Incident analyses
Public, already-reported cases. We trace each one back to the data leak that started the chain — and the specific action that would have broken it.
The 2020 attack on Judge Esther Salas's family — the case that led to Daniel's Law
Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of US District Judge Esther Salas, was shot and killed at the family's North Brunswick home by an attorney who had researched the judge's home address through publicly available channels. The case directly produced Daniel's Law in New Jersey and the federal Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows — home swatted hours after her address was posted online (December 2023)
On December 29, 2023, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows's home in Manchester, Maine was the target of a swatting call. The night before, her home address had been posted online by a conservative activist. Bellows had ruled the previous day that Donald Trump was ineligible for the Maine primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best — protesters at her home, neighbors' addresses leaked, kids questioned about their schools (Snohomish County, 2020)
On August 1, 2020, roughly 200 protesters in 40 vehicles arrived at the Snohomish County home of Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best. Best was not home. Neighbors reported that their personal information had been published online ahead of the protest, that protesters photographed homes and license plates, and that protesters approached neighborhood children and asked them what schools they attended.
Amy Boyer — stalker bought her workplace address from a data broker (New Hampshire, 1999)
Amy Boyer, 20, was shot and killed outside her dental-office workplace by a man who had stalked her since high school. He bought her Social Security number, date of birth, and workplace address from the data broker Docusearch. The broker obtained the workplace address by pretexting — calling Boyer at home and lying about who they were. The case produced the first US state supreme court ruling that data brokers owe a duty of care to the people whose information they sell.
Denver police commander doxxing — first conviction under Colorado's anti-doxxing law (2024)
A Colorado activist was convicted under Colorado's anti-doxxing statute for repeating a Denver police commander's home address during a livestreamed protest and inviting viewers to gather there. The case is the first reported conviction under Colorado's 2022 anti-doxxing law for first responders.
Federal judge swatting wave (January 2024) — Chutkan, Engoron, and others
In January 2024, a wave of swatting incidents targeted federal and state judges, prosecutors, and other public officials connected to high-profile cases. The pattern was widely reported and prompted federal action on judicial security.
Andrew Finch — fatally shot by police responding to a swatting call (Wichita, 2017)
Andrew Finch, a 28-year-old uninvolved bystander, was shot and killed by Wichita police responding to a fake hostage call placed over a $1.50 online gaming dispute. The address used in the call had been deliberately given to the swatter as misinformation in the dispute — Finch had no connection to anyone involved.
Mark Herring — fatal swatting over a Twitter handle (Tennessee, 2020)
Mark Herring, a 60-year-old Tennessee resident, died of a heart attack during a police response triggered by a swatting call. The swatting was retaliation by harassers who wanted to forcibly acquire his @Tennessee Twitter handle and posted his home address on Discord after he refused.
Minnesota lawmaker shootings — gunman used a list of 11 data broker sites to find home addresses (June 2025)
In the early-morning hours of June 14, 2025, Vance Boelter shot four people at two Minnesota lawmakers' homes — killing State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and wounding State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. According to the FBI affidavit, Boelter found the home addresses through a list of 11 data broker websites recovered from his vehicle alongside notebooks listing dozens of other elected officials and their home addresses.
Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother killed at home — address posted on white-supremacist sites (Chicago, 2005)
On February 28, 2005, US District Judge Joan Lefkow returned home to find her husband Michael and her mother Donna shot dead in the basement. The attacker was a disgruntled litigant whose civil case Lefkow had dismissed. Before the murders, Lefkow's home address had been posted on multiple white-supremacist websites, alongside calls for her death.
20,000 New Jersey officers vs. 118 data brokers — the Daniel's Law class actions (2024)
In February 2024, Atlas Data Privacy Corporation filed 118 class-action lawsuits in New Jersey state court on behalf of more than 20,000 active and retired police officers, prosecutors, judges, and corrections officers. The suits alleged that data-broker companies — including LexisNexis and other major aggregators — had failed to remove the officers' home addresses and phone numbers after written demands under Daniel's Law. The case is the largest known structural test of whether the modern broker-removal regime actually works.
Portland federal-officer doxxing wave — 38 officers' personal info posted online during 2020 protests
During the summer 2020 protests in Portland, the Department of Homeland Security publicly stated that 38 federal law enforcement officers had been doxxed — names, photos, and personal information posted online. The wave coincided with the BlueLeaks data dump, which exposed 269 GB of internal police-department files going back to 1996, and prompted CBP and federal agencies to authorize officers to cover their name tags.
Rebecca Schaeffer — stalker bought her home address from a DMV records lookup (Los Angeles, 1989)
Rebecca Schaeffer, a 21-year-old actress, was shot and killed at her front door by an obsessed fan who had hired a Tucson detective agency to find her home address. The agency pulled the address from California DMV records for $250. The case directly produced the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis — home address and family info posted online during Trump Georgia case (2023)
After the August 2023 Fulton County indictment of Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's home address — along with the names and addresses of her family members and the 23 grand jurors — was posted on conspiracy and far-right websites. Multiple individuals were federally charged for follow-on threats against Willis, with at least two convicted and sentenced to federal prison.