While most people use YouTube for stupid shit, very stupid shit, and mind-bogglingly stupid (albeit highly entertaining) shit, every now and again someone harnesses the power of the Interwebs for a good cause.

In 1974, at the end of her eighth-grade year at Parkland Junior High School in Montgomery County, Kathy Beatty signed a classmate’s yearbook. “To a real sweet guy,” she wrote. “Too bad we had to get stuck with Rodman for math. See ya’ next year.”

The next year, Kathy was assaulted and left to die in a ditch not far from her home in Aspen Hill. No one was ever arrested.

The classmate, Steve Kerpelman, went on to become a police officer and then a private detective. He has now turned his attention to his former classmate, whose friendly, joking demeanor remains evident in how she signed the yearbook note: “Wov, Kathy Beatty.”

“I think this case can be solved,” Kerpelman said.

Kerpelman and his small Columbia-based firm, Legal Investigative Group, are employing an unusual tool: YouTube.

On a recent day, in a basement recording studio in Rockville, one of his investigators, Debra Hayre, narrated what would become a voice-over. “We are convinced someone knows something about that night,” she said. “And we are asking for your help.”

So, as my good deed for the day, here is the video:

Filed under: Freedom on Film, Pop! Goes the Culture