Google Helps Solve John Doe Case

[Champ]

(CBS/AP) Google, the Internet search engine, has done something that law enforcement officials and their computer tools could not: Identify a man who died in an apparent hit-and-run accident 11 years ago in this small town outside Yakima.

Detective Pat Ditter of the Washington State Patrol searched with Google for about a week before identifying the victim as David Glen Lewis, 39, who died 1,606 miles from his home in Amarillo, Texas.

Lewis' brother, Larry, praised Ditter's persistence.

"If he hadn't looked at those cases, we would still be back at square one, thinking he's alive and going to give us a call one of these days," Larry Lewis said. "He did an excellent job."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/08/tech/main648215.shtml