Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi reveals untold story of man wrongly accused of Boston Marathon bombing

IN THE chaos after the Boston Marathon bombing, Sunil Tripathi was the world’s most wanted man. Now it’s been revealed what really happened.

AS HOMEMADE bombs ripped through Boston, the streets were filled with chaos, smoke and screams. With three dead and 264 lying wounded on the pavement, the same question plagued the public’s consciousness: Who? How? Why?

In the wake of the bombing on 15 April 2013, people turned online for answers. Amateur detectives lit up Reddit and Twitter with speculation gleaned from images of the crowd and snippets heard on police scanners.

Three days later, the FBI released pictures of the suspects and asked the public for help.

“Did you notice the guy in the lower left with laptop?” wrote one user on Reddit.

“Reminded me of a pic someone posted the other day. It’s stupid but I’ll link it anyway” said another.

“Damn. That is him for sure,” another chimed in.

Then: “This is probably the beginning of modern digital witch-hunting”

The disturbing events that unfolded are the subject of a new documentary, Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi, which tells the story of a 22 year-old Brown University student wrongly accused of the bombing after his name was posted on social media and then picked up by mainstream news outlets.

It features exclusive interviews with the Tripathi family, who provide an insight into those crucial hours when their search for a missing family member was hijacked by the world’s biggest manhunt. Opening scenes juxtapose the frantic media hunt that saw the family receive nearly 60 calls in a single hour with pictures of Sunil’s childhood bedroom in a frightening depiction of how easily misinformation can spread.

“If we take a moment and look back. What happened to the family as they were attacked on social media was a really terrible thing but it pales in comparison to the pain that they suffered and continued to suffer as a result of losing Sunil,” said documentary maker Neal Broffman — a friend of Sunil’s sister who had helped with the initial campaign to find him.

“Two wrongs are both wrong. It was wrong the way they were treated, it was wrong the way they were attacked and it was wrong the way they lost Sunil. These are things they will struggle and try to come to terms with for many many years to come.”

Brown University student Sunil Tripathi was wrongly accused of being behind the Boston Marathon bombings. Picture: Help us find Sunil Tripathi.

‘A CASE STUDY IN MOB MENTALITY’

As the FBI circulated pictures of the wanted men back in April 2013, similarities between a picture of Sunil and one of “Suspect 2”, now known as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, led to online speculation they were the same person.

In fact, the philosophy student was suffering depression and had walked out of his home a month earlier, leaving his keys, wallet and phone behind, never to be seen alive again.

His distraught family launched a huge search of local parks, train stations and bridges. They followed police advice and set up a Facebook page — “Help us find Sunil Tripathi” — posting videos, messages and photos to ensure Sunil knew, if he ever Googled himself, his family was looking for him and he was loved.

However, in the wake of the bombings, those photos were used to speculate Sunil was involved in the attack. As the information was repeated over and over again on Reddit, Twitter and spread to mainstream media outlets, hate messages and death threats began to be posted on the family’s “Help us find Sunil” Facebook page. Sunil was named the “new Bin Laden” amid speculation the attack was religiously motivated, while his family were slammed for raising a terrorist.

“What started off as people saying ‘this image and your brother look the same’, became ‘this image is your brother,’ became ‘how are you providing a cover for your brother to do this?’” Sunil’s sister Sangeeta Tripathi said.

“It almost felt like a case study in mob mentality, virtual mob mentality” said his brother Ravi.

Sunil Tripathi’s siblings Sangeeta and Ravi launched a mammoth search effort to find their missing brother. Picture: Help us find Sunil Tripathi.

FBI NAMES BOMBING SUSPECTS

Unable to manage the volume of vitriolic comments, the Tripathi family decided to delete the Facebook page. It was taken down at 11pm — around the same time a police officer in the city was shot — and the decision was immediately viewed as suspicious.

False reports online Sunil’s name was overhead on a police scanner exploded on Twitter. Media outlets desperate for information sent cameras and reporters to stake out the family home in the middle of the night.

The reports continued until the FBI announced they had their suspects: Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

At the Tripathi home the phone calls stopped and the doorbell went quiet. The family released a statement thanking those who had supported them.

Five days later they got the news they had been dreading: Sunil’s body had been found in the Providence River. He committed suicide on March 16, before the Boston Marathon even took place.

Online speculation was transformed into fact as media hungry for new information seized on social media speculation.

Camera crews descend on the Tripathi home after rumours online were picked up by mainstream media.

‘A YOUNG MAN WHO HAD REAL PROBLEMS’

Now two years on, as a jury mulls whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will face the death penalty or life in prison for his role in the bombing, Mr Broffman said he was compelled to make the film as a “course correction” for the vitriol online about Sunil.

“A lot was said about him that wasn’t true and in order for this film to be successful I felt it was important that the truth be told about Sunil and that people understood there was a real young man here who had problems with a real family and that perhaps this could be a cautionary tale also for how things unfold on social media in the future.”

He said the film shows the speed with which rumour and speculation can become entrenched as fact in the modern media’s quest to be first. It’s a cautionary tale for journalists and commenters who should think about the source of the information they read before pressing ‘retweet’.

“There are rules about how we source material, how we report material, it’s not OK to just put a retweet and say that retweets are not endorsements or put a question mark around someone else’s comment.”

“If you were working for a TV station or for a newspaper or for a journal I don’t think ‘Omar 20003000’ would be a reliable source of information, yet somehow in the night of the misidentification those sorts of things were left hanging,” he said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty last month of all counts relating to the bombing which killed three people and wounded 264 more.

MOURAD HAMYD SUFFERS SAME FATE

It’s a similar fate to that suffered by French teenager Mourad Hamyd, 18, the brother-in-law of Said and Cherif Kouachi, suspects in France’s deadly Charlie Hebdo attacks, whose name started circulating as a suspect in the aftermath of the shootings.

The 18-year-old handed himself into police after reading his name in media reports while his classmates started a hashtag to proclaim his innocence.

“I’m in shock, people said horrible and false things about me on social media even though I am a normal student who lives quietly with his parents,” he said at the time.

Mourad’s classmate, known as ‘babydroma’ said she didn’t know why his name started trending online.

“When I saw it was my classmate, first I did not believe it, I wondered what was going on since Mourad was with us,” she told news.com.au.

“I think now the name is known to all, so it will be more difficult to succeed as a “normal” person but hopefully for him it will be possible.”

Last CCTV footage shows a lonely figure walking through the city. His body was found a week after the bombing took place and it’s thought he committed suicide a month earlier.

For the Tripathi family, Mr Broffman said the film has had the surprising side effect of helping people to open up about mental health. However ultimately, it’s a cautionary tale for those online to think critically before accusing someone without knowing all the facts.

“It would be nice to think that we can trust our sources of information but when we have mainstream journalists who have a reputation for being trustworthy, when they are retweeting rumour and innuendo from social media it throws up huge questions marks around the veracity and reliability of information we receive,” he said.

“Our actions, even if they are done in the quiet of our own homes, when they go out online they can have significant consequences for other people and potentially dangerous consequences.”

For more on Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi, click here.

Originally published as Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi reveals untold story of man wrongly accused of Boston Marathon bombing