Has anyone here ever solved a case just from their armchair?

[Kyte]

Like, just from stuff they found on the internet and nothing more. If its never happened here, do you know of instances on other similar communities like websleuths?

Or, has it ever occurred where a person here posted a theory on a case which was later discovered to be exactly what happened?

I just really want to know, because I've seen so many insightful and intuitive posts here over the years. I'm sure at least one of them turned out to be true.

[greatgarrett2]

Well, no one I know personally has had that happen to them.

But, out in the world, the John List case comes to mind. John List murdered his entire family in Westfield, New Jersey in 1971 then fled. He picked up an assumed name, 'Robert P. Clark' and began a new life in Colorado, remarrying in 1985.

A woman, Wanda Flannery, lived beside 'Clark' and his new wife in Colorado. Flannery saw the pic of List in a tabloid newspaper and saw many similiarities between List and 'Bob Clark'. John List was an accountant back east, 'Bob Clark' was an accountant. The physical features were the same too. The case aired on America's Most Wanted on May 21, 1989. Flannery was watching and she was among the 300 or so who called in about John List.

She was right about him. The authorities tracked List down to Virginia, where he was ultimately arrested.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/n...y/list/15.html

[TheCars1986]

Obviously no one who plays "armchair detective" is not privy to the same evidence as law enforcement agencies, but there have been several times on here where people have posed a theory which turned out to be right. The Debra Poe case is the one that comes to mind. Several people thought the mystery clerk "Megadeth Guy" was simply nothing more than a customer who stumbled upon a emtpy store, while the UM segment made it seem like he was a possible suspect in her disappearance. Turns out on the Farina-hosted UM, they updated the Poe case saying Megadeth was no longer considered a suspect and that one of Debra's friends is now the prime suspect in her disappearance.

[nohwheregirl]

Obviously, the Zodiac case hasn't been solved, but it was an ordinary married couple who solved one of his cryptograms after it was published in the newspaper. Also, the Chicago Tribune ran this article today about a Chicago cop who thinks he's made progress on one of Zodiac's un-cracked cryptograms.

greatgarrett, that reminds me of the Oba Chandler case when the police published the killer's handwriting on a billboard and Chandler's neighbor recognized it immediately. She called in the tip, no one followed up, and she kept persisting until the investigators finally listened to her.

[Hambone2421]

Originally Posted by nohwheregirl

greatgarrett, that reminds me of the Oba Chandler case when the police published the killer's handwriting on a billboard and Chandler's neighbor recognized it immediately. She called in the tip, no one followed up, and she kept persisting until the investigators finally listened to her.

EXACTLY what I was thinking when I read that!!

[UMFaninMD]

The Ethel Kidd case was solved when a relative (sister or maybe sister-in-law) of Edward Wayne Beverly recognized his handwriting on the list inside the atlas found by the police. I believe he was already in prison for another crime at the time.

[MissFit29]

What about the people that WATCHED UM with the fugitive? I remember one couple that even mentioned to the guy as they were watching the broadcast "Hey, you look like him." Then, of course, said fugitive asked to change the channel.

[Steve W.]

Just an observation,

There's a lot of criminals featured on UM that go/went by 3 names:

-Edward Wayne Beverly
-Edward Howard Bell
-Donald Eugene Webb

It gets confusing to me at times.