SEATTLE—
CanYouID.me is a new website created to help detectives identify potential suspects from crimes all over Washington. Investigators post photographs of people captured on video, and you get to help identify them.Lake Forest Park Police Detective Tony Matthews is organizing the effort and says, "the idea was to create this so that any detective or criminal investigator within the state of Washington could come right on to this website, post the picture with the information themselves." The pictures automatically delete after 2 months.
Det. Matthews says anyone can go to the site and simply click on the photo, fill out the form, and the detective working the case will get an email. You can remain anonymous if you want.
Right now, one of the top cases on www.CANUID.ME is an arson suspect from 2005. Detective Matthews says the surveillance video shows him buying gallon jugs of water he later emptied out and filled with gasoline. The suspect put them in front of the wall of an apartment in Lake Forest Park and lit it on fire. There were people inside but they got out safely. However, it could have turned deadly.
Det. Matthews says, "We believe he was spurned during a relationship with an individual. This person told him I'm not interested and he didn't take it very well. He started stalking the woman."
Investigators are hoping someone will come forward willing to testify that they know who the man is in the surveillance photos. If you have any information on the suspect, go to www.CanYouID.me and fill out the form or call Det. Matthews at the Lake Forest Park Police Department at 206-364-8216.
