Mom Helps Police Find Daughter's Killer Via Decade-Long Social Media Hunt
Social media is bringing all kinds of negative stuff to society these days, but at least for once, it gave a grieving but determined mother the tool she needed to find the killer of her daughter.
After 10 years of persistent investigation and research via social networking sites, Belinda Lane was instrumental in helping police catch the murderer who gunned down her daughter in a drive-by shooting that happened in 2006, Daily Mail reports.
According to Eyewitness News, Lane created tons of fake social media accounts in the hope of luring in the potential suspects of killing her daughter, refusing to stop until she had a lead on her own. She promised to her daughter's funeral that she'll do everything she can to get them and have them pay for killer her; and no matter how unbelievable the story is, it actually is true -- she did find the last remaining suspect at large and helped police capture him.
Police and other law enforcement authorities were largely unsuccessful in tracking down suspect William Sotelo, who engineered a decade-long run to evade the law. He supposedly escaped to Mexico, a country that's becoming a hiding place and breeding ground of criminals and lawless elements.
Lane admitted she was angry all the time, right from that day when she realized her daughter, Crystal was hit by a bullet when several gang members drove past them and started shooting. Apparently, the 28-year old Sotelo was one of those gang members, as per ABC 7.
She started a social media campaign aimed at finding her daughter's shooters, beginning with posting a photo of her daughter in the hope of bringing in people who might have known something. Fortunately for her, Sotelo responded, and in no time they were already exchanging messages.
After blowing her cover to the suspect, Lane could not control her anger and even taunted him, saying that she's coming for him. Finally, the exchange of messages gave the police enough information to capture Sotelo.