Websleuths - True Crime Community

Websleuths is a long-established true crime community where members work together to discuss and research missing persons, unidentified people, unsolved cases and major criminal investigations. Established in 1999, the community has grown into a substantial online resource for people interested in following cases, sharing information and exploring the details surrounding crimes and mysteries.

At a Glance

Target Audience

Websleuths is aimed at people interested in missing persons, unidentified individuals, cold cases, unsolved crimes and criminal investigations. Its large forum structure suits users who want to follow individual cases over time, examine information shared by other members and participate in detailed discussions surrounding cases that may remain unresolved for years.

What They Offer

Websleuths describes itself as an internet crime-solving community focused on missing-persons, unidentified and unsolved cases. The site allows members to search for cases, follow discussions and contribute to conversations, with moderators helping organise cases and maintain the forum's structure.

A major part of Websleuths is its extensive collection of missing-person and unidentified-person discussions. Members can follow active searches, historical cases and cases involving people who have since been located or identified. The site also provides dedicated areas for unidentified people, genealogy and forensic research, reflecting the community's emphasis on finding information that may help resolve long-running mysteries.

Websleuths also maintains dedicated case forums covering individual high-profile investigations, alongside broader sections for murders, cold cases, serial killers, crimes in the news and cases currently going through the courts. This gives the community a much wider scope than simply discussing missing persons, while keeping case-based research and discussion at its centre.

The site's current structure is designed to make case research easier by allowing users to search for a case, view its information, follow updates and join the discussion. Websleuths currently reports more than 249,000 sleuths, 19 million posts and 657,000 cases discussed, demonstrating the scale of the community and its extensive archive of case-related discussion.

What They Cover

• Missing persons
• Unidentified people
• Unsolved crimes
• Cold cases
• Murders and suspicious deaths
• Serial killer cases
• Crimes in the news
• Criminal trials
• Major individual case investigations
• Forensic DNA research
• Genealogy and identification
• Case developments and resolutions

⭐ Our Take

What we like about Websleuths is that it feels much more like a dedicated research community than a typical true crime discussion site. There is an enormous amount of case material to explore, particularly when it comes to missing persons, unidentified people and cold cases, and the depth of the discussions can make it possible to follow a case far beyond the information normally found in a news article.

The site's biggest strength is its longevity and the sheer amount of information accumulated over the years. A case that might only receive a few paragraphs in mainstream coverage can have an extensive history of discussion, timelines, media references and updates on Websleuths. It is a particularly useful destination for anyone who enjoys digging into the details and following cases as they develop, while remembering that community research and theories should always be checked against reliable official and published sources.