Brent Kopacka’s death was hard enough on his loved ones before strangers on the internet started branding him a murderer.
The 36-year-old Purple Heart recipient was shot dead by a SWAT officer in December after an overnight standoff at his Washington state apartment. His longtime best friend, Darin Dunkin, was haunted by the belief that things might have gone differently if Kopacka had gotten the care he needed after suffering a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan.
Then, online sleuths spread baseless claims that Kopacka was somehow involved in the November stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students. Scores of posts on TikTok, Facebook and YouTube tied his name to the crime. The accusations were as improbable as they were devastating: By the time they gained traction online, police had already arrested a suspect who they said acted alone and whose DNA was allegedly on a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
“Now, not only is he dead and I’m never going to see him again, but it’s like all these other people are ruining his legacy,” said Dunkin, 36, of Illinois. “Not only do I have to mourn my friend, but I got to defend him, too.”
Across the internet, true-crime aficionados have become obsessed with all sorts of unsolved mysteries and crimes, poring over victims’ social media pages and analyzing news reports to try to crack cases. The amateur sleuths post their theories in YouTube videos, podcasts and online chats, where some gain large followings who then share the material even more widely.
Sometimes their snooping generates viable tips. In Stockton, Calif., police credited community members who shared tips on a Facebook group with helping identify a suspected serial killer last year. Online sleuths also provided valuable leads in the case of missing traveler Gabby Petito in 2021 and Jacob Wetterling’s 1989 kidnapping, which was solved decades later.
But in many other cases, reckless theories emerge — shoving unsuspecting people into the national spotlight, tarnishing reputations, and inviting an onslaught of harassment and threats. The accused have few means of fighting back. Suing podcasters and content creators can be costly and typically results in little monetary relief. And social media platforms are widely protected by federal law.
In the Idaho case, the online speculation web included people from neighbors of the victims to someone seen at a food truck the victims visited. Some became so fearful they installed security systems in their homes or carried alarms on their key rings. (cont.)