Welcome to The Murder Accountability Project!

Thomas Hargrove said:

Hello Websleuthers!

There are many uses for the "Search Cases" function at www.murderdata.org. One of them is that serial killers, if they are prolific enough, become visually obvious.

If you want to see the work of Green River Killer Gary Ridgway, simply select "Seattle" under metro area, "strangulation" or "unknown or other" under weapon, and "female" under victim's sex. Normally, most of the bar graphs will be grey. But when there are too many unsolved cases in a cluster, most of the area of the bar graphs turn red. Generally, America solves about two-thirds of it's murders.

We've created an online display of more than 700,000 homicide cases going back to 1976 in an attempt to "crowd source" murder. Often, you'll see a "sea of red" when you've selected search criteria that indicate the work of prolific serial killers.

Please let me know if you find any.

Thomas Hargrove
Chairman and Founder, Murder Accountability Project

Click to expand...

Dr. K said:

Dear Mr. Hargrove,

I am one of the many who found (and joined) this site after learning about it while watching The Killing Season. (As an aside, which REALLY shouldn't be relegated to an aside, what Tricia has done here is AMAZING!!! ULTIMATE KUDOS!!!)

I saw what you had done with the Murder Accountability Project, and I think it's an amazing tool. As an attorney (now "retired" due to disability) with a background in criminal psychology and childhood development, I think what you are doing here is wonderful. Especially since the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit is now stretched thin (and taken away from these kind of cases), it gives those of us who don't normally have access to this information—but have the ability to digest, interpret, process, and hopefully come up with helpful conclusions/solutions—access to it.

That said, two things you said really stuck with me (I haven't watched the final two episodes—I'm saving them for a bit of "binge watching"—but you said this on an earlier episode): this is (1) entirely voluntary for law enforcement participation, and (2) often law enforcement is understaffed/overbudget and doesn't have the time to enter old cases into the database. So, my big question for you...

Do you think there is a way for us to form community volunteer groups where we could go in and do data entry for local law enforcement on old cold cases? I know that those participating would need to be properly vetted before LE might be willing to open up their files, which might be a time/financial burden and therefore be a non-starter. However, I can't help but think there has to be a way that some of us who are interested, willing, and very upstanding citizens, working as volunteers, could help to get a lot of old files entered across the country if we can get LE on board. I'm an attorney by trade, but not in criminal law. But given my specialty area, one subset would lead me to believe there has to be a way to get grants or other funding to do the background checks necessary to allow willing volunteers vetted to the satisfaction of local LE and get some of these old cases entered into the database.

As you said (and I'm paraphrasing here): the lack of data is holding things back, as well as the lack of entering cold cases. (Yes, I took great liberties in my paraphrasing! My sincerest apologies!!!)

I'm just thinking that if we can get over the hurdle of data entry by using properly vetted volunteers, I would think that it would significantly help the database at a minimum, and perhaps help solve some of these cases at the best.

Anyway, thanks for reading this and "hearing" me out. And thank you for what you've done in building this database—being a math/Excel/database "nerd", I can't thank you enough! (If you ever need any help, feel free to contact me!)

And Trish, you are AMAZING!!! Keep up the wonderful work you do every day, just by keeping this site up! You do so much good in this world, just by being you with the mission you have found for yourself in life!!!!

Thanks to all!!!

Click to expand...

Dr. K said:

Dear Mr. Hargrove,

I am one of the many who found (and joined) this site after learning about it while watching The Killing Season. (As an aside, which REALLY shouldn't be relegated to an aside, what Tricia has done here is AMAZING!!! ULTIMATE KUDOS!!!)

I saw what you had done with the Murder Accountability Project, and I think it's an amazing tool. As an attorney (now "retired" due to disability) with a background in criminal psychology and childhood development, I think what you are doing here is wonderful. Especially since the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit is now stretched thin (and taken away from these kind of cases), it gives those of us who don't normally have access to this information—but have the ability to digest, interpret, process, and hopefully come up with helpful conclusions/solutions—access to it.

That said, two things you said really stuck with me (I haven't watched the final two episodes—I'm saving them for a bit of "binge watching"—but you said this on an earlier episode): this is (1) entirely voluntary for law enforcement participation, and (2) often law enforcement is understaffed/overbudget and doesn't have the time to enter old cases into the database. So, my big question for you...

Do you think there is a way for us to form community volunteer groups where we could go in and do data entry for local law enforcement on old cold cases? I know that those participating would need to be properly vetted before LE might be willing to open up their files, which might be a time/financial burden and therefore be a non-starter. However, I can't help but think there has to be a way that some of us who are interested, willing, and very upstanding citizens, working as volunteers, could help to get a lot of old files entered across the country if we can get LE on board. I'm an attorney by trade, but not in criminal law. But given my specialty area, one subset would lead me to believe there has to be a way to get grants or other funding to do the background checks necessary to allow willing volunteers vetted to the satisfaction of local LE and get some of these old cases entered into the database.

As you said (and I'm paraphrasing here): the lack of data is holding things back, as well as the lack of entering cold cases. (Yes, I took great liberties in my paraphrasing! My sincerest apologies!!!)

I'm just thinking that if we can get over the hurdle of data entry by using properly vetted volunteers, I would think that it would significantly help the database at a minimum, and perhaps help solve some of these cases at the best.

Anyway, thanks for reading this and "hearing" me out. And thank you for what you've done in building this database—being a math/Excel/database "nerd", I can't thank you enough! (If you ever need any help, feel free to contact me!)

And Trish, you are AMAZING!!! Keep up the wonderful work you do every day, just by keeping this site up! You do so much good in this world, just by being you with the mission you have found for yourself in life!!!!

Thanks to all!!!

Click to expand...

ediethedog said:

i'm here Puggle ....you are not the only lonely Australian ........although I get too scared to post, I am there reading and liking xxxxxx

Click to expand...

SCHMAE said:

Yes~
There are way too many cases that are just never looked into or at. For every single one there is someone wondering where their loved one is.
Look at the Sherry Leighty case here on WS. The case sat motionless for over a decade and her sister had had enough and started to dig and ask questions and low and behold the case was solved within months of her digging around. Everyone has someone who wants to know where they are or what happened to them. Murderers are getting a free pass all over and for every free pass they will kill again , maybe several times.

Click to expand...