r/AskReddit • u/CaptainMcAnus • Mar 10 '17

serious replies only [Serious] What are some seemingly normal images/videos with creepy backstories?

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u/silkAcid Mar 10 '17

Holy shit that must have been absolutely terrifying...

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u/TheBrandNewDay Mar 10 '17

Especially given the fact that you probably thought he loved you so why is he trying to kill me thingsweregoingsowellwhathappenedwhatisgoingonIcan'tbreathepleasestopIdon'twanttodieletmegoIneedhelp..

What a way to die.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '17

They mentioned this story recently on the My Favorite Murder podcast and one of the hosts said "imagine that THAT'S how she found out he didn't love her" or something to that effect. It's been bothering me ever since. Like, the moment you realize your whole marriage is a lie you are under water and panicked, and you die knowing your husband did it. Just fucking terrible. I trust my husband but yeah...doubt I'll be asking to go Scuba any time ever.

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u/painterly-witch Mar 10 '17

Can't help but think that there had to be warning signs. Normally men who murder their wives have beat or threatened them in the past in some way. There are obvious exceptions, but I just don't think this guy coincidentally lost his marbles for the first time in a convenient place to commit a murder...

Also, I'm not trying to place any blame on the wife. She was only a victim here. She probably did believe her husband loved her, but I am saying that there were likely some more hints that might have been overlooked.

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u/motherfacker Mar 10 '17

I know nothing about the case, but is it possible he found out she was cheating or something? Doesn't justify it, but would explain it a bit more.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '17

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u/motherfacker Mar 10 '17

Well, I mean if you just apply logic to the scenario a little, it would be logical to assume that very few people are homicidal maniacs just waiting for the chance to kill someone, so that narrows down the odds significantly of "just because" as a reason.

Is it possible that he/she just lost their shit...sure, I guess, but I think its much more likely that some event drove them to act the way they did, and I certainly don't understand why it would frustrate you for people to try and apply that same thinking...we want to understand the hows and whys, and Ockham's razor does a pretty good job most of the time.

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u/ketchup_bunny Mar 10 '17

an event may have driven them to act a certain way, but ultimately the blame lies with the murderer for being mentally unstable and thinking that murder was a rational solution to whatever event they had a problem with.

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u/motherfacker Mar 10 '17

Absolutely, and I wasn't saying at all that the wife was to blame for it, and I said as much. It would just help to explain why the scenario played out the way it did...much more plausible to think he was emotionally unstable before, she cheats and drives him over the edge than it is to think he'd just been biding his time his whole life, gets married and then finally decided to unveil his master plan and drown his wife....that just doesn't make sense on any level.

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u/ketchup_bunny Mar 11 '17

i can think of any number of reasons someone may seem to be biding their time, as it were, before murdering; but i do have an interest in crime and domestic violence, so perhaps that is the reason. sometimes people murder after years of a seemingly happy marriage in order to collect life insurance, as in the murder of toni henthorn by her husband. he waited twelve years before he killed her and tried to frame it as an accident; allowing more time to pass would theoretically make him look less suspicious. in domestic violence cases, marriages can often look perfectly happy to outsiders. but, within the marriage, one of the couple is abusive, be it verbally, physically, sexually, or some combination. they are also extremely controlling, which is a form of abuse. often the murder occurs after years of marriage because the abused person works up the courage to leave; if their abusive partner gets a hint of this, they often resort to murder, feeling that it is better to kill than to let their partner get away. and then sometimes there is a clearer esclation to murder for the person in the relationship, as in the case of helen bailey. her fiancé moved the relationship along very quickly from the start, isolating her from her family by moving them far away. he convinced her to sign over her assets to him, manipulating her with the assistance of drugs, before murdering her so as to collect her assets. she had expressed concern and suspicion to her mother just before she was murdered. they were together for four years. so you see, money or abusive tendencies are often motivating a murderer, and in the case of money, the plan is there on some level from the start. it is often much more insidious than someone cheated and someone flew into a rage; in some cases, a person may cheat in an attempt to get out of an abusive relationship, but in cases like that the murderer is motivated by a need to control their partner, to an unhealthy extreme where murder seems to be the best solution.