20 Times the Internet Solved Crimes

Top 20 Times the Internet Solved Crimes

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 Times the Internet Solved Crimes.

For this list, we’ll be looking at the most interesting true crime cases that were resolved by amateur internet sleuths.

Which of these stories fascinates you the most? Let us know in the comments below!

#20: Tent Girl

The body of Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor was found wrapped in a tarp on May 17, 1968, and was presumed to be the victim of a homicide. Her nickname, Tent Girl, came as a result of the material she was found wrapped in and because her real identity wasn’t yet known. Years after Tent Girl was found, a man named Todd Matthews married the daughter of the man who first discovered the body. Knowing that the case troubled his father-in-law, Matthews began digging on the internet. He scoured public databases and missing persons websites until he found a match. The Hackmann family had posted a report about their missing relative, whose story seemingly matched Tent Girl’s. Contact was made, authorities were notified, and Tent Girl was positively identified.

#19: The Lynda Jane Hart Case

Websleuths.com is where amateur detectives gather to discuss cold cases, and they all share one primary mission: to solve what the police could not. One sleuth is Carl Koppelman, who once worked as an accountant for Disney. He took to perusing the website and started moderating a forum for unidentified victims. The objective of this forum is to locate missing persons by cross-referencing coroner's reports. Through his involvement, Koppelman was able to identify Lynda Jane Hart, who had been missing since 1988. Hart’s remains were found in an abandoned parking lot, but she was initially categorized as a Jane Doe. It wasn’t until 2011 that Koppelman’s investigative skills would lead to her identification.

#18: Anthony Posey’s Stolen Camera

And now for something a little lighter. Louisiana-based professional photographer Anthony Posey traveled to Seattle for his wife’s 50th birthday, and decided to visit the city’s Public Library while he was there. Unfortunately, he left his camera in one of the bathrooms, and when he returned, the camera was gone. He posted a help ad on Craigslist but didn’t hold out much hope. Nevertheless, police soon recovered a stolen camera and used the community posting website Nextdoor.com to publicize their find. One of its users recognized the camera from Posey’s Craigslist ad and connected the dots. With that, the professional photographer was reunited with his camera.

#17: Operation Death Eaters

Founded in 2014 by a woman named Heather Marsh, Operation Death Eaters would later became affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous, which garnered it greater media attention. The goal of the operation is to find and expose those dealing in human trafficking and predation. Despite the involvement of Anonymous, there is actually no hacking involved. Rather, the participants use good old fashioned research and investigative methods in an attempt to remain legitimate. The group is looking into both individuals and entire institutions, including the U.S. military, which they argue govern themselves and therefore cannot be trusted to mete out justice properly. It’s unclear if the operation has led to any arrests, but there’s no denying that their intentions are noble.

#16: The Reddit Recounting

During a friend's engagement party at a Seattle bar, 26-year-old Sam Whitehorn was assaulted by three men. According to Whitehorn’s girlfriend, Bridget Kitson, his Green Bay Packers hat attracted the attention of the men, who were fans of the Seattle Seahawks. As a result of the attack, Whitehorn hit his head on the curb. The fall fractured his skull and put him in a coma. Kitson recounted the story on Reddit, which quickly went viral. A resulting police investigation later found and identified the three suspects. According to a post made by Kitson, the suspects proceeded to turn themselves in.

#15: Billy Jensen’s Geo-Targeted Ads

A digital media consultant named Billy Jensen has emerged as one of the most accomplished amateur sleuths working today, with the solving of a purported ten homicide cases under his belt. Jensen once worked as an investigative journalist, and his experience in the field of crime reporting has paid dividends. Jensen uses geo-targeted ads on social media to attract the attention of locals and uses their witness reports to suss out criminals. One specific case solved by Jensen was the killing of Marques Gaines. With the help of local photos and videos, Jensen was able to identify the perp as Marcus Moore. Jensen has since written two books about his exploits: “Chase Darkness with Me” and “Killers Amidst Killers.”

#14: The Jacob Wetterling Case

In 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked assailant while biking home with his younger brother and friend. The case remained cold for decades, until Joy Baker got involved. A man named Jared Scheierl claimed that he survived a similar encounter in the ‘80s, and both he and Baker began to unravel the years-long mystery. They unearthed a number of related stories, leading to their appearance on CNN’s “The Hunt.” This then attracted the attention of authorities, who ordered that the Wetterling case be reopened. An old DNA sample was found and matched to a man named Danny Heinrich, who would eventually reveal the location of Wetterling’s remains.

#13: The Shooting of Crystal Theobald

The 2021 Netflix documentary "Why Did You Kill Me?" tells the story of Crystal Theobald, and her family’s desperate search for justice. Theobald was killed in 2006 when a local gang mistakenly believed that the car she was riding in belonged to rival gang members. They shot at the car in a drive-by, killing Theobald and wounding her boyfriend. Theobald’s mother, Belinda Lane, took to MySpace with a fake account to befriend members of the gang. She connected with a man named William Sotelo, who admitted that he and a few others were involved in the shooting. In the end, Sotelo was charged with voluntary manslaughter, while Julio Heredia - the shooter - was found guilty of first-degree murder.

#12: Anonymous & Rehtaeh Parsons

After attending a high school party where she was sexually assaulted, Rehtaeh Parsons was further maltreated when photos of the assault were spread online. The photos also made their way through Parsons’s hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, under the stress of it all, Parsons attempted to take her own life, and ended up in a coma. Her family eventually had to make the incredibly difficult decision to terminate her life support. The story attracted the attention of Anonymous, who reportedly identified the guilty parties. They demanded that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police enact justice or they would publicly reveal the names. There are varying accounts of what happened subsequently to this, but it seems at least two of the suspects were identified by the RCMP.

#11: Aundria Bowman

Amateur sleuth Carl Koppelman strikes again, this time solving the case of teenager Aundria Bowman. Bowman was suffering abuse from her adoptive father, Dennis before she vanished from his home. Koppelman began digging around online years later and stumbled across an active Classmates.com page in Bowman’s name. He contacted the owner and discovered that it was Bowman’s biological mother. The two investigated the case together and came to the conclusion that Bowman’s abusive adoptive father was most likely responsible for her disappearance. Police, in turn, eventually took his DNA and linked it to a prior murder. Knowing that he was caught, he then confessed to killing Aundria as well.

#10: Brad Willman’s Trojan Horse

Back in the late ‘90s, a Canadian man named Brad Willman devised a Trojan horse that allowed him complete access to the computers that downloaded it. Willman placed the Trojan horse on websites dedicated to predators, and at the height of Willman’s activity, he was monitoring up to 3,000 computers. These belonged to a wide variety of people, including priests, social workers, police officers, and military personnel. His program aided in numerous official channels, including a Kentucky state investigation and a case involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But perhaps his biggest catch was Superior Court Judge Ronald Kline, who pleaded guilty to possessing explicit material and was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

#9: Finding Sean Power’s Laptop

A Canadian web consultant named Sean Power was the victim of a laptop thief while visiting New York City. After returning home to Canada, a tracking tool called Prey alerted Power that his computer was in use, and provided screenshots of the user. The man logged into Skype using his real name, giving Power his name, face, and location. His 12,000 Twitter followers then banded together, with one discovering that he was the owner of a restaurant called Oficina Latina. Powers sent a female friend to investigate, and a Twitter follower named Nick Reese ventured to the restaurant on behalf of Powers. They were able to reclaim the bag and the laptop, and Powers called the perp to thank him for returning his belongings.

#8: iPad Selfies

That pesky cloud and its penchant for stopping criminals. In January of 2015, Randy Schaefer woke up to find his truck broken into. Missing was a bag containing cash, an iPad, and a Macbook. After informing the police, Schaefer realized that some pictures had been uploaded to his iCloud account. Schaefer uploaded the photos to Click2Houston’s Facebook page and received 11,000 shares. Meanwhile, his friend shared the photos on Reddit, and a user recognized one of the perps from high school. The friend was linked to the Facebook account of one Dorian Walker-Gaines, where they found a video of the man flaunting his newfound cash. The authorities were alerted, and the perps were promptly arrested.

#7: Virginia Hit and Run

On April 7, 2012, a 57-year-old woman was killed in a hit and run in Virginia. No description of the car was provided, and the only thing that police had to go on was a small piece of metal that broke off the car upon impact. They posted a photo of the piece online, and it was quickly picked up by car enthusiast website Jalopnik. Its users quickly identified the metal as the grille from a Ford-150. They narrowed it down to the exact year and trim level, and the police used this information to build their case. It eventually led them to Victor Espinoza and Juan Gonzalez-Vasquez, both of whom were arrested and slapped with hit and run charges.

#6: Steubenville High School Case

This very public and controversial case involved a crime perpetrated against a 16-year-old high school student. The act was graphically disseminated through social media, with dozens of people documenting the event through text messaging and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Many of these posts were found and publicly released by crime blogger and amateur sleuth Alexandria Goddard. Extra footage was leaked by an Anonymous offshoot known as KnightSec. Both were paramount in publicizing the Steubenville case and making it national news. The information was also responsible for exposing the perpetrators, both of whom were convicted and sent to juvenile detention for one and two years, respectively.

#5: Philadelphia Swarm

In this horrible case, over a dozen people attacked a gay couple on the streets of Philadelphia while making disparaging remarks about their sexual orientation. The police released surveillance video of the incident, and a Twitter user named Greg Bennett posted a Facebook photo of what looked like the assailants in a nearby restaurant. Bennett claims that the photo was sent to him by a “friend of a friend of a friend”. The restaurant was identified as La Viola, and user @FanSince09 cross-checked Facebook for people who had checked into La Viola that night. They found numerous matches, and Twitter now had names. The names were given over to police and detective Joseph Murray thanked them for their efforts.

#4: The Death of Gregory May

Back in 1995, cousins of Ellen Leach went missing, and this eventually inspired the Mississippi resident to become a web sleuth dedicated to finding missing persons around the country. In the early 2000s, a skull was found inside a bucket of concrete, and a clay reconstruction of its human face was produced. Web sleuth Leach found a match with one Gregory May, a missing antiques dealer who was robbed by his roommate. The roommate, Douglas DeBruin, had stolen May’s antiques collection worth $70,000 and was going to trial for May’s potential murder. The only problem was the lack of a body. Fortunately, the skull was indeed matched to May, and DeBruin was convicted and sent to prison for orchestrating his death.

#3: The Case of William Francis Melchert-Dinkel

This married father of two perused chat rooms and posed as a depressed 20-something woman. He would then enter into fake death pacts with despondent people, often providing them with detailed instructions. In November of 2006, a retired schoolteacher named Celia Blay got word of one “Li Do” who had made a death pact with her friend. Blay investigated “Li Do” and found other aliases and prior pacts. The police weren't interested, so Blay set up a sting operation in which she was able to track the user’s IP address to William Francis Melchert-Dinkel in Minnesota. The Saint Paul Police Department apprehended the man and he was convicted on two counts. He spent 178 days in prison.

#2: Abraham Shakespeare

While buying cigarettes at a Florida convenience store in 2006, Abraham Shakespeare decided to try his luck and bought some lottery tickets. Those tickets made him $17 million richer. A lady named Dee-Dee Moore then started a business with Shakespeare and gave herself full control over the funds. So when Shakespeare later went missing, police immediately suspected Moore. She in turn claimed that Shakespeare had gone to live somewhere remote, having grown sick of the constant requests for money. Websleuths also blamed Moore, and when an anonymous user logged in to defend Moore’s name, their IP address was traced. It led directly to Moore herself. She was later arrested for the death of Shakespeare, as his body was found in the backyard of her house.

#1: Luka Magnotta

In 2010, a video was posted online depicting violence against animals. This resulted in the creation of a Facebook group intent on identifying the perpetrator. Eventually the amateur sleuths were tipped off to the name Luka Magnotta — perhaps by Magnotta himself. The group was able to match their clues to publicly available photos of Magnotta, proving successful in their hunt. Then, in 2012, student Jun Lin was killed in Montreal, Canada, and the graphic video depicting his death further drew the group’s attention. They were able to help link Magnotta to the killer in the video. Magnotta was eventually traced by police to Berlin and extradited back to Canada, where he was sentenced to life in prison.