Independent Detective Site Update
New Case Files, Daily Case Challenge & Archive Improvements
Independent Detective has continued expanding the public case archive while adding new ways to research, revisit, and learn about unresolved missing-person and homicide cases. Here is a brief look at what has changed since our last major update.
A Large Number of Case Files Have Been Added
Over the past several days, we have added a substantial number of case files to the Independent Detective archive. Many involve cases that are decades old, but the passage of time does not make the people represented by these pages any less important. Our goal is to make documented information available and searchable as soon as we reasonably can.
Visitors may currently notice especially large groups of cases from Alaska, Wyoming, Wisconsin, California, Texas, Alabama, and Florida. This does not mean these states are the only places with large numbers of unresolved cases. It reflects the way we have been organizing our work over roughly the past two months.
Focusing on two or three states at a time allows us to research, prepare, organize, and publish case pages more efficiently than constantly moving between locations. As work progresses, that focus will continue shifting to other states and regions.
Introducing the Daily Case Challenge
We have added a new Daily Case Challenge designed to help visitors become more familiar with cases already documented in the archive. Each daily challenge uses a case associated with that calendar date and asks questions about details such as the person’s identity, location, decade, year, and city.
The purpose is not to turn someone’s disappearance or death into a game. The points, streaks, and rankings simply provide a way to encourage participation and memory. The larger goal is to help names, photographs, places, and dates remain familiar and keep older unresolved cases visible.
Research Accounts Now Track Archive Participation
Independent Detective Research Accounts now work alongside the Daily Case Challenge. Participants can build an Archive Score, track challenge streaks and participation, and earn titles as they continue using the archive.
Leaderboard names can also be selected to view a small public summary of participation, such as total Archive Points, challenges played, streaks, titles, and the number of cases followed. Private research information—including notes and the specific cases someone follows—is not displayed.
A Separate Blog Is Coming to the Homepage
We have also created a dedicated Blog area so future articles, case-related discussion, archive observations, and relevant news can be kept separate from official website updates.
This should make it easier to distinguish between posts discussing cases or related subjects and announcements specifically about changes to Independent Detective itself.
Easier Ways to Explore the Archive
The homepage and research areas continue to be organized around quicker access to the case database, interactive statistics, case mapping, calendar-based browsing, recently added cases, and cases associated with the current date.
These tools are intended to make a growing archive easier to navigate without requiring visitors to already know the name or case they are looking for.
We Are Still Working on Case Error Reporting
We are aware that some visitors may encounter problems when attempting to submit a correction or report an error through the case information form. We are continuing to investigate and correct those issues.
If you find incorrect or incomplete information in a case and the reporting form does not work, please contact us through our Facebook group with the correction you are trying to submit. Please also tell us what happened when you attempted to use the form—including any message or behavior you saw—so we can address both the case information and the technical problem.
Information that could assist an active investigation should still be reported directly to the appropriate investigating agency first.
Continuing to Build the Archive
There is still a great deal of work ahead. We will continue adding missing-person, homicide, and suspected-homicide case files while improving the tools that help people find and understand them. Thank you to everyone who reads, researches, shares, follows, or helps us correct information. The purpose of every addition remains the same: to keep documented case information organized, accessible, and visible.
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