A possible new use for Steem: Citizen investigation of unsolved crimes

An unsolved murder in the Delaware Valley may suggest a new potential use for the Steem blockchain

Today I read the article, Pa. School Teacher Was Found Dead in River 1 Year Ago 3 Miles from Car — and Family Wants Answers in People magazine.

It's about a Delaware Valley Teacher named Susan Ledyard, who lived in Wilmington, DE, and taught English at Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill, Pa. Reportedly, Ledyard was at her home drinking wine and exchanging texts with family and friends on the night of her death in July of 2019. A year later, the death remains unsolved.

The article reports that her car left her home around 3am on July 23, 2019 and parked about a mile away, near the Rising Sun Road bridge over the Brandywine River. A video camera recorded the car parking and the lights turning off, but because of the darkness, Delaware State Police say that they could not determine whether anyone got in or out. Around 7:30 am that morning, Ledyard's body was found 3 miles away, in the Brandywine River.

In December, it was determined that Ledyard was murdered and that she died from blunt force trauma and drowning. A year after the murder, however, police still have no good suspects and the crime remains unsolved.

This is interesting to me from two different angles. First, it's a local interest story to have an unsolved murder case that appears in a national publication like People. Second, it reminds me of an HBO documentary that my family began watching recently, I'll Be Gone In the Dark. My wife is also reading the book.

It's this second angle that I think is especially interesting to Steem. I'll Be Gone in the Dark tells the story of Michelle McNamara, who spent a number of years using her blog and other social media platforms in an effort to solve the crimes that were committed by the Golden State Killer. Ultimately, the Golden State Killer was captured by DNA on an ancestry web site, but the documentary revealed to me that there are apparently a good number of hobbyists out there who are trying to solve so-called "cold cases".

We only watched the first episode so far, but as I was watching it, I couldn't help but think that hobbyist-sleuths like McNamara and her colleagues could really have benefited from the use of a Steem community where they could share research and also be rewarded for their efforts.

Two challenges occur to me, however. First, if a community is online researching unsolved violent crimes, it's possible for the perpetrator to see their progress, which could pose safety risks to participants. Second, if people speculate online about possible suspects who turn out to be innocent, could that put the participants in jeopardy of being targeted in libel lawsuits?

Still, if they're already participating in this sort of research elsewhere, then they're already exposed to the same risks, so I don't see how moving the activities to Steem would make them any more dangerous.

So what do you think? Would this sort-of crowd-sourced sleuthing make an interesting use case for the Steem block chain, and if so, how can it be bootstrapped?

P.S. As I was getting ready to post this, @cmp2020 pointed out to me that the [Discussion Post] layout would work really well for this purpose. Someone could pose research questions to the community and use the @penny4thoughts mechanism to direct extra rewards to the best replies. To demonstrate this mechanism, I'll use @penny4thoughts to distribute 50% of this post's liquid rewards to the best replies.

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Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.