Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam

by Jake Anderson

When it comes to websleuths, there’s a reason law-enforcement professionals took to using the moniker “Doe Nuts” when referring to them. They view websleuths as mentally unstable amateurs who do not have the training or the temperament to solve a case. More importantly, they are seen as dangerous lynch mobs who make false accusations based on petty evidence.

She wasn’t white. TV true-crime producers often gravitate toward white victims. This phenomenon has an actual psychological designation, the “missing white woman syndrome” (MWWS).

“Everybody has a side of them that they don’t present to the public,”

“When an autopsy says no drugs were found it means ‘no drugs that they tested for were found.’ It doesn’t mean ‘no drugs are in the blood.’ It is not possible to conclude that she was not under the influence of certain drugs.”

With a slight tweak in my life’s conditions, that could be me. It could be any of us. We like to think our place in this crisp reality is fixed, but it isn’t. Someday we will all lose everything. Some of us get started early.

While the Internet birthed websleuths, making possible a future of revolutionizing criminal investigations, I fear that the pathology engine may end up spoiling our endeavors. More specifically, I fear that unchecked delusions and irresponsible conspiracy theories could sabotage the websleuth and “citizen journalist” movement before it fulfills its promise.

But I also experienced firsthand the danger involved when rogue researchers—possessed by the zeal of vigilante justice and too often guided by extreme, possibly delusional beliefs—launch holy wars without deference to due process or logic.