Why Did You Kill Me? (2021) User Reviews

Very hard to watch the hopelessness of it all

[mariarammstein · 7/10 · 14 April 2021]

No winners here. A crystal meth addicted mom seeks justice for the murder of her daughter by gang violence and while she doesn't trust the police, she takes matters into her own hands.

A grief stricken mother wanting justice for the murder of her daughter might seem like an ambitious, brave quest, yet somehow, since the mother was a meth dealer, and might have had her part in other peoples drug related deaths, I find it hard to find sympathy as much as I would have had she been an upstanding member of society. Add to the story her eldest son was in a way involved in the events that lead to her daughters horrible death, and the multiple young Mexican men or from Mexican heritage poor lives that almost push them into gang life, there are no winners here.

Her niece makes up two fake My Space accounts which ultimately lead to the murderer, with the help of the investigating officers, in the time of which the mother goes rogue in a way, again, in her grief.

In the end the mother tells she has kicked her meth addiction the day after her daughter got killed saying "doing what she couldn't do during her daughters life, she will do in her daughters death".

A sad, hopeless story even though the perpetrator is behind bars for life, and an accomplish serving 22 years in jail, it paints a very dark picture of life for people in Riverside, Los Angeles.

It's Pretty Sad When...

[diana_m_j · 6/10 · 15 April 2021]

...a former gang member who witnessed the crime is the only likable non-police character (with the possible exception of the victim's young cousin). I won't disclose his name here, as that would be a spoiler. But I found him to be the most articulate, intelligent, and sympathetic person in this horror story (not including the police). I would actually enjoy learning more about his story, as he seems to have come out the other side of a very rough start in life. Good for him.

In a "documentary" like this, you would expect that the family of the victim would have your full sympathy - surely there are "good guys" and "bad guys," right? Sadly, that's not the case here. The family of the victim (especially that mother!) is not a likable cast of characters. They initially refused to cooperate with the police! I literally had to rewind that part three times to ensure I was hearing it correctly. With a family like that, the poor victim never stood a chance. I am impressed with the restraint the detective demonstrated - if the mother of the victim wouldn't assist with the case, I would have been thinking, "ok, good luck, then!"

If there is anything to be learned here, it is that you reap what you sow. If you are unfortunate enough to be born into a family like that, do your best to get as far away as you can.

So sue me, I thought it was good.

[SpacemanBob · 7/10 · 15 April 2021]

A story that revolves around a terrible tragedy, and the uselessness of revenge mentality. I think the makers of this film were trying to point that out definitively, and they did so through flawless editing of what had to be mountains of interview footage.

The film never takes sides, and has no political agenda. The parties involved lay out the story, and it's left up to the viewer to draw conclusions. It's paced just about right, not too long, no repeating itself. Every interview came across as relevant. A good watch.

Meth Mouths

[Mehki_Girl · 6/10 · 4 May 2021]

The family is full of meth-mouths. The girl is death because she was born into a family of addicts and criminals.

A lesson in why drugs and criminal activity will shorten your life or the life of a loved one.

Drug addicts are narcissistic, so hard to empathize with or or believe much of what they say.

A pretty typical true crime documentary

[Mcduff3601 · 6/10 · 19 April 2021]

I didn't hate this but didn't love it either. It took a little while to reveal that the family is not particularly "clean" when it comes to crime activity but that doesn't mean they shouldn't get justice for their lost loved one. It's kind of a mess. The head of the family, the mother, is kind of messed up, on drugs and in the head. She basically has an underage kid pose as the victim to flush out the bad guys. The kid admits to being messed up emotionally by her role in the whole thing. So it kind of makes it hard to feel sorry for the victim's family especially the mom.

Content aside, the doc is fairly fast paced and relies mostly on interviews with the Homicide detective, the victim's family and some ex gangsters, but it's mostly interviews with a few live clips and some recreations. It lays out the tale concisely and moves it along at a brisk pace, with a fairly bland conclusion in the form of text on the screen to update you "10 years later the mother becomes president of the USA and yadda yadda yadda that's the reason we now have an alien invasion happening at our Mars colony". It glosses over major events that would have been cool to have seen in clips or something.

I watched this because Netflix recommended as one of my top choices but I don't think I would recommend it. I can't think of other true crime docs to watch instead, maybe go watch CSI again. If you skip this one you won't be missing much.

Poorly Done

[stefstars · 2/10 · 17 April 2021]

Why was this advertised like it was going to heavily revolve around catfishing during the MySpace era ? The preview you see on the main Netflix screen doesn't play that big of a role as you think it will. The documentary is really about gang violence in Riverside, California. Honest advertising would have left me less salty with this. However, it's not done well overall. The girl lost her life because everyone around her was playing with fire nearly all their lives, the family included. From the get-go I already knew the family wasn't exactly a reliable source, especially the mom. You get even more frustrated when you hear that she was high on the night that the girl was murdered. No wonder she nearly got a poor innocent kid thrown in jail early on in the case. I couldn't stand seeing the mom any longer, she almost blew the case because she can't let go of her old street thug habits. She's no better than the thugs who killed her kid - even her sons were more level headed than her and they're gangsters.

The way they reenact the crime scene is with toy trucks and with figurines that look like the old "homies" ones from the early 2000's. That could work but it seemed really low effort in this documentary. I guess a lot of the budget went towards the MySpace page scenes. I don't know how old the little girl was that started the catfishing MySpace account, she still looks really young even now. That was a smart idea until the victim's mom ruined it. Still it's a bit scary to think of this underage girl catfishing gangsters on social media, you can tell it messed her up a bit, plus she was posing as a dead woman ! The whole thing is messed up all around.

The documentary doesn't really leave you sympathizing with anyone, it gets you upset at everyone involved more than anything. However, I did feel sympathy for the girl who started the catfish MySpace profile and the parents of the gangster who got their house burned down. They're the only people that were dragged into the middle of all this without doing anything along with the victim. I stuck around to see who pulled the trigger and what ended up happening, but the journey to get there is infuriating. The documentary could've been a lot of shorter or honestly this could've been an episode in a gang violence docuseries or something - the case wasn't worth a whole documentary to itself.

All in all, the documentary doesn't teach you anything new. It sounds morbid to say this but this is too much of a simple crime to make a "true crime" documentary about. This girl was sadly surrounded by trouble and it was bound to happen at some point. It happens every day in gang riddled communities and it's always unfortunate. Her particular case, the only interesting thing was the MySpace catfishing to catch the culprit.

I'd skip this one. Just Google the case if you're curious. Don't give any of these people the attention - especially the mom.

It could have been a great movie

[johanrndrs · 6/10 · 14 April 2021]

A valuable story with colored characters. With characters that will have a whole story.

Unfortunately that is not reflected in the documentary. Ok to look once, if only to get a different view from the police, unfortunately just too little balans in the script and pretty boring even. One-sided choosing from the directors gives you to much about the family involved. The DA and lawyers could have brought a more colorful documentary.

Can not trust ANY person interviewed

[incensical · 4/10 · 25 April 2021]

As a pharmacist, the first MILLISECOND I saw the victim's family interviewed I just knew meth specifically was involved...it was clear the full story was not being told and their self-victimisation was clearly unreliable. EVERY single person especially the victim's family in this documentary was playing with fire which sadly led to this poor woman's death. The mother admitting she played a huge role in drug selling was disgustingly self-indulgent. This is nothing more than a documentary on the effect of meth in families ft. Gangs .

This is the film adaptation of "This meeting could have been an email".

[kasserlannister · 6/10 · 17 April 2021]

Yes, it was pacey, but it is like the film adaptation of "This meeting could have been an email".

I had high hopes

[gypsy-87293 · 4/10 · 15 April 2021]

As a true crime junkie, I had such high hopes for this. Using MySpace to hunt down a killer? Brilliant! Problem with this is I was so annoyed and disgusted with the mother I honestly felt no compassion for her. Who doesn't cooperate with the police right after their child is killed? I understand that as a criminal and drug user she doesn't trust the police, but my God woman, YOU AREN'T OLIVIA BENSON!! The eventual arrest of the gang member was awesome, but I don't really understand why he did it. Multiple family members were thrown into this documentary as well, seemingly not in sequence and not adding anything to the story. It just didn't make too much sense to me, I wouldn't watch it again. Do not waste your time.

Keep an open mind

[Real_Mrs_JonSnow · 9/10 · 15 April 2021]

Who are you people judging everyone in this documentary? It is a tragic story full of people who did not have it easy growing up. Some aren't as fortunate as others. None of you have a right to judge them. This story is interesting. And the mother is quite the character. Her obsession with the social media was born from the rage she felt from losing her daughter. It is fascinating that law enforcement was able to make arrests from the help of a MySpace page designed by a teenager. There are no happy endings, because everyone in this story has a had a complicated life. I felt sorry for everyone in the movie, even the killer. Because their lives were full of hardships. I did wish that law enforcement focused more on the victim of the crime during their interrogations. However, I'm sure we didn't see all the footage. Chrystal seemed like the greatest blessing within the family.

A tale of the the dark side side of American people who aren't on the right side on the tracks. Pretty decent doc.

[reb-warrior · 7/10 · 6 May 2021]

Crystal Theobald is killed in a car shooting. Her cousin, Jaimie, comes up with the idea to pretend to be an interested young woman on My Space in order to smoke out the killer. Crystal's Mom, Belinda, later takes that over and goes extreme going after the killers. But not all is as it seems, as we have gang violence and drug usage-seller family that keeps secrets.

I thought the doc was pretty good. The MySpace recreations were well done. The toy car scenarios are panned in a lot of the reviews but isn't that how they use toy cars in traffic court cases and other types, such as this murder, to demonstrate to the judge/jury what took place? I thought it was fine. Didn't mind it at all. It worked pretty well to show what happened that night.

The sad part is that Crystal was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tho, it is ironic that it just happened to be her brother that was driving the second white Ford Expedition. It's crazy that Belinda kept it secret that it was her son, Robert, that was driving the second car. I mean it's kinda important for the police to do their investigation. We find out that Belinda did drugs, meth, and sold it too. She and her sons had arrest records and convictions. So they believed in taking the law into their own hands instead of cooperating with the police.

Jaimie was very clever in coming up with the idea in the early days of the internet, to create a fake MySpace account in order to smoke out the owner of the white Ford Expedition the gang used.

This would be a good doc to show those young ones that want to join a gang, to say: "See, see, what happens to your life and your family's lives all because you were idiotic enough to join a gang."

I thought the doc was pretty decent. A tale of the dark side of American people who aren't on the right side on the tracks. They're just people, people in poverty, people involved with drug usage, people involved with gangs. Every day people with different life experiences. It's sad that Crystal died, yet it seems she was a good influence on her cousin Jamie and her Mom(at the end). Her life had meaning, she didn't deserve this. 7/10.

I give it 2 stars because it kept my attention

[zacorem · 2/10 · 16 April 2021]

That said, the Doc wants you to feel sorry for the mother. Who was high at the time of her daughter's death. She sold meth and probably killed 1000 times the amount of people as the murderer did. At the end of the story I felt more sorry for the gang member who ratted out his gang. He did more for her daughter then she ever did. And because of it he has to live the rest of his days with eyes in the back of his head. Even more so now with this documentary.

The ultimate catfish

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 14 April 2021]

An interesting true crime story, following a young woman's murder and her family's retribution. The story was kind of crazy, and the cat fishing was unexpected. Focus was on the family and gang though and didn't feel like it was about the victim. Good documentary style, relevant interviews and creative reenactments.

Rate the documentary, not the people!

[trivium105 · 7/10 · 17 May 2021]

As a massive true crime fan I thought this documentary was decent enough, a 7/10, seen plenty better and plenty worse. What compelled me to write a review was the gist of the other reviews here.

So many people detest the mother of the victim, ok, but so what? The documentary is not about her, it is about finding killers by catfishing them via social media, something that is unique to my experience and which is the core reason for making this documentary. If the mother is.so unlikeable then she's so unlikeable but this is real life, she is not a fictional character, she is how she is and the documentary portrays things as they are. Crucially, the mother is not dramatised or exaggerated and is totally honest about her faults, in a blunt way that is not looking for sympathy.

People talk of having little sympathy for people who actively choose to get involved in gang life, ok fine, but they did choose to do it and the documentary reflects that.

A decent documentary tells the story without bias and without dramatisation, and is well-executed and accurate in detail. These people are what they are, the documentary makers did not make them that way or make their choices for them, the job of the film is to portray reality and it does that.

For true crime fans out there, I would say make your decision on whether to watch this based on whether you think it's an interesting sounding story, which I say it is and I say it was well produced, without being anything incredible. If nasty people put you off then I'm not sure how you came to be a true crime fan!

Stupid people doing stupid things

[brucewillisisaghost · 3/10 · 16 April 2021]

I don't know why I watched this. Maybe because I actually like true crime series. This is just sad, although well documented. But... why?

Ambiguous, but compelling

[Billiam-4 · 7/10 · 30 September 2021]

Ambiguous, but compelling chronicle shows a dubious, but successful attempt to catch a killer; basically a very sad story revealing the harrowing effect and impact of meth addiction on all involved.

Nothing new here

[kelleynicole-75651 · 2/10 · 16 April 2021]

The events and people in this documentary are exactly why they drill, "stay away from drugs and gangs" into our heads when we're children. What did this family really expect? I was disappointed when I realized this was just another story about gang violence. The mother was the worst one! First she wouldn't cooperate with the police, and then she compromised the investigation by acting unstable on MySpace. If that wasn't bad enough, she used the, "boys will be boys" excuse to justify bad things her sons did.

I gave two stars because I did think the documentary itself was well done. I would have liked to hear more of the police's side of the story though.

Cautionary tale from a war between the poor

[borgolarici · 7/10 · 17 April 2021]

In a gang infested area, the not exactly spotless family of a murdered girl seeks revenge through social media.

This documentary tells a rather gritty and hopeless story of social disadvantage, generational poverty and drug use. There isn't much space for redemption here but reality must be told (even if a lot of people here are lying).

Didn't like it..

[genia-99871 · 3/10 · 18 April 2021]

When the mother started talking, I understood that she is the reason behind all her kids' suffering. Probably the father too but he is not in the documentary..

She is not a woman that we would hug and feel sympathy for, like most of the grieving mothers. A former drug dealer and drug user, who doesn't help the police but tries to instigate gang wars and deaths of gang members as a revenge.

I never understood the coincidence of the 5150 gang members meeting 1+2 cars of the Theobald family on the same night and why they interacted with the 2 second ones.. It just happened as a coincidence?

And why 22 years to the driver who had already co-operated with the police?

3 stars for the girl that did the catfishing and for the time of the director and the crew..

Real, fascinating story

[kathleenfazio-1 · 9/10 · 15 April 2021]

I'm writing this because all the reviews are not good. I think this was fascinating and relatable and strives to be non-biased. This is not sensational. It is real and human. Well done! Thank you!

Don't believe the low scores.

[Nekravol · 7/10 · 26 April 2021]

People giving this low scores and complaining that there were no likeable and good characters? Well, guess what? If you are expecting an epic tale of how the authorities have failed and the family instead takes matters into their own hands and using their streets wits catch the bad guy and win the day, you will be disappointed.

This isn't fiction. This is real life. Cases like this, there are no winners. There are no innocent people, except the victim. Sometimes that's the reality people live in. Impoverished neighborhoods, poor families, dog eat dog situations, hopelessness and dead-end futures. There are no heroes who rush in to save the day with their indomitable spirit and righteous cause. These are ordinary people. And ordinary people are fallible. Not everyone makes the right choices. Sometimes to disastrous consequences. That was the entire point of the show.

The editing was great and I also liked their choice to recreate the scene with toy cars and the mock-up layout of the streets, instead of using the often cringe-worthy live-action reenactments.

Not what i expected

[nielsvanbelleghem-84660 · 3/10 · 15 April 2021]

This is not the documentary they make you believe it is.

It has very little to do with catphishing and more with everyday gangviolance.

The family of the victim turned out to be a family of gangsters themselfs.

Sorry but i cannot bring up any sympathy for that mother who is just as much a die hard criminal as the rest of those gang members...

Great idea in theory

[TabithaX · 6/10 · 7 June 2021]

I think the documentary makers found a strange story and told it. I think it was interesting to create a model to show how the incident occurred. I felt some of the story was too fragmented and thrust together. I found myself very irritated with the mother of the victim which I realize is taboo. I found her to be (perhaps edited in such a way) behaving more "rough" than she really needed to be in light of her age and current situation. (the mother of a murdered child) I do not think she was helpful at all bringing justice in her daughter's case. I found the niece very sympathetic and sincerely heartbroken. This child and the detective seemed to be the only individuals in this whole two hour documentary who were grounded in everyday, law abiding reality.

Invasion of my Space

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 8 May 2021]

For those who never heard of it: Myspace was the Facebook of .. actually I'm not sure you can compare social media sites with each other. I held on for way longer (and still have an obscure MySpace account if their servers still work), before I completely moved over to Facebook ... though Twitter and Instagram and who knows what else will be the next thing ... Still even if you don't know the MySpace platform it is easy to understand how it worked. Plus it gets explained so you are on the safe side here.

But this is not just about an obscurity, it is about a murder ... and how a mother and a friend and the police and ... well how they went ahead to solve it. Find out who was behind it. It may feel a bit detached at times, but the pacing is good and if you are into true crime documentaries ... Well go ahead and watch it. It is nicely done overall - with understandable actions taken by those involved ...