How ordinary people are changing the true crime narrative by engaging in citizen investigations & bringing attention to unsolved cases.
The age of digital accessibility has redefined true crime. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime provide access to archives of documentaries, movies, and shows highlighting the best of new and old true crime content. However, public interest in true crime is a phenomenon that dates back hundreds of years. Citizen investigators, or “armchair detectives,” have been around for ages, visiting abandoned crime scenes, discussing verdicts, and attempting to solve cases that the police could not. With the invention of the internet, the public has more access to public information, including crime reports, than ever. With social media, communities have come together to keep conversations on crimes alive using engagement and evidence, especially on Reddit.
Despite the explosion of true crime multimedia in the last decade, public interest in macabre is nothing new. The modern idea of crime in the Western world has its roots in the ancient notion of Biblical sin. Both are prohibited actions but also possess a strong allure for people to commit. In the era of “yellow” journalism, the media was highly interested in reporting murder trials, particularly those with unusual facts, graphic details, or defendants who evoked sympathy.
In 1892, the Borden family was brutally attacked with an ax, allegedly by their daughter Lizzie, an avid church-going spinster. The reaction to such an event sparked a fascination with the story that was nothing short of a media phenomenon. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, her life was never the same after the court of public opinion dubbed her guilty, a concept that directly relates to armchair detectives.
In 1966, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood created an entirely new genre– “True Crime.” Even Capote knew that true crime would fascinate American audiences for years, saying, “The human heart being what it is, murder was a theme not likely to darken and yellow with time,” to George Plimpton in a 1966 interview in The New York Times. Capote was undoubtedly right– as true crime, particularly the more gruesome, the better, has entertained audiences for centuries. The 1970s and 80s were the age of serial killers, with most cases ending up unsolved for at least a few years due to uneducated police departments, lack of communication between precincts, and limited advancement in forensic science until the development of DNA testing in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Even during a period of national darkness, the public’s fascination with True Crime endured, as evidenced by the popularity of TV shows like America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries, which aired in the 1980s. Both of these shows provided the public an opportunity to participate in the investigation, as all cases were still unsolved, the culprits were still at large, and anyone could call in with information.
Following his job loss in 1971, John List, a New Jersey-based accountant, could not bring himself to inform his family of the financial failure. List shot and killed his wife, mother, and three children to avoid confrontation and poverty on November 9, 1971. Afterward, List left the bodies of his deceased family members lying on sleeping bags in the ballroom, along with a note addressed to his pastor that attempted to justify his actions. He then disappeared. Eighteen years later, America’s Most Wanted aired the cold case family annihilator John List to their audience. A woman in Virginia called to tip the authorities that her next-door neighbor, Bob Clark, bore a striking resemblance to a sculpture of what an aged John List would look like. Just nine days after America’s Most Wanted highlighted his case, police arrested the mass murderer, and he was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Ironically, the ballroom where List abandoned the bodies of his slain family members contained a signed Tiffany skylight valued at a sum sufficient to provide for his family’s financial needs for many years to come. This represents a cruel twist of fate or karma in the tragic tale.
“Armchair Detective” is a phrase that describes a type of fictional detective who solves crimes solely through secondhand information. Today, modern-day armchair detectives are citizen sleuths who depend on internet and social media information to solve unsolved crimes.
While the armchair detective was traditionally fictional, with the explosion of digital access to information regarding unsolved crimes, everyday web sleuths on the internet have begun to change how cold cases are seen.
The most influential true-crime armchair detective is Michelle McNamara, a writer who “decided the investigating she was doing on unsolved crimes to satisfy her own curiosity might be shared.” She did just so with her online blog, True Crime Diary. In 2011, she began recurringly posting about a series of unsolved rapes and murders from the 1970s and 1980s on her blog. McNamara proposed the theory that the sequence of unsolved crimes attributed to various names such as the “Visalia Ransacker,” the “East Area Rapist,” and the “Original Night Stalker” were all committed by a single individual. She coined the name “Golden State Killer” to refer to this elusive perpetrator.
For years following this initial post, McNamara researched both online and with investigators, witnesses, and victims in an attempt to unmask the Golden State Killer. The resulting book is a “chilling and vivid narrative of a serial killer’s crimes,” and the psychological toll researching the case took on her. She was an incredible investigative journalist who began as an armchair detective, but an accidental overdose ultimately killed her due to the psychological torture that plagued her from her years of chasing an unidentified monster. As her posthumously published book ends, McNamara wrote a letter directly addressing the killer and predicting his eventual capture: “This is how it ends for you.” Remarkably, just two months after the release of “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” the Golden State Killer was identified and arrested when detectives linked DNA samples recovered from the crime scenes to a suspect, Joseph DeAngelo, whose DNA was obtained from discarded items. Although McNamara’s story is bittersweet, her educational background, writing skills, and innate inquisitiveness combined to make her one of the most accomplished armchair detectives of the modern era. Following McNamara’s passing and the Golden State Killer case resolution, Reddit emerged as a hub for armchair detectives to engage in discussions regarding the outcome of the investigation.
Reddit is a conglomerate of communities called “subreddits,” where users can explore their interests, hobbies, and passions. There are three platform engagement tools: posts, comments, and votes. Posts consist of text, links, images, and videos. Comments are responses to posts and provide gateways for conversation and humor. Both comments and posts can be downvoted or upvoted so that the most exciting and relevant content appears at the top of the subreddit. Reddit is home to 2.8 million active communities, several of which serve as tools for armchair detectives.
Reddit has been a long-time tool for armchair sleuths. In 1967, the Freedom of Information Act provided the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. Now that the internet is full of public information and records, armchair sleuths use Reddit to discuss solved and unsolved cases. A simple Google search will reveal many suggested subreddits for those seeking true crime content– r/TrueCrime, r/EverythingCrime, r/TrueCrimePodcasts, r/Sleuths, r/UnresolvedMysteries, and r/TrueCrime, to name a few.
Arguably the most infamous subreddit of the entire platform is the Reddit Bureau of Investigation, a group dedicated to solving real mysteries. The community’s outcomes in their research have been surprisingly successful in some cases, but an online dumpster fire in others. The goal of the “RBI” is to be “an organized group of Redditors interested in solving crimes/mysteries and helping people in the process.” The group was founded in January 2012 and has established many rules to keep the community safe and in check. RBI does not officially cover criminal matters for legal purposes:
One of the most successful investigations involved a woman whose ex-husband had a recording device in her home. The RBI believed the victim’s ex-husband had placed a secret recording device in her home. They also suspect that the victim’s daughter’s tablet may have inadvertently recorded the audio through the headphones, similar to how sometimes you can hear a radio station through computer speakers. After the police solved the case, the victim posted an update on the RBI forum, revealing that she had discovered a WiFi-enabled recording device concealed beneath her mantlepiece. The resolution of this case was a testament to the invaluable contributions of the RBI community and armchair detectives.
While the RBI has guidelines and rules to follow to protect its community members for legal purposes, many everyday armchair detectives are held to a different standard. They don’t assume they will solve a case but rather gather some information or insight that the police may have overlooked or never even reviewed. A closed case by armchair detectives on Reddit is that of The “Grateful Doe” case.
Individual armchair detectives on Reddit worked hard to solve the Grateful Doe case. Jason Doe, who later became known as “Grateful Doe,” was a passenger in a fatal car accident in Virginia on June 26, 1995. Both Jason and the identified driver, who had reportedly fallen asleep at the wheel while returning to South Carolina, tragically lost their lives in the crash. However, at the time of the accident, Jason’s identity remained unknown. The only information about the man was his Grateful Dead tickets in his pocket. The mystery of “Grateful Doe” stumped investigators for three decades until a determined Reddit sleuth, u/zombiegrey cracked the casea determined Reddit sleuth, u/zombiegrey cracked the case. After posting a photo of the victim on Imgur, the post eventually caught the attention of a man who believed he knew someone who matched the description of Jason Doe. This lead ultimately led to identifying the victim as Jason Callahan, finally bringing closure to the case and demonstrating the incredible power of online communities in solving mysteries.
The Reddit armchair detective community is characterized by active engagement and evidence-based discussions, making, making it an intriguing and compelling space. Members are drawn to the community because they seek solutions to unresolved issues, be they crimes, petty thefts, or even riddles. This shared interest leads to dynamic interaction within the group, with users sharing posts, related links, commentary, and updates. The global reach of these subreddits means that members worldwide can contribute relevant information to cold cases. The main goal of the community is to seek justice by finding answers, information, and connections to questions. Reddit sleuths are often creative, witty, and passionate about piecing together mysteries. Although their cases may not have a definitive resolution, particularly when their findings are submitted to the police, any progress made toward solving a cold case is viewed as valuable by armchair detectives.
Armchair detectives on Reddit operate on the principle of evidence-based investigation, meaning that a post without proof is simply a conspiracy theory that will not hold up to scrutiny. The case of Grateful Doe is a testament to the power of armchair detectives, as they were able to piece together clues from tickets found in the victim’s pocket, a college connection, and the Doe Network to solve the case. Users can explore threads-on-threads of user interactions on armchair detective subreddits, such as r/TrueCrime, where hundreds of comments explain why armchair detectives are so passionate and helpful. For victims’ friends and families, armchair detectives keep their hope alive in solving their cases when police do not have the time or resources to investigate thoroughly. By relying on their passion, critical thinking skills, and evidence-based investigation, armchair detectives have proven invaluable assets to the criminal justice system.
While Reddit armchair detectives may not have single-handedly solved any murders or disappearances, they have played an instrumental role in identifying missing persons, bringing attention to cold cases, and keeping conversations on unsolved crimes alive using engagement and evidence. The rise of digital accessibility has redefined true crime, and armchair detectives have become an integral part of the online sleuthing community. While they may not always crack active and dangerous cases, their efforts ensure that victims are not forgotten and their stories continue to be told. As long as mysteries and cases are waiting to be solved, the armchair detective community on Reddit will continue to use their passion, creativity, and collective power to bring answers to those who seek them.
This piece was originally written for a Digital Literacy course at Clemson University. I chose to explore the sub-community of Armchair Detectives on Reddit. Through this in-depth analysis, I aimed to highlight both the positive and negative outcomes that can result from online communities, specifically in real-world situations. I hyperlinked all relevant sources, but I can provide a complete list of citations at any time if needed. Thank you for reading! ☺
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