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Solving
Crime Online
Weekend
August 4/5, 2001
In the old days police had to be on the streets, gather lots of evidence, and put out "wanted" posters to catch crooks.
But nowadays they sometimes get their man through the Internet.
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John
Walsh, host of “America's Most Wanted,” thinks the net
is the crime-fighting tool of the new millennium. Tips
on his show's web-site, AMW.com, have already led to three
arrests. The most amazing - a fugitive named Tibis Kneipp.
After sexually assaulting and murdering a 23-year-old
woman in Colorado, Kneipp fled to the small Guatemalan
town of Livingston. A place so remote, you can't get there
by car. American police were stumped.
Kneipp went to work at a pizza place, but his boss had an uneasy feeling about her employee. She says, “I decided to go to the Internet and see if I saw his picture there."
Maria went to the only computer terminal in all of Livingston,
logged onto AMW’s website and saw her employee's picture.
Days later, Tibis Kneipp was arrested.
But the Internet is more than a tool for tips. America Online has also had remarkable success posting pictures of missing kids to its 30 million subscribers. So far 16 children have been recovered.
And in the case of missing intern Chandra Levy, the Internet is proving invaluable evidence. Police are now trying to retrace Chandra's final steps through her Internet activity.
John Walsh says, “I think that is something they should have been doing since day one. To see whom she was talking to on the Internet. There's a distinct possibility she may have met someone on the Internet who may have been instrumental in luring her out of the house."
With the net, the world's become a very small place. Too small for bad guys to run and hide.
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