclusion of Eugene Kvet's death at the end of the segment.

[JohnUM]

Originally Posted by MagiciansBrick

Another Kurt Sova one: The inclusion of Eugene Kvet's death at the end of the segment.

Thats probably THE biggest red herring in that segment...they seemed totally unrelated

[freakbook]

The state of Aileen Conway's house. She was multi-tasking, it had nothing to do with a break-in

[WishfulDreamer]

The entire Brook Baker segment: It wasn't angry fraternity brothers, a creepy landlord, a prospective roommate, or a mysterious cousin who may have known more than she was telling. Not that I blame the police for looking into these leads, but sadly this case was yet another example of someone the victim knew being the real culprit.

The "Dungeons and Dragons" murders of Rochelle Robinson and Michael Johnston. Absolutely ridiculous to even make a correlation of the game to the crime.

Niqui McCowen: The two creepy men at the laundromat (again, can't blame the investigators for looking into that).

[TheCars1986]

Every "suspect" in the Eric Tamiyasu segment.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Every "suspect" in the Eric Tamiyasu segment.

that's one of the first things that came to mind. regardless of the one guy coming off as kind of a prick.

I also give a vote for the PI in the Kurt Cobain segment. His smokescreen with the ATM card, as well as many others.

[MegtheEgg86]

The truck stop "mystery man" in the Cheryl Holland case.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

The truck stop "mystery man" in the Cheryl Holland case.

you have a specialty at recalling the Tennessee segments. and I must say that they are some of the most memorable ones.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Originally Posted by Mike82

What are some examples you know of red herrings in UM cases—that is, information that’s irrelevant or misleading yet gets a disproportionate amount of attention? Here are a few examples that come to mind:

Darlie Routier: The silly string video (and her reaction in it) is completely irrelevant to the facts of the case, yet it’s often treated as central evidence and pointed to by both sides of the fence. This creates the false impression that she was railroaded because of that video, which in turn makes the case against her seem weak and an enormous amount of time and resources have been wasted as a result. In reality, the forensic evidence points to her guilt with near certainty. I’m not making a judgment about motive (murder vs psychotic break for example), but she did it.

Amy Bradley: I always knew Wikipedia wasn’t reliable for obscure articles, but this one shows that even mainstream summaries can be loaded with red herrings and other biases. One example repeated in the UM episode is the idea that Amy couldn’t have drowned because she was a trained lifeguard. What? Even the world’s strongest swimmer, under those conditions (intoxicated, in the dark, falling from a significant height) might have only a 40% chance of survival at best. The case is full of misleading details, but this one comes up constantly.

“Tom Johnson”: People often fixate on how TJ was overpaying for the computer system, but that’s beside the point. If he never intended to pay for it, the amount he agreed to is irrelevant. From my perspective, he offered enough money to make the trip worthwhile, but not so much that it would immediately tip off Jeremy or his company that the deal was too good to be true. Either way, I am not sure why the exact price tag was even mentioned on the show except to highlight it wasn't just a cheap PC.

cool idea for a thread!

there are quite a few in the Sammy Wheeler segment and I don't know if it is a RH, but the main thing that I can remember from the segment is the MJ comment because we've laughed about it so much on here. then there was also a comment about incest.

it wasn't on the UM segment, but Amy Bechtel's husband called 911 to report Amy missing and made a cheeky comment when he called. At that point he didn't know if she was a victim of foul play, but a lot of people have used that against him. The biggest smokescreen from the segment was the eyewitness that was perhaps leveraged by the FBI agent to try to force a confession from Steve. It ended up putting the investigation on ice.

[tvscript124]

Kari Lynn Nixon and the woman that said she saw her.

Possibly the Anthonette Cayedito sighting in the diner and the Elizabeth Campbell sightings.

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by tvscript124

Kari Lynn Nixon and the woman that said she saw her.

Possibly the Anthonette Cayedito sighting in the diner and the Elizabeth Campbell sightings.

I found an article not to long ago on the Kari Lynn Nixon case, not sure where it was or where to find it now, but there was a lot of info on that that the UM segment left out. Not just about the woman who said she saw Kari in South Carolina but also the New Kids on the Block concert sighting. This was one where they definitely put some info out there to make things more mysterious than they really were.

The most bizarre thing about the South Carolina sighting is how that old lady said she saw Kari with a redheaded girl apparently. But they found this redheaded girl, and according to the segment she was suffering from memory lapse and couldn't recall the incident remember that? I was like WTH???

Turns out, this wasn't even accurate. Apparently the girl did in fact remember the incident, but the girl thought to be Kari was someone she only met that once and was hanging out with and she did not know her real name. But the segment did not mention that she was shown a photograph of Kari and did NOT believe it was her. So that was made way more plausible than it actually was even though the old lady thought it was Kari.

The article also mentioned that Kari's younger sister was never convinced by the NKOTB lead, because Kari apparently was not even a NKOTB fan. pretty unusual for a 16 year old girl back then but apparently the only musical act she expressed any like for was Prince. Which I found somewhat amusing. of course, that alone would not have proved it wasn't Kari she could very well have gone with a friend just to keep them company. But I never thought the girl in the video looked that much like her, but I acknowledge that is in hindsight.

There was also more info on her abductor and killer Robert Jones, but I can't remember all of it wish I could find the article. I think someone actually posted it on here. It was very enlightening, and it does seem Unsolved Mysteries did play up those leads more than they might should have.