Blogger Drives Murder Investigation

Citizen journalism, at its best: Though police originally insisted that the murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings—the Florida parents who adopted 13 children—were part of a robbery, blogger and Daily Beast contributor Rick Outzen dug deeper. “A few days after the killings on July 9, someone told him that Mr. Billings used to own a seedy strip club and had a reputation for ruthlessness in the used-car business,” reports The New York Times. “Others, insisting on anonymity, said some of the seven people charged with the murders told the police it was a contract killing.” Outzen’s reporting has brought rebuttals from his competitors and threats of lawsuits from a used-car salesman he linked to the crime, “But six weeks after the killings, Mr. Outzen has not had to retract anything he has written.” The local sheriff said that Outzen has aided the investigation and that his anonymous sources have been right.