Correct me if I am wrong, but WSers have been important in helping resolve some MP cases.
In the Abraham Shakespeare case, (he had won a $19 million Florida State Lottery), WSers studied aerial maps and noticed a difference in the backyard of Deedee Moore's brother. A hole had been dug and a concrete slab had been poured. These WSers notified the authorities, who in turn went to the property, did some investigating and discovered Abraham Shakespeare's decomposed body under that concrete slab. Deedee had his cell phone and had been trying to convince people he was still alive and had left and just wanted to be left alone, while she moved into his mansion and spent all her money on herself. She was convicted of his murder. (She had also made an account here at WS and was trying to throw the investigation here off track.)
Also, two of our sleuthers finally got their hands on case notes from the Casey Anthony case. In the notes they discovered proof that it was Casey Anthony who was logged into the computer that day and not her mother and that Casey had Google searched information of suffocation, (spelling it wrong when she did so.) This information never was introduced in court, yet it was in the notes acquired by our WSers gain by the FOIA.
Over on the Unidentified Persons side of WS, our members have made countless matches and given unidentifed persons their name back after years of being Jane and John Does.
WS is filled with loving and compassionate people, trying to help families find their loved ones. We care. We cry when our missing people are found dead. We are outraged when they are found murdered. We invest our time and emotions into the missing. We feel the families pain. We throw things out that sometimes may sound outrageous but it's because we already ran into it in other cases. We ask questions that may seem intrusive but it usually helps to understand our victim better and leads us to other ideas and directions.
Do we have a glowing percentage of success? No, but Abraham Shakespeare would still be under that concrete slab and Deedee Moore would have lived high off the hog on his money until it was gone, having gotten away with murder. And even solving that one case, makes the hours we put into this worth it.
Getting off my soapbox now.