Type of site | crime-sleuthing community |
---|---|
Owner | Websleuths LLC |
URL | www |
Commercial | Yes |
Users | 136,498 as of May 2018 [1] |
Launched | 25 May 1999 |
Current status | active |
Websleuths is an internet community that is focused on crime and missing persons. The privately owned Websleuths LLC maintains a forum for registered users to discuss and classify information related to crimes, trials and unsolved cases, which they try to solve. Tricia Griffith purchased the site in 2004. [2]
Some content is available for viewing without registration. Members have an option to be verified with their credentials with the administrator if they have a specific expertise, such as DNA analysis professionals, law enforcement, or are related to a specific crime in some way. [3]
Crimes which have received national attention are always highlighted by Websleuths. The 2008 Caylee Anthony murder and 2011 trial of her mother drew years of interest and commentary regarding the murder, media attention to the case, and documentation of evidence and information. [2] The television show Law & Order portrayed Websleuths in an episode about the Anthony case named "Crimebusters".
In 2014, Carl Koppelman, a California man who is a member of Websleuths, believed that he had identified a match between a new image of Tammy Alexander, long missing from Hernando County, Florida, and a forensic portrait of a young unidentified homicide victim known as Caledonia Jane Doe, found in Livingston County, New York in 1979. He notified both Sheriff's offices and the NamUs database administrators. With this lead, police were able to make a DNA match between the victim and her half-sister, confirming her in January 2015 as Alexander more than 35 years after her death. [4]
A Vice.com profile highlights a case where; "In 2006, the site's efforts helped solve the murder of a homeless man who’d won the lottery." [5]
Tricia Griffith hosts a weekly podcast on Blog Talk Radio. [6] In 2016, Websleuths joined the producers of the television show The Killing Season in an interactive look at the unsolved Long Island serial killer cases. [7] Griffith frequently hosts live Websleuths videos discussing current cases on YouTube. [8]
Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early 1980s and late 1990s. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders.
Christopher Bernard Wilder, also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted at least twelve young women and girls, killing eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Wilder's series of murders began in Florida on February 26, 1984, and continued across the country through Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and California, with attempted abductions in Washington and New York. Wilder victimized attractive young women, most of whom he would entice by promising to take their pictures. After subduing them, he would torture and rape them before shooting, stabbing with a knife, or strangling them to death. Two or more of his victims were electrocuted using a makeshift electrical cord.
Tammy Jo Alexander was an American teenage girl who was found murdered in the village of Caledonia, New York on November 10, 1979. She had been fatally shot twice and left in a field just off U.S. Route 20 near the Genesee River after running away from her home in Brooksville, Florida, earlier that year. For more than three decades, she remained unidentified under the names Caledonia Jane Doe or Cali Doe until January 26, 2015, when police in Livingston County, New York, announced her identity 35 years after her death.
Steven Gerald James Wright is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler. He is serving a whole-life term in prison for the murder of five women who worked in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during the final months of 2006 and Wright was found guilty in February 2008.
John William Cooper is a Welsh serial killer. On 26 May 2011, he was given a whole life order for the 1985 double murder of siblings Richard and Helen Thomas, and the 1989 double murder of Peter and Gwenda Dixon. The murders were known in the media as the "Pembrokeshire Murders" or the "Coastal Murders". Cooper was also sentenced for the rape of a 16-year-old girl and a sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl, both carried out while a group of five teenagers were held at gunpoint in March 1996, in a wooded area behind the Mount Estate in Cooper's hometown of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.
The Bear Brook murders are female American murder victims, two discovered in 1985 and two in 2000, at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, United States. All four of the victims were either partially or completely skeletonized; they were believed to have died between 1977 and 1981.
Marcia Lenore Sossoman King was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for almost 37 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.
Sherri Ann Jarvis was an American murder victim from Forest Lake, Minnesota whose body was discovered in Huntsville, Texas on November 1, 1980. Her body was discovered within hours of her sexual assault and murder, and remained unidentified for 41 years before investigators announced her identification via forensic genealogy in November 2021.
Joseph Naso, also known as Crazy Joe or the Double Initial Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist sentenced to death for the murders of four women. He was also implicated in the murders of other women.
Tammy Corrine Terrell was an American murder victim from Roswell, New Mexico. Her body was discovered on October 5, 1980, in Henderson, Nevada, and remained unidentified until December 2021. Her case has been the subject of extensive efforts by investigators and has been highlighted as inspiring other work to solve cold cases of unidentified murder victims.
John Ingram Brandenburg Jr. and Keith Lavell Bibbs were two young murder victims formerly known as the Newton County John Does whose remains were discovered by mushroom foragers in Lake Village, Newton County, Indiana, on October 18 and 19, 1983. Both victims were discovered alongside two other murder victims whose bodies were identified within months of their discovery. All four were victims of serial killer Larry Eyler.
The Killing Season is an American true crime documentary television series which debuted on November 12, 2016, on A&E. Executive produced by Alex Gibney, the series follows documentarians Joshua Zeman and Rachel Mills as they explore the case of the Long Island serial killer and other unsolved cases such as the Eastbound Strangler, and the victims and investigations that have been connected to the cases. Some new investigating and interviewing is done during the series, including contacting members of internet amateur crime investigation group Websleuths.com, and following-up on their activities.
Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is a company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.
Samuel Little was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 93 people, nearly all women, between 1970 and 2005. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed Little's involvement in at least 60 of the 93 confessed murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.
DNA Doe Project is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.
Joseph William Kappen, also known as the Saturday Night Strangler, was a Welsh serial killer who committed the rape and murder of three teenage girls in Llandarcy and Tonmawr, near his home town of Port Talbot, in 1973. Kappen is also suspected of committing a fourth murder in February 1976.
Carl Koppelman is an American professional accountant and unpaid volunteer forensic sketch artist. Since 2009, Koppelman has drawn over 250 reconstructions and age progressions of missing and unidentified people.
The murders ofKate BushellandLinda "Lyn" Bryant, a 14-year-old schoolgirl and a 41-year-old woman, respectively, occurred in separate incidents of West Country, England. The events occurred in 15 November 1997 and 20 October 1998 respectively. The similar circumstances of the murders led investigators to conclude that there is a high possibility the murders are linked, with both killed with knives while walking their dogs along isolated lanes.
Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community Statistics Discussions 305,154 Posts 13,607,658 Members 136,498