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From solving murders to catching thieves, the internet has become a powerful tool for justice. Join us as we explore remarkable cases where online sleuths, social media users, and digital platforms helped crack crimes that had authorities stumped! Our countdown includes stories that will make you think twice about what you do online.
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00:00But it's very emotionally taxing on them.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:03And today we're counting down our picks for times the internet directly solved a crime
00:08or was instrumental in helping a case get solved indirectly.
00:12There's prices to pay, there's consequences.
00:15Number 30. A Bicycle Theft.
00:17Trouble struck for a teenager in Honingen, Holland when his bike was hijacked by a pair of petty thugs.
00:22We're losing valuable time. Set up a dragnet, hold the whole area. Hurry!
00:27Look, buddy, I'm afraid we can't consider your bike being stolen in a police emergency.
00:32In addition to stealing the bicycle, the crooks also took the young man's phone as well as the money he
00:36had on him.
00:37Unfortunately, progress on the robbery case was incredibly slow.
00:41While the teenager was unsatisfied by this, he was eventually able to do what law enforcement couldn't on their own.
00:47Get justice.
00:48Using Google Maps a few months later, he found photographic evidence relating to the crime and shared it with police.
00:53This information was later crucial in finding the criminals.
00:56Never do anything stupid because if you think no one can see you, think again.
01:01There is a solid chance Google is watching you.
01:04Come on, Dottie. Let's go.
01:06Let's go? Don't you want to see the rest of the movie?
01:08I don't have to see it, Dottie. I'd live to.
01:12Number 29. The Missing Link to a Fatal Hit-N-Run
01:15Reddit has on occasion put missing pieces together and solved some cases, and this specific time is no different.
01:21When a tragic hit-and-run killed Susan Rainwater, the Washington State Patrol posted a picture of a broken car
01:27piece to Twitter in hopes of getting leads about the suspect.
01:30The picture later found its way to Reddit on r slash whatisthisthing, where it gained some major traction.
01:35The popular subreddit worked together and theorized that the part belonged to a Chevy truck from around the 1980s.
01:41You didn't happen to get a plate number.
01:43No, uh, but it was a Chevy.
01:45Later, an anonymous tip came through about a damaged 1986 Chevrolet K10 sighting.
01:50On August 14th, 2018, Washington State Police confirmed they made an arrest.
01:55In their tweet, they also acknowledged Reddit's contribution to the case.
01:58Number 28. The BK Foot Lettuce Fiasco
02:01During a late night in 2012, a Burger King employee decided to goof off and step into two plastic bins
02:07containing lettuce.
02:08A picture of the employee's lettuce-submerged feet was quickly uploaded onto 4chan.
02:13Lettuce! Lettuce!
02:15From there, users were actually able to find the exact location where the photo was taken.
02:19Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
02:21Unsurprisingly, the culprit was fired.
02:23While this thankfully wasn't a major crime, it was still a pretty serious health code violation.
02:28Obviously, sticking your feet into lettuce is not something that will go without consequences.
02:32Burger King's brand and reputation took a big hit because of the embarrassing situation.
02:36The foot-lettuce fiasco ultimately served as a cautionary tale for how a small joke can end up costing a
02:42fast food chain big time.
02:50Number 27. Haley Wilson's Disappearance
02:53When teenager Haley Wilson made the choice to run away from home in 2011,
02:56the drastic decision obviously devastated her family.
03:00But while her father communicated with the police like normal,
03:03he also went above and beyond expectations.
03:05Please find my daughter.
03:08Find my daughter.
03:09Ray Wilson used the internet to the best of his capacity to find his daughter.
03:13He posted a video talking about Haley,
03:15which was shared to sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
03:18It wasn't long until the video picked up steam across those sites,
03:21and the hashtags FindHaley and LoveHaley were created too.
03:24After this, she was eventually found, and the investigation was thankfully resolved.
03:29She's here.
03:30The amount of attention that Haley's disappearance got on social media
03:34no doubt helped to get her rediscovered.
03:36Number 26. Illegal Marijuana Farm
03:38Over the years, the weed industry has become a pretty lucrative business,
03:42but navigating the waters of this field has proven to be tricky.
03:46Back in 2013, Curtis W. Croft, a farmer in Oregon,
03:50grew a rather large amount of marijuana.
03:52Sweet Mary Jane is my vice of choice, as you well know.
03:56Of course, I'm addicted to selling it, not consuming it.
04:00Interestingly, growing the weed wasn't actually the crime.
04:03Well, not exactly.
04:04Curtis had a special registration that allowed him to grow medical marijuana for up to five users,
04:09which would equate to about 30 plants.
04:10However, Curtis allegedly grew 94 plants, roughly triple what he was legally allowed to grow.
04:16Fortunately, visual evidence of the marijuana farm showed up on Google Earth,
04:21which police used to throw the book at him.
04:23There's a lesson here, and it's that going overboard can cost you.
04:27You ought to talk to Freddy.
04:29His recent obsession with marijuana production is really too much.
04:33Number 25. The Cat Kicker
04:35Don't harm pets.
04:36Sounds simple enough, but unfortunately, incidents like this happen.
04:40In July of 2013, a teenager posted a video to Vine,
04:44where he was seen kicking his pet kitten.
04:49The internet obviously did not think the video was funny,
04:52and it circulated across social media.
04:54The teenager was identified as Walter Easley,
04:57and his video was quickly reported to police.
04:59An online petition was also made calling for Walter to face justice.
05:03The six-second video landed him in court,
05:05where he was soon charged with animal cruelty.
05:07The internet essentially rallied together to make it clear
05:10that harming pets would have consequences.
05:12In his attempt to get some quick clicks,
05:14Walter ended up getting some quick criminal charges instead.
05:17I didn't mean to cause harm to the animal.
05:20Number 24. Exposed by Google Street View
05:23In this day and age, there's really no way to live without leaving some kind of digital footprint behind.
05:28This is the phone.
05:29No phone.
05:31Up here, ice storms equal service calls,
05:35equal you in cuffs.
05:38Internet.
05:39Same deal.
05:40Although, Italian mafia boss Joaquino Gamino definitely tried his best.
05:44After escaping from prison in 2002,
05:47the gangster laid low as a chef in Spain for years.
05:50However, a photo on Google Maps Street View showed him in plain view outside a restaurant.
05:54That, in addition to a Facebook post from a nearby establishment,
05:58gave police all they needed.
05:59Allegedly, Gamino had taken serious precautions to avoid the law,
06:03including going no contact with his family.
06:05So, it's pretty ironic that he was done in by simple Google.
06:09Very helpful.
06:11Number 23. Kidnapping Victims Seeks Legal Advice
06:14A young boy named Julian was kidnapped by the man he thought was his father.
06:18Years later, when Julian was 18 and applying for colleges,
06:21he discovered things about his past were not adding up.
06:23Julian Hernandez discovered he'd been missing for 13 years.
06:28He had problems with his social security,
06:30and later learned that he was actually on a database for missing children.
06:33A since-deleted Reddit post to r slash legal advice by a throwaway account
06:37believed to be Julian asked for insight on what to do regarding this situation.
06:41It wasn't long after that Bobby Hernandez was arrested by law enforcement for kidnapping.
06:45While the Reddit post likely wasn't the main cause for the arrest,
06:49the added attention from it definitely generated more necessary spotlight to the investigation.
06:53I can't even imagine what that would be like
06:58to have to undergo that pain for 13 years.
07:01Number 22. Linda O'Keefe's Story
07:03Linda O'Keefe was a girl who went missing in 1973.
07:07Her case was cold for decades, but in 2017, interest in her investigation was renewed.
07:12Newport Beach Police created a social media campaign revolving around her
07:16with a Twitter hashtag titled Linda's Story.
07:19It essentially informed the public about her tragic disappearance through narrative tweets.
07:24The campaign gained a solid amount of traction and practically revitalized the investigation.
07:28When we ran the numbers, we had 7 million impressions.
07:31Later, through DNA testing, a suspect was taken in, James Allen Neal.
07:36Linda wasn't his first.
07:37The Twitter campaign itself isn't exactly what led to finding Neal,
07:41but it proved vital to making sure that Linda would get justice.
07:44Social media often understandably gets a bad rap,
07:47but sometimes it can be used for incredible things.
07:50This is the kind of case that you know you're going to do everything you can
07:53to hold the defendant accountable.
07:56Number 21. The Kristen Smart Case
07:58True crime podcasts are a dime a dozen nowadays.
08:01There was something special about your own backyard.
08:03That's because the podcast hosted by Chris Lambert
08:06helped bring closure to Kristen Smart's death.
08:08It's hard to take too much credit,
08:10but I was one piece of the puzzle that helped to make this all come together when it did.
08:15In 1996, the college student disappeared and her case went silent for a while.
08:20But when the podcast started to cover Kristen's death, that all changed.
08:23Lambert's series introduced Kristen's tragic backstory to a large audience,
08:27which led to more attention to the case.
08:29Series has hit more than 10 million downloads
08:31since the first episode was released in September of 2019.
08:35In 2022, as the podcast got bigger,
08:38Paul Flores was convicted of murdering her.
08:40Then in 2023, he was given a prison sentence of 25 years to life.
08:45You deserve to spend every day you have left behind bars.
08:48It's worth acknowledging that the podcast itself wasn't ultimately what solved the case,
08:53but the coverage undeniably contributed to the investigation.
08:56Number 20. Tent Girl
08:57The body of Barbara Ann Hackman Taylor was found wrapped in a tarp on May 17, 1968,
09:03and was presumed to be the victim of a homicide.
09:06Her nickname Tent Girl came as a result of the material she was found wrapped in,
09:10and because her real identity wasn't known yet.
09:13Years after Tent Girl was found,
09:15a man named Todd Matthews married the daughter of the man who first discovered the body.
09:19Knowing that the case troubled his father-in-law,
09:21Matthews began digging on the internet.
09:23He scoured public databases and missing persons websites until he found a match.
09:28The Hackman family had posted a report about their missing relative,
09:31whose story seemingly matched Tent Girl's.
09:34Contact was made, authorities were notified, and Tent Girl was positively identified.
09:39Number 19. The Linda Jane Hart Case
09:43Websleuths.com is where amateur detectives gather to discuss cold cases,
09:47and they all share one primary mission, to solve what the police could not.
09:51One sleuth is Carl Koppelman, who once worked as an accountant for Disney.
09:56He took to perusing the website and started moderating a forum for unidentified victims.
10:00The object of this forum is to locate missing persons by cross-referencing coroner's reports.
10:05Through his involvement, Koppelman was able to identify Linda Jane Hart,
10:09who had been missing since 1988.
10:12Hart's remains were found in an abandoned parking lot,
10:15but she was initially categorized as a Jane Doe.
10:18It wasn't until 2011 that Koppelman's investigative skills would lead to her identification.
10:23Number 18. Anthony Posey.
10:26And now for something a little lighter.
10:29Louisiana-based professional photographer Anthony Posey traveled to Seattle for his wife's 50th birthday,
10:34and decided to visit the city's public library while he was there.
10:38Unfortunately, he left his camera in one of the bathrooms,
10:40and when he returned, the camera was gone.
10:43He posted a help ad on Craigslist, but didn't hold out much hope.
10:46Nevertheless, police soon recovered a stolen camera,
10:49and used the community posting website Nextdoor.com to publicize their find.
10:53One of its users recognized the camera from Posey's Craigslist ad and connected the dots.
10:58And with that, the professional photographer was reunited with his camera.
11:03Number 17. Operation Death Eaters.
11:06Get out! It's the Death Eaters!
11:08Founded in 2014 by a woman named Heather Marsh,
11:11Operation Death Eaters would later become associated with the hacktivist group Anonymous,
11:16which garnered it greater media attention.
11:18Dear citizens of the world,
11:20the time for truth has arrived,
11:22a time for freedom and transparency,
11:24a time for people to express themselves freely,
11:27and to be heard from anywhere across the world.
11:30The goal of the operation is to find and expose those dealing in human trafficking and predation.
11:35Despite the involvement of Anonymous,
11:38there is actually no hacking involved.
11:40Rather, the participants use good old-fashioned research and investigative methods
11:43in an attempt to remain legitimate.
11:45The group is looking into both individuals and entire institutions,
11:49including the U.S. military,
11:51which they argue govern themselves
11:53and therefore cannot be trusted to mete out justice properly.
11:56It's unclear if the operation has led to any arrests,
11:59but there's no denying that their intentions are noble.
12:02Number 16.
12:03The Reddit Recounting
12:05During a friend's engagement party at a Seattle bar,
12:0826-year-old Sam Whitehorn was assaulted by three men,
12:11according to Whitehorn's girlfriend Bridget Kitson.
12:13His Green Bay Packers hat attracted the attention of the men,
12:17who were fans of the Seattle Seahawks.
12:19As a result of the attack,
12:21Whitehorn hit his head on the curb.
12:23The fall fractured his skull and put him in a coma.
12:25Kitson recounted the story on Reddit,
12:27which quickly went viral.
12:29A resulting police investigation later found and identified the three suspects.
12:33According to a post made by Kitson,
12:35the suspects proceeded to turn themselves in.
12:38Number 15.
12:39Billy Jensen's Geo-Targeted Ads
12:41A digital media consultant named Billy Jensen
12:44has emerged as one of the most accomplished amateur sleuths working today,
12:48with the solving of a purported 10 homicide cases under his belt.
12:52I wanted to solve these murders myself and I came up with a system on how to do it.
12:57Jensen once worked as an investigative journalist and his experience in the field of crime reporting has paid dividends.
13:03Jensen uses Geo-Targeted ads on social media to attract the attention of locals and uses their witness reports to
13:09suss out criminals.
13:10If you're able to target the specific people that you want to target in a specific area and say,
13:15hey, do you know this guy?
13:16You're going to get a lot better response.
13:18One specific case solved by Jensen was the killing of Marcus Gaines.
13:22With the help of local photos and videos, Jensen was able to identify the perp as Marcus Moore.
13:27I started, you know, kind of fumbling in the dark, started a social media campaign
13:31and was able to actually find someone who was there that took a video of the event.
13:35And I was able to take that video, match it up with pictures of mugshots and was able to identify
13:42the puncher.
13:44Jensen has since written two books about his exploits, Chase Darkness With Me and Killer Amidst Killers.
13:50Number 14, The Jacob Wetterling Case.
13:53In 1989, young Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked assailant while biking home with his younger brother and friend.
14:00The case remained cold for decades until Joy Baker got involved.
14:04It would take nearly three decades for a break in the case.
14:07A man named Jared Shirell claimed that he survived a similar encounter in the 80s.
14:12And both he and Baker began to unravel the years-long mystery.
14:15That case was too old to prosecute, but there was DNA evidence from it.
14:20That DNA evidence, enough to get a search warrant for Heinrich's home.
14:24They unearthed a number of related stories, leading to their appearance on CNN's The Hunt.
14:29This then attracted the attention of authorities, who ordered that the Wetterling case be reopened.
14:34An old DNA sample was found and matched to a man named Danny Heinrich,
14:38who would eventually reveal the location of Wetterling's remains.
14:42He's not getting away with anything. We got the truth.
14:45Number 13. The Shooting of Crystal Theobald
14:48The 2021 Netflix documentary, Why Did You Kill Me?, tells the story of Crystal Theobald
14:54and her family's desperate search for justice.
14:56I look over, and he's standing there, right by the stop sign.
15:01Theobald was killed in 2006 when a local gang mistakenly believed the car she was riding in belonged to rival
15:07gang members.
15:08They shot at the car in a drive-by, killing Theobald and wounding her boyfriend.
15:12Theobald's mother, Belinda Lane, took to MySpace with a fake account to befriend members of the gang.
15:17She connected with a man named William Sotelo, who admitted that he and a few others were involved in the
15:22shooting.
15:23In the end, Sotelo was charged with voluntary manslaughter,
15:26while Julio Heredia, the shooter, was found guilty of first-degree murder.
15:31Number 12. Anonymous and Retea Parsons
15:34After attending a high school party where she was sexually assaulted,
15:38Retea Parsons was further maltreated when photos of the assault were spread online.
15:42The photos also made their way through Parsons' hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
15:47Unfortunately, under the stress of it all, Parsons attempted to take her own life and ended up in a coma.
15:52From the start, police messed up, interviewing Parsons not once, but twice.
15:57Her family eventually had to make the incredibly difficult decision to terminate her life support.
16:02The story attracted the attention of Anonymous, who reportedly identified the guilty parties.
16:07They demanded that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police enact justice, or they would publicly reveal the names.
16:12We encourage you to act fast.
16:14If we were able to locate these boys within two hours, it will not be long before someone else finds
16:21them.
16:21There are varying accounts of what happened subsequently to this,
16:24but it seems at least two of the suspects were identified by the RCMP.
16:29Number 11. Andrea Bowman
16:31Amateur sleuth Carl Koppelman strikes again, this time solving the case of teenager Andrea Bowman.
16:37Bowman was suffering abuse from her adoptive father Dennis before she vanished from his home.
16:41The case went cold for decades until authorities in Hamilton, Michigan arrested Bowman in November.
16:47Koppelman began digging around online years later and stumbled across an active Classmates.com page in Bowman's name.
16:53He contacted the owner and discovered that it was Bowman's biological mother.
16:57The two investigated the case together and came to the conclusion that Bowman's abusive adoptive father was most likely responsible
17:04for her disappearance.
17:05Police, in turn, eventually took his DNA and linked it to a prior murder.
17:10Knowing that he was caught, he then confessed to killing Andrea as well.
17:14Number 10. Brad Willman's Trojan Horse
17:17Back in the late 90s, a Canadian man named Brad Willman devised a Trojan horse that allowed him complete access
17:24to the computers that downloaded it.
17:26Willman placed the Trojan horse on websites dedicated to predators, and at the height of Willman's activity, he was monitoring
17:32up to 3,000 computers.
17:34These belonged to a wide variety of people, including priests, social workers, police officers, and military personnel.
17:42His program aided in numerous official channels, including a Kentucky state investigation and a case involving the Royal Canadian Mounted
17:50Police.
17:51But perhaps his biggest catch was Superior Court Judge Ronald Klein, who pleaded guilty to possessing explicit material and was
17:58sentenced to 27 months in prison.
18:01Number 9. Finding Sean Powers' Laptop
18:04A Canadian web consultant named Sean Power was the victim of a laptop thief while visiting New York City.
18:10After returning home to Canada, a tracking tool called Prey alerted Power that his computer was in use and provided
18:16screenshots of the user.
18:18The man logged into Skype using his real name, giving Power his name, face, and location.
18:25His 12,000 Twitter followers then banded together, with one discovering that he was the owner of a restaurant called
18:31Officina Latina.
18:32It shows kind of clear intent that they kind of wanted to keep the laptop, which is fine, I guess.
18:38But I guess when he was confronted with the fact that we had pictures of him in his bank account,
18:43he changed his mind.
18:45Powers sent a female friend to investigate, and a Twitter follower named Nick Reese ventured to the restaurant on behalf
18:51of Powers.
18:52They were able to reclaim the bag and the laptop, and Powers called the perp to thank him for returning
18:58his belongings.
18:59Number 8. iPad Selfies
19:01That pesky cloud and its penchant for stopping criminals.
19:05Now, the things you do on your phone are everywhere you want them. Automatically.
19:10In January of 2015, Randy Schaefer woke up to find his truck broken into.
19:15Missing was a bag containing cash, an iPad, and a MacBook.
19:19After informing the police, Schaefer realized that some pictures had been uploaded to his iCloud account.
19:25There were several pictures. There's about 15 pictures.
19:27Schaefer uploaded the photos to Click2Houston's Facebook page and received 11,000 shares.
19:34Meanwhile, his friend shared the photos on Reddit, and a user recognized one of the perps from high school.
19:39The friend was linked to the Facebook account of one Dorian Walker Gaines,
19:43where they found a video of the man flaunting his newfound cash.
19:56The authorities were alerted, and the perps were promptly arrested.
20:00Number 7. Virginia Hit and Run
20:02On April 7, 2012, a 57-year-old woman was killed in a hit-and-run in Virginia.
20:08No description of the car was provided,
20:10and the only thing police had to go on was a small piece of metal that broke off the car
20:15upon impact.
20:16They posted a photo of the piece online, and it was quickly picked up by car enthusiast website Jalopnik.
20:23Its users quickly identified the metal as the grill from a Ford F-150.
20:27They narrowed it down to the exact year and trim level, and the police used this information to build their
20:33case.
20:34It eventually led them to Victor Espinoza and Juan Gonzalez-Vasquez,
20:38both of whom were arrested and slapped with hit-and-run charges.
20:41Number 6. The Steubenville High School Case
20:44This very public and controversial case involved a crime perpetrated against a high school girl.
20:50It appears that the juvenile victim attended a party,
20:54and we're still waiting to find out exactly what happened from there.
20:58May have happened in several locations, both in the city and outside the city.
21:02The act was graphically disseminated through social media,
21:05with dozens of people documenting the event through text messaging and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
21:11Many of these posts were found and publicly released by crime blogger and amateur sleuth Alexandria Goddard.
21:17Alexandria Goddard is a crime blogger who posted all the messages and all the names of the boys involved,
21:24even those who had not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
21:28Extra footage was leaked by an anonymous offshoot known as NightSec.
21:32Both were paramount in publicizing the Steubenville case and making it national news.
21:37And then all of a sudden, some guy comes on, and he's not even from the area,
21:42and he's like, I'm coming for you. She's passed out. It's not okay.
21:45The information was also responsible for exposing the perpetrators,
21:49both of whom were convicted and sent to juvenile detention for one and two years, respectively.
21:54That both of the defendants are hereby adjudicated delinquent beyond a reasonable doubt on all three counts as charged.
22:04Number 5. Philadelphia Swarm
22:06In this horrible case, over a dozen people attacked a gay couple on the streets of Philadelphia
22:12while making disparaging remarks about their sexual orientation.
22:16The attack has outraged the city and raised concerns about the law.
22:20The police released surveillance video of the incident,
22:23and a Twitter user named Greg Bennett posted a Facebook photo of what looked like the assailants in a nearby
22:28restaurant.
22:29Bennett claims that the photo was sent to him by a friend of a friend of a friend.
22:34The restaurant was identified as LaViola,
22:37and user at fanssince09 cross-checked Facebook for people who had checked into LaViola that night.
22:42They found numerous matches, and Twitter now had names.
22:46The names were given over to police, and Detective Joseph Murray thanked them for their efforts.
22:52Number 4. The Death of Gregory May
22:55Back in 1995, cousins of Ellen Leach went missing,
22:59and this eventually inspired the Mississippi resident to become a web sleuth
23:02dedicated to finding missing persons around the country.
23:05In the early 2000s, a skull was found inside a bucket of concrete,
23:09and a clay reconstruction of its human face was produced.
23:12Web sleuth Leach found a match with one Gregory May,
23:15a missing antiques dealer who was robbed by his roommate.
23:19The roommate, Douglas DeBruin, had stolen May's antiques collection worth $70,000,
23:24and was going to trial for May's potential murder.
23:27The only problem was the lack of a body.
23:30Fortunately, the skull was indeed matched to May,
23:32and DeBruin was convicted and sent to prison for orchestrating his death.
23:37Number 3. The Case of William Francis Melchert Dinkle
23:40This married father-of-two perused chat rooms and posed as a depressed 20-something woman.
23:47He would then enter into fake death pacts with despondent people,
23:51often providing them with detailed instructions.
23:53In November of 2006, a retired schoolteacher named Celia Bley
23:58got word of one Lee Dao who had made a death pact with her friend.
24:02Bley investigated Lee Dao and found other aliases and prior pacts.
24:07The police were not interested, so Bley set up a sting operation
24:11in which she was able to track the user's IP address to William Francis Melchert Dinkle in Minnesota.
24:16The St. Paul Police Department apprehended the man, and he was convicted on two counts.
24:21He spent 178 days in prison.
24:25Number 2. Abraham Shakespeare
24:27While buying cigarettes at a Florida convenience store in 2006,
24:31Abraham Shakespeare decided to try his luck and bought some lottery tickets.
24:34Those tickets made him $17 million richer.
24:38Shakespeare bought himself that new car, a fancy new house, and lots more.
24:43But as so often happens, this lotto winner's drama didn't stick to the script.
24:48That's because the money also brought unwanted attention.
24:51A lady named Dee Dee Moore then started a business with Shakespeare
24:55and gave herself full control over the funds.
24:58So when Shakespeare later went missing, police immediately suspected Moore.
25:02In the beginning, we thought he was missing, that he was hiding away.
25:06As the investigation continues, the evidence mounts that he could have died because of sinister means.
25:14Murder, we're talking here.
25:16Could be.
25:17She in turn claimed that Shakespeare had gone to live somewhere remote,
25:20having grown sick of the constant requests for money.
25:23Prosecutors paint a picture of Moore as a conniving manipulator,
25:27intent on taking Shakespeare's cash.
25:29Web sleuths also blamed Moore.
25:31And when an anonymous user logged in to defend Moore's name,
25:35their IP address was traced.
25:37It led directly to Moore herself.
25:39Cold, calculated, cruel.
25:41They all apply.
25:43Manipulative.
25:44Probably the most manipulative person that this court has seen.
25:48She was later arrested for the death of Shakespeare,
25:51as his body was found in the backyard of her house.
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26:10Number 1. Luca Magnata
26:12And so I was on Facebook one day and I found a post.
26:16A lot of people have been feverishly posting about a video that was online.
26:22In 2010, a video was posted online depicting violence against animals.
26:27This resulted in the creation of a Facebook group intent on identifying the perpetrator.
26:32Eventually, the amateur sleuths were tipped off to the name Luca Magnata,
26:36perhaps by Magnata himself.
26:38Of course, what you're going to do, Luca Magnata, hit enter.
26:43And, oh my god, it just like, he just,
26:49I don't know how to explain my reaction to what the results were.
26:55The group was able to match their clues to publicly available photos of Magnata,
26:59proving successful in their hunt.
27:01Then, in 2012, student Jun Lin was killed in Montreal, Canada.
27:05And the graphic video depicting his death further drew the group's attention.
27:10It was no longer a game of online, this was real world.
27:14They were able to help link Magnata to the killer in the video.
27:17Magnata was eventually traced by police to Berlin and extradited back to Canada,
27:22where he was sentenced to life in prison.
27:38Which of these internet-solved crimes were you most surprised by?
27:42Let us know in the comments.
27:43Let us know in the comments.
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