Blog Comments Help Search For A Killer

On Saturday night, a woman named Betty Wheeler was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver near a highway intersection in Waynesboro, Virginia.  As the scene of the crime was investigated, one piece of evidence surfaced: a car part (an air dam) that broke off upon impact (the image above).  This is when the community of commenters around the car culture blog Jalopnik took action, and may have just given the authorities some valuable information about the case.

First it was the Twitter community helping to save a carjacking victim in Johannesburg, now this.  The blog posted a story, asking their commenters to try and identify what car the part came from.  Almost immediately, the results became clear via the discussion, and a make, model and year were identified: a 2003 Ford F150 with XL Trim.  Waynesboro Police Department have been notified and the discovery has been added to the evidence notes.  Here's some of the comments that led to the Eureka moment:

Once again, it's brilliant to see the proactive nature of an online community, and also the fact that local law enforcement actively took note of this is another step towards crowdsourced policing.  So, to the likes of Cheeseslap and BigBlockBearr, you deserve this for your discovery.

Comment source: Jalopnik