And this is why I have no faith in the investigation into the Cornell rape allegation. We already have a person with the same name as one of the alleged perpetrators being doxxed, harassed, and tormented by the online mob. The process server went to the wrong family. The case stems from a raucous fraternity party at the university in 2024, where Jane Doe was allegedly drugged and gang-raped. Her allegations lacked evidence to support charges, but she filed a civil suit on September 16, which has rehashed the whole affair. 

The media are atrocious at covering these stories, and with their newsrooms staffed with Gen Z writers who are brain-dead, expect things to be wildly off target, as they were during the Duke lacrosse fiasco and the UVA gang rape hoax. The fact that New York Attorney General Letitia James is now special prosecutor in this case only increases the chance for mayhem. I’m trying to be patient; I want the facts to come out and the evidence analyzed, and the New York Times piece does well to detail Jane Doe’s litany of emotions after the alleged attack. The people trying to make her case are likely to botch it, like this family that’s at the receiving end of misdirected hostility. The suit names a Matthew Ingalls, but someone delivered the suit to the wrong family. The Free Press has the story:

At 8 p.m. on Saturday night, Victoria Ingalls heard a banging sound at her front door.

There was a man standing outside her house in upstate New York. “Is Matthew Ingalls your son?” he asked.

Victoria’s son is an active duty sergeant in the Marine Corps. “My heart went in my throat,” she told me. She assumed she was about to hear the news that every military family dreads.

Instead, the man handed her an envelope with a 101-page lawsuit inside, accusing her son of being among seven Cornell university students who allegedly raped and sexually abused a female student, identified as Jane Doe, over the course of seven hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.

But Victoria’s son, 23, never attended Cornell. The court, the family soon figured out, had served the wrong Matthew Ingalls and had added the Ingalls’ home address to the official docket.

Online vigilantes targeting the alleged perpetrators of the alleged gang rape didn’t know that. They began searching Matthew Ingalls’ name as soon as the lawsuit was filed, and when they found details about Sergeant Ingalls and his family, they started posting the family’s details, including their phone numbers, on the internet.

In one post on X, an individual posted her son’s address with the caption: “This is definitely NOT Matthew Ingalls’ new phone number and address!. . . . Posting this for public awareness so people know to NOT reach out.” In another post, Victoria said she came across posts with her son’s name on them, with pictures of woodchippers and captions like “we can’t get caught if they can’t find bodies.”

Victoria’s daughter, 26, received a text message with a photo of the Cornell student Matthew Ingalls and a screenshot of a Google Earth image of her brother’s house. Her mother said she had no idea what it meant at the time, but she now understands it to be a clear threat. Then, Victoria said, the texts became more extreme: “Do the world a favor and go kill yourself,” read one. “Get fucked in the ass to death bitch” and “Kill yourself,” read others.

“My family’s been terrorized, threatened, and harassed,” Victoria told me. “I am just amazed at the way people behave. I can’t believe that people will just look someone up on the internet, take a phone number, and start texting someone or calling someone and saying the vile things they’re saying. You don’t even know if you have the right person. You’re creating more victims.”

More from The Independent:

A New York man was mistakenly identified as a defendant in a gang rape lawsuit against Cornell University students — and now his family is being bombarded by harassment, according to a new report.

On September 26, Victoria Ingalls was served with a 101-page lawsuit naming her son, Matthew Ingalls, as one of seven Cornell students accused by a former student of drugging, raping and abusing her at a fraternity house in October 2024, The Free Press reported. The civil suit was filed by a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe earlier this month after the case generated nationwide attention.

But, there had been an error. Victoria Ingalls’ son — a 23-year-old Marine Corps sergeant — was never a student at the Ivy League university. Somehow, court papers were served on the wrong Matthew Ingalls and his mother’s upstate New York address was incorrectly entered on the court docket.

A spokesperson for Camp Lejeune, a North Carolina base where Ingalls’ son is stationed, confirmed that he was mistakenly served. And an attorney at the firm representing Jane Doe said it was working with the court to correct the error, telling The Free Press: “Service upon the correct Matthew Ingalls is being arranged.”

The Ingalls actually accused in the civil suit of participating in the alleged attack has not been criminally charged. He, or a lawyer, has not spoken out on his behalf.

But as a result of the mix-up, Victoria Ingalls says her family has been inundated with online abuse. Internet users posted relatives’ personal information, including phone numbers and their home address, and some family members received threatening text messages, she said.

One message read: “Do the world a favor and go kill yourself.” Another said: “Get f**** in the a** to death b***.”

This is going to be a mess.