How the public use social media to form and solve their own criminal investigations

There are 100’s of online groups that every day will pick up and a new case in the hopes of cracking the case. But are these groups more of a hinderance than a help?

Reclaim Headingley Stadium Alleyway

Friday 7^th October 2020 students in Leeds were taking back by an Instagram story of a gang rape taking place in the alleyway next to Headingley Stadium, which connects Kirkstall Lane and St Michael’s Lane. Days later another young woman reported how she was attacked by a group there. These incidents were not the first and not the last. Both women have reported being followed by a group of men upon entering the convenient way for students.

Postgraduate student Alice recalls walking back home through the alleyway late night on October 22^nd 2020. She was surrounded by a group of men who then shoved her to the ground and proceeded to remove her trousers. Despite getting away, Alice did sustain both mental and physical injuries. “Ever since the attack, I’ve been having recurring nightmares that have kept me up at night.” Her face being littered with grazers and a black eye.

After her run in Alice took to social media as an attempt to warn others of threats that surrounded the area. Her message spread quickly, and the alleyway became a cause of concern for locals. The alleyway was taped off a week prior due to investigations for a sexual assault case, however, the police failed to warn locals. Police also did not do another investigation due to the attacks being reported about on social media. This angered locals and sparked an online group to take matters into their own hands, as they believe the police have failed the community.

Due to the convenience and advancement of the internet, it has made it easier for crimes and information to be shared and influence others. A petition by Bethany Walsh is also directed at helping to make the area safe and once again calls out the lack of involvement by the council and police. RHSA shared this and the petition has currently just under 10,000 signatures, all agreeing that “no woman should ever feel like they are in fear whilst walking.”

Similarly, Danny Harrison owner of Fresh2Death has set up a GoFundMe page in hopes to raise enough money for long term CCTV to be installed as safety precautions. They also have placed volunteered security to patrol the alleyway as it gets dark at night. However, considering national lockdown 2 these volunteers have not been allowed to patrol, once again making the alleyway a hotspot for abuse.

Despite bringing the Leeds and online community together to tackle this problem and get justice, is it not the polices job to catch the criminals, to warn and protect the community from the dangers? Why is it that online groups have had to take the needed actions?

While Alice was lucky enough to escape, it is implied by research conducted by Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 25 men have experienced a form of sexual assault since turning 16 years old – with even less coming forward about the events. But just because they are not reported does not mean that the crimes never happened.

This is how the situation of Headingley Stadium has been handled, referring to the incidents as “rumours on social media” and a lack of communication with the local community of the investigation that was carried out back in late September. Griffith from RHSA responded to the comment as “insensitive” adding “This is not an isolated incident. If women can’t use the route then nobody should get to use the route until it’s safe for everyone, because all space should be equal.” With many backing her statement, arguing that if the police weren’t so cold and hid information then people would be more willing to report the crimes.

The Grateful Doe

Grateful Doe is an online community that is spread over various social media pages including Facebook, Imgur, Web sleuths, Phantasy Tour and Reddit. All with the intention of identifying a young deceased male. The pages focused on using social media to circulate a reconstructed image of the deceased in the hopes that someone would recognise the male and give him his identity back.

The name ‘Grateful Doe’ was adopted by the community due to the two Grateful Dead ticket stubs that were found in the victim’s body back in 1995. The body was found in a car crash, alongside another body, a day after a Grateful Dead’s concert on 26^th June 1995, Washington DC. While the driver was named and returned to his family, there was no luck on the soon to be Grateful Doe as his injuries had left the body unrecognisable. Everyone in the community regardless of which form of media used had one common, simple mantra:

17 years later a computer reconstructed image was released of what the victim might’ve looked like based on the autopsy. This in turn created a curiosity for individuals to solve the mystery and lead to social media sites to be used as hotspots for normal people to convene. It took 2 further years on 9th December 2015, for the image circulating around the web of the ‘Grateful Doe’ to be recognised as 19-year-old Jason Callahan Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A user on the Phantasy Tour recognised the images of Jason and this was the first solid year in 19 years.

A family member had also recognised the generated image that the internet sleuths were sharing around these sites. Shannon Michelson, his half-sister, who lives in New Jersey contacted the authorities and was later tested for a DNA sample which matched.

The Facebook page which was created 20^th May 2012 and currently has 19,210 followers and 19,312 likes, continues to share and investigate other cases like Jason’s in the hopes to return lost identities. It is positive reactions like Jason’s family and their closure, as well as the success that groups like Grateful Doe continue to investigate in cold cases.

The police have also credited the site ‘Websleuths’ for organising a successful social media campaign that had served its purpose, to find someone who knew him. However, despite the success of solving the case, it has been criticised that having so many groups share information can cause a lack of validity in the evidence. With users of social media sites circulating false evidence, which can ultimately hinder the investigation rather than move it forwards. It has also been noted that users may have submitted names of individuals, intentionally or not. Having to weed through all the names of possible identities will take valuable time and resources, which could have been used elsewhere.

Inspiration for the group came from Todd Matthews, who is currently the co-founder and in charge of media and public relations. He had taken an interest in diving into cold cases after his father-in-law had informed him about an unidentified body, later known as ‘Tent Girl’. A young woman who was found deceased in a field in Kentucky in 1968.

Taken in by the mystery, Matthews researched all he could on the case, making a website dedicated to ‘Tent Girl’. He solved the case in 1998 when he saw the words "Lexington, 1967, missing" with is giving a description of a woman called Barbara who was last seen in Kentucky 1967. Her supposed sister did a DNA test which came back as a match and the case of ’Tent Girl’ was solved.

This led to Matthews to want to continue to find the true identities if Jane and John Does and the founding of The Doe Network. Back while on the case of ‘Tent Girl’ the police support and response were completely different from the backing The Doe Network has managed to gain. In an article published in 1998, Matthews stated that he had a lot of people, even the police had doubted the case ever being solved.

Now years later Matthews has the support of law enforcement, was its Matthews persistent and clever use of the internet that influenced police to dive into social media more? He is trying to get the law enforcers to use social media and apps as a tool in investigations, and emphasis it in an interview with CGTN's Mike Walter;

The success of The Doe Network has influenced many others and gained a positive light for internet sleuths. With some of their cases being covered as first-hand accounts in the book The Skeleton Crew: How Armature Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases by Deborah Halber in 2014. She investigated how law enforcement used to belittle early sleuths, such as Matthews, and using derogatory insults such as ‘Doe-nuts’ referring to them being seen as nutjobs with false leads.

Halber also commented in her book on how police officers are becoming more accepting of the internet sleuths but there is still the discrimination received as ‘they are not real cops.’ This is one of the major criticisms The Doe Network has run into numerous times. They are further accused of oversharing and forwarding too much-unrelated data to law enforcement, a common complainant the group receives. Comments like this can make online groups seem careless and unprofessional in their work with solving cases and can just reinforce the negativity that is aimed towards them.

However, this is not the case as on Matthews’ personal blog he delves into the rules and methods that he and The Doe Network undergo to make sure their evidence and research are completely reliable, with it all being in a constant state of review and cross-examinations. Not only does this mean the validity of a case is at its highest but it also helps volunteers from getting into dangerous situations:

“Rules and methods have evolved to make the process work better. Data must be validated for accuracy by communicating with law enforcement authorities, and the Doe Network has a protocol which volunteers must follow to prevent them jeopardising cases or putting themselves in danger”

The Lady of the Dunes was a case of a young lady that was found in 1974, with hands missing and her head been almost completely decapitated from her body. Her skull had also been crushed on the left side. She had had teeth removed too, all presumably by the killer. Her body had also shown signs to have been sexually assaulted with a block of wood. The body was exhumed twice, once in 1980 and again in 2000. This is another case that has been adopted into The Doe Networks database prior to 2010 making it one of their old and longest open cases.    

Compared to Reclaim Headingley Stadium Alleyway and the Grateful Doe, this investigation was moved and instigated online by Massachusetts police, showing that they are taking one out of the Internet sleuths’ books and it shows that the discrimination once aimed at them is starting to dwindle. It has currently (as of 2020) not been solved. However, it took law enforcers much longer to take action online and fully optimise the use of available technology.

Internet sleuths will be people who know the ins and outs of social media and use it as a tool to their advantage. They would know of the best times and places in which to create a community and post information about a case. While Facebook, Twitter and Reddit are the more commonly known and more popular media, but as seen with the ‘Grateful Doe’ case the lead needed was found on a more abstract platform, Phantasy Tour.

But despite police and courts now adopting the usage of social media on cases, they don’t have the same knowledge as sleuths and are playing a game of technological ‘catch up’. In 2014 LexisNexis surveyed that only 9% of law enforcement had received formal training on how to use social media for investigations, as well as 16% refusing to use it due to a lack of knowledge. However, 86% actively use social media 2-3 times a month for investigations, which shows that only a small percentage of the police using socials don’t fully understand it. Once again this creates a barrier for the police doing their job and keeping up with the ever-advancing technology can be a task. So, would it be better for the police to just let cases be posted and looked into by sleuths?

Problems with Internet Sleuths

How does having evidence gathered and collected from online groups affect the legality in court? Does it influence the evidence in court?

When cases have been in unconventional ways, through the ordinary person that decided to peruse the case this can be seen and lead to vigilantism. This creates conflict as police do not want nor need individuals getting their own justice. Their biggest fear is having untrained individuals hindering their cases or tampering with information already gathered. But if people are going this far then the belief in the police is lacking as citizens feel the need to protect themselves or others.

While it is not illegal for normal individuals to look into cases and solve them. Their work can often go undermined as it can be seen as diminishing the integrity of the court process. There have been numerous times where internet sleuths have been wrong, so while they may be good at documenting cases, it is argued that solving the case should be left to the professionals to not only preserve integrity but to also avoid misidentifying and/or accusing the wrong person.

When a person is misidentified by online groups it can cause dangerous and threatening problems for the one who was falsely accused. With the police, it can stay between detectives and officers while they check out the lead. Online, however, it is all out in the open. The person's name, address, pictures. Exposing this person. This can lead to attacks on the individual as their privacy and safety has been blown away.

In 2020, Peter Weinberg was a victim of misidentification. He was accused as been the man that had injured a young child that had been purposely knocked down and hurt by a cyclist while sticking up a poster of George Floyd. Sleuths had attached Weinberg’s identity to the cyclist through STRAVA as they saw it as him taking a bicycle ride during the time of the attack, however, the actual data shows him taking a walk. Weinberg’s address and name had been released, which led to abusive online comments referring to him being a racist. People online had started to destroy his life.

Despite many of the individuals that had sent threats apologising, they can not go back and fix their mistakes of wrongly accusing an individual of a crime they did not commit. That label will continue to stay with a person for a long time.

Weinberg is not the only case like this but is a prominent example as to why sleuths receive such negativity from the justice system and law enforcers. A similar case is when sleuths took to Reddit to try to find the ones behind the Boston bombings. Making the smallest mistake can lead to devastating effects on people’s livelihoods.

Sometimes the idea of being credited for solving a long ongoing case can blind the sleuths and make then commit to rushed and incorrect decisions and this can lead to the mistakes that can consequential or just too much relevant data being sent to law enforcers. While officers can make similar mistakes due to rushed deadlines, they are less common that internet sleuths who have not got a set deadline.

Sleuths have been proven useful and successful in the completion of mainly missing person cases, but if the police worked alongside the sleuths professionally then cases could be solved in a more effective and quicker way. Having some investigators working with them can lower the chances of mistakes been made by the groups and increase the integrity of the evidence within the court, swinging the court's favour to using online gathered evidence into a positive light. It's hard to say now whether the police will fully continue to use the internet as a tool but hopefully, both sides can use each other to their advantage.