The Pioneering Cyber Detective Who Cracked a 30-Year-Old Cold Case

Todd Matthews was one of the first “cyber detectives.” An amateur sleuth who used the internet to solve the decades-old Tent Girl mystery, he later launched the Doe Network, a nonprofit that works with law enforcement to solve missing persons cases.

A few years ago, VICE interviewed Matthews about his work in the 1990s, which inspired thousands of amateur detectives to go online to investigate missing-person cases and unsolved crimes worldwide. 

Matthews was only 17 when he started his first case, seeking the identity of “Tent Girl,” a young woman who’d been found dead wrapped in a canvas sheet.

“I first heard of the story ‘The Tent Girl’ in 1987,” he said, noting that his future wife had just moved to Tennessee from Kentucky. “It was near Halloween, so we were telling ghost stories. She explained how her father had found a body on the side of the road wrapped in a canvas tent wrapper and how a grave had been created with her image on it.”

“No name,” he continued. “Just ‘Tent Girl.’ That just stuck with me.”

Matthews’s brother and sister had passed away when they were infants—no stranger to tragic loss, he felt ‘Tent Girl’ deserved to be identified.

“I think it was really obsessive right from the get-go,” he said. “The process of trying to find out who she was immediately began.”

From there, he scoured newspaper and magazine articles to discover any sliver of information that might help him further the case. 

“Some of the biggest obstacles in the story were getting information,” he said. “Everything was hard copy.”

Back then, much of the research had to be done in person: visiting Tent Girl’s grave, picking up hard copies of articles, and interviewing sources—including his father-in-law, who remembered things differently than the news articles.

“The newspaper described her as pretty much a child, but he said he actually saw her, and he felt that she was possibly older,” Matthews said. “So there were some data conflicts immediately.”

“It was more than an obsession. It felt like an obligation.” –Todd Matthews

Matthews told VICE that the story became so haunting that he even experienced vivid dreams of the missing woman. Though he began researching this case when he was only a teenager, his dedication to solving the mystery persevered for several years.

“By this point in time, it was having an effect on my marriage,” he said. “Racking up telephone bills that were difficult to pay. Arguments that were difficult to win. Rationalizing doing this with no results.

“At what point do you say ‘enough’s enough’?” he asked. “It was more than an obsession. It felt like an obligation.”

He heard of the internet around the mid-90s and recognized it as a tool. In 1997, he created a website, which you can still visit on the Internet Archive, including all the information he’d collected about her and her case over the last decade.

Because he had a family at this time, he did most of his research at night while everyone was asleep, explaining that he “snuck off to my little office.” Eventually, while searching “missing sister, missing this, missing that,” he found several databases—one relevant to the case.

“I did find a note where a lady in Arkansas was looking for her missing sister, last known to be in Lexington, Kentucky—a very short distance away—in December of 1967,” he said. “It was very clear at the time that that’s who I was looking for.”

The Tent Girl ended up being Barbara Hackmann Taylor. She had remained unidentified for nearly 30 years after her body was found. However, thanks to Matthews, her family and loved ones were able to gain some closure.

“After the resolution of the Tent Girl case, the cybercommunity lit up,” Matthews told VICE in the documentary. “I heard from missing persons advocates from all over the world, and I helped in the development of the first database for missing and unidentified persons.”

Through his nonprofit, Matthews and other volunteer internet sleuths worked with law enforcement to reach resolutions and connect missing persons cases with John/Jane Doe cases.

“I was blinded by trying to find what I needed that I didn’t realize that some foundational work was being done,” Matthews revealed. “That time I spent wasn’t just time wasted. There was success in what I was trying to do, and in fact, it left a footprint. It repurposed the use of the internet.” 

Matthews passed away earlier this year at the young age of 53. However, his contributions to the cyber detective community will live on forever.