🕵️‍♀️ 10 must-reads from our investigative team

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In 2024, the Hi-Res investigative division published some of the most in-depth stories in the Daily Dot’s arsenal, exploring a wide range of topics including internet rumors of a serial killer stalking a Texas city; accusations that global e-commerce giant Temu is exploiting its sellers; and exposed massive online digital piracy, the ghost worker industry, and the truth about a hugely popular leftist YouTuber. 

It was a great year and we can’t wait for 2025.

These are the 10 must-reads of 2024 from Hi-Res (in no particular order). 

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⮩ ☠️ 10) ‘That’s the last footage we have of him’: 14 people disappeared on Lady Bird Lake. Now Austin’s convinced it’s the Rainey Street Ripper

Is there a serial killer stalking a popular bar district in Austin, Texas? Over the past two years, 14 bodies have been pulled from a lake adjacent to a happening nightspot in the Lone Star State capital. The sheer number of the dead and the fact that over half were young men have fed fears that there is a person—or people—hunting on Rainey Street.

Police insist that there is no killer, concluding that the deaths are unrelated and for the most part unsuspicious. But the public and many friends and family aren’t convinced. 

They’ve dubbed the person they believe responsible for the Rainey Street Ripper. This investigation by a reporter who’s been on the story since the very beginning explores the rumors, separates theory from fact, and explains why a growing number of people online are Rainey Street Ripper truthers.

⮩ 🫅🏻 9) Women, money, and Taylor Swift tickets: The life and death of a Florida Republican ‘kingmaker’

In life, Kent Stermon liked being known as a Republican kingmaker. As one of the earliest supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Stermon enjoyed a level of access and influence that many would envy, a position that he relished. 

Stermon was on the powerful Board of Governors, which rules over the state university system, and enjoyed a uniquely powerful role with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for a civilian. He had his own badge to come and go at JSO headquarters as he pleased, a dedicated parking spot, and sources said he could make or break an officer’s career at a whim.

Revelations that he was being investigated for sexual misconduct in the wake of his death by suicide in December 2022 stunned many among his network of powerful friends. Within days, the bizarrely brazen details about his actions were splashed on headlines across the state. Stermon purportedly sexually solicited a young woman he’d known since childhood in exchange for a promise to get her tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.

Our story unravels the mystery of how Kent Stermon obtained and used his influence and exposes fascinating details about the shadowy right-wing web of money and power he was part of.

⮩ 👻 8) Inside the global ghost worker industry that’s taking thousands of American tech jobs

The rise of remote work has myriad benefits. It’s cheaper, more efficient, and typically far more flexible than on-site work. The global pandemic accelerated the move to remote work, liberating people and companies worldwide. It also gave rise to a uniquely modern scam: ghost workers.

Ghost workers often live internationally and pretend to be someone else, or somewhere else, to secure remote jobs meant for American residents.

This scam isn’t just illegal, it’s a security nightmare. Many of the jobs ghost workers and the shell companies that employ them target are with large tech companies that work on sensitive intellectual property, such as artificial intelligence. Non-disclosure agreements don’t apply to someone using a fake identity who lives halfway around the world, after all.

The government is aware of the rise of ghost workers but has done precious little to prevent it. Learn more about the ghost worker industry, who it harms, how it works, and how pervasive it is becoming in this Daily Dot exclusive.

⮩ 💊 7)  ‘I can’t explain why’: Does this dog dewormer cure cancer? These Facebook groups say yes. So does Joe Tippens

If the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead Health and Human Services is any indication, alternative medicine is having a moment. 

Years before RFK “baby bear corpse absconder” Jr. ascended to a potential role in the federal government, a man named Joe Tippens turned to an unlikely medication for his metastasized small cell lung cancer: the deworming drug fenbendazole.

Months later, his cancer was gone. Tippens credits fenbendazole and the treatment course he created, which is now known as the Joe Tippens Protocol. Since then, hundreds, if not thousands, of people have claimed it cured their cancer.

This story lays out the facts about fenbendazole. Read it and decide for yourself: Is this dewormer commonly used for animals really a cancer cure or are the countless people hawking it on the internet selling hopium to desperate, sick people?

⮩ 🛍️ 6) ‘It’s squeezing us out of the market’: Temu has taken e-commerce by storm—but sellers say they’re paying for those low prices

Temu is the newest kid on the e-commerce giant block. Its growth has been remarkable: in a few short years, it amassed an estimated 100 million American customers. Fans say its prices are unbeatable. So do many of its smaller sellers, who claim that the company is edging in on competitors like Amazon and Wish by bleeding them dry.

This Hi-Res exclusive shares the stories of several Temu sellers who say that the company that once seemed like the golden goose has turned into a money pit. They claim that Temu’s strict controls on prices have cut their profits into a small fraction of what they’d earned on other e-commerce platforms, or even had them operating at a loss.

The story will leave you wondering whether to Temu or not to Temu.

⮩ 🌎 5) Naziland

Not so long ago, it was political suicide to admit to having white nationalist or racist beliefs. Those days are gone. The Overton Window has shifted—perhaps permanently.

Far-right figures, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis, have ridden these winds of change to various states around the country as part of an ideological migration intended to drag the country further to the extremist right. 

For the ambitious Naziland four-story series, the Daily Dot traveled to areas in Maine, West Virginia, Idaho, and Florida that have seen an influx of extremists in recent years to find out how the locals are being impacted and what, if anything, they’re doing about their new racist neighbors.

⮩ 📽️ 4) ‘I like my arms and legs attached to my body’: Why is this major conglomerate that does business with McDonald’s, Colgate-Palmolive, and the New York Times showing so much illegal content?

This exclusive exposed digital intellectual property theft of shocking scale and brazenness. Massive Pakistani conglomerate the Lakson Group, which had business relationships with major American companies, including media powerhouse the New York Times, was systematically swiping foreign content and distributing them with apparent impunity. Our reporting showed that the Pakistani government was also getting in on online piracy via a company it owns a majority stake in.

This story had an immediate impact. In the wake of our reporting, the Pakistani government blocked access to the Daily Dot’s website and one of the apps that was apparently distributing content illegally immediately shut down. It also now appears that the New York Times has severed its relationship with a Lakson Group subsidiary.

⮩ 💻 3) ‘We cannot have someone advanced on the left… who has exploited people like this’: Who is Beau of the Fifth Column, really?

Over the last several years, Beau of the Fifth Column quietly became a powerhouse among leftist political YouTubers. Fans love his folksy, country delivery and praise him for being a relatable voice of reason. But Beau, aka Justin King, isn’t just a rural political savant in a Curious George hat and flannel shirt. He’s a former federal inmate who did time for human smuggling arising from a conspiracy he was involved in with multiple Russian nationals.

After his prison days, he reinvented himself as an anarchist journalist before landing on the Beau persona that’s brought him major success (nearly 1 million YouTube subscribers on one channel alone and 65,000 Patreon subscribers).

This story explores the rise of Beau of the Fifth Column, delves into inconsistencies about his criminal past and how he’s described it, and leaves you wondering who Justin King really is and what he believes.

⮩ 🚘 2) ‘They’ve added all these other opportunities to interact with technology in the car’: Tesla pioneered touchscreens. Then crashes went up

Distracted driving kills thousands of people in the U.S. every year. States have responded to the distracted driving epidemic by cracking down on cell phone use behind the wheel. But what about that glowing screen mounted on the dashboard of 97% of new cars? 

There is no movement to restrict touchscreen use in vehicles, nor is it being studied in a serious way. Meanwhile, touchscreens control more and more essential functions, forcing drivers to take their eyes, attention, and hands off the wheel to do basic things like honk the horn or turn on the windshield wipers.

Find out how and why touchscreens became ubiquitous in new cars, learn about their dangers, and hear from a father who lost his 19-year-old son to distracted driving in this fascinating and heartbreaking Daily Dot exclusive.

⮩ 🌐 1) The digital divide for Indian Country got better under Biden—will that progress go away?

Fast, reliable internet access is increasingly necessary to fully participate in the modern world. Without it, people can struggle to get a good education or job and even have their health negatively impacted. Perhaps nowhere in America is the digital divide wider than on Indigenous lands, aka Indian Country. There over a quarter, which sources say is a vast undercount, lack reliable internet access.

The Biden administration earned praise for its efforts to mend the digital divide in Indian Country. With regime change comes a lot of uncertainty, but experts fear that the incoming Trump administration will slam the brakes on that progress. 

Read this well-researched and thorough story to learn more about the status of internet access on tribal lands and what people and government are doing to connect Indigenous Americans to the digital world.

The Daily Dot looks back at the year that was in our 2024 Year in Review.

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