Social media helps a mother find her daughter’s killer

Social media has become panacea for all that goes wrong in our lives. For Belinda Lane, social networking platform helped her to find the last suspect for the gang-related firefight that took her 24-year old daughter's life, a decade ago.

Lane has been tracking one of the last suspect in her daughter's - Crystal Theobald – death since 2006, by creating bogus accounts on social media platform, then contacting the suspect and reporting his whereabouts to police. And last Friday, the suspect, William "Jokes" Sotelo, who is accused of driving the vehicle from which the bullets were fired, was arrested in central Mexico, where he had fled following the crime.

Authorities said he is in custody because of Lane's digital detective work. "She was very instrumental, working on social media to help us identify where he might be," said Riverside Police Lt. Christian Dinco. "She provided important information that helped lead us to the capture of Sotelo. Without her help, he would likely still be outstanding right now."

Sotelo's acquaintance, Julio Heredia, was named as the triggerman; in 2011, Heredia was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars, authorities said.

"You know, the streets talk," Lane told the newspaper in 2011. "We were given information by various sources, so we created a couple of bogus profiles on MySpace." Lane said she created an account using the name "Rebecca," then other using "Angel." She started sifting through sources until she found the man she wanted: Jokes Sotelo.

"Hey what uppim new to myspace and I found uremyspace," she wrote to him, according to the Press-Enterprise. "u look hott we should chill sometime u would like me and my friends."

"Hey they call me jokes from varrio 5150X3 south side but my real name is William," he replied.

Soon after, Lane went to police and gave them missing pieces they needed to pull Sotelo in for an interview, authorities told the Press-Enterprise at the time.

"He was the first one that gave us the clearest insight, and then other pieces began falling into place," Det. Rick Wheeler told the newspaper. "He laid out quite a bit of the shooting to us."

However, Sotelo disappeared immediately as authorities didn't have enough evidence. But Lane kept up her social media sleuthing and, in 2014, a tipster informed her about Sotelo’s location. She alerted authorities, who were able to find him in Mexico on May 6 and later handed over to Riverside police, according to booking records.

In a recent interview with Bay Area TV station KABC, Lane said, "My sister gave me a mother-child statue and I wrote a message on the statue promising her that if it took my last breath I was going to get him and give her justice so she could rest in peace. Friday I was able to fulfill that promise and that's everything I could ask for."