Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of “My true crime opinions” TikToks and got inspired to make my own list. So, without further ado, here are my personal true crime opinions.
1. Casey Anthony is 100% guilty and should be in prison
The amount of evidence against Casey Anthony is undeniable, and that’s a fact. With that being said, I know my opinion isn’t an unpopular one, but I still want to talk about it. Unfortunately, this woman is roaming free and living her best life.
If you know about this case, you know it’s absolutely infuriating because of the way that Casey has faced no consequences at all for what she’s done. It’s blatantly obvious that Casey didn’t want to have the responsibility of being a parent, so she came up with the only permanent solution she could think of. Why else would you be looking up “fool proof suffocation methods,” “neck breaking,” “household weapons,” and “chloroform” (84 times) on the family computer and have traces of it along with decomposition in her car? Or not go to the police until a month after your daughter “went missing” then pretend to be concerned? Or go out partying and getting a “Bella Vita” (beautiful life) tattoo while your child is actively missing? Or make up a fake nanny with a fake address that “kidnapped” your child? And as if all of that wasn’t enough, Casey has just made a TikTok account to continue on with her completely normal life, so do with that information what you will.
2. Madeline McCann’s parents were involved in her disappearance
Madeline McCann’s case is one I find very interesting, considering how easily it could’ve been prevented (in my opinion). If you don’t know already, in 2007, the McCann family was on a vacation with another family at a resort in Portugal, when 3-year-old Madeline was taken in the middle of the night, while the other children were left.
Personally, I believe that the parents, Gerry and Kate, know a lot more than they’re letting on. This may have something to do with the 48 questions that the police asked Kate, which she refused to answer or the picture of a man carrying a young girl on the street that looked just like her on the night of her disappearance. The man was identified and seen walking just 500 yards from the apartment towards the beach at the same time she was reported missing. For me, this really seals the deal because since I’ve seen the picture, I just can’t stop thinking about how it has to be Madeline, but nothing really ever came of it unfortunately.
Some people believe that they sold her, which I think may be farfetched, but something is definitely off about the whole thing, especially considering that there were other children in the room, so it wouldn’t make sense for a person to only abduct one. Some also believe that Matthew Oldfield, who they were on the vacation with, was involved, since he volunteered to check on the children for Kate while he was checking on his own children next door. He could’ve handed her over to someone in that time, which I don’t think is totally unbelievable.
To this day, 17 years later, Gerry and Kate are still fighting for justice for their daughter. While I wouldn’t necessarily go as far as to say that they were responsible for her disappearance, I definitely think it’s insane that they would even leave their children with the door open in the middle of the night anyway, even if they were close by and checking on them periodically throughout the night, and I don’t understand why someone who wants to prove their innocence so badly would refuse to answer simple questions and incriminate themselves further. However, it seems to be a common theme among cases involving families and their children.
3. Elisa Lam was suffering from a mental health crisis/psychotic break
It’s no secret that the Cecil Hotel has some suspicious activity going on, as there are multiple documentaries and videos regarding the dark truths that lie within the building. Originally, with many others, I thought that she was murdered. However, after doing further research, I truly believe that something paranormal and more sinister was going on, and due to her previous underlying mental illness that wasn’t being treated properly, she eventually let it get to her to the point of a break. I think she believed someone was telling her to do things, and she climbed in the water tank, leading to her unfortunate death.
I think that a huge factor in everyone’s opinions on this case is the absolutely haunting video of her behavior in the elevator right before her disappearance, where she appears to be frantically hiding from someone. Hours after this footage took place, she vanished. 19 days later, she was found dead in the hotel’s water tank. Personally, I don’t think that this could be a coincidence, especially considering the building’s paranormal history as well as Elisa’s various mental health issues like bipolar disorder and depression, which she was on several different medications for. It’s been said that Elisa had a history of not taking these medications, which resulted in hallucinations that caused her to hide under her bed; she had even been hospitalized for this behavior, so this unfortunately seems like the most sensible explanation for what happened to her.
4. Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were framed due to their low IQs
After studying the case heavily in forensics, I think I’m qualified to give my opinion on it. A lot of people who watched the Netflix series Making a Murderer believe that Steven Avery is guilty for the murder of Teresa Halbach given the evidence against him and his nephew, Brendan. However, I truly believe that someone close to them was able to take advantage of their very low IQs to frame them, knowing that they probably couldn’t come up with a story or alibi to prove their innocence, ultimately leading to the killer getting away with the crime.
I don’t believe that they’re completely innocent, however, considering their past, but I do think they were set up. Despite all the evidence presented in the show, something I never could make logical sense of or stop coming back to was the man that was found walking on the side of the road near the Avery property the day Teresa went missing and the strange timeline of the whole thing, which never added up and actually lead to the discovery of her car on the Avery property. This suspicious unknown man was completely ignored by law enforcement, in the favor of sticking with their story and keeping Steven and Brendan as their prime suspects.
Brendan also only confessed to the murder after hours of interrogation without the presence of a lawyer, and he told the investigators what he thought they wanted to hear, even if it wasn’t true. Many factors in this case, such as the inconsistencies in the story and the failure of the prosecution to present credible evidence directly linking them to Teresa’s death, make it very difficult to ignore the very real possibility that both Steven and Brendan were manipulated by law enforcement that just wanted to close the case and be done with it, not caring about the truth. To this day, they’re both still in prison.
5. JonBenet Ramsey’s brother, Burke, did it and the parents are covering it up
I genuinely still can’t believe that after all these years this case still hasn’t been solved. If you’ve ever heard of this case, you know how frustrating it is and how many different factors there were that went wrong or were disturbed in the investigation process. I think this case definitely could’ve been solved shortly after the murder happened, but since it’s still not, I’ll give my opinion on it. Many people have formed different theories over the years, like obviously the family’s involvement, family friends, and some even went as far as to say that JonBenet never really died, and she’s actually Katy Perry.
I think that even if Burke didn’t commit the murder, it was definitely someone in the house that night, since there was a spider web left undisturbed on the grate of the basement window, which had been broken for a while, as John Ramsey told investigators he had broken it when he was locked out of the house. If an adult tried to enter through this window, the web would’ve been disturbed; there’s no way around it. Burke was known to have anger issues and lose control sometimes, specifically getting violent with his sister JonBenet, and I think that’s all that happened here. I don’t think that he intended to do this, but once the damage was done, the family had to cover it up to avoid losing another child.
The ransom note? The pineapple? The track prints? The body being discovered before the light was turned on then being moved upstairs? The crime scene being disturbed countless times and nobody finding it strange? The 911 call? The behavior in interviews? All these things can’t be a coincidence. The Ramsey family has been trying to clear their name for years, while also refusing to take a polygraph test. I think this is because they know that they can only get their story straight for TV when they’re in complete control of what information is and isn’t shared.
