Madison Meeks – Opinion Editor

mvm7037@psu.edu

Photo Credit: imagineerinx/Shutterstock

Information is crucial in criminal investigations in order to catch a suspect. In some more difficult cases investigators will ask the public for help, but in other cases, even if not asked, the public will take the case into their own hands to get information. 

This is where internet sleuths come in. Internet sleuths are people who take to the internet to express who they think, what they think, or information that they think could be relevant to the case. The consistent impact that Internet Sleuths have on a case leads to the question: Are Internet Sleuths helpful in solving crimes?

In my opinion, Internet Sleuths can be helpful to an investigation, but only to an extent. Internet Sleuths have helped investigators solve many cases, for example the 2021 Gabby Petito case. In this case, thousands of people went to the internet without being asked to help find out what happened to Gabby after her fiance, Brian Laudrie, returned to his parents Florida home without her after the two went on a cross country road trip together. 

People went onto social media and discussed what they think happened and who they think did it. As Gabby’s life was posted on the internet, people looked for clues based on her Instagram posts and YouTube videos. 

Due to the fact that she posted about her travels, her case was able to be solved with the help of the Internet Sleuths. But Internet Sleuths are not always helpful in investigations. 

Due to Investigators having so many cases, many of those cases end up going cold. So I totally understand why people want to help solve cases so families get closure.  But, there is a downside to Internet Sleuths helping solve cases. 

For example, in the recent University of Idaho slaying case, the investigators asked for the public’s help to locate a car that they thought was involved. Then, Internet Sleuths went digging to try to find the car, but the car that everyone claimed to be involved in the case was not the correct car, which was the car that was linked to the suspect in the case. 

The downfall of the case having Internet Sleuths involved was that they kept trying to blame someone for the case, who were not guilty. First it was the two roommates, then it was one of the victim’s boyfriend, then it was a Professor that worked at the university all of which were proven not to be involved at the beginning of the case. 

The same situation of blame being placed on people not actually involved has happened in other cases like the case of Abby German and Liberty William,  which involved a recording from one of the victim’s phones. People took to the Internet to try to solve the case and ended up blaming a person who the police then had to state was not involved. 

Overall, I think Internet Sleuths are not that bad, and they are not bad people. They are just civilians who want to help obtain justice for victims,  which is understandable. The downfall is that there should be solid evidence before blaming individuals for something that they might not have done.