From Hashtags to Handcuffs: How Social Media is Redefining Crime Solving
There’s a new detective in town, and it isn’t Sherlock Holmes. Since the early 2000s, social media has slowly crept its way into our daily lives. However, now, it’s making its way into criminal investigations. According to a study conducted by LexisNexis in 2014, eight out of every 10 law enforcement professionals (81%) actively use social media in their criminal investigations, and that was ten whole years ago! In modern-day, social media and phone data are most commonly used to establish timelines, prove relationships, and provide trending theories in criminal investigations.
The main defining factor of murder is the separation of its degrees. With each degree, the sentencing is more severe, going all the way to the extreme of the death penalty. However, the main defining factor of these degrees is one simple word: premeditation. According to Cornell Law, premeditated murder–also commonly known as “First-Degree Murder” — is “A premeditated intent to kill requires that the defendant had [the] intent to kill and some willful deliberation (the defendant spent some time to reflect, deliberate, reason, or weigh their decision) to kill, rather than killing on a sudden impulse.” In some cases, premeditation is often the defining factor when opting for the death penalty. Furthermore, it can also be extremely hard to prove. Which, is where social media has swooped in to save the day.
With the help of social media databases, police investigators now have the upper hand in proving premeditated acts by perpetrators. This is because in cases such as kidnappings or violent murders–mostly of women– the perpetrator tends to stalk their target: making note of where they frequent, where they are in live time, where they go to school, etc. However, what these criminals don’t realize, is that with every comment, like, post, or even every profile click, social media apps keep a log of every time a user interacts with a feature on their website. And, in turn, investigators now can retrace the digital footprints of the perpetrator in a way that is an unarguable “paper” trail. More often than not, premeditation is difficult to prove because of its circumstantiality: could these two strangers happen to be at the park at the same time one afternoon? Yes. Does that mean the defendant was at the park with the intent to scope out the victim? No, not necessarily. But with social media, we now have a solid-proof way to show that the defendant intentionally sought out this person’s profile before a crime was committed, and performed reconnaissance on the victim, proving purposeful intent to kill/harm.
To continue, we can see a current example of the relevance of social media in criminal investigations in the ongoing investigation/trial of the State of Idaho v. Bryan C. Kohberger (2022), also known as the “Idaho 4” murders. To give a brief synopsis, Bryan Kohberger is currently on trial for the murder of four University of Idaho students: Madison Mogen (21), Kaylee Goncalves (21), Xana Kernodle (20), and Ethan Chapin (20), and subsequently is charged with four counts of murder in the first degree and one count of burglary. And, to prove his premeditation and intent, the investigators turned to social media.
Allegedly, weeks before the murders, Kohberger had messaged one of the female victims saying things like “Hey how are you” and sent more direct messages to get the attention of the girls after one of the victims ignored him. In addition to this, investigators reported that Kohberger allegedly also followed Mogen, Goncalves, and Kernodle on their respective social media accounts. Because of these discoveries, complimenting the other hard DNA evidence they have from the crime scene, the prosecution is able to aggressively seek the death penalty in this multi-first-degree murder case.
The internet is an ever-changing cog in the wheel of society. It has birthed some of the best technological advancements time will ever see, and it has simultaneously created monsters of mass destruction that can be tamed by none. However, the use of social media in criminal proceedings has quickly and swiftly become one of the last resorts and joyful hopes for victims and victims’ families everywhere. Without death, there is no life, and while social media’s involvement in investigations has its negatives, if one more family can sleep at night knowing their loved ones were properly avenged, it’s worth all the bad that it comes with.
