On October 15th, an Instagram post from DubseaTV went viral, saying, “So far, four women have been found in the SODO and Burien area.” It went on to claim that there was a case that Seattle police were investigating about a serial killer, who posed the bodies of the women they killed similarly. This post was immediately shared by many Seattle citizens, encouraging people to stay safe and avoid this possible danger. 

 How do you know if a post like this is reliable? In an article by seattlemet.com, University of Washington researcher Taylor Agajanian says that this post raised “Immediate red flags.” This post had no sources cited at all and was very short, leaving out details that would have been included if it was real. Multiple other posts like this repeated the same information, in almost the same way, showing the lack of information between the sites that shared the rumor. 

 Seattle’s PD (police department) has confirmed one dead body in the SODO area and released the information to the public. The King County Sheriff’s Office requested public assistance on October 7th, in the case of a female found dead on the side of Highway 509, not far from South Seattle. They never suggested it was linked to any other case at all. Rumors claim that the police department didn’t release information about it because they didn’t want to provoke the killer, but it is unlikely that they would release information and ask for help about one murder and then be secretive about others.  

 Information about this ‘serial killer’ spread to local bars, which caused an even bigger wave of panic in the communities around South Seattle. An article from king5.com says, “People tend to trust information provided by someone they know, versus a stranger.” This is how the information spread so quickly throughout communities, the rumor spreading from neighbor to neighbor, evolving with each version of the story. 

 The official Seattle police department responded to a tweet made by Dubseatv, saying “We’ve received a number of inquiries about this. Seattle PD does *not* have any serial cases.” The King County Sheriff’s department, which is this county’s primary law enforcement agency, also denied the rumors by Twitter and email. 

 Researchers, the Seattle PD, and debunking websites have proved these rumors false. It has been concluded that the small grain of truth about one murder quickly escalated into a dramatic panic that was not necessary. This just goes to show, you shouldn’t trust everything you read on the internet.