Armchair Detectives Go Online to Connect

By Laura Bauer

Jan. 15–By the time authorities pulled Jodi Sanderholm’s car from a lake in south-central Kansas last week, a swarm of strangers on the Internet had immersed themselves in her story.

They sat at computers across the country and speculated on what happened to the Cowley College student. They played detective, with one Kansan writing from Arkansas City, Kan., about what police were doing and how the town felt. They shared gossip and theories, Internet findings and secondhand news about Sanderholm’s disappearance.

"They just pulled the car out on the news," one person wrote around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

"Praying Jodi isn’t in the car," wrote another.

They call this cybersleuthing, and some contributors fancy themselves armchair detectives. Whatever the true-crime story of the day, or cold case of the moment, many log on to various sites where accurate information mixes with opinion, some conjecture and half-truths.

As the nation’s fascination with crime escalates, and popular nightly television news shows highlight the offense of the day, these focus blogs often generate more Internet traffic than news stories produce. People who feel helpless when a crime occurs can be involved and connected.

"People feel powerless," said blogger Steve Huff, whose CrimeBlog.US reported Sanderholm’s case for several days after her disappearance. "They want to feel like they are doing something about it."

The bad news is no one filters the information, so fact typically mixes with fiction. Rumors spread easily.

Police agencies admit they monitor these blogs, which can muddy the process of determining what’s true.

The good news, though: The blogs do generate information, some of it useful.

"There’s this mystique of the detective, the Sherlock Holmes who comes in cold and figures out who done it," said Ken Novak, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "The reality is that type of investigation is exceedingly rare. Police rely on information from the public. … Gossip and poor information is sometimes better than none."

The Sanderholm case isn’t the only breaking news story from the Midwest that consumed bloggers and blog readers in the last week.

Immediately after the mainstream media reported on Friday that Ben Ownby had been found in an apartment in Kirkwood, Mo., with Shawn Hornbeck, who was kidnapped in 2002, Huff posted the news on his blog. And the bloggers and contributors went to work, searching sex offender registries across the nation for suspect Michael Devlin’s name, gathering various news articles and scouring personal Web pages for new information.

By late Friday afternoon, Huff’s blog had linked to the personal web page of a "Shawn Devlin" from Kirkwood, Mo., and a comment written on the ShawnHorbeck.com guestbook in December 2005 by a person of the same name.

"How long are you planning to look for your son?" wrote "Shawn Devlin" on Dec. 1, 2005. Several hours later, the young man posted again, apologizing for what he had written and telling the parents he wanted to write a poem in honor of their son.

On Sunday, Huff informed his readers that the Ownby/Hornbeck story logged more than 100,000 page loads through his site in a 24-hour period, several times the amount of most of his featured stories.

During the investigation of serial killer BTK, Kansas authorities monitored blogs and Web pages to see what information was out there, said Kyle Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. They also watched to see if the killer himself was communicating on the Internet.

Huff, who lives near Atlanta, first posted Sanderholm’s story on his CrimeBlog.US two days after she disappeared. From his two years of true-crime blogging, Huff believed the story was one people would connect with.

Sanderholm disappeared Jan. 5 after grabbing lunch at the Subway restaurant in Arkansas City. The freshman, a member of the college’s dance team, had been a valedictorian at Arkansas City High School a year before. She was known as a responsible young woman.

"This happened in a place where things don’t happen like this," said Huff, who initially got into blogging as a way to tell stories and likes the challenge of getting information others don’t have. "On one hand, you have a mystery; on the other, a cautionary tale. I sometimes think people need to be reminded it can happen anywhere."

From 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, more than 1,200 visitors went to Huff’s blog. By Wednesday, several other bloggers had linked to his site. More first-time viewers, many from Kansas and some who knew Sanderholm, had logged on.

"I just went by her parents shop," wrote "Kas from Ark City" about 10 a.m. Sunday, two days after Sanderholm disappeared. "The windows are filled with pink posters and printed photos of Jodi. Balloons are tied out front."

These Internet chats can do what other media can’t, said Laura James, a lawyer whose blog is Historic True Crime.

"Blogs have the time and space to go into a case in great detail," James said. "And since so many cases now have an Internet component to them … it’s logical to look to the Web for details about certain news stories."

But people who post on blogs can say whatever they want, Novak said.

Before Sanderholm’s body was found and word spread about a possible suspect who had been known to stalk the dance team, those on the blog offered up other possibilities. In another instance, a commenter wrote that investigators had found Sanderholm’s clothes, something the media had not yet reported.

"You get speculation, wild theories," said Smith, with the KBI. "Sometimes there are leaks of information you don’t want out."

Novak said the blogs also can lead to "armchair quarterbacking" and undeserved criticism toward law enforcement.

"People are probably fast to use 20/20 hindsight, ‘You should have known that — it was right there on the blog,’ " Novak said. "Going through it, it’s not that easy."

Still, Huff said, "bloggers can fill in gaps and at least keep people aware."

Those hungry for information in the Sanderholm case used Huff’s blog to keep informed in the hours before her body was found. A relative of the family wrote in to ask people to pray.

Some sent condolences to the family and to each other.

Wrote one contributor:

"Steve I really appriciate (sic) you making a site like this for people to share ideas and vent to one another."

To reach Laura Bauer, call (816) 234-7743 or send e-mail to lbauer@kcstar.com.