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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1348 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 24, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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It's tough, because a man is dead and another guy went missing and ended up with his DNA on the missing man's car, which contained the missing man's bank cards. How do you explain that?

I agree Stark doesn't have to incriminate himself, but he has to be able to explain the car. Even if it's "yeah Branning drove me to work, everyone knows that, and I was sitting in the driver's seat while he [went and did something on the way there]".

Two guys go missing at the same time, their positions are plotted on the same route, one ends up dead? You can't just waltz away with "nothing to do with me, no sir!"

Stark had a history of robbing fast food places at gunpoint with an accomplice and stealing from the safe.

You know what also makes sense? That this whole thing was a drug deal gone bad.

Which might account for the DNA evidence of a third man, if it was an accomplice of Stark and/or someone he owed the drug debt to. They make Branning take money out, he says he can't/doesn't have the full amount, they think they can maybe force him to take more out later or hold him for ransom, something goes wrong. That works too, and explains why Stark and Branning can be put in the same places at the same time, and the car. I don't think Branning was dirty, the family insist he was a great guy but soft-hearted. Of course that's the family, but I think the cops would have found some trace of a secret life. I think Stark did manage to persuade Branning to "help him out" by driving him to that place after work and then it all went badly wrong for everyone.

But like I said, we'll never know for sure until some witness is found or someone comes forward with the full story.

he has to be able to explain the car

Two guys go missing at the same time, their positions are plotted on the same route, one ends up dead? You can't just waltz away with "nothing to do with me, no sir!"

Not under the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. If Branning's estate were to sue Stark for wrongful death, maybe it would be able to collect under the "preponderance of evidence" standard. But that's civil, not criminal.

Yeah, that's why it's all such a mess. Stark is a shady character, but did he kill Branning? No way to prove it one way or the other, so the family is in limbo with no real ending.

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