Tear Jerker / Accidental Detectives

• The last quarter of The Phantom Outlaw of Wolf Creek barely stops dishing out tearjerkers, from the painful Parting-Words Regret Sarah and Delilah have with their fathers to the kids being trapped in a tunnel where they think they’ll die and then learning that Joel (who they initially thought was safe elsewhere) had followed them down, to Delilah mourning her wasted life and how her only remaining friend, her dog, is sick and may die.
• In Race for the Park Street Treasure, Mrs. Bugsby is forced to confront how her father exposed a family to toxic substances that blinded one of their children
• In The Missing Map of Pirate’s Haven, Uncle Carl reveals that he lost his wife and son during a traumatic childbirth where his own carelessness kept him from being able to call an ambulance in time to save them.
• In Madness at Moonshiner's Bay:
  • The Pickett brothers have spent decades resenting each other while Clem rotted in prison and Leroy dealt with the grief of arresting his little brother for a murder that each is wrongfully convinced the other committed.
  • Mr. Johnson, the supposed murder victim, is still alive but has been blackmailed into letting his entire family think he died (despite being unhappy with his nephew spending all those years in prison) with the threat of having all of his children killed otherwise. His eldest son Elmer acknowledges that growing up without a father has been hard on the family and contributed to their status as impoverished poachers.
• In Sunrise at the Mayan Temple, Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold Mad Eddie, who constantly flies kites with Joel, dies in the epilogue, with Joel seeming to sense what will happen beforehand and leaving his beloved teddy bear with Eddie before Eddie dies.