Solved Cases from UM that the reenactments got all wrong!

[ddelta]

Thought this might be an interesting thread....lets all give examples of cases that have been shown on UM that were completely wrong in the theories presented once the case was solved.

Two that come to mind for me:

Carson Price - theories presented were that her drug dealing boyfriend or her mother job as a DA led to her being murdered on a state highway in front of a number of eyewitnesses. When the case was solved she was actually a random kidnapping done by a serial killer...just in the wrong place.

Bill Rundle and Tracey K. (can't recall the last name). They both disappeared after taking off for a ride and were going to meet up with her boyrfriend. Theory presented was "Bill's Hat" was found off a roadway possible reflecting the area where they might have been kidnapped. Years later Bills truck was found in water and both their bodies were found in the car. Apparently they drove into the water after getting lost. Not sure if the hat was every cleared up....was it really Bills.

Anyone got any others to put on this....

Goes to show that a number of times all these crazy ideas come up and the answer is sometimes just an easy solution.

[crystaldawn]

Good idea for a thread.

One would be the Gayle Delano case. I don't blame UM for how they portrayed the case because Gayle apparently wanted people to think she disappeared after a date but of course they mainly mentioned the possibility of her meeting with foul play when it turned out she committed suicide.

The Wheeler murder is another good example. UM focused on the three people who were blaming each other and it turns out it was a random act of violence.

Kathy Bonderson's case seemed to indicate an accident or foul play but it never incinuated the husband was a suspect when it turns out he may have been responsible for her death. That also goes along with the Doreen Marfeo case as it turned out the husband may have been responsible for her death (although she has never been found).

In my opinion the Keith Reinhard segment was misleading as well. They seem to focus on Keith's book about Tom Young and mentioned how Young killed himself. They tried to draw similarities between Young's disappearance and Reinhard's disappearance. After reading more about the case that UM didn't mention, it seems pretty obvious to me that Keith went to climb that mountain and just didn't make it back down and probably died up there of the elements in an accident and hasn't been found yet.

[Kane]

Of course, when a show like UM presents theories on any given case, there is always the possibility of them being disproven. The theories are based on a variety of things, such as physical evidence or eyewitness accounts.

[nohwheregirl]

I think this is a really good idea for a thread. I think it's probably natural for police to blow insignificant things out of proportion when they don't have much physical evidence to go on. Also, statistically, you're much more likely to be murdered by a family member or friend. When you hear hooves, think horses - not zebras.

The first thing that pops into my mind is the Veronica "Tina" Jefferson murder. The police went on the theory that she knew her killer or was murdered by a guy who tried to pick her up at a grocery store b/c of eye-witnesses. Again, it was a more-or-less random attack by a serial killer.

[StackTime]

Perhaps Micki Jo West...someone in the interview believed that the note-writer was not the murderer but definitely someone else (intimidated by the actual murderer)...later, it is revealed that the murderer himself likely wrote the notes

[MegtheEgg86]

The California arsonist who videotaped his work---specifically the identity of "Omar." The police theorized that Omar was possibly the homeowner, or the owner of the contracting firm that was building the home, or even an entity within the arsonist's mind. Turns out he was the kid who lived across the street from the arsonist, and I believe may have been charged with a couple of minor things for conspiring with the arsonist as well.

The Kari Lynn Nixon segment and update were pretty big ones. UM seemed to have a case of tunnel vision with that one. Even though one of the investigating authorities said that the case had all the marks of an abduction, 99% of the focus was on the "runaway" theory. I understand there were leads to follow up at the time (and the girl in the New Kids video did look very much like Kari), but I always thought the abduction theory was far more plausible and never got the attention it deserved. Turns out she really was abducted and murdered that very night, as the scumbag who did it admitted to it sometime in the early '90s---'94, I believe.

[Fletch]

There was one on the other day about the family of 3 who died after their apartment was set on fire - the police theorized it was a revenge killing done by someone who demanded money from the bank one of the victims worked at, when in fact the crime was committed by two boys - one 13 and one 14 years old. Unbelieveable....

[mphs95]

The Nancy Manni case where the theories ranged from a union boyfriend to her knowledge about drugs. In the end, it was just a guy she met.

[Arnold_OldSchool]

The Dee Dee segment they aired today, where a bartender thought she saw a woman who turned up missing, and a local biker was under suspection ....then UPDATE~! and Dee Dee was killed by her apartment's janitor and her body never found

[alfiechat]

did anyone notice that in the background of the Dede Rosenthal case that they were showing Greg webb putting Anna Anton in the trunk of his car?

[Mr. Fuji]

Originally Posted by Arnold_OldSchool

The Dee Dee segment they aired today, where a bartender thought she saw a woman who turned up missing, and a local biker was under suspection ....then UPDATE~! and Dee Dee was killed by her apartment's janitor and her body never found

Is that the one where the bartender told the lady, "Dee Dee, you better go home. Dee Dee, your mother is worried sick about you"? I bet the lady she was talking to thought the bartender was a nutjob.

You can add any number of the cases where the families of missing people were told by workers at homeless shelters that they were 100% certain that their family member had been there just recently. I think that happened in the Dan Wilson segment. That always annoyed me. You'd think that the workers wouldn't claim 100% certainty unless they were 100% certain (what a novel concept). It's cruel to get family members' hopes up that way.

[DCFan1911]

Originally Posted by Mr. Fuji

Is that the one where the bartender told the lady, "Dee Dee, you better go home. Dee Dee, your mother is worried sick about you"? I bet the lady she was talking to thought the bartender was a nutjob.

You can add any number of the cases where the families of missing people were told by workers at homeless shelters that they were 100% certain that their family member had been there just recently. I think that happened in the Dan Wilson segment. That always annoyed me. You'd think that the workers wouldn't claim 100% certainty unless they were 100% certain (what a novel concept). It's cruel to get family members' hopes up that way.

Right, I agree that it's sad when families get their hopes up, but generally they always want to believe their missing loved one is alive. There's a case that the show profiled - can't recall names offhand - but a man's wife disappeared and HIS family was certain he had killed her, while HER family was defending him and believed him innocent. I think the reason was simply because they wanted to believe their daughter might be alive, and if they believed her husband was involved in her disappearance then it would mean she was dead.

As far as the people who report these sightings go, they are almost always well-meaning. They probably believe they saw this missing person and are just making an honest but heartbreaking mistake. Although, sometimes these sightings turn out to be true - case in point, the missing man who owned fisheries; the sightings of him disoriented on a train may have been true, since he later turned up alive.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by Mr. Fuji

You can add any number of the cases where the families of missing people were told by workers at homeless shelters that they were 100% certain that their family member had been there just recently. I think that happened in the Dan Wilson segment. That always annoyed me. You'd think that the workers wouldn't claim 100% certainty unless they were 100% certain (what a novel concept). It's cruel to get family members' hopes up that way.

Matthew Chase. And wasn't the Adam Hecht case like that too? I've only seen the segment once and it was years ago.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

One troubling segment was of a woman who had worked in a nightclub (in Florida, I think.) The family was terrorized several times by biker-types and she led her current husband to believe this was the work of her ex-husband, the father of her two girls. After she died, her husband/widower went to the nightclub and a local TV station and in every case was told he'd better forget she ever existed.

After the segment aired, the woman's ex-husband surfaced and proved to be a PERFECTLY nice man who had NO IDEA where his daughters had been all that time. Not saying the reenactment was wrong exactly, but there was absolutely no explanation as to this woman's origins, what she had been involved in, who terrorized her family, or why. And they acted as if the mystery was "solved" when the father was reunited with his daughters and didn't address the rest of these unexplained issues.

[UMfan77]

Originally Posted by Cori aka ChrisSCrush

One troubling segment was of a woman who had worked in a nightclub (in Florida, I think.) The family was terrorized several times by biker-types and she led her current husband to believe this was the work of her ex-husband, the father of her two girls. After she died, her husband/widower went to the nightclub and a local TV station and in every case was told he'd better forget she ever existed.

After the segment aired, the woman's ex-husband surfaced and proved to be a PERFECTLY nice man who had NO IDEA where his daughters had been all that time. Not saying the reenactment was wrong exactly, but there was absolutely no explanation as to this woman's origins, what she had been involved in, who terrorized her family, or why. And they acted as if the mystery was "solved" when the father was reunited with his daughters and didn't address the rest of these unexplained issues.

That one puzzled me too. I can't remember the husband's name, the one that was searching for his wife's family. I thought it was so strange how her co-workers were so secretive about her. The poor man was trying so hard to find out who his wife was. I don't think he even knew her real name.