Will Google Maps Help With Future Cold Cases?

In the annotated screen-recording video below, I explain how I think Websleuths can enhance their Websleuthing skillset by gaining an increased familiarity with Google Maps. In my opinion, Google Maps may prove to be a valuable resource when it comes to cold cases, if not now then certainly in the future.

If Google Maps keeps documenting the streets and roads of the world then in the future it will be possible to walk through an area on a historical day. When it comes to figuring out historical crimes then that might reduce dependency on finding living witnesses when one needs to get a feel for a certain area. Also, in the event that construction takes place, it may help to know where forests used to be when looking at historical crimes.

Check out the video below for a fuller explanation. While researching a case involving a demolished building, I was able to go back in time and see the pre-demolition building as it was at the time when human remains were found in it. Click the video to play it and then again to make it full screen.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jerry Strickland, Melissa (Missy) Munday -- What Happened After the "Unsolved Mysteries" Episode

Image
By: Shane Lambert (@UncoolNegated on Twitter) Amazon Kindle author of THE SUIT IN THE BACKPACK - PART 1 DOWN AND OUT IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES Time of writing : December 5th, 2020 If you are a fan of the old "Unsolved Mysteries" episodes that Robert Stack hosted in the 1980s and 1990s, then you might remember Episode 2 of Season 1. That program opened with a murder case, one that saw Elmer DeBoer brutally killed, allegedly at the hands of one Jerry Strickland. Wed, Feb 19, 1992 – Page 22 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) · Newspapers.com The story of Strickland, his girlfriend Missy Munday, and the murdered DeBoer ended with viewers learning about the arrest of Strickland after the episode aired. For those wondering what happened next, here's a rundown. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press from August 17th, 1988, Munday testified against Strickland and named him as the murderer of DeBoer. She claimed that Strickland confessed to the murder. Charges a
Read more

Missing Kids and Their Bicycles - Cases of Dario Cicolecchia, Janice Pockett, and Others

Image
By: Shane Lambert Season 2 of the hit TV show Forensic Files  included an episode (Episode 12) that contained information that those that work on missing person's cases should note. The episodes tell of the missing person's case of Dario Cicolecchia, a boy in Switzerland who went missing in 1993. Importantly, this boy was found, his murderer was apprehended, and this murderer also made statements to the police about how he operated. I think there's a nugget of information that's worth extracting from this and using as food for thought in similar cases. Dario went missing after departing his home on a bicycle to go fishing. He was later found dead and mutilated in a Swiss cornfield. Forensic Medicine, the branch of forensics that deals with the body, was used in this case and it was discovered that the boy had been drowned. In the water in the boy's lungs, investigators found diatoms, which are simple one-cell organisms that are only found in water.  They
Read more

Dottie Caylor's Disappearance - What Happened After the "Unsolved Mysteries" Episode

Image
By: Shane Lambert 03 Apr 1998, Fri The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) Newspapers.com Dottie Caylor's disappearance was featured in one of the opening episodes of the "Unsolved Mysteries" television program. According to a Youtube video I watched , it was in the pilot episode. From Wikipedia, it was a special program that was aired before the series became the series that fans grew to love. According to a newspaper article I consulted (The Leaf-Chronicle out of Clarksville, Tennessee), the show aired on November 29th, 1987. If you watched the "Unsolved Mysteries" program and wondered what happened with this case, then this article is for you. 29 Nov 1987, Sun The Leaf-Chronicle (Clarksville, Tennessee) Newspapers.com Firstly, this individual, as of the time of writing (December 17th, 2021), still has an active missing person's profile with NamUs, America's national database of missing people. Dorothy May Caylor is case number #MP14589 . H
Read more