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On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned each of her five children in her bathtub. The nation struggled to understand how a loving mother could systematically kill her children in apparent cold blood. No crime evokes more intense feelings than a mother killing her own children.1 There was extraordinary media coverage of her trial in Houston, Texas in 2002. Her defense attorneys, George Parnham and Wendell Odom entered a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) to multiple counts of first degree murder with death penalty specifications. The 2002 trial jury verdict of guilty was overturned on appeal. Her second trial in 2006 ended with an insanity verdict. This is an example of a forum where members of the TCC can communicate with each other and share their thoughts on specific cases, such as this.

Petito was reported missing by her family in September after she embarked on a cross-country trip with Brian Laundrie, her fiancé. Laundrie, who returned to the couple’s North Port, Florida, home in early September without Petito, left the home roughly two weeks later and disappeared, sparking a weeks long search for him in a vast Florida nature reserve. Just days into the search for Laundrie, authorities on the other side of the country discovered Petito’s remains in Wyoming and a coroner ruled her cause of death to be strangulation. After local and federal authorities combed through the 25,000-acre reserve in Florida for weeks, investigators announced they found Laundrie’s remains and a medical examiner ruled he died by suicide. Nearby, authorities found a notebook in which Laundrie claimed responsibility for Petito’s death, the FBI says.

This provides an example of how many true crime fanatic interact with each other. They use websites and forums like this one to discuss recent cases and share their interest in the genre with their peers. Feel free to post to this forum and share your thoughts!