Social media impact on investigation into Ana Walshe’s disappearance

COHASSET, Mass. — Not only is the story of missing Cohasset mother Ana Walshe one of the most viewed on boston25news.com, but social media is constantly floating every possible theory out there.

On Monday night, Ana Walshe was trending now imagine police trying to determine what’s fact and what’s fiction. Boston 25 News spoke with an attorney about the social media impact on the investigation.

“It is a two-edged sword both a positive and a negative where it is very helpful to the police and on the other hand, there are a lot of people out there that are going to waste the police officer’s time,” says attorney Peter Elikann.

Attorney Peter Elikann has more than 35 years of experience as a criminal defense lawyer. He’s seen how police can get inundated with tips from people on social media, especially in high-profile cases like the disappearance of Ana Walshe.

“It’s unfortunate to the police that it is so time-consuming that they definitely have to wade through all the people who are wasting their time and making up stories and fantasizing about information,” says Ekilann.

Elikann says police still have to do their due diligence during the investigation.

“They kind of have to leave no stone unturned and consider every bit, every tip, every clue even the time wasters,” says Elikann.

Hop online and many people are pointing the finger at Ana’s husband after he was charged with misleading police in the investigation, but Elikann has seen first-hand how the suspect isn’t always who you think it is.

“You can’t rush to judgment on basically the first day. We’ve all seen many situations where it looks like they have the person nailed cold and then as time goes by more information comes out and we were all wrong,” says Elikann.

Elikann also says that sometimes people will use cases like the one in Cohasset to have their moment shine by providing false information so it’s another challenge for the police to deal with.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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