Facebook investigative tool for cold cases

<p>Jason K Jensen</p>

doi:10 .4172/2327-4581.1000411

Facebook investigative tool for cold cases

Jason K Jensen

Jensen Investigations, USA

: J Forensic Toxicol Pharmacol

Abstract

A cold case is an unsolved criminal investigation needing the discovery of new evidence or a new witness to get the case active again. Typically the new evidence or witnesses are discovered through the creation of renewed interest in the case. New leads are caused by renewed activity fostered by new exposure, or repeated exposure of the case to the public creating dialog and inspiring new revelations not previously known by the original investigators. Nowadays social media serves as a great platform for creating that renewed interest. Commonly, cold cases are unsolved murders or other high crimes. It’s important to note that old missing person cases can be investigated the same way as a cold criminal case. In many instances the missing person is the corpus delicti of a homicide. With over 211,000 unsolved murders in the United States since 19801 and on average 90,000 missing person cases2, getting that information to the public is a daunting task for old practices, tapping resources with little return. Cold case investigations are easier now than they have ever been thanks to the digital age, and in particular, social media. Just as the advent of DNA analysis was big for cold cases in the 1990s, social media, especially the Facebook platform is promising to be equally as important for cold case investigations.