We’re all guilty of searching our own house on Google Maps, hoping to spot a familiar car in the driveway or even a glimpse of ourselves on “street view”.
There’s a universal fascination with virtually visiting our own neighborhoods but sometimes, that curiosity can unlock answers to mysteries.
The search engine has proven to be vital in solving several cases that have otherwise gone cold.
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One disturbing incident occurred in November 2020 when an 83-year-old woman, Paulette Landrieux, disappeared from her home in Andenne, Belgium.
She suffered from Alzheimer’s and a huge search for her began but after several weeks with no leads, it was called off.
It wasn’t until almost two years later, in October 2022, when a police officer searched the house on Google Maps, that a shocking discovery was made.
Landrieux had been photographed leaving her home and walking to a neighbor’s house by a Google Maps camera.
She was found lying at the bottom of a hill below the neighbor’s garden and an autopsy report revealed that she had died shortly after the fall.
Over in Michigan, one man named David Lee Niles vanished after a night out in a bar.
The 72-year-old was reported missing by family in 2006 after they failed to reach him.
A search ensued but it ultimately went cold after no progress was made in finding him, and he was presumed to be dead.
It wasn’t until 2015, when a tree decorator working at a height noticed something unusual in a nearby pond.
Taking to Google Maps, he could see from a bird’s eye view that the object appeared to be a submerged car.
Police were alerted and a dive team confirmed that it was in fact a car.
After it was dragged out of the water, police found the skeletal remains of Niles inside.
The news finally gave his family closure after nine years of searching for him.
In 2011, a terrifying incident took place when a woman returned home to find two men robbing her house.
The pair held the unnamed woman at gunpoint before fleeing the scene and she was so scared of a retaliation that she never revealed her identity to the press.
The thieves were never caught and the case went cold until a neighbor was looking at her own home on Google Maps one day and spotted two men on “street view” who matched the robbers’ descriptions.
It’s now hoped that with an image of the assailants, police will soon be able to bring them to justice.