People may be aware of the case of Madeleine McCann who disappeared from a vacation in Portugal seven years ago.
It has parallels with several US cases of child abductions or killings where there was some suspicion over the involvement of the parents. In the UK and elsewhere it has led to a cottage industry of people determined to ‘investigate’ the incident and prove that the parents were to blame in some way or another for the loss of their child. Internet Forums exist purely to discuss and pillory the parents and Twitter remains awash with abusive comments from people critical of the McCanns, and the tabloid press run repeated lurid stories about the case so long after the event.
Yet we have this recent case:
from two years ago where it is assumed by most authorities that one or more of the mother, step father or grandmother inflicted a non-accidental head injury leading to the death of the child.
The question is "Why has the Madeleine McCann case become a cottage industry of hatefulness when an equivalent case, Summer Rogers-Ratcliffe, with much higher probability of culpability of the carers is hardly mentioned in the press, on forums or on twitter?
You’re presuming that the goal is to do something useful, rather than to tickle the brain of the investigators. They’re probably intrigued by the characters involved, the even balance of plausibility for competing theories, etc. A slam-dunk is no fun, nor is a case where the evidence is pretty conclusive, but not so much as to pass muster in court. Those sorts of cases can be left to the police. Cases where the characters are boring and ugly are also not too interesting.
ETA: What does any of this have to do with Cyber Bullying? You mention it in your title, but not your OP.
The Forums set upto discuss the case regularly accuse, abuse and harry the Mccanns. Certain forum members have leafleted their home area accusing them of killing their child and distributed booklets accusing them in local libraries and other public places. The regularly engage in accusations that were they in the written press would be easily actionable for libel. Any person seen as supportive of the Mccanns is similarly harried an cyber bullied on twitter or by email.
The main claim of the abusers of the Mccanns is that the parents have escaped ‘justice’ yet this is patently more so in the other case where no potential third party is involved that might clear the parents of blame… One is a cause celebre, the other is ignored.
I am interested in thoughts about why certain cases become a case of Salem like witch accusing, and others pass with no notice.
I told you why. The one case lends itself to more speculation because there is no corpus. OTOH, it could just be crazy human behavior. I mean, why is Justin Beiber so popular when there are hundreds of other kids more talented than he is? Someone was more successful at marketing than someone else.