A surreal scene unfolded at the scene of Nancy Guthrie’s abduction on Feb. 10 when a pizza delivery man approached the house with a stack of pies.
Frustrated police turned him away from the active crime scene with a stern warning. Reporters there claimed the pizzas had been sent by a fan for true crime live streamer Jonathan Lee Riches, better known as JLR Investigates.
Riches was part of a gaggle camped at the front of the house, a new breed of content creators who blur the lines between reporting, investigation and entertainment.
“We’re trying to give people a view from an outsider looking in to see what it’s like, especially after the mainstream media goes home,” said Alina Smith, co-founder of Crime Seen Collective, a network of streamers who were also in Tucson, Arizona, at the Guthrie house.
“I ask my supporters and followers what else they want, what they’re looking for, and try and give that to them,” she told The Post.
To casual observers it may seem bizarre to watch for hours only to see little more than a police shift-change happen.
But streamers who have built up their brands giving daily commentary on missing-person cases, murders and police investigations have devoted communities who treat the cases like interactive mysteries.
Riches investigated tips — including an unrelated car tow and a hospital airlift — he felt could be connected to the case. He also takes requests for Super Chat cash donations.
“Is the doormat still there?” one woman asked after donating $5.
Riches obliged — walking closer to Guthrie’s house and zooming in on the mat. “Yep, have a look,” he replied. “They haven’t ever taken it away for testing!”
These DIY online channels can prove lucrative too, with top live streamers pulling in up to $30,000-a-week, according to Smith, and fans flying in from other states to meet them.
Followers say they admire the doggedness and feel like they are part of the investigation.
However, they are not, and this is where police say problems arise.
During the ongoing search for Guthrie — mother of “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, which has been active since Feb. 1 — and in the absence of suspects and leads there has been intense speculation, often fueled by live streamers.
A fever pitch was reached with baseless accusations made against Nancy’s son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, as he was the last person to see the 84-year-old grandmother alive.
Fifth-grade teacher Dominic Evans, 48, said accusations against him exploded online after amateur investigators realized he played in a band with Cioni, and he had to send his kids away and hide inside his own home with the lights off as people went to great efforts to catch a glimpse of him.
On Feb. 16, Pima County sheriff Chris Nanos, put out a statement refuting rumors and stating Guthrie’s family members had all been cleared of suspicion.
“The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” Nanos wrote in a statement. “To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel… Please, I’m begging you, the media, to honor your professionalism.”
State representative Alma Hernandez, who lives in Tucson, was more blunt, saying she was sick of “reporting ‘grifting’ insane speculation, lies, and BS by random wannabe journalists and YouTubers who have now caused more harm than good … Please GO HOME. Let law enforcement do their jobs. Stop following them during SWAT operations and playing detectives,” Hernandez wrote in a Feb. 10 post on X.
Another case recently cautioned as to what can happen if people broadcast libelous and defamatory allegations online.
Texas TikTok tarot card reader Ashley Guillard repeatedly and baselessly claimed in videos that University of Idaho professor Rebecca Scofield had a secret romance with one of the four victims of the Moscow, Idaho, student murders, and had “ordered” the killings.
She made the claims from Nov. 2022 onward, despite a lawsuit filed by Schofield a month later stating she had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after police said Schofield was not involved and despite cease-and-desist orders from lawyers, Guillard continued to make claims. That led to a Boise court to rule against her and award Schofield $10 million in damages earlier this month.
Meanwhile, in December last year, a quiet Brentwood, Los Angeles, block turned into a livestream circus in the hours after Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were allegedly murdered inside their mansion by their own son — with disorderly social media influencers causing headaches for both neighbors and cops.
Several of them erupted in verbal arguments outside the crime scene and were forced by police to turn down music blasting from a car. One man stood in front of the home wearing a black sweatshirt topped with a gold Burger King crown and repeatedly accused members of the media of assaulting him, claiming at one point: “He touched my property and is invading my creative bubble.” No arrests were made.
Smith says for her organization’s part, they try to be much more ethical.
“I’m extremely careful. I pan away from families who pass by and I don’t name suspects or give out exact addresses. I’ve been mentored by someone in the true crime world and I watch other people… I went to Guthrie’s house as a learning exercise,” she said.
“You learn how to respect law enforcement and the community on sensationalized cases. You find out what can be done better and what the community needs.
“Some of the creators are messy men who leave wrappers everywhere and set up tents with piles of garbage growing next to them, but I try and set a better example.”
On other occasions, the work of citizen reporters has been praised. Independent journalist Nick Shirley reported on day care centers in Minnesota which he suggested may be fraudulent enterprises, highlighting facilities which were allegedly receiving public funds to the tune of millions of dollars, but not providing any services.
Meanwhile, people like Kai Kinsley, who goes by Omma online, has made a name for himself as a vigilante pedophile hunter, setting up sting operations for pervs online, as previously reported by The Post.
The 22-year-old boasts 1.3 million subscribers and his operations have resulted in as many as a half a dozen felony charges, including accosting a minor and using a computer to commit a crime, according to The Hastings Banner, a local paper in Michigan.
However, law enforcement sources warn Kinsley and those he’s working with are putting themselves at great risk.
Michael Aterburn, who worked as detective investigating internet crimes against children in Jefferson County, Kentucky, for six years, noted for his operations every cop who showed up to confront a predator was armed.
“Even the decoy [pretending to be a minor] was an armed officer,” he said, noting many of these men are highly dangerous, and he’s taken handcuffs, valium, ropes, knives, and guns off them after arrests.
Authorities have also long warned how there is a gap between the way people see policework take place in movies and on TV and how it happens in real life.
Cases evolve much more slowly and methodically and involve caution for fear of tainting evidence, arresting an innocent person or not having enough evidence to secure a prosecution at trial.
“Often times people think that what they see on a TV show is real life, and that’s just not the case,” said Indiana State Police Sgt. John Perrine in 2020, while investigating the Delphi murder case of teenagers Abigail Williams and Liberty German.
He added how speculation in large-scale social media true crime groups — precursors to the streamers of today — didn’t help, with some people posting accusations with names, pictures and addresses attached, putting innocent people at risk.
“By publicly putting these pictures out there on social media, it’s not helping anybody … There are some issues with defamation of character,” he added, according to Fox59 Indianapolis.
That case finally saw a breakthrough in 2022, brought about via meticulous policework and acting on tips, with the arrest and later conviction of Richard Allen, who is now serving a 130-year-sentence for double murder.