True-crime fans are banding together online to try to solve cases
Yikes
![A crime scene at Crimecon](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240629_USP504.jpg)
It is 9am on a Sunday and Liz is trying to figure out who did it. Specifically: who killed this guy splayed across the floor? In her day job Liz is a massage therapist, but today she is a homicide detective—or rather she is cosplaying one. Wearing blue latex gloves she prods a blood-soaked mannequin by her feet, part of a crime-scene simulation at CrimeCon, a convention for true-crime fans. Liz came to learn from the experts. They start with the basics: it is blood spatter, not splatter.
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Forensic fandom”
United States June 29th 2024
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