Websleuths

Last updated
Websleuths
Websleuths screenshot.png
Type of site
crime-sleuthing community
OwnerWebsleuths LLC
URL www.websleuths.com
CommercialYes
Users 136,498 as of May 2018 [1]
Launched25 May 1999;24 years ago (1999-05-25)
Current statusactive

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]

Contents

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]

Notable cases

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]

Alliances and other activities

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]

See also

List of Internet forums

Related Research Articles

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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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Wilder</span> Australian serial killer (1945–1984)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Tammy Alexander</span> American ex-unidentified 1979 murder victim

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Wright (serial killer)</span> British serial killer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cooper (serial killer)</span> Welsh serial killer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear Brook murders</span> Four murder victims found in Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Koppelman</span> American forensic sketch artist

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References

  1. "Websleuths". Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2018. Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community Statistics Discussions 305,154 Posts 13,607,658 Members 136,498
  2. 1 2 Kimberly A. C. Wilson (July 24, 2010). "Armchair detectives: True-crime websites are nonstop outlets for facts and opinions on Kyron Horman case". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  3. "professional". 4 April 2017. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  4. "Police ID 'Jane Doe' found in Livingston Co. cornfield in 1979". January 26, 2015. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  5. Matthew Gault (September 22, 2021). "Did the Internet Actually Help Find Gabby Petito?". Vice. Archived from the original on September 24, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  6. "Blog Talk radio Websleuths". 19 July 2019. Archived from the original on 29 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  7. Olivia Lambert (Nov 14, 2016). "The secret life of a websleuth and how they're on the hunt for the Long Island serial killer". news.com.au. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  8. "Websleuths - YouTube". YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-09-23. Retrieved 2021-09-23.