Allison Baden-Clay was murdered by her husband Gerard. Questions have arisen as to what was recorded...

1. Websleuths: Citizen detectives and professionals helping
police solve crimes
Allison Baden-Clay was murdered by her husband Gerard. Questions have arisen as to what was
recorded during Gerard Baden-Clay's murder trial. Photo: Supplied
At 8.38am, on April 28, 2012, a member of true-crime forum Websleuths posted on a thread about
missing Brisbane woman Allison Baden-Clay: "I'm out this way and I kept getting eerie feelings
around Kholo Creek overpass. I know it probably sounds silly, but it's the 'what if'..."
News that a body had been found was posted on the site at 9.22pm the following day. At 10.22pm,
the member - whose plan to look at the area that morning fell through -- wrote, "Look, she's [at
Kholo Creek]... I wish I called the police. This is freaking me out a little."
They may have read the comments. Authorities certainly listened when another Websleuths member,
Steve*, a doctor, contacted them about the case. Like other Australian forum members, he
communicated with Fairfax Media via email, with all but one asking for their username not to be
identified.

2. Missing three-year-old William Tyrell. Photo: NSW Police
He became interested because he lived near Allison and husband Gerard's Brookfield house. Both
were well known to locals. "It was close to home - literally," he says.
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Gerard Baden-Clay's defence team unsuccessfully applied for bail after her autopsy showed high
levels of the antidepressant Zoloft, which Allison had been prescribed, arguing she may have taken
an overdose.
Steve investigated the suicide theory, which was being discussed on Websleuths, and found a just-
published scientific paper arguing an elevated reading is unconnected to the amount of the drug
taken, due to how the body breaks it down. He sent the information to the DPP, which used it in
court to discredit the idea.

3. Gable Tostee was jailed in February over a chase that occurred when he left Byron Bay's Splendour
in the Grass festival in July. Photo: Supplied
Dozens of experts, including doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, teachers and prison
officers, have joined Websleuths. They can post as such if their credentials are verified by site owner
Tricia Griffith, who bought it in 2004 for $US1500. "We're seeing an influx of professionals," she
tells Fairfax via Skype.
They jostle shoulders with suspects and curious members of the public on the United States-based
site, set up in 1999 to discuss the mysterious murder of six-year-old American child beauty pageant
star JonBenet Ramsey. Victims' relatives also join or read the threads, some emailing Griffith to say
they're comforted that strangers are trying to help. There are now more than 83,000 members,
230,000 threads (cases spill across multiple ones) and 11 million posts.
The majority of forum traffic is from the United States, with Australians the fourth-biggest
contributors, just behind Canada and Britain. Threads on cases such as missing Port Macquarie
toddler William Tyrell and murdered Parramatta woman Prabha Arun Kumar build incrementally
with links to news stories, information from locals, speculation and intense scrutiny of timelines.

4. Killed: Warriena Wright. Photo: Supplied
Police use Websleuths covertly and overtly. In April, a Nevada detective asked for help in identifying
a logo, part of which had been found on the clothes of an unidentified murder victim from the early
'90s.
"This has been my dream," Griffith says - the first request to forum members for assistance. Within
two days, "equestrianista" had tracked it down, something police had been unable to do in 23 years.
Griffith says it's her understanding that Australian authorities monitor the boards - she doesn't recall
which. Police have told Annie*, a Melbourne artist and writer, that they monitor discussions, but she
doesn't want to say which ones or why as it could defeat the purpose of them doing so.

5. Killed his wife: Gerard Baden-Clay. Photo: Supplied
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A NSW police spokeswoman won't say if the force uses Websleuths, adding, "Where appropriate,
criminal investigations by police will include online enquiries." She says people with information
about a crime should contact police directly.
The online migration of much of everyday life has been a boon for armchair sleuths. Annie and other
members found links to "disturbing photo collections" with pictures of a child via an email alias of
American Travis Padgett, since convicted of child rape, and forwarded them to US police. "I don't
know if it helped... and that doesn't matter to me at all. I just felt better having passed that
information along." "Icu nurse", a Sydney psychiatric nurse in her thirties, was verified so she could
discuss the death of Canadian student Elisa Lam, who was found in an LA hotel's water tank in 2013.
She'd seen a video of Lam behaving strangely in an elevator prior to her death, and theorised she
may have suffered from psychosis. Other forum users found Lam's Tumblr account and discovered
she was taking psychiatric medication. "Icu" identified it and says it's an unusual choice for someone
with bipolar disorder, possibly contributing to her behaviour.
Michelle*, a Brisbane property lawyer in her 40s, joined when Baden-Clay disappeared. "I used to
live not far away... I felt a connection to her on a personal level, though I didn't know her or any of
her friends or family." She found herself "naturally answering legal questions as what lawyer could
resist", and became verified so she didn't have to give sources each time.

6. Prabha Arun Kumar with her husband Arun and daughter Meghana. Photo: Supplied
People join for different reasons. Jim*, a married father-of-two who once considered becoming a
policeman, wanted to comment on the case of a missing child. Since becoming a dad, those cases
affect him acutely. He's also fascinated by the abnormal aspects of some crimes, relating to
psychology, science and medicine. "I'll often read about cases in every way possible, and the - albeit
remote - possibility of helping with one somehow is even more attractive." Michelle says Websleuths
can be "very addictive and a time sucker", explaining, "It unfolds like a whodunit." Annie likes the
examination of cold cases which "often bring people with personal connections to a case 'out of the
woods' and we end up with a lot more information than the media can provide".
Discussing crime online can cause problems - posts on Reddit, another site with crime threads,
identified the wrong suspects in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
The NSW police spokeswoman warns of the danger of prejudicial or defamatory content. Canadian
police once contacted Griffith, saying a post wasn't allowed under their law. "They said it's going to
hurt our case if you leave that up. That's the last thing we want, so we took it down." She introduced
"wonderful" moderators, who now undergo background checks, in 2008 so cases can be discussed
without "people saying, 'You're an idiot, I hope someone runs you over."' There's a long list of rules,
including no random accusations about family members or people who aren't suspects.
Michelle thinks Gable Tostee, who's charged with the murder of Warriena Wright in the Gold Coast
last year, posted under different aliases. "[They] revealed lots of information that could only have
been known to the person in that apartment." It wouldn't be the first time a suspect joined. Griffith
receives several subpoenas a year from US police asking for IP addresses, which identify a
computer. "They ask about certain cases, and it appears the person they're looking at knows a lot of
information, so they're thinking the same thing." In 2008, a woman called Dorice Moore befriended
Abraham Shakespeare, a homeless man from Florida, who'd won $US30 million in a lottery two
years prior. After he'd transferred his remaining assets to her, he disappeared.
On Websleuths, the discussion turned to the possibility Moore had killed him. "She came on the
forum blasting away," says Griffith, "and the police called and said just let her go. I told the
moderators, 'Don't monitor anything she says, don't edit anything'. She basically talked herself into
being arrested." Shakespeare's body was found, and Moore convicted of murder.
* Not their real names
http://www.smh.com.au/national/websleuths-citizen-detectives-and-professionals-helping-police-solve
-crimes-20150502-1mutek.html