The Internet Detective Game: Episode #1 The Missoula Kidnapping

Introduction
In this game you get to be a computer based detective. Here you will use your skills with actual real-world-mapping programs and databases to solve a mystery. Doing extensive computer searches is not everyone’s cup of tea. It can be like fishing for hours without a nibble. But this game is set up to let you try using a computer to solve a crime while giving you many encouraging nibbles along the way.

This book is actually the instructions for playing the game. Buying the book gives you the right to play the game and put your computer skills to the test in the real world. Your first assignment is to find the location where Davy Quintellison was held after being kidnapped.

• To play this game you need:
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• This book.
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• An internet connection.
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• Access to data bases such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and other data bases. You’ll need to look up things like train schedules, newspaper archives, etc.
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• Free Google Earth software, or access to Bing.com/maps, MapQuest.com, or maps.Yahoo.com. (You might need help getting GPS info for Yahoo from a site like http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocoder/).
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• What is nice about sites like bing.com is you can type in a name like ‘The Missoula Public Library’ and they will take you there. At the time of this writing only Google Earth has street views for most of the locations in this particular game (but not all). You do not need ‘street view’ to play the game. In fact, some computers, such as older macs still running OS 10.4 can run Google Earth but can’t get street views, but street views do enhance playing the game.
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• Or any other site that will give you coordinates. Some do charge for the service.
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• You could drive around Missoula if you live or travel there with a GPS locator. Make sure your GPS’s units match Google or Bing or whatever you use. The game, however, was created for people who live outside Missoula. Living in Missoula might make the game too easy for you.
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• This government site can convert decimal Latitude and Longitude to degrees and vice versa if you need to: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html
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• Patience. The faster your computer the faster Google Earth or Bing.com, or MapQuest.com will run but you may have to wait for views to render.
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• The online services that provide maps if you enter your starting point and destination seem to do very well with distances. However, you might want to calculate driving time yourself. Use this link for: Speed limit and traffic light data if you can’t ‘find it’/‘figure it out for’ yourself.
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• The story’s setting is 2010. This means that any photos you may see online may be out of date. Either because they are current and this happened in the past. Or because the photos are too old. A photo of a speed limit sign might be a helpful clue. But the condition of a building on an ever-changing internet should be only considered given that the building may have changed since the photo was taken.