Today, technology advancements such as DNA analysis, enhanced autopsy techniques, surveillance, and digital evidence have become integral in solving homicide cases. The latest tech advancement, social media, now plays a significant role in uncovering evidence, influencing public perception, and promoting justice in high-profile homicide cases.
Investigators routinely check social media pages of both the victims and suspects in homicide cases. By doing this, they can find witnesses, create concrete timelines, gather evidence, or even reveal potential motives. “This information can help piece together timelines, establish connections between suspects, and provide insights into criminal activity,” Johnson Law Group says. The San Francisco Police Department notes that they are following new protocols to help them use social media to their advantage, and making sure their officers are up to date on these.
These new tools are not always helpful though, and police often need to overcome privacy settings, policies, and then comb through abundant information.
Police have been doing these investigations with social media for a few years, but it has recently come to the public’s attention through documentaries such as Netflix’s American Murder: Gabby Petito. Released in February of 2025, this documentary follows the well-known story of 22 year-old Gabby Petito, who was murdered by her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, in a cross country van trip in the fall of 2021.
This case shook the American public and consumed social media with conspiracies and theories about what happened to Petito. Petito and Laundrie’s relationship was not a healthy one; Petito was often abused, and in the weeks and months leading up to her death, she became more closed off to friends and family.
Whilst on the multi-month trip across the country, Petito was trying to go viral on YouTube. She was frequently making videos, uploading them to the web, and staying extremely active on all of her social media platforms. Petito’s laptop activity was used by officials to pinpoint her location as she and Brian traveled through Teton National Park in Wyoming. When Petito went missing at the end of August 2021, law enforcement asked the public for help, requesting any tips on the whereabouts of Petito. Within hours, thousands of tips were in the FBI’s inbox, numerous ones being video or camera footage.
These “citizen detectives,” as local law enforcement call them, were able to help Teton County Police readjust and solidify a new timeline for Petito’s disappearance with video or camera footage. In fact, the search might have taken significantly longer to find Petito if not for another couple also documenting their van trip. This couple had a video camera attached to the hood of their van and were able to help law enforcement get a 300-foot radius of where Petito may be. In a very short time, police were able to locate Petito’s body.
The news of Petito’s death hit the internet hard, pressuring police to make an arrest for the murder. When Brain returned home from the van trip alone, the police marked him as a lead suspect. The Laundrie family was now all over national television, and people continued to post tips and sightings of Petito’s potential killer, whom many believed to be Brian Laundrie. Brain Laundrie committed suicide a few weeks after Petito’s confirmed death, so while police were not able to charge him with the murder of Gabby Petito, they were confident that he killed her.
As technology continues to evolve, it’s clear that social media will remain crucial evidence in the pursuit of truth and justice.