Viral crimes investigated by web sleuths – Overvie
Here’s where web sleuthing goes meta. In 2006, Floridian labourer Abraham Lee Shakespeare struck it lucky and won $17m on the state lottery. His luck didn’t last, however. Three years later he went missing.
Initially, the hope was that Shakespeare had simply upped sticks and retired to the Caribbean as he’d always said he might. That hope was dashed in January 2010 when his body was discovered. Police soon had a suspect - the victim’s financial adviser, Dorice 'Dee Dee' Moore. They just needed proof.
The case soon came to the attention of users of WebSleuths.com. They discussed the case in-depth and came to the same conclusion as the Florida Police Department. It had to be Dee Dee Moore.
Incensed by the accusations, or at least keen to throw the site’s contributors (and police) off the scent, Moore decided to set up a Websleuths account and defend herself. Under a pseudonym, Moore anonymously began trying to muddy the case and defend herself. What she said was in direct contradiction to her statements to the police.
The website’s owner soon smelled a rat and with some sleuthing of her own, worked out through IP addresses that it was Moore leaving the messages and turned the evidence over to police. Moore was soon charged. In 2012 she was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
So while these stay-at-home gumshoes might not have a case solve-rate to rival Sherlock Holmes et al, they can sometimes turn a case on its head.