Research Tools
Sometimes the hardest part of researching a true crime case isn't finding information.
It's finding the right information without getting completely buried under everything else.
That's where research tools come in.
You don't need a wall covered in red string, twelve notebooks and a magnifying glass to investigate a case. Although, to be fair, the red string does look pretty impressive.
A few simple tools can make a huge difference. They can help you search more effectively, find older information, understand locations, organise dates, compare sources and keep track of what you've already discovered.
Here's how to make them work for you.
Start With Search
Your search engine is probably the first research tool you already have.
But there's a big difference between searching and researching.
If you're researching a case involving someone named John Smith, typing John Smith into a search box isn't going to get you very far. You'll probably get a few million results and approximately 4,999 people who are not the John Smith you're looking for.
Start adding useful details.
- Names: "John Smith"
- Locations: Melbourne, Victoria
- Dates: 1998, March 1998
- Events: arrest, trial, sentencing, missing
- Documents: court, judgment, indictment, report
Combining these terms can dramatically narrow your results.
Use Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are one of the simplest tricks in the research toolbox.
Putting a name or phrase inside quotation marks tells the search engine you're looking for that exact phrase.
For example:
"Jane Doe"
can be much more useful than:
Jane Doe
You can also combine an exact phrase with other search terms:
"Jane Doe" court
or:
"Jane Doe" 1987 Melbourne
It won't magically find everything, but it can remove a lot of noise.
Search Within a Specific Website
Found a website that contains useful information?
You don't necessarily have to wander through every page looking for what you need.
Try searching within that website directly using:
site:example.com "Jane Doe"
The site: search operator tells the search engine to look within a particular website or domain.
This can be particularly useful for government websites, courts, newspapers, universities and archives.
For example, if you're looking for information on an official government website, you can combine the site restriction with the name, place or subject you're researching.
Once you get comfortable with search operators, ordinary searches start feeling a little less ordinary.
Try Different Search Terms
Don't assume there is one perfect way to search for something.
A newspaper might describe an event as a homicide. A court document might use murder. Police might refer to it as an investigation. An older article might use completely different language again.
Try synonyms and related terms.
If you're looking for a missing person, for example, you might try combinations involving:
- missing
- disappeared
- last seen
- search
- found
- identified
Research is often a process of asking the same question in several different ways.
Maps Are Research Tools Too
Maps aren't just for working out where you're going for lunch.
They can be incredibly useful when researching a case.
Locations can help you understand distances, routes and relationships between places.
For example, you might want to look at:
- where a person was last seen
- where a vehicle was found
- where a crime occurred
- where witnesses lived
- where police stations or hospitals were located
- the distance between important locations
A map can sometimes reveal something that isn't obvious when you're simply reading a list of addresses.
Just remember that modern maps don't necessarily represent what a location looked like decades ago. Roads change, buildings disappear and suburbs get redeveloped.
Historical Maps Can Be Even More Interesting
Researching an older case?
Don't automatically assume today's map is the map that existed when the crime happened.
Old roads may have different names. Property boundaries may have changed. Buildings may no longer exist.
Historical maps, local archives and library collections can help put an old case back into its original geographical context.
Newspaper Archives
Search engines are great at finding current information.
They're not always brilliant at finding an obscure newspaper article from 1974.
That's where newspaper archives can become extremely useful.
Archives may allow you to search historical newspapers by:
- name
- date
- location
- publication
- keyword
Older newspapers can contain details that never made it into modern online summaries.
They can also show you how a case was being reported at the time rather than how it was remembered years later.
Just remember that historical reporting can contain mistakes, incomplete information and language that wouldn't be used today. Treat old reporting as a valuable source, not an automatic final answer.
Internet Archives
Ever found an old website mentioned in a source only to discover that the website disappeared years ago?
This is where web archives can be incredibly useful.
Archived versions of websites can sometimes show what a page looked like at an earlier point in time.
That can be particularly helpful when researching:
- old police appeals
- missing-person notices
- news websites
- community pages
- old case websites
- organisations that have since changed their websites
An archived page is still something you should evaluate carefully, but it can preserve information that would otherwise be difficult to find.
PDFs Are Your Friend
Government agencies, courts, universities and organisations often publish useful information as PDF documents.
These can include reports, judgments, statistics, reviews, inquiries and other documents.
Don't overlook them just because they aren't ordinary web pages.
When you find a useful PDF, search inside the document for names, dates and keywords rather than reading the entire thing from beginning to end.
That little search box can save you a ridiculous amount of time.
Search for Documents, Not Just Websites
Sometimes you aren't looking for a website at all.
You're looking for a document.
Try adding terms such as:
- report
- judgment
- transcript
- inquiry
- review
- annual report
You can also use the filetype: search operator.
For example:
filetype:pdf "Jane Doe"
This can help surface documents that ordinary searches might bury underneath general web pages.
Wayback Machines & Web Archives
Websites change.
Pages disappear. Organisations redesign their sites. Old links stop working.
Web archives can sometimes let you look back at earlier versions of those pages.
This can be particularly handy when you've found a reference to information that used to be online but isn't anymore.
Keep a note of the original URL if you find one. Even if the current page is gone, the address may help you locate an archived version.
Spreadsheets Are Surprisingly Powerful
You don't need specialist research software to organise a case.
A simple spreadsheet can do a lot.
You could create columns for:
- Date
- Event
- Location
- People involved
- Source
- Source date
- Notes
- Verified?
Now you've got a searchable timeline and research log in one place.
It also makes it much easier to spot gaps.
If you have events on 3 June and 12 June but nothing in between, you've just found a useful question to investigate.
Keep Your Sources With Your Notes
This one deserves its own section because it will save you later.
When you write down an interesting fact, record where it came from at the same time.
Don't tell yourself you'll come back and add the source later.
You won't remember.
Or worse, you'll remember the information but not which of the seventeen tabs contained it.
For each useful source, keep:
- the page title
- the website or publication
- the date
- the URL
- your notes about what it contains
That turns a pile of browser tabs into an actual research trail.
Use Bookmarks Properly
If you're researching a case over several days or weeks, bookmarks can become your friend.
Create folders for things such as:
- News
- Court
- Official Sources
- Archives
- Background
- Useful Leads
Don't save everything.
Save the pages you're genuinely likely to need again.
Take Screenshots When Appropriate
If you find information that looks particularly useful, a screenshot can sometimes help preserve what you saw at the time.
This can be useful when dealing with websites that change frequently.
But a screenshot isn't a substitute for recording the source. Keep the URL and date as well.
And if you're researching material for publication, always consider copyright and permissions before reproducing images or documents.
Use Text Search on Long Pages
Here's another wonderfully boring trick that saves an enormous amount of time.
On a long webpage, use your browser's Find function.
Search for:
- a person's surname
- a date
- a location
- "court"
- "arrest"
- "sentenced"
- "police"
Instead of scrolling through 5,000 words looking for one sentence, let the browser do the heavy lifting.
Research Tools Can Help You Connect the Dots
Once you've collected enough information, different tools can start working together.
You might use a search engine to find a newspaper report, an archive to locate an older version of a page, a map to understand the locations, a spreadsheet to build the timeline and a court database to check what happened legally.
No single tool needs to do everything.
Think of your research setup as a toolbox.
You don't use a screwdriver to hammer a nail just because it happens to be sitting on the bench.
Use the tool that suits the job.
Be Careful With AI
AI can be useful for organising information, summarising long documents or helping you think of alternative search terms.
But don't treat an AI-generated answer as your source.
AI systems can make mistakes, invent details and confidently present incorrect information.
If an AI tool gives you an interesting fact, treat it as a lead to investigate, not something you've just verified.
Go and find the underlying source.
That extra step matters.
Keep a Research Trail
One of the best habits you can develop is keeping track of how you arrived at a piece of information.
Imagine someone asks:
"Where did you get that from?"
You should be able to work backwards and show them.
Source → document → information → conclusion.
If you can't do that, the information may need another look.
You Don't Need Every Tool
This is important.
Don't turn research into a project about collecting research tools.
You don't need twelve apps, a subscription to everything on the internet and a spreadsheet with 84 tabs.
Start simple.
A search engine, a notes app, a spreadsheet and a good bookmarking system can take you a surprisingly long way.
Add specialised tools when you actually need them.
Your Basic Research Toolbox
If you're just getting started, here's a simple setup:
- Search engine: Find information and discover new leads.
- Maps: Understand locations, distances and routes.
- News archives: Find historical reporting.
- Web archives: Find older versions of websites.
- Document search: Locate reports, judgments and PDFs.
- Spreadsheet: Build timelines and track information.
- Notes: Record discoveries and questions.
- Bookmarks: Keep important sources close at hand.
That's plenty to get started.
The Real Tool Is Your Method
The most useful research tool isn't actually a website or an app.
It's the habit of asking good questions.
Where did this information come from?
Can I verify it?
Is there an earlier source?
Is this an allegation or an established fact?
What am I still missing?
Those questions will take you further than any shiny new research platform.
And when you find something useful, follow the trail.
One source leads to another. One name leads to a document. One date leads to a newspaper archive. Before long, the pieces start fitting together.
That's when research gets really interesting.
Ready to go deeper? Explore Crime Databases to find structured sources of crime information, or head back to the True Crime Resources hub for the full collection of research guides.