10 criminal cases cracked by children
Thanks to Home alone franchise, millennials would know what is possible when a family with eleven children goes on vacation for the Christmas holidays and one child is left to fend for himself while two dangerous criminals try to break in and steal everything they can get their hands on. Home alone has inspired a generation to play with traps and find interesting and exciting ways to thwart a crime. And it’s all thanks to Mcauly Cualkin and his somewhat violent and dangerous antics.
The reality is that children are not often hailed as the heroes of crime, and more often fall victim to the horrors of evil. However, sometimes the truth becomes better than fiction, and children play an important role in solving crimes while facing real danger.
Here are ten crazy examples of criminal cases that can be solved thanks to children.
Related: Top 10 crimes people have committed for the strangest reasons
10 Drawings of the scene
Artistic ability is often noticed in young children, but to most of us, children’s drawings look like scribbles and a jumble of disjointed, uncoordinated lines. However, sometimes they can be used to solve crimes.
In 2017, two boys aged eight and nine were on their way home in the small German town of Oer-Erkenschwick when they witnessed a driver reversing into a parked car. The driver reversed, assessed the damage and then drove away, without leaving any personal information. The boys made a detailed map of what had happened and the police were able to catch the perpetrator.
In another case, four children, Luisa, Romy, Celnia and Luis, all six years old, sketched them waiting at a pedestrian light when a vehicle hit a pole. The photos eventually became part of the investigation file.[1]
9 Stick figure sketch
Rebecca DePietro, an 11-year-old from Connecticut, solved a crime with her art skills and her willingness to help.
After police visited the DePietro household following a rash of home burglaries, including their own home, they asked if anyone had seen any suspects. DePietro gave the detectives a simple stick figure sketch because he didn’t think it would have any value. But with some police work, the sketch helped police catch a man who eventually confessed to ten burglaries in the area.
DePietro was later honored for her service at an official ceremony where she admitted to thinking the sketch might have been thrown away and then credited her art teacher.[2]
8 Theft Ring Collapse
In 2012, before all the criminals knew about the latest tracking technology Apple had to offer, an 8-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee had his heart broken by a thief.
When Landon Crabtree had his Playstation, most of his games and his iPad stolen, he took matters into his own hands because no one can come between a boy and his video games. Insurance paid out to replace the stolen items, and Crabtree decided to use the app ‘Find My iPhone’ to find the location of the stolen goods.
After alerting authorities, police, with Crabtree’s help, tracked the location to within several miles of Crabtree’s home, where they found not only the iPad, but several other valuable items. Police arrested John Docherty, who was charged with burglary.[3]
7 Human arrow
On a quiet Sunday afternoon, families gathered in a small town called Capel, Surrey, just outside London, for their annual Easter egg hunt. However, the celebrations did not get far as the buzz of police helicopters distracted the merry hunters from their mission.
A burglary at a nearby building had brought out police helicopters in a dramatic bid to find the perpetrators. As families took note of the helicopter circling overhead, we saw two men running across an open field and past the group, realizing that the runners must be the target.
With some ingenuity and quick thinking, the group of thirty participants quickly came up with a plan. The children lay down on the ground in the shape of an arrow pointing in the direction the men had fled, allowing the helicopter to give chase and alert the ground team.
The two men were arrested shortly afterwards.[5]
5 It’s in the eyes
Tragedy struck when a mother of two, 35-year-old Kelley Clayton, was found dead in her New York home. Kelley had been beaten to death by her husband, Thomas Clayton, and his former employee, Michael Beard, to whom Thomas paid $10,000 for his assistance in the murder. The whole plan was to collect insurance money.
But what led to the arrest is as tragic as it is fascinating. When the police went to investigate the murder, they found a small eyewitness in the form of Clayton’s seven-year-old daughter, Charlie. She recounted what happened that night, saying men hurt her mother.
When investigators asked Charlie to explain how she knew it was a man who attacked her mother, she told them, “Because his eyes look just like Dad’s.”[5]
5 The oldest cold case
Although the crime could not technically be solved by a child, Kathy Sigman had to rely on her memory as a little nine-year-old girl who had lost her dear friend Maria Ridulph to identify a killer.
In what is considered the coldest case ever solved, Maria was kidnapped and found dead in late 1957, leaving her friend Kathy with years of doubt and PTSD. After an extensive investigation, the trail went cold, and so did the case. The file gathered dust for 55 years.
In 2011, when police reconsidered the evidence and used some more modern forensic techniques, the case came back to life and a suspect, Jake McCullough, was identified. Kathy was able to provide detailed testimony about her memories of the day, which was consistent with the evidence collected. McCullough was convicted in 2012.[6]
4 House detective
When Jessica Maple’s late great-grandmother’s home was ransacked by thieves, Jessica did what most people would do: she called the police. Police informed Maple that it was likely an inside job, as the robbers must have had a key, given the amount of items stolen and the lack of evidence indicating forced entry. Jessica was having none of it.
The curious 12-year-old had spent time at the Junior District Attorney Camp this past summer and decided to put her own skills to the test. Jessica, who knew her parents had the only keys, found broken glass from a broken window in the garage and clothes scattered on the floor.
Jessica visited local pawn shops in the area, where she found some of her great-grandmother’s furniture for sale, and even visited a suspect’s home where he allegedly confessed to the crime. However, much to her dismay, the police never acted on her information.[7]
3 Missing person
When Glenneta Belford, a 97-year-old diagnosed with dementia, went missing from her care home, local police took to social media to ask the community to help find the woman.
A group of young friends aged 10 to 11, at the urging of Logan Hultman, joined the search party as soon as they heard an announcement from the helicopters. After getting permission from their parents, they set out, first searching the forest, then taking a dinner break before heading out again.
Hope Claiborne was able to identify a woman strolling aimlessly along the road based on a photo her father texted her and called 9-1-1. Police responded within minutes and returned her safely home by nightfall.[8]
2 Lego setup
A cold case has baffled police since 1991. When Lucille Johnson was brutally murdered in her Salt Lake City home, police quickly lost their trail. Police were found strangled in her home and found pieces of Lego in her house and in the driveway, but did not know how this was related to the murder.
Fast forward to 2014, and the case was reopened. Using new technology and a fresh set of eyes, police tested the residue under the victim’s nails for DNA, linking it to John Sansing, a convicted murderer who was already serving a prison sentence for an unrelated case.
They also tested the Lego for fingerprints and found prints that matched those of Sansin’s 5-year-old son, leading police to believe he was using his son to gain access to the house.[9]
1 Pedophile hacker
Brad Willman was drawn into the world of computers at the age of 5, and by the age of 14 he had taught himself how to hack. For his own amusement, Willman used a Trojan horse virus to gain access to other computers. Until the early morning hours, he kept tabs on hundreds of targets, reading their emails and checking their online presence.
A few years later, Willman began targeting sex predators online, gathering evidence and building cases before reporting the crime to police. Willman faced threats from the perpetrators and intense criticism from privacy advocates who suggested that the right to privacy is of paramount importance.
By the time Brad Willman was 19, he had infiltrated more than 3,000 computers. He helped police arrest several suspected child predators. A young cyber hero.[10]